Bat One, all independently compiled figures I’ve seen, like by the OECD, show that single-payer systems are cheaper and more efficient. Yet 60% of Americans are scared that single-payer will lead to higher costs. How do you explain this disparity?

There are scare-mongering TV ads, bought politicians, talk show radio hosts, and conservative blogs all spreading the lie that single-payer is somehow more expensive.

I’d call that a massive PR campaign. The public aren’t stupid but form views based on the information they’re given.

Republicans and Democrats alike propagate this lie:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090622/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_drugs

Figures compiled by Open Secrets.Org, which tracks political donations and lobbying, show pharmaceutical and health products industries have made donations totaling more than $170 million over the past two decades, 64 percent of it going to Republicans.

The disparity was largest for the two years ending in the 2002 elections, when GOP candidates received 74 percent of the industry’s donations.

Industry also has been fighting a yearlong effort to prevent passage of legislation permitting the importation of prescription drugs from Canada and certain other countries where prices are lower than in the United States.

The above quote should get you free-market types angry, that is protectionism and corruption at its finest.

…despite the massive PR campaign to discredit it.

The only “massive PR campaign” on healthcare is the one being done by the MSM/Obama cabal to force this bloated, ineffective piece of crap on us. ABC infomercial, anyone?

Why would single payer health care save money for most Americans?

1/ Progressive tax system means more of the burden is forced onto the wealthy, so better bang-for-buck for the rest.
2/ Lower admin costs.
3/ Bulk drug purchasing leading to better prices.

But Obama is facing such extreme pressure from lobbyists that he is only proposing a half-assed system that gives even more tax dollars to the big health care players.

Majority of cost comes at end of life for medical care. In order for costs to be low, they must limit the amount of care for the elderly. Also, doctors will have more tests than are necessary to cover lawsuits which drive costs up. Add all the gov’t regulation and that drives the admin costs way up. Hospitals need a team of lawyers to decipher the morons in gov’t who generates the regs. The book of regs is huge!
And we want gov’t to run health care. Expect longer waits for service and lower quality. DMV with that added plus of the gov’t knowing everything about you.

Obama and his fellow liberals know that single-payer health care isn’t what Americans want — Rob

Really? I think you’re making that up. Most people do want healthcare reform, despite the massive PR campaign to discredit it. It’s cheaper (for most people) and will save lives.

Why is it better, check this out:
http://www.truthout.org/062209R

Bat One, all independently compiled figures I’ve seen, like by the OECD, show that single-payer systems are cheaper and more efficient.

That’s due to the fact that they don’t figure in the cost of the govt infrastructure to administer everything. It’s just more leftie book-cooking. Govt cannot be more efficient than the private sector, except when it comes to taking away our money and giving us little or nothing in return.

The first step to reduce healthcare costs is to limit malpractice awards to actual damages.

Wrong, stem. The health system of Mcallan Texas spends the most of any place in the country on health care per person. Texas has limited malpractice awards to $250,000. Negates your point.

Funny how you stems favor letting the government set a price for your life if the doctor screws up but you resent the government limiting the spending on your care. Just another example of the way conservatives favor an aristocracy, in this case rich doctors.

PS. Medicare and Medicaid are cherished programs used by milliions of people who would have no other option.

I see Dino’s back. With his nonsense as usual.

If we get government run health care it will be a disaster!

Look at medicare and medicaid. But there’s enough stupid people in this world that think it’s the way to go.

Why do the intelligent people have to be pinned down by laws made by idiots?

Dingbat Dino is back. He must be the worlds only surviving brain donor. Nothing else explains his stupidity. He is not smart enough to realize that many things make up the cost of healthcare. The local environment, genetics, corruption, and life style also have a lot to do with determining the cost of healthcare. As usual dingbat left out the part about the corrupt Doctors in McAllen ordering every expensive test possible knowing that they were going to get reimbursed Medicare. It is hard to win a battle of wits when one enters battle unarmed the way Dingbat always does. http://blogs.consumerreports.org/health/2009/05/overtreatment-the-lesson-of-mcallen-texas-dr-atul-gawande-new-yorker-compare-hospitals-tool-.html

Most people do want healthcare reform, despite the massive PR campaign to discredit it.

Leaving aside the question of whether what Obama and the Democrats are proposing actually constitutes “reform” I wonder if you could better define the phrase “massive PR campaign.”

It seems to me that from the point of view of the Iranian Mullahs, the past two weeks’ demonstrations in Tehran and other Iranian cities are simply “a massive PR campaign” to discredit that theocratic regime.

Most people do want healthcare reform, despite the massive PR campaign to discredit it.

They want “reform.” Vague. Not defined.

I think Americans want cheaper health care. Forcing them to pay more in taxes than they’re paying for health care now in order to save them money on health care is not a solution they’re for.

Statist.