Former Secretary of State Colin Powell believes the United States should have a socialized, single-payer healthcare system similar to those in Canada and Europe.
“I think universal health care is one of the things we should really be focused on, and I hope that will happen,” Powell reportedly said last week. “Whether it’s Obamacare, or son of Obamacare, I don’t care. As long as we get it done.”
The Puget Sound Business Journal reported Powell’s remarks at the Prostate Cancer Survivors Celebration Breakfast at the University of Washington’s Cancer Research Center.
Powell, the Republican who supported Barack Obama during the last two presidential elections, told the story about a woman who lives in the countryside that he buys wood from every year.
“I’ve got about four years worth of wood out in the back yard. I can’t resist her, and she needs the money,” Powell said, before mentioning that when she came to his door three weeks ago and he told her that he had no work for her, she asked Powell to help pay for medical treatment her insurance company would not cover.
Powell said he ended up paying for the women’s treatment and compared her experience to the prompt treatments that he and his wife received for serious medical issues.
The retired four-star general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said he thought, “Every country I’ve visited, every developed country, they have universal health care. They don’t understand why the United States of America, which uses more health care than just about anybody else, still (has) 40 million people not properly insured.”
“I am not an expert in health care, or Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, or however you choose to describe it, but I do know this: I have benefited from that kind of universal health care in my 55 years of public life,” Powell said. “And I don’t see why we can’t do what Europe is doing, what Canada is doing, what Korea is doing, what all these other places are doing.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.