Charlie Munger says that single-payer healthcare is the answer to fix the nation’s healthcare system woes. A longstanding Republican, the Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman acknowledges it is an unusual position for someone from his party to espouse.
“I’m not a normal Republican,” he said, noting that there’s “a lot wrong” with the system.
“Having a basic level of care for everybody with no insurance aspect as a right I think is a good idea” Munger said.
Munger, who Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett calls his partner, made the remarks in Omaha the day after Berkshire’s annual meeting. Munger said there’s good and bad parts of our healthcare system.
“At the top, it’s the best medical care in the world,” Munger said. He explained that if you have a difficult type of cancer or you’re in need acute care, you’re better off in the U.S. than anywhere else.
“That’s the good part,” he said. “The bad part is the Rube Goldberg system that arose by accident. There’s massive amounts of excess cost. There’s huge amounts of extending death so people can make more money, which is disgusting. There’s a lot wrong with system.
“And of course the politicians on each side don’t want to figure this out, they just hate each other and scream at each other, so it’s a disgusting outcome. And of course the cost goes up three, four, five six percent a year! So there’s a lot wrong—and there’s a lot right.”
I asked Munger how to fix it.
“A benign despot would create a single payer system with people being able to opt out into private care that was a little faster or a little fancier like all of Europe and Canada,” he said.
I asked Munger if he was saying that a single-payer system is really the answer.
“Yes,” he said.
With an opt-out on the high end?
“Yes,” he said.
“I think you young people will live to see a healthcare system that looks a lot like Canada’s with a better private opt out system,” Munger said. “I won’t.” (Munger is 93.)
During the meeting, Warren Buffett called rising healthcare costs “a tapeworm,” eating away at American business. Munger agreed and added that U.S. manufacturers have a “huge competitive disadvantage caused by the health system” over say European counterparts since U.S. businesses have to pay for health care costs while European companies don’t. “
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Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, who as of last month appears to be running for re-election in 2018 despite that fact that he's about 150 years old, has nothing but contempt for the American public. That includes the 212,400 Utahns who stand to lose health coverage under Trumpcare. All these people who are worried about it, he says, are just moochers and apparently deserve to be ignored.
As he left a meeting in the Capitol of the Senate health care working group, which is trying to craft compromise legislation that can pass the Senate without Democrats, Hatch was asked by a reporter, "How does the public's perception of what the House did affect what you are doing?""The public wants every dime they can be given," he said. "Let's face it, once you get them on the dole, they'll take every dime they can. We've got to find some way of getting things under control or this country and your future is going to be gone."
What do these people expect? To be able to live? How dare they clutter up his existence with their desire for the necessities of life? Hatch has more important things to worry about than your measly little lives. Like the upcoming fundraiser he's having with House Speaker Paul Ryan benefitting the Hatch Victory Committee.
And yes, in case you're wondering, Hatch is on the Senate's death panel.
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