I thought you might find the memo below of interest. It was sent to the all-Republicans list in the US House of Representatives by John Conyers. It is about Charlie Munger and his business partner Warren Buffett’s comments on healthcare and the need for a systemic change. Here is a video of what they said on CNBC after the annual meeting of their company Berkshire-Hathaway,
.Obviously Buffett and Munger thought about this before they brought healthcare up at their meeting. They are well-aware that at these meetings every word they say is closely followed and widely reported.
Berkshire-Hathaway held its annual meeting last weekend. Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger (Berkshire’s vice chairman) and Bill Gates participated in a panel discussion following the meeting, at which the topic of healthcare was raised. Buffett began by pointing out the enormous costs to businesses of shouldering the medical care burden and the relative disadvantage of American businesses to European and Canadian competitors as a result. Then Charlie Munger, a prominent lifelong Republican, made a forceful case for single-payer healthcare:
Kevin Zeese
Sent By: [email protected]
Munger: “The whole system is cockamamie. It’s almost ridiculous in its complexity and steadily increasing costs, and Warren is absolutely right: it gives our companies a big disadvantage in competing with other manufacturers. They’ve got single payer medicine and we’re paying out of the company.
Moderator: How would you fix it?
Munger: “I would go to Medicare for All and I would police it pretty hard to keep out the fraud. … I think we should have single payer medicine eventually and I think we should squeeze a lot of the fraud and folly out of the system.
In a separate interview, Munger went on to add, “Having a basic level of care for everybody with no insurance aspect as a right I think is a good idea.” Munger joins other prominent Republicans in recently declaring his support for single payer. Washington Post contributor Gene Marks, who is also an accountant and consulting business owner, recently penned a column describing his recent conversion to supporting single payer. National Review and Washington Free Beacon contributor Matthew Walther also recently wrote “A Conservative Case for Single-Payer Healthcare.”
To join the growing chorus of Republicans supporting single payer healthcare and become a cosponsor of HR 676, The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, email [email protected].
