“Guaranteed health care is not fiscally prudent.”
So said State Senator Jim Nielsen (R-Fresno) as he grilled advocates of SB 562, universal single-payer health care legislation, and the bill’s sponsor, Senator Ricardo Lara, at today’s Senate Appropriations Committee Hearing.
And there you have it in a nutshell. To Republicans and their corporatist Democratic counterparts, it’s just not “fiscally prudent” to make sure that everyone has the ability to take care of themselves without worrying themselves to death about monetary concerns.
Doesn’t matter if it saves lives, extends lifespans, provides for better quality of life, is more equitable and fair, and is a concept honored in every other industrialized nation on the planet — if it even APPEARS to cost a dime more than the outrageous amount we spend now, even if taking the plunge will cost far less per capita in the long run — we can’t do it.
Doesn’t matter that doctors and nurses give testimony such as
Doesn’t matter at all, because
“Guaranteed health care is not fiscally prudent.”
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(No significant action was taken on the bill today; that will likely happen later this week.)