Digby asks a reasonable question:

For those who are worried about the health care reform that's being hashed out in congress right now because you believe that single payer is the only answer, I would just ask if you think that France, Holland and Germany should change their systems? They all offer universal coverage, their statistics are far superior to ours and their people would probably kill you before they'd let you change them. And none of them have what we think of as strict "single payer" plans.

Looks like the defeatists at the SEIU (whose leadersheep have consistently ignored resolutions passed by their membership at their national convention) have mobilized their fan boiz in blogospehre.

Meteor Blades

All but its most delusional fans have known since well before November 4 that single-payer's near-term chances are - short of some fracture in the space-time continuum - a sliver above absolute zero.

We’ll see about that.

Edit - see comment.

PNHP

If a U.S. model based on private plans were as effective as the Swiss and Dutch systems, it would still leave about 7,600,000 individuals without insurance, which certainly tests the definition of universal. With much higher health care spending in the United States, the premiums for private plans, even with generous subsidies, certainly would test the definition of affordability. U.S.-style private plans, designed to enhance business success by creating patient barriers to care and payment for care, certainly tests the definition of social insurance.

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Ezra Klein

I'm in In These Times this month moderating a debate between Steffie Woolhandler, co-director of Physicians for a National Health Program and a single-payer supporter, and Richard Kirsch, the national director for Health Care for America Now and an advocate of a hybrid approach.

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