On Fox News, Charles Krauthammer predicts America will have single-payer health care within 7 years

[Fishrrman]

http://theweek.com/speedreads/696859/fox-news-charles-krauthammer-predicts-america-have-singlepayer-health-care-within-7-years

On Fox News, Charles Krauthammer predicts America will have single-payer health care within 7 years
3:01 a.m. ET
 
Conservative columnist and Fox News regular Charles Krauthammer is not a fan of the Affordable Care Act, but after House Republicans voted to partially repeal and replace it on Thursday, he said he thinks, ironically, ObamaCare won the day. "I think what conservatives and Republicans are beginning to understand is how the fundamental view of health care among the American people has changed," he told Tucker Carlson Thursday night.

"ObamaCare is a disaster on the ground," he said, "and politically it ruined the Democrats. However, there's an irony and a hidden victory here: Over these past seven years, people's expectations have changed. You watched the debate over the last three months, Tucker. What are the grounds? The grounds are all liberal grounds: How many people are going to lose their coverage? How can you leave people out in the cold? The Jimmy Kimmel thing. It's showing that the country is at a point where I think it believes in universal coverage."

"I saw a piece this week entitled 'The conservative case for single-payer,'" Carlson said. "I'm not sure most conservatives are there yet, but do you think that's where it's going?" Krauthammer said yes. "Whether it will end up single-payer, like in the Canadian system, or not, I'm not sure, but I will guarantee you this," he said: "Within a few years there won't even be an argument about whether or not government has an obligation to ensure that everybody gets health coverage."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-YX0FTLG6Y

More at URL above.

[Fishrrman]

Saw the following comment posted over at TOS:
"You know, most uninsured people with a pre-existing condition don’t deserve the same level of medical care as those of us that pay continuously for health insurance."
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3550413/posts?page=22#22

This poster said it as plainly as it can be said.

This is why the concept of "free market" healthcare is dead, or near-death, and why it can never be revived.

Until and unless you can get the majority of Americans to agree with this statement,
and
Until and unless you can get the majority of DC Representatives and Senators to speak this openly before microphones on camera...

... there's no "going back".

A challenge to YOU, reading this:
Do YOU agree with the the TOS poster above?

[Bigun]

Saw the following comment posted over at TOS:
"You know, most uninsured people with a pre-existing condition don’t deserve the same level of medical care as those of us that pay continuously for health insurance."
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3550413/posts?page=22#22

This poster said it as plainly as it can be said.

This is why the concept of "free market" healthcare is dead, or near-death, and why it can never be revived.

Until and unless you can get the majority of Americans to agree with this statement,
and
Until and unless you can get the majority of DC Representatives and Senators to speak this openly before microphones on camera...

... there's no "going back".

A challenge to YOU, reading this:
Do YOU agree with the the TOS poster above?

Not only no but HELL NO!

[Suppressed]

Headline is false.

He said we'd have universal coverage, not necessarily single-payer.

[Emjay]

I saw that segment on Tucker Carlson.  Charles always looks a little depressed and he managed to depress me also.

[XenaLee]

Saw the following comment posted over at TOS:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3550413/posts?page=22#22

This poster said it as plainly as it can be said.
"You know, most uninsured people with a pre-existing condition don’t deserve the same level of medical care as those of us that pay continuously for health insurance."

This is why the concept of "free market" healthcare is dead, or near-death, and why it can never be revived.

Until and unless you can get the majority of Americans to agree with this statement,
and
Until and unless you can get the majority of DC Representatives and Senators to speak this openly before microphones on camera...

... there's no "going back".

A challenge to YOU, reading this:
Do YOU agree with the the TOS poster above?

As long as folks can afford to pay for that same level of healthcare ..... without subsidies, tax credits or "assistance" from the taxpayers (ie government).... then sure.   They deserve the same care.

If they can't pay for that same level of care, they should be happy with what they can get, which is probably government/Medicaid-level care.  Hey, it's good enough for our US veterans.  Right?

Socialists want to force taxpayers to pay for the same quality of care for illegals, immigrants, minorities, the poor, etc...... that they're paying for their own healthcare.... even if/when those benefits recipients aren't working and haven't paid into the system.  That is an unsustainable condition that the left has been pushing upon this nation for decades.  The end result is predictable.   And intentional.  (See:  Cloward-Piven method of collapsing a non-communist nation)

[INVAR]

Single Payer/Universal Healthcare was inevitable the moment the Congress and the SCOTUS passed ObamaCare into law in the middle of the night without a single representative having read the bill, and without a single Republican vote.

It was the entire purpose and intent of ObamaCare to begin with.

Government will never shrink itself - and having the pry-bar in their hands to intrude and control every single minute aspect of your life, while holding life and death in their hands - is a power no one in Washington can resist.

