cartoon by Jake Fuller via caymancompass.com
Those supporting an effort to get
universal health care in New York — including members of a fledgling
organization in Geneva — hope to convince state legislators of the need through
the stories of their constituents.
. . .
The goal is to gather information
with these surveys to help lobby lawmakers to support the New York Health Act,
which would provide comprehensive, universal health coverage to all state
residents, and which would replace private insurance coverage.
Coverage would be funded through a
graduated tax on payroll and non-payroll taxable income, based on ability to
pay.
The United Kingdom’s National
Health Service announced this week that it was canceling all “routine
operations” until February, saying all “non-emergency” procedures will be
delayed after a flu-outbreak left hospitals overcrowded and under-funded.
According to the Telegraph,
the nation’s government-run health services axed over 50,000 operations in
every hospital in the UK following claims by doctors that patients were being
treated as if they were in “third world countries.”
. . .
The chaos comes as prominent
Democrats and liberal legislators like Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders advocate
for a similar, single-payer healthcare system in the United States. Left-wing
advocates often point to Canada and the United Kingdom as an “ideal” vision for
the future of America’s health industry.
The NHS is closing clinics, cancelling surgeries, the
hospitals are overcrowded, they are even “running out of corridor space,” and
there are ambulances lined up outside.
At present, the Senate does not have enough GOP votes to repeal Obamacare (see here). The elimination of the mandate was a good start, but just a start. I still think that if the exemption from Obamacare currently enjoyed by members of Congress were eliminated, they'd find a way to get the job done.
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