No. Page 16 does NOT "outlaw private insurance companies". You're just regurgitating GOP scare tactics.

It's a patently false claim.

That said, I think it would be the best thing for 99% of Americans if we had Single Payer health care financing, with zero private insurance companies in the mix.

They should be out of the mix entirely. They are nothing but parasites. They add nothing to the quality of our health care, increase costs to all Americans dramatically, and engage in despicable practices all too often, like "recission".

Single Payer would save us at least 30% right off the bat. If we extended Medicare to everyone, for instance, after getting rid of all of the creeping privatization (like Part D) of recent years, we could eliminate out of pocket costs, cover everyone from the first dollar on, and save 18,000 lives a year. It would also prevent a huge number of bankruptcies each year.

Medicare currently covers the elderly, the segment of the population most in need of care. It still comes in at less than 3% overhead. The best private insurers post 30% overhead costs, and most are higher. And they get to choose from healthy young people who rarely need payments.

Medicare for all wouldn't have to pay execs eight and nine figure salaries. It wouldn't have to worry about making ginormous profits to please Wall Street. That's instant savings across the board. Going to a non-profit, Single Payer system would save Americans hundreds of billions each year. It's a far more efficient, smarter and cheaper way of handling health care financing. It would also reduce paperwork by a ton for doctors and hospitals.

Remember, Uncle G, we currently pay twice as much for health care as the rest of the world. We're the only industrialized nation without universal health care and at least some form of a public plan available to everyone. We pay twice as much primarily because of private health insurance and the power of Big Pharma.

Our system doesn't work. It's killing us. Literally.

One reason I supported John Edwards is I liked his idea of confronting Congress with the fact they have access to excellent health insurance - which is paid for by the taxpayers. And they need to either come up with a way to offer that same level of health care to all Americans - or relinquish that right. I'm tired of long term conservative politicians who benefit substantially from working for the government telling the rest of us tough nuts because government needs to be smaller. If they believe that then they should reliquish their benefits.

A substantial percentage of elected officials - especially those in the Senate - are wealthy to begin with. The fact we are paying retirement and health benefits for people who say they believe government isn't for that -- should have to put their benefits where their sound bytes are. Insurance isn't the issue - it's good healthcare. It's been 40 years - it's time to have a plan -- this is what happens every time by design - because many of these folks are paid by insurance and other health care industry lobbyists -- that's a conflict of interest as far as I'm concerned when it comes to having to make a decision on solving the crisis.

Rather than explain why the current idiocy coming out of the democrats is good for the country, joey complains about the Republicans, and what he expects they will do next Monday.

The question they ponder daily is not how to reduce costs and provide healthcare to all; no, the question they repeatedly ask is whether and how they can "stop whatever comes out, healthcare-bill wise, from the Democrats." - dumb joe conason

Here's the thing joe, according to the Congressional Budget Office, stopping the dumbocrats health care plan will reduce the amount of money that will otherwise be spent.

The health care overhauls released to date would increase, not reduce, the burgeoning long-term health costs facing the government, Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf said Thursday.

Source: http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=news-000003168293

Joe, you're ignorant.

Even 50% of *Republican* voters support a public option. The only "partison" division is between congresscritters who've been bought off by the insurance industry and those who haven't.

From the Associated Press:

Medtronic Inc., the world's largest medical device maker, paid Chief Executive Bill Hawkins $8.9 million in total compensation for fiscal 2009, a 26 percent increase, according to an analysis by the Associated Press.

See, this is the kind of thing that needs to be addressed if there is to be meaningful health care reform. I wonder if Americans have the stomach for it. Our legislators sure don't seem to.

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/tx08_brady/71509_hc_chart.html

showing how infinitely simpler our current healthcare system is.

http://www.tnr.com/yourhealthcaresystem.html

to use the bureaucracy argument is a joke.

If the dumbocrats get their way, it will be addressed.

Profits of companies like Medtronics will dwindle, as will the money they pay their CEO.

Also, the technology offered by companies like Medtronics will fade away.

Medtronics was a pioneer in the field of implantable defibrillators. Not too many people need them, but if you do, you can thank Medtronics for extending your life.

A product like a defibrillator requires a VERY SIGNIFICANT investment in its development. This investment is much less likely to ever occur without the opportunity for a profit.

Pass the dumbocrats health care reform? . . . bye bye wonder-drugs, bye-bye implantable defibrillators.

Medtronics (an example of American Innovation)

http://www.medtronic.com/our-therapies/defibrillators/index.htm

So are you saying that Medtronics sells its products exclusively in the United States? No one in Canada or Europe or Japan has a Medtronics ICD?

No, I'm not saying that.

I am saying that when you take away the profit motive, you limit technical advances.

When I read stuff like this, I'm so glad I'm Canadian. It will be interesting to see if uninsured Americans will make their House Representatives and Senators pay for trying to deny them universal health care in the next elections.