Plus this people in this nation WANT to be Communists.  Only a small minority of us want individual liberty.

So either we whimper into despotism like the Jews into boxcars for camps out East - or we get crushed in an attempted fiscal genocide followed by a bloodbath.  That is what is shaping up for the near future in what was America.

[driftdiver]

As long as folks can afford to pay for that same level of healthcare ..... without subsidies, tax credits or "assistance" from the taxpayers (ie government).... then sure.   They deserve the same care.

If they can't pay for that same level of care, they should be happy with what they can get, which is probably government/Medicaid-level care.  Hey, it's good enough for our US veterans.  Right?

Socialists want to force taxpayers to pay for the same quality of care for illegals, immigrants, minorities, the poor, etc...... that they're paying for their own healthcare.... even if/when those benefits recipients aren't working and haven't paid into the system.  That is an unsustainable condition that the left has been pushing upon this nation for decades.  The end result is predictable.   And intentional.  (See:  Cloward-Piven method of collapsing a non-communist nation)

@XenaLee

Afford to pay?   Who really can afford to pay sticker price for heath care.  Can you pay a million dollars ?   How about $100,000 because your gall bladder got infected?

The system is rigged by the insurance companies.   Prices and costs are hyper inflated and the individual has no power.   

About 25 years ago my brother spent about 4 days in the hospital due to pnemonia.   The bill was about $2500 and we thought that was high.  Today that bill would likely be over $50k.  You cannot fix healthcare without addressing the reasons for the hyperinflation of costs.   regulation, insurance overhead and liability.

[Right_in_Virginia]

I saw that segment on Tucker Carlson.  Charles always looks a little depressed and he managed to depress me also.

Keep in mind he's rarely right.

[geronl]

@XenaLee

Afford to pay?   Who really can afford to pay sticker price for heath care.  Can you pay a million dollars ?   How about $100,000 because your gall bladder got infected?

The prices are inflated because don't pay out of pocket, same with college tuition - when everyone gets college loans the price goes skyhigh

[INVAR]

The system is rigged by the insurance companies.   Prices and costs are hyper inflated and the individual has no power.   
You cannot fix healthcare without addressing the reasons for the hyperinflation of costs. 

That would be directly due to the fact (like everything else) Americans decided they did not want the responsibility of liberty .  They figured they would just pay their premiums and let the insurance handle it all without any oversight, concern or accounting.  Same as they did over Withholding.  Everyone lives off their net - and no one pays attention to the trillions of dollars wasted and stolen in graft, greed and cronyism.  So too everyone lived off their insurance premiums - no one paying attention to the overcharges, costs, graft, greed and cronyism that skyrocketed their care;  $20 for an aspirin.  $150 for paper slippers.  Billions to cover malpractice insurance.

Hyperinflation of costs with decreasing care and services were inevitable once this people absolved themselves of their own responsibilities to shop and be circumspect of the services they received and they empowered government to create mandates to regulate and "lower" the costs for them. 

[driftdiver]

The prices are inflated because don't pay out of pocket, same with college tuition - when everyone gets college loans the price goes skyhigh

Its more complicated then that.  The govt regulations that healthcare organizations have to comply with are mind boggling.   The costs for malpractice insurance.  High risk specialties pay 50% of their income for insurance.

If we could pay the price insurance companies pay then we mostly wouldnt need insurance. 

[XenaLee]

@XenaLee

Afford to pay?   Who really can afford to pay sticker price for heath care.  Can you pay a million dollars ?   How about $100,000 because your gall bladder got infected?

The system is rigged by the insurance companies.   Prices and costs are hyper inflated and the individual has no power.   

About 25 years ago my brother spent about 4 days in the hospital due to pnemonia.   The bill was about $2500 and we thought that was high.  Today that bill would likely be over $50k.  You cannot fix healthcare without addressing the reasons for the hyperinflation of costs.   regulation, insurance overhead and liability.

You're missing the point.  If you are too poor to be able to afford the "sticker price".... then you get Medicaid care (basically the same care our Vets get). 

Yes, prices are inflated.... BECAUSE of health insurance.   Instead of going in the direction of less government intervention, regulation and control....and catastrophic health insurance only.... we're going headlong in the exact opposite direction from what might bring down those costs.   If nobody could afford to pay those premiums (and deductibles), those premiums and costs would come down.  Way down.   They would have to.

But government forcing taxpayers to subsidize the poor via tax credits is just more of the same socialist stupidity and insanity that we've already been inflicted with.

[XenaLee]

The prices are inflated because don't pay out of pocket, same with college tuition - when everyone gets college loans the price goes skyhigh

Exactly.

