Say it again:

We need universal, comprehensive, single payer national health care. This study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds that, in the context of the Covid 19 pandemic, "a single-payer universal healthcare system would have saved 212,000 lives in 2020 alone. We also calculated that US$105.6 billion of medical expenses associated with COVID-19 hospitalization could have been averted by a Medicare for All system." This is not exactly news. Health services researchers have been making these sorts of calculations for decades, for as long as I've even been on the periphery of the business, and it always comes out the same. 

With a universal single payer system we can:

Insure everybody with the same high quality coverage;

For less money than we are paying now to provide a two-tier system with low quality for many people;

Lower out of pocket costs;

Improve the quality, appropriateness, and efficiency of medical services.

Yeah yeah, its Soshulism.  You can call it Fred or you can call it Tangerine if you want to, that's just a word and it's meaningless. It doesn't matter to the people living in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, Canada, Sweden, Austria . .  actually every wealthy country on earth other than the U.S. (To be precise, a few countries have hybrid systems that aren't exactly single payer in structure but accomplish similar results.) 

Why can't we do it? Vested interests. Giant capitalist corporations control the health insurance market and their profits will be gone, doctors and hospitals are afraid their income may be restricted -- in that they may not be able to get paid to do inappropriate procedures -- drug companies may have to negotiate prices. Organize!

I was still too sick yesterday to do a second post, seem to be feeling a bit better today, but it's a slow process. I do have a physician appointment tomorrow, but I doubt he'll be able to do anything for me, since his name is not Elisha.