Geraldo Rivera
November 1, 2013“You know, it’s great that people get health care. I want everyone to have health care. I want single payer. I want Medicare for everybody. I want it to be like Sweden. I want it to be like the United Kingdom or Canada. I want everyone to have health care. This program (Obamacare), though, is deeply flawed, and I think part of the problem is we let the insurance industry write the legislation, and when the insurance industry, like they did for the prescription plan, Part B (D), when they write the legislation, they stack the deck so they’re the beneficiaries.
Geraldo Rivera Radio, 11/1/2013 – at the 48:55 mark: http://www.wabcradio.com/common/page.php?pt=Geraldo+Podcasts&id=512&is_c…
Comment:
By Don McCanne, M.D.
Geraldo Rivera was quite sincere when, on his radio show, he discussed briefly the serious flaws of Obamacare and then explicitly supported single payer – Medicare for everybody. This is from a Republican who also has a show (“Geraldo-at-Large”) on the Fox News Channel.
Recently, much of the media attention on single payer has been coming from conservatives who seem to be threatening us with the prospect of single payer as an inevitable outcome of expanded coverage through the Affordable Care Act. They may be correct, but not for the reasons they imply. Rather than ACA being a step closer to single payer, it moves in the direction of expansion of enrollment in private plans, whereas single payer would essentially eliminate private plans.
The real reason that ACA moves us closer to single payer is that the plans are further limiting our choices of physicians and hospitals, and they are shifting an unbearable amount of the costs to patients. Once a critical threshold of patients experience these abuses, the public will demand that everyone be covered with a public program like Medicare.
During our PNHP meeting in Boston last weekend, Fox News broadcast an attack on single pager (likely only coincidental that it was during our meeting). It represents what seems to be an orchestrated attempt to discredit single payer before it gains further traction. If you watch the 7 minute video at the following link, you may find disconcerting the fact that media professionals apparently believe that the intellect of the average American is so low that they would be swayed by their framing. Anyway, I report, you decide: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS_eKBjW5QM
On a more positive note, there are many Republicans, such as Geraldo Rivera, who do understand and support the single payer model. We need to expand our message beyond the progressive community by increasing our efforts to communicate with Republicans and with the business community.
Tomorrow, November 7, Geraldo Rivera is going to have as a guest on his program, PNHP co-founder David Himmelstein:
WABC at 10:00 AM Eastern (Click on “Listen Live” or listen later to the podcast): http://www.wabcradio.com/common/page.php?pt=Geraldo+Podcasts&id=512&is_c…
Re-posted with permission from pnhp.org.