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and do not tell me "because other countries do it".
Not a leftist, but I am a moderate center-right conservative and I do support single payer, universal health care. Here's why:
The free market is a great thing ... except for one thing: it's dictated by profit. At the end of the day the need to make a profit overrules everything else. And there is no way for-profit insurance companies are going to cover the those with chronic and/or expensive to treat conditions without charging them very high amounts of money so that their shareholders and CEOs can get ever increasing bonuses. There are some sectors of society that are more important than profit, healthcare and education are two of them.
and do not tell me "because other countries do it".
This is not just a question for the Democrats. The problem is that both sides are set in their ways so they constantly oppose each other which stops them from discussing or analyzing it civilly.
Not a leftist, but I am a moderate center-right conservative and I do support single payer, universal health care. Here's why:
The free market is a great thing ... except for one thing: it's dictated by profit. At the end of the day the need to make a profit overrules everything else. And there is no way for-profit insurance companies are going to cover the those with chronic and/or expensive to treat conditions without charging them very high amounts of money so that their shareholders and CEOs can get ever increasing bonuses. There are some sectors of society that are more important than profit, healthcare and education are two of them.
You realize, that to many here, that makes you at a minimum, a socialist? (I dont think that of you FWIW. I miss the old days "Main Street Business Owner Republican)
Guess again. I advocate 7% FICA style tax to replace current health insurance which IIRC runs 9% on the employer average. 7% by the employee also. WITH 2500/5000 OOP deductibles. It pays the first 200 dollars for a checkup and all money past 2700. Get gap insurance if you want it. Noone goes bankrupt or at least almost noone.
So you would be against the following? I advocate the following rules.
1) Transparency and simplification of billing. IE a general hospital room price shall be published and include all of the saline, needles and all the $4 Walmart drugs/Tylenol you can consume, TV, bed and one parking spot. This leaves a relatively narrow range of add ons for most hospital stays.
2) No more out of network docs or services in in-network hospitals. I paid $1300 or $1400 for a doc my wife never saw because we arrived 15 mins before shift change. Im convinced he just harvested all names that came in that night.
3) No more exclusives for out of patent medicines. IE the Shkreli effect.
4) The govt CAN negotiate drug prices. Further, no lobbying allowed in medicine. Everything shall be in public hearings. Actually no lobbying period.
5) No more reformulate, pull old drug, re-patent
If you can come up with a better plan so that everyone can get health care affordably, I'll listen.
I would say open up Medicare for under 65s, but for some reason the, "lesser informed" among us say it's communism if young people have Medicare but freedom if seniors get it. Should be spelled freedumb
and do not tell me "because other countries do it".
This is a very simple question.
2/3 of all health care was paid for by the government well before any "lefties" pushed for RomneyCare or the ACA. This is plain fact.
And so, when the government spends something close to 2 TRILLION per year, they should make sure they get the best deal possible.
Now - if you want to truly pay the REAL COST of your families healthcare - the bill is currently 10.5K per person per year. This means a family of four needs to pay in 42K just for health care. If they have two kids they need to add 25K for school (local school taxes).
This is before they plow your roads, watch out for public health, raise armies and do thousand of any other things.
The very easy answer to your question is "Economics and Efficiency". This is based on the current American system. There are systems which are not government run which are efficient and cheap (China, for example), but it's a pipe dream to imagine our hospital CORPORATIONS are going to take $90 for an MRI when they currently get 10X that or more.
Turn your question on it's head. Why should millions of Americans and vast numbers of profitable corporations give up on taking 10.5K from each and every American?
The answer is - they shouldn't. The idea of a corporation is to make as much profit as possible.
The free market requires competition and the ability to shop quality and cost. With health care the big ticket items (cost) cannot be shopped in the same manner you shop for a car.
Can people on the left please explain why government run health care is the ONLY solution for the USA?
You are conflating health care with health insurance.
Quote:
Because other people will pay for it... that's the left's mantra... OTHER people pay for me...
No, it's because single payer creates a bigger insurance pool that spreads risk and covers all regardless of age, income, or health history. Profit motivated private insurance cherry picks what they will cover and at what cost - and dumps the high cost others on taxpayers.
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