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So how would they be taxed differently than everyone else? If you propose to tax everyone the same, then that means you need to refund all the Medicare taxes anyone has paid to date, plus interest, or you're placing an unfair burden on those who prepaid $160,000 or more for access to Medicare benefits.
Right. The 20% co-pay was an average.
As a youngin, right now I'm paying a Medicare tax that I KNOW I won't be getting the value of. So the current system is already an unfair burden on someone - an entire generation. What I would propose is everyone pay the same income tax starting at a younger age (maybe 25). The people who have paid $160k into the system are still getting their Medicare... check. The young people who are paying now will be getting their Medicare, which they probably won't even use... check. Who's it unfair to?
And the reason I made the point that Medicare charges a monthly premium even after decades of prepayments (average of $160,000 per enrollee), only covers 80% of medical costs, and supplemental insurance must be purchased to cover prescriptions, the out-of-pocket gap, etc., is because a LOT of young-ish people are under the impression that Medicare is free and covers everything. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Have a million dollar injury/illness on Medicare parts A and B only with no supplemental private insurance policy? You're on the hook for approximately $200,000. On a fixed income. There is no out-of-pocket maximum.
The hospital kicked my elderly parent out of the hospital, at night because of Medicare rules. He needed assessment which occurred at night for some reason, and they said if he stayed overnight he would be charged full price (thousands) and neither Medicare nor medigap would pay. He was barely mobile, in pain and very confused but the woman said she was doing us a favor by discharging him to us otherwise he would have to go to a nursing home, again at his/our expense. They tried to get the family to sign to be responsible for his bills. He could not stand unaided and we needed security to put him into the car, this was around 10 pm. Medicare is no picnic.
As a youngin, right now I'm paying a Medicare tax that I KNOW I won't be getting the value of.
Oh, I have news for you... As a well over age 50 but not yet 65 adult, I've been paying Medicare tax all these years on a high income. And there is no Medicare tax cap. It's all taxed. You would choke, turn blue, and die if you knew how much in total I've paid in Medicare tax for decades.
Either I want all that money back, plus interest, or I expect everyone else to have to pay $160,000 per person (the average collected per Medicare enrollee) to buy into Medicare.
The hospital kicked my elderly parent out of the hospital, at night because of Medicare rules. He needed assessment which occurred at night for some reason, and they said if he stayed overnight he would be charged full price (thousands) and neither Medicare nor medigap would pay. He was barely mobile, in pain and very confused but the woman said she was doing us a favor by discharging him to us otherwise he would have to go to a nursing home, again at his/our expense. They tried to get the family to sign to be responsible for his bills. He could not stand unaided and we needed security to put him into the car, this was around 10 pm. Medicare is no picnic.
Life is no picnic, honestly. The question is, what would have happened to him were Medicare not in the equation. Now I think it's very reasonable to say, if I hadn't paid Medicare taxes over my lifetime I could've saved the hundreds of thousands to millions needed to pay out of pocket for my care. But most can't say that, and chances are he's better off in this system than without.
For this particular situation though, there's got to be more to this. Medicare covers 100% of costs for inpatient hospital stays for up to 2 months, and at a $300 copay for each day for 30 days after that. After 3 months, there's a $600-ish copay. How long has he been in the hospital? Medicare doesn't cover long term hospitalization or nursing home.
The hospital kicked my elderly parent out of the hospital, at night because of Medicare rules. He needed assessment which occurred at night for some reason, and they said if he stayed overnight he would be charged full price (thousands) and neither Medicare nor medigap would pay. He was barely mobile, in pain and very confused but the woman said she was doing us a favor by discharging him to us otherwise he would have to go to a nursing home, again at his/our expense. They tried to get the family to sign to be responsible for his bills. He could not stand unaided and we needed security to put him into the car, this was around 10 pm. Medicare is no picnic.
Not unusual. I go through the same thing with my elderly Mom and her elderly husband. Medicare is no picnic. It's a bare-bones minimum that frequently doesn't provide adequate care. PLUS they have to pay monthly premiums for it, subtracted from their SS checks.
Oh, I have news for you... As a well over age 50 but not yet 65 adult, I've been paying Medicare tax all these years on a high income. And there is no Medicare tax cap. It's all taxed. You would choke, turn blue, and die if you knew how much in total I've paid in Medicare tax for decades.
Either I want all that money back, plus interest, or I expect everyone else to have to pay $160,000 per person (the average collected per Medicare enrollee) to buy into Medicare.
If you're over 50, then you will see some benefit for what you've paid. Now how would you feel if you paid ALL THAT TAX (which I will as well) and saw NO benefit? That's what young people today are facing.
Now, bonus.... if more young people like me join Medicare, your 20% "average" cost-share will likely go down. I've gone to the doctor 2 times in the last five years. So you can get stuck over the principles of the situation, but the effective result of letting younger people get Medicare immediately (and pay for it) is your costs will go down, while those younger people won't be using nearly as much as they put into the system. They will only be getting the full value of their benefit, just like you, when they're older. Just like you.
I repeat... why would you not want more healthy people like me, who uses the benefit infrequently, to join your risk pool? I make things cheaper for you, aka you get more benefit, while I hardly use my benefit until I get to your age. Meanwhile, if I get run over by a truck on my way to work, I can't go to the ER and run up a tab that I'll never pay and that will hike up that 20% amount you effectively pay. Sounds beautiful to me??
The health insurance companies provide NO HEALTH CARE and yet make much more money than the doctors and nurses by simply doing paper work.
Good point. Insurance companies, in general, provide no tangible net benefits to society that couldn't be achieved in some other way. The entire industry is, essentially, a giant economic parasite.
The primary consumer benefit of insurance is some degree of protection from sudden devastating financial burdens that could leave them literally homeless or imprisoned, or dead. This benefit to consumers could, in principle, be provided by a public program that does essentially the same thing that insurance companies do, namely, collect money in the form of monthly payments that are invested until such a time as a payout is required. The difference would be that any net profits from the payments/investments would go to the public treasury rather than into the pockets of the insurance industry and its investors.
Bottom line: A lot of people who currently make profits from services that do no tangible net social good would have to look elsewhere - hopefully toward industries that do produce tangible goods and/or socially valuable services.
Canada's national health care has to be supplemented with a private sector insurance policy to cover some or all of the following, for example, depending on the purchased supplemental policy:
prescription drugs/medicines;
semi-private or private hospital accommodation;
special nursing services;
ambulance services;
hospital and medical expenses incurred outside Canada;
artificial limbs, prostheses and medical appliances;
wheel chairs and other durable equipment;
specified medical or paramedical services that fall outside government plans
(e .g., services from chiropractors, physiotherapists, podiatrists, osteopaths
and optometrists); and
vision care (eyeglasses and contact lenses)
Dental coverage is yet again a separately purchased private sector insurance policy.
In some circumstances, while temporarily outside the province for work or vacation, individuals may retain eligibility for coverage during an ‘extended absence’ of up to 24 consecutive months, once in a 60 month (five year) period. Leaving B.C. Temporarily - Province of British Columbia
Services Covered by MSP. MSP is the provincial insurance program that pays for required medical services. These include medically necessary services provided by physicians and midwives, dental and oral surgery performed in a hospital, eye examinations if medically required and some orthodontic services. Services Covered by MSP - Province of British Columbia
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it has NOTHING to do with healthcare 