[Idiot]

The prices are inflated because don't pay out of pocket, same with college tuition - when everyone gets college loans the price goes skyhigh

Since I have a quite high deductible...I negotiated my surgeon from the $25k list price for rotator cuff surgery down to $8k...since I wrote him a check.  Amazing what kind of deal you can get if you pay cash.

[XenaLee]

Since I have a quite high deductible...I negotiated my surgeon from the $25k list price for rotator cuff surgery down to $8k...since I wrote him a check.  Amazing what kind of deal you can get if you pay cash.

You won't even be able to do that..... if government in America goes full-tilt socialist.  Doctors won't legally be allowed to make cash deals.... and you won't have the cash to make the deals with.  Swell, huh?

[musiclady]

Thank you, Obama, despicable underhanded Democrats, Trump, and weak willed, no spine Republicans.

The greatest health care system in the world is being destroyed by idiots. 

[mirraflake]

Since I have a quite high deductible...I negotiated my surgeon from the $25k list price for rotator cuff surgery down to $8k...since I wrote him a check.  Amazing what kind of deal you can get if you pay cash.

And I bet you overpaid. Should of run it through the insurance company which gives the greatest discounts.

My x-ray at urgent care was billed to me for $98 and  the insurance company paid $11.00 and since it was a participating provider I was not required to pay the difference. I only had to pay $11.00

Rarely do I see deals made out with doctors less than what insurance companies would have paid and I  see hundreds of claims each weeks cross my desk.

@mrpotatohead

[geronl]

Since I have a quite high deductible...I negotiated my surgeon from the $25k list price for rotator cuff surgery down to $8k...since I wrote him a check.  Amazing what kind of deal you can get if you pay cash.

and my niece needed an x-ray (or was it an MRI?) and negotiated it down to an after hours visit and $75 or something from several hundred.

I'm pretty sure it was an MRI

[INVAR]

And I bet you overpaid. Should of run it through the insurance company which gives the greatest discounts.

My x-ray at urgent care was billed to me for $98 and  the insurance company paid $11.00 and since it was a participating provider I was not required to pay the difference. I only had to pay $11.00

Rarely do I see deals made out with doctors less than what insurance companies would have paid and I  see hundreds of claims each weeks cross my desk.

Well by that stroke of logic and reasoning we should petition for "Insurance" for food, water, utilities and housing.  Get billed $150 for groceries, the 'insurance company' pays $11 and since you shopped at a participating grocer, you only pay $11!!  Win Win!  Right????

[geronl]

Well by that stroke of logic and reasoning we should petition for "Insurance" for food, water, utilities and housing.  Get billed $150 for groceries, the 'insurance company' pays $11 and since you shopped at a participating grocer, you only pay $11!!  Win Win!  Right????

I can imagine those premiums!

Why am I getting store brands, when I paid for premium quality? lol

[driftdiver]

You're missing the point.  If you are too poor to be able to afford the "sticker price".... then you get Medicaid care (basically the same care our Vets get). 

Yes, prices are inflated.... BECAUSE of health insurance.   Instead of going in the direction of less government intervention, regulation and control....and catastrophic health insurance only.... we're going headlong in the exact opposite direction from what might bring down those costs.   If nobody could afford to pay those premiums (and deductibles), those premiums and costs would come down.  Way down.   They would have to.

But government forcing taxpayers to subsidize the poor via tax credits is just more of the same socialist stupidity and insanity that we've already been inflicted with.

Insurance companies don't pay the inflated rates.  Kinda destroys your idea of why we have the high prices.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

I don't think Americans would be willing to pay the kind of taxes you'd' need for a single payer system, liberal or conservative.

[mirraflake]

I don't think Americans would be willing to pay the kind of taxes you'd' need for a single payer system, liberal or conservative.

The average family premium for one family today is $24,000 per year. I don't know how to fix the problems but what we have right now is killing us.

My wife has a small business and she pays $14,500 per month   health insurance premium and she does not have that many employees. She had to take out a loan to pay for a new piece of equipment because the health insurance cost is killing her cash flow.  When she first started the health insurance program 20 years ago, aaprox same amount of employees it was $2100 per  month.

@Weird Tolkienish Figure

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

The average family premium for one family today is $24,000 per year. I don't know how to fix the problems but what we have right now is killing us.

My wife has a small business and she pays $14,500 per month   health insurance premium and she does not have that many employees. She had to take out a loan to pay for a new piece of equipment because the health insurance cost is killing her cash flow.  When she first started the health insurance program 20 years ago, aaprox same amount of employees it was $2100 per  month.

@Weird Tolkienish Figure

Most people have health care through their employers. You're in the minority. Not that I disagree that what we have now sucks.