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When GOP announced the elimination of medicaid and other plans we have been funding, I realized that it will lead to single payer system. It is unavoidable.
I think medicare does an ok job...if you like being rejected for the service..if you like starving... are you a working taxpayer??? can you afford an additional 20k in taxes at the end of the year...I certainly cant
Can Medicare today survive without younger folks like me paying into it? BTW, if it doesn't cost $20K for an individual to cover health insurance today, it won't cost anywhere close to it under a single payer, well regulated system. In fact, Vermont is one of the states working towards its own single payer system.
Can Medicare today survive without younger folks like me paying into it? BTW, if it doesn't cost $20K for an individual to cover health insurance today, it won't cost anywhere close to it under a single payer, well regulated system. In fact, Vermont is one of the states working towards its own single payer system.
ein
I didnt say 20k for a person...its 20k to each TAXPAYER (115 million according to the IRS)
I didnt say 20k for a person...its 20k to each TAXPAYER (115 million according to the IRS)
you (a taxpayer) cant afford a singlepayer system
That is what I meant. But, could you do better than make a statement and present it as a fact? Nevermind that you dared not to touch on the subject of medicare.
I think medicare does an ok job...if you like being rejected for the service..if you like starving
the FACT is that we as a country..the tax paying country can NOT AFFORD a singlepayer based system paid for by income, estate, and corporate taxes.....now if we went to a 'fair-tax' .. a comsumption tax...then yes we MIGHT be able to afford it
are you a working taxpayer??? can you afford an additional 20k in taxes at the end of the year...I certainly cant
what ever in the world are you going on about? rejected, starving??? medicare? makes no sense whatsoever. None.
an addition 20K in taxes? try not getting your info from chain-emails....
and talking about "fair tax" is it fair that Exxon, Chevron, GE, and so many others pay NO TAX to the US Gov't?
I wouldn't even define them as american companies anymore.
Following on the passage of a single-payer healthcare system in Vermont (awaiting the governor's signature), Bernie Sanders and Jim McDermott issued a news release announcing their Medicare-for-All bill:
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced today that he introduced legislation to provide health care for every American through a Medicare-for-all type single-payer system.
Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) filed a companion bill in the House to provide better care for more patients at less cost by eliminating the middle-man role played by private insurance companies that rake off billions of dollars in profits.
The twin measures, both called the American Health Security Act of 2011, would provide federal guidelines and strong minimum standards for states to administer single-payer health care programs
Bernie Sanders is an admitted Socialist. Do you really expect any thing else from him?
Why is it that people add up the costs of single payer tax programs, but forget that this would replace the amount you are currently paying out of your paycheck for private insurance (minus the profits the middlemen and stockholders need to extract to make it worth their while)?
Most Progressives, myself included, felt the Obama plan didn't go far enough. The intention was good, and there are some genuinely important pieces in it, but once the Public Option came off the table (in another cave to the GOP) it essentially became a handout to the Insurance Companies.
Mandates without a public option are merely handouts to the same insurance companies that have been denying coverage and very often flat-out-screwing people once they become sick.
l don't think this legislation has a prayer of passing but I applaud my Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Jim McDermott for at least trying.
Those in favor of a single-payer system often use the explanation that it cuts out the middle man's (the insurance company's) profit. There's administrative costs regardless of whether the government does them or a private company (an insurance company). The idea with the private sector doing it, is that they do it while making a profit for less than the government can do it...and I'm not talking about just insurance. Over time the government becomes less and less efficient when they do something. They end up with big payroll, including very generous benefits. Currently government employees in some positions are even receiving an very good salary....it used to be the salary was lower than average but, the excellent benefits made up for it. A single-payer system is going to run into this problem sooner or later.
The next issue is that it would be based around the way Medicare/Medicaid is run, including what it pays providers. Any one that's ever looked at an EOB (explanation of benefits), knows there's a discount off of what the provider charges that they're not responsible for. I'm not sure if many realize the difference in the discount that private companies negotiate providers vs. what the government decides it's going to pay providers (and not negotiate with them). Managed care through an HMO, has some pretty big discounts and PPO's have less of one (35% maybe, depending on the service, sometimes higher and sometimes lower) but, what Medicare/Medicaid discounts is obscene (75% and even higher). My mom is 89 and just had a stroke and Medicare paid some of the providers as low as 10% of what they billed.
As it is, more and more doctors are leaving their own practice to work for a group that pays them salary rather than dealing with all the headaches and expenses that come with being self employed. If medical providers are going to get paid by all their patients the same amount they get paid now by only their Medicare/Medicaid patients, they're going to have trouble operating and staying in business. They'll have to make huge cuts in expenses, which will include staff. The medical industry is suppose to be expanding because of all the baby boomers that are starting to retire now. How will they be able to do that with what Medicare pays.
The next thing is that mandates almost always cost policy holders more in premiums because they increase what insurance companies have to pay out in claims....so, that has to be passed along to the consumer, they can't absorb it...they'll go in the red and then everyone loses their coverage. The mandate requiring everyone to have coverage in the new HC bill could be probably the only time a mandate will be actually benefiting insurers. That really depends though how much risk each one gets stuck with. The reason for the mandate is to cover the claims from all the unhealthy that they have to guarantee coverage to...it's necessarily going to net them more profit....especially if people choose to pay the penalty for not having coverage rather than the high cost of premiums. That penalty is going to the government and I don't think they're using it to subsidize the insurers. Insurers make money through volume by charging less than other carriers....they don't make it by charging more, that makes them lose business and revenue from the healthy while having to still pay the claims the unhealthy are generating.
Next is the issue of not paying when people get sick. Obamacare does not allow insurers to drop people (except in the case of fraud). That's EXACTLY how they get dropped now when they become ill. Their policy gets rescinded because it was fraudulent not because they got sick. The reason it happens when they get sick, is because that's the first time the insurer is finding out they lied on the health history section of the application. The application require you check "yes" or "no" for each medical question asked and sign it. If yes, then you have to give further details so that they can investigate it through underwriting to see if it warrants any actions in order to provide coverage (like a rate-up, exclusion rider, postponement or decline)....if so, an offer is made to the applicant to which they can either accept the coverage with the amendment(s) or refuse the coverage entirely. Underwriting guidelines are a written policy for each carrier...what they offer one applicant they must do for all applicants with that same illness....the state audits them for this (consistency)....otherwise it's discrimination.
What happens is applicant suddenly forget they have an illness when completing the application so, the insurer has no idea of this. Then when they become seriously ill and they're admitted to the hospital, they get asked about their health history so that they can be treated correctly. Now since their life may depend on being accurate, they suddenly remember that illness they forgot on the application and it gets recorded on the medical recorded that are being generated by the hospital...the same records the insurer will be reviewing when the claim gets submitted. If they would have never covered that person had they known about the illness they omitted on the application (based on the insurers WRITTEN guidelines), then that's fraud and unfortunately grounds for a rescission. Obamacare does not change this. On a side note, large claims aren't coming out of the insurers pocket many times any way because some are re-insured for that.
BTW, all of this only applies to individual coverage, it doesn't happen on group and never has...unless the whole group gets rescinded because of something fraudulent the employer did when getting coverage for their employees. In very rare instance that happens, it's usually with a very small group....a mom and pop business with a few employees.
This is just a lot of mental masturb$# by the Left wing. It's similar to the right wing propositions made by Arizona with regards to immigration. You have extremists on both sides who don't live in the modern world and propose these unrealistic propositions. These symbolic yet pointless gestures have no realistic chance of ever being passed. I'm sorry you are not a very intelligent person if you realistically think something like this will ever pass. I'm not suggesting that people who desire single payer are not intelligent but there is a difference between those who favor it but understand it will never pass and those who get excited and delude themselves into thinking this is a reality.
If the TRUTH be told. When it comes to chronic and degenerative diseases and conditions, insurance doesn't make anyone any healthier. Conventional Medicine doesn't even make anyone healthier. All your regular medical doctor knows how to do is put you on prescription drugs for the rest of your lives to cover up your symptoms which costs a fortune and creates undesirable side effects .
What conventional medical doctor (that is not ALSO a Naturopathic Doctor) has ever restored anyone's robust health?
Beyond that as we all know the government doesn't exactly have a track record doing ANYTHING in and efficient or cost effective manner, so why should we be forced to spend more money on yet ANOTHER losing proposition most of us don't want? Certainly the government officials that are writing these bills don't want it. Corporations are getting waivers from it. If our elected officials aren't being forced to do it , WE SHOULDN'T BE EITHER.
Besides, I seem to remember that this country used to be thought of as a"FREE" country where we are FREE to make our own decisions about medical care where our government doesn't FORCE us to do anything provided we don't hurt anyone doing whatever that might be.
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