Vermont going single payer (drug, how much, ideology, parties)

[pnwmdk]

Originally Posted by jambo101

Seems to me you had 8 years of Republican government supposedly being out of the way, how did that work out?Realistically speaking in todays world the government isnt going to just magically disappear so what parts of the government would you like to see get out of the way?
A-Z Index of U.S. Government Departments and Agencies (A) | USA.gov
This lack of prosperity would certainly be better dealt with if half the government would do more than just sit on their butts and obstruct,filibuster and vote no to everything the duly elected Administration tries to do to improve the lot of America.
An analogy would be hiring some one to drive your car but never giving them the keys then giving them all manner of hateful rhetoric because they arent driving your car.

Where did I say that it had to with the party in power?

[pnwmdk]

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

So people should hire personal employees to test their food for them? How about we as a country hire that guy to test the food for everyone or do you like being poisoned by your food?

Do you REALLY think that our food safety is due to a mass of inspectors?

[EdwardA]

Originally Posted by greywar

So looks like Vermont is going to go single payer. The unsurprising thing is that they estimate this will save them 25% in costs from reduced overhead.

As health-insurance problems keep arising, Vermont offers a ray of hope | MinnPost

Which reflects the numbers also estimated by others for Minnesota:
Growth & Justice lays out its case for Minnesota single-payer health care | MinnPost

But a part of me thinks....If they have universal coverage, wont they get eaten alive by people going there for healthcare? What keeps that from happening?

This is good for Vermont. It will probably work too the deadbeat population is very low so the math may work.

I hope they put in place a lengthy residency requirement though. You could get bus loads of undesirables from New York.

[OICU812]

Originally Posted by greywar

So looks like Vermont is going to go single payer. The unsurprising thing is that they estimate this will save them 25% in costs from reduced overhead.

As health-insurance problems keep arising, Vermont offers a ray of hope | MinnPost

Which reflects the numbers also estimated by others for Minnesota:
Growth & Justice lays out its case for Minnesota single-payer health care | MinnPost

But a part of me thinks....If they have universal coverage, wont they get eaten alive by people going there for healthcare? What keeps that from happening?

So what's new; libs believing in the Utopian predictions of government run programs?

BTW, don't the people of Vermont realize that if their entire state bows out of ObamaCare they will be contributing to it's collapse? They must all be racists!

[Mircea]

Originally Posted by StillwaterTownie

Why? Because Vermont is very right for wanting to bypass ObamaCare and adopt single payer?

Healthcare always was intra-State Commerce, and the "federal" government has no power or authority...the Supreme Court said so.

It's up to the people of the several States to decide what they want for their State.

The ACA supporters are too dumb to understand that...

Germany is to the European Union as California is to the United States.

Notice there's no EU national/UHC system.

Originally Posted by silverkris

You're letting dogma get in the way of facts and reality.

And, what are you doing? You're letting dogma get in the way of fantasy.

Originally Posted by silverkris

Medicare has a 2% administrative overhead. Private health insurance companies overhead is around 16-20%.

I was going to let the Door of Reality hit you in the face, but this post does that quite nicely...

Originally Posted by lycos679

You're comparing apples and donuts.

Medicare does not have to follow the same rules that insurance companies do.
Medicare does not have to follow state insurance laws.
Medicare is not responsible for collecting premiums.
Medicare is not responsible for obtaining financing.

Again, you are trying to compare apples and donuts.

Canada deals with waiting lists.
Canadians are healthier and get shot less.
Canada has a different demographic makeup.
How are infant mortality rates calculated in Canada? Infant mortality is normally a poor metric to compare because not every country counts a baby as a baby. Additionally, the USA has a very high teen birth rate and teens give birth to sicker babies than would usually occur.

Q: Guess which group has the highest life expectancy in the world?
A: Asian American females.

...so, there it is.

One other thing......uh, about facts and reality....

Who manages the HI Medicare Trust Fund, and the SMI (Medicare Part B and Part D) Trust Funds?

The US Treasury Department.

I just blew your 2% Nonsense into the World of Mythical Stupidity.

Calculate the administrative overhead necessary by Treasury to manage the HI and SMI Trust Funds, and then add that your 2% Nonsense.

Who collects the monies for the HI Medicare Trust Fund, and the SMI (Medicare Part B and Part D) Trust Funds?

