What you "know" might not be what you think you know

        I play golf with several good friends, many of  whom are more conservative than I.  because we are rational persons and good friends, that never gets in the way of out friendships, but it does lead to interesting conversations within the hallowed confines of the golf cart, sometimes.

        Yesterday, One such discussion took the line of "We used to have great healthcare in  (name of home state) , but that damned  Obamacare  ruined it."  At this point I was forced to reflect for a moment on what one could possibly have to do with the other.  Further discussion revealed my friend's growing dissatisfaction with the situation of a close relative who is disabled and in hospital following a serious accident. As the individual in question is in their later years, I asked one simple question. "Is (the person) on Medicare?" The answer, in the affirmative, hammered home the point once again that there are people who will blame anything and everything health related (or otherwise, too) on the current resident of the White House. I refused to let this drop, pointing out several times the fact that Medicare isn't in any real way related to the Affordable Care Act, especially in this case. He harrumphed, and we left it at that.

        Later in the round, discussing mutual interests with a far more informed friend and superb cart mate, I asked how they felt about single payer health care. The immediate response as I knew it would be, was that they were opposed to it. My innocent question "So you don't use Medicare?" was met with the sound of crickets.  

        I say that to say this: If you are a conservative who takes what seems to be the reflexive Far Right point that national or single payer health care systems don't work or are opposed to them as "socialist schemes," then you must realize that we already have a significant number of Americans on single payer healthcare and have for almost 50 years. Over 50 million Americans are currently using a National, single payer, healthcare system. Because this system was forbidden by legislation passed and signed by the Bush administration in 2001,  Medicare pays far more in costs to providers than other such systems.  2003 legislation, a gift to the drug industry (whose lobbying expenses are larger that their Research expenditures every year for the past 15) stipulates that Medicare, Part D will not be allowed to negotiate lower drug prices, as do European systems, which frequently pay 1/10 the price for the identical brand name drugs.  

        Drug companies imply that  they must impose higher prices in the U.S. to pay for research that enables them to innovate and develop new drugs that save  lives. Reality is far different. Half of the scientifically innovative drugs approved in the U.S. from 1998 to 2007 resulted from research at universities and biotech firms, not big drug companies. Despite their rhetoric, drug companies spend 19 times more on marketing than on research and development.”

        Meanwhile, the US spends twice as much (as a % of GDP, a fair way to evaluate) per capita per year as the UK does on healthcare. Don't blame the Affordable Care Act, and don't think you're not already paying for universal healthcare for a large sector of the populace. Don't like the ACA? Then maybe you should shut your ears to the rhetoric of Cruz, Rubio and others , do the research and make up your own mind about the realities of single payer health care.