March 5, 2019

Pro-tip for Fox Networks: if you want to do anti-single payer propaganda, don't invite an actual medical doctor to come on your programs.

The show "Bulls and Bears" decided to host Dr. Adam Gaffney of Physicians for a National Health Program. He swiftly dismantled the other guests on the issue of single payer health care.

On the false belief that doctors will be underpaid in a single-payer, universal coverage system, Gaffney noted that you could move to a single-payer system in an affordable way and "still pay doctors roughly comparable to what they're being paid now."

The freakout over the "price tag" has been waved over and over on Fox. Gaffney said:

It's actually estimated that overall healthcare spending would be well under single payer -- actually $2 trillion less over ten years. Yes, more of the money would be going to the federal government but overall as a nation, even according to that libertarian think tank study, we would be spending less an overall healthcare expenditures, which is what people care about. They care about how much overall spending on healthcare. Also, let me just add we also have major problems that we have to fix. We have 29 million people uninsured in this country. We have 44 million people who are underinsured, which means they have insurance, but there are gaps in the coverage so big as if they aren't insured at all. 35% of Americans go without needed care due to costs. I would argue that that is unaffordable.

And Fox and other conservative outlets have claimed that "people" oppose single-payer because "it will put private insurance companies out of business":

..A majority of the country already does agree with us. every poll shows greater than 50 % support for Medicare for All, a poll late last year found 70% support. ...Even 50% support from Republicans, so I think people love this idea. People don't like private health insurance very much: they don't particularly like Cigna, United Health, they could care less if they no longer have those companies covering them. But what they care about is who they can go to as a doctor, where they can go to in terms of hospitals. They care about their doctors and hospitals and drugs they need. They don't care about the private insurance company that happens to be their coverage.

Hey Fox Business, next time you want to make zero sense on actual healthcare policy, call up Tomi Lahren rather than an actual stakeholder in our healthcare system.

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