Canadian single-payer healthcare and Portuguese drug decriminalization

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 * Share links: Healthcare. Tea Party. 

''' [http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/12/08/decriminalizing-drugs-when-treatment-replaces-prison Portugal. Decriminalizing Drugs: When Treatment Replaces Prison. New York Times.] ''' Their universal healthcare versus Republican Holy War on Drugs. See:  Health in Portugal and Drug policy of Portugal. See: '''[http://cannabis.wikia.com/wiki/portugal Portugal. Cannabis-related links].'''
 * Killer Mike and Bernie Sanders Have a Barber-Shop Chat About Free Health Care, and Ending The War on Drugs. Youtube. Facebook: ColoradoCare Yes. On ballot in 2016. ColoradoCareYES.co - ColoradoCare would cover all residents and cost less than the current system. One primary payer. Sanders says Clinton fails to mention that 'Medicare for all' (Single Payer) saves families about $5000 a year in premiums, deductibles, and co-pays.


 * Medicaid is health overhaul's early success story. Nov. 12, 2013.. And: Jon Stewart Slams 'Moocher' States That Won't Expand Medicaid. Oct. 11, 2013. See: HealthCare.gov.
 * 21 Ways the Canadian Health Care System is Better than Obamacare. By Ralph Nader. Nov. 22, 2013. And: People Want Full Medicare for All. By Ralph Nader. Sept. 27, 2013.


 * See Wikipedia article: Obamacare.
 * Healthcare-NOW! - Organizing for a national, single-payer healthcare system. And: Wikipedia.
 * Physicians for a National Health Program. And: Wikipedia.

Total healthcare costs by country per person
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 *  List of countries by total health expenditure per capita.

Note the lower healthcare cost per person in Canada for all healthcare costs (public and private): Above chart is from: US Health Care Spending More than Twice the Average for Developed Countries | Mercatus.

ColoradoCare
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Universal health coverage by country
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 * Universal health coverage by country.

Universal healthcare and harm reduction
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 * Drug policy of Portugal. And Health in Portugal. And  Harm reduction.
 * See also: Portugal. Cannabis-related links.


 * Drug war failure: Greens want Portuguese model in Australia. July 19, 2015.

In the USA the Tea Party should support single-payer Canadian healthcare! It is universal healthcare, and gets better health results on average compared to the US. And it  costs less per capita. . Many US physicians support single payer.

Also, the Tea Party should support harm reduction in Portugal. It saves billions of dollars by  not  putting people in jail for drugs. It saves billions more in court and policing costs.

Universal healthcare is the norm in Europe and is essential to Portugal's decriminalization of drugs.


 * How Billie Holiday Was Hunted Down Early in the Drug War. April 9, 2015. From the article:

Majority of Americans support Medicare-for-all
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 * Poll: Majority of Americans Favor Idea of Single-Payer Healthcare System. By Mary Ellen McIntire. December 17, 2015. "Fifty-eight percent of Americans favor the idea of Medicare-for-all, a form of providing universal health insurance, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released Thursday."

Returning democracy to the Senate
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The government is actually run by a 40% minority. It is not a 50% plus one, simple-majority democracy. It takes a 60% majority vote in the Senate to get past a filibuster or other delaying tactic. See: Dilatory motions and tactics.

 It is a self-imposed Senate rule not found in the Constitution  that could be overturned at any time by a simple majority vote in the Senate. See Filibuster in the United States Senate.

The only true simple-majority democracy left is at the state level with ballot initiatives, and it is often in conflict with Federal law.

State governors also have veto powers. Occasionally, cannabis reform measures get passed by state legislatures, but are often vetoed by governors. It usually takes a 3/5 or 2/3 majority vote to override a governor's veto.

It takes a two-thirds majority in Congress to override a Presidential veto. The U.S. is unique in this among Western democracies. And what's up with the lack of runoff voting for Presidential elections? It is common in other countries. Stopping the presidential dictatorship, via the Presidential veto, would require changing the constitution to eliminate the Presidential veto that requires a two-thirds majority in Congress to override it.

 The USA has become a 1% kleptocracy  run by special interest lobbyists and corporations (who are considered persons according to the law). As concerns cannabis: Big Pharma, police unions, private prisons, prison guard unions, alcohol and beer companies. Also known as the Prison-Industrial Complex and the alcohol-drug monopoly.
 * The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying To Keep Marijuana Illegal | Republic Report. April 20, 2012 article.

Beer, booze, cops, cigarettes, and Big Pharma.

Health insurance administration costs
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'''Obamacare is better than the old healthcare system. Drug rehab for harder drugs is now paid for by Obamacare. It is far cheaper than jail.''' But Obamacare does not cover everybody because of the incredible waste of health insurance companies. Single-payer covers everybody (including veterans, most of whom are only partially covered by Veterans Administration care).




 * President of Physicians for a National Health Program: Single-Payer is The Only System that can Achieve Universal Health Care. Jan. 20, 2016. From the article:
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 * "We're talking about an overhead of about less than 3 percent [in Medicare], which is in huge contrast to private insurance companies, which runs in the double digits, often as high as 18 percent."
 * }

Single payer is much easier to use (almost no paperwork for patients), is  far cheaper per capita, and gets better overall health results.


 * U.S. Healthcare Ranked Dead Last Compared To 10 Other Countries. June 16, 2014. Forbes: "Many continue to falsely assume that we pay more for healthcare because we get better health (or better health outcomes)." Why Do Other Rich Nations Spend So Much Less on Healthcare? The Atlantic. July 23, 2014. And 200 million claims were denied yearly before Obamacare..



Health insurance companies suck money from their hosts, but provide no tangible service. Just like toll-road companies. See: Toll Roads Are A Bad Idea. Both just handle the money, and take a cut of the money. Health insurance companies build costly buildings to house the accounting staff, and claim deniers. Toll companies build costly 16-lane toll plazas, often on expensive urban land.

More in Minnesota have health coverage but still can't afford to be sick. July 26, 2015. "In Minnesota, the share of people with health insurance has climbed to 95 percent from 91 percent since 2013, as the federal Affordable Care Act has taken hold. But insurers such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Medica have competed hard to hold down premiums as more people shopped for coverage; one way to do that is to offer more products with high deductibles and other forms of 'co-insurance.' ... As a result, even those with health insurance can face out-of-pocket costs that run to thousands of dollars, and health care providers, big and small, are seeing more bills that are left unpaid. Court cases filed by health firms seeking repayment have more than doubled since 2005, according to a Star Tribune analysis of state court records."

Before Obamacare started in January 2014
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 * Patients Mired in Costly Credit From Doctors. Oct. 13, 2013.
 * Despite slight drop in uninsured, last year’s figure points to 48,000 preventable deaths: health expert. Sept. 12, 2012. Due to lack of health insurance.



Cannabis is safer
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2016 election and marches
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