The Internal Revenue Service.

Calculate the administrative overhead necessary for IRS to collect the monies for the HI and SMI Trust Funds, and then add that your 2% Nonsense, plus the cost of Treasury to manage the Trust Funds.

In the alternative, you may deduct the cost private health plan providers pay to collect and process health plan premiums, and also deduct the cost private health plan providers pay to administer the portfolios --- equivalent to Trust Funds.

Don't forget to adjust everything for differences between private sector pay and benefits and public sector pay and benefits.

When you're done doing all of that, get back to us.

Originally Posted by silverkris

As for single payer health insurance plans, an example being Canada - they spend 10% of GDP and covers everyone, and enjoy higher life expectancy and lower infant mortality rates than the USA (which spends 16% of its GDP).

Since you refuse to go to the website of the US Center for Disease Control and learn the truth about this infant mortality stupidity, I'll bring the website to you.....



I direct your attention to the Key Findings....

"If the United States had Sweden’s distribution of births by gestational age, nearly 8,000 infant deaths would be averted each year and the U.S. infant mortality rate would be one-third lower."

Note the cause of the "high" infant mortality rate....

"The main cause of the United States' high infant mortality rate when compared with Europe is the very high percentage of preterm births in the United States."

The high incidence of preterm births in the united States is cultural....no amount of healthcare, or government involvement will change that.

And why is it cultural? Because you have women between the Ages of 35 and Menopause giving birth, or apparently attempting to give birth and not doing it so successfully.

And why are women delaying child-birth to later years when it is dangerous to both their health and the health of the unborn child?

Because Affluence results in the delaying of marriage, and also delays in child-raising.

So......let me guess......now you want a new welfare program that pays women over Age 35 not to have children.

...'cause, you know, government's the answer to everything....

Mircea

[urbanlife78]

Originally Posted by pnwmdk

Do you REALLY think that our food safety is due to a mass of inspectors?

Do you think you are the one inspecting the safety of the food you are eating?

[HappyTexan]

Vermont cannot roll medicaid/medicare into this though so they are not truly going to a single payer/universal plan.
It's more of a hybrid.

And they have to have a 3 year budget worked out that will pay for this before they can start.
They are still debating how to pay for it..eyeballing payroll taxes as one way (14-15% figures) to get $3 billion in new revenue.

No change to residency requirements though.

[jambo101]

Originally Posted by pnwmdk

Where did I say that it had to with the party in power?

As you only have 2 parties it would take massive government intervention to get itself out of the way, both parties would have to be deeply involved in the repealing of government laws, rules, procedures and services.
Didnt mean to imply you were in favor of one or the other parties but its become a normal course of affairs to blame the nations woes on current admin.

[pnwmdk]

Originally Posted by urbanlife78

Do you think you are the one inspecting the safety of the food you are eating?

It just never occurs to you what reality is, does it?

The fact that we don't die in mass numbers, is due to something called "personal responsibility". You know, what people do when nobody is looking.

The entire "inspection" game is a repudiation of personal responsibility. If you follow the rules, you have little or none. Almost nobody has any actual PERSONAL responsibility. I'd not do the "inspector cat and mouse" game. I'd just say the law was that any person(s) who failed to prevent the contamination of food were criminally liable for harming another person(s).

[middle-aged mom]

Originally Posted by pnwmdk

At the same time, it's reimbursement rates are below cost, and the people on it are going to be facing (and are now to some degree) a provider shortage, which is going to explode in the near term and be chronic and unsolvable in the long term.

By law, Medicare pays the cost of service to hospitals. That cost includes overhead and non MD senior management comp.

By law, Medicare pays an MD a flat fee, plus a percentage of the cost of medications prescribed. It's a swell hand- out to Big Pharma . There are now drugs that can extend the life of end stage Cancer patients by a few weeks. These drugs cost $100-200K. MDs prescribing them are being well compensated to do so. Private insurers will not cover these expenses.

Germany's universal healthcare system is 135 years old. It is continuously tweaked and reformed.
Some U.S. people fixate on what's wrong and use it to validate their own beliefs that government cannot do anything well. Medical innovation is non stop and laws needs to evolve with the innovation.

Physician Assistants ( PA), Nurse Practitioners ( NPs) and Medical Techs are increasingly providing primary and oncology care to patients.