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Medicare uses private providers/services and one must buy supplemental insurance for prescription drug coverage, the 20% co-pay, deductibles, etc. Plus, as already explained, there is no funding to extend Medicare.
Every numerical fact I've posted is verifiable. Mike can't do it. You can't do it. That's why it won't happen unless the US implements a 25% national VAT tax. But look at how much so many people fight against it. So... national health care won't happen.
Incidentally, the state of Vermont's plan to implement state health care came to a crashing halt because they couldn't solve "the raising enough tax revenue to fund it" problem either.
A state cant raise revenue like a national government can. Thats why no country in the world has a system of universal health care in parts of the country and a US system in other parts of the country.
We already pay $1.7 trillion in taxes for our current system and a 6/1.5% payroll tax will easily generate $600 billion (the 2.9% Medicare tax now generate $250 billion) and a 5% federal sales tax can easily generate another $600 billion (5% of total US private consumption is $700 billion). Thats $1.2 trillion in extra tax revenue on top of the $1.7 trillion we currently pay in taxes for health care (48% of total spending). To put this into perspective, thats $2.9 trillion in publicly funded health care and if we assume it covers 80% of total health care costs (typical of the most generous health care national health care systems), thats a total of $3.6 trillion a year in total health care costs. Thats 18.3% of GDP, assuming no savings on the current health care spending. If we assume we move towards the most expensive single payer system in the world, down to around 10.5% of GDP, then costs will be reduced dramatically.
Why keep Medicare to 50 and not expend it to everyone? If Medicare is so bad, why even expend it? And if it works, why not extend it to the logical conclusion?
Obamacare is not really Single Payer, it's a form of subsidy to the insurance companies using taxpayer dollars. While it's good in that it strives to cover everyone, it's not anywhere near optimal.
The insurance companies need to be completely removed from the process. Why is a for-profit corporation more trusted for your needs than the government that protects you and educates your children for free?
Of course Obamacare is not single payer, and part of the point. With Medicare for all we essentially have single payer. You will see how docs, providers, facilities and other HC related entities will buck at that.
We need to continue to offer choices with HC. Both public and private. Otherwise the HC people and businesses will be perpetually squeezed, and they will continually buck and then end up doing the minimum. American patients will not be happy.
There is a large swath of this country of ours we call conservative. And they want to preserve choice with less gov't, and that means a private sector in HC.
Without that we will become a giant VA, a perverse goal we should not want. There will be a reduction in quality, less motivation, less