The working class should be allowed to obtain Medicaid
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Anyone who is a net TAKER (Taxes paid - government benefits received < 0) should not be allowed to vote. Let those who actually pay for government decide how that government opperates.
(Hopefully) the government option would be much less than the private option. If everyone is mandated to buy healthcare, the government should at least provide the option of not bankrupting oneself to obtain it.
The money still has to come from somewhere. The gvmt dosnt just "have" money.
The fact is that those on Medicare are very poor (at least they're supposed to be). The income limit on it is set at 75% of the federal poverty line, so $690 a month for a single adult. You can't expect those people to pay 20% co-pays or $1,000 deductibles.
Doctors (and other medical professionals) have a well-earned right to make a living, but they also have a duty to serve those who cannot afford their usual rates. If you look at old Catholic moral theology textbooks, you will read that doctors are sometimes obliged in conscience to offer their services for free; they presumably fulfill that duty today by taking on Medicaid patients.
I would favor an expansion to Medicaid that does have premiums, deductibles, and co-pays on a sliding scale. Minnesota has a program similar to this (MA-EPD); however, it requires that you be judged disabled. However, counting on somebody struggling to survive to pay deductibles or co-pays is not realistic.
Medicare doesn't have income limits, you're confusing it with medicaid.
Doctors provide a service, they in general are more caring than say a hedge fund manager, but they still have mortgages and employees to pay. That said, if medicare is made to be a money losing proposition, you will see fewer and fewer doctors accepting medicare as it would be tantamount to losing money on every patient you see.
This doesn't mean that medicare patients won't be see, but it will likely be in academic settings that have no prerogative to make a profit and not the local private doctor.
There should be a sliding scale where the working person can buy in to a new Medicaid category that is fully funded by the Federal government.
Wow, you think you are entitled to free stuff.
Are you working at all or enough to pay so much taxes that you can cover this or are you just day dreaming about the rest of us paying your bills?
Anyone who is a net TAKER (Taxes paid - government benefits received < 0) should not be allowed to vote. Let those who actually pay for government decide how that government opperates.
I know what you mean. That isn't Constitutional, but the way people vote themselves irresponsibly the treasury it makes sense.
At times it seems a tyranny of the majority and people these days are so classless in general they don't realize it.
Medicare doesn't have income limits, you're confusing it with medicaid.
Doctors provide a service, they in general are more caring than say a hedge fund manager, but they still have mortgages and employees to pay. That said, if medicare is made to be a money losing proposition, you will see fewer and fewer doctors accepting medicare as it would be tantamount to losing money on every patient you see.
This doesn't mean that medicare patients won't be see, but it will likely be in academic settings that have no prerogative to make a profit and not the local private doctor.
I'm sorry, I meant Medicaid. I've been on it for over a year and still get it confused with Medicare.
Wow, you think you are entitled to free stuff.
Are you working at all or enough to pay so much taxes that you can cover this or are you just day dreaming about the rest of us paying your bills?
Why don't you pay attention to my posts before commenting - do you see anywhere that I said 'free'?
The money still has to come from somewhere. The gvmt dosnt just "have" money.
The government does 'just have money' - it's called quantitative easing from the Fed - but that's another topic.
There is money to be made as a government run healthcare company - just look at the United CEO who drained over a billion dollars from the UCH coffers, and that company is still immensely profitable.
The government option could fund itself from payer premiums, and provide a lower cost option to payers who earn less than 100k.
This would leave the upper echelons for the private insurers, while helping to stem the on-going slide of the American middle class into poverty.
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