Single-payer had many foes

Recent letters assigning political party blame for not passing a single-payer health care system have oversimplified the issue. When all Republican and two Democratic senators opposed the original Obamacare’s “public option” single-payer system, it lacked two votes of overcoming a Republican bill-killing filibuster.

U.S. insurance companies’ extreme lobbying and their misleading ads, e.g. implying one dissatisfied Canadian speaks for all, have obscured important facts touting the Canadian single-payer universal health care system:

1) It costs only 60 percent of the U.S. system, with better results (life expectancy, infant mortality, etc.).

2) It is very popular: When Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper acquired a 2011 conservative majority in Parliament, guaranteeing passage of any conservative legislation, he assured Canadians of no change in the single-payer system. Moreover, Tommy Douglas, who introduced the single-payer system in the 1960s, was accordingly voted greatest Canadian of all time in a 2004 Canadian Broadcasting Corp. survey.

3) The U.S. could save $27.6 billion yearly by adopting Canada’s single-payer system (National Journal).

4) By 59 percent to 32 percent, U.S. doctors supported such a single-payer system in 2008 (Reuters).

So U.S. health insurance companies deserve most of the blame, followed closely by all Republican senators and, finally, two Democratic senators.

Norm Luther

Spokane