Single Payer
I was listening to an NPR story about the debate among Congressional Republicans over plans to eliminate the Affordable Care Act, aka “Obamacare.” One faction wants to replace it with the Paul Ryan plan, another wants to scrap it all together and return us to the Stone-Hearted Age. And other factions in between. In any case, the rhetoric was callous, ignorant, smug and indifferent to the suffering people from all walks of life endure under a health care systems dominated by insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, doctors fearing malpractice suits, and HMOs.
So I thought I’d bring in a character I created a couple of years ago when people were worrying about problems (both real and imagined) about the ACA. Single Payer Cat hears these debates and wonders when, if ever, we will consider implementing a system that seems to work pretty well for our neighbors to the north, and our allies across the Atlantic, not to mention many other countries around the world. My Canadian friends, especially ones who migrated to live in the US, are baffled by a system that expects you to fork over a few hundred dollars a month, then has things like “co-pays” and can deny you life-saving procedures. Me, too.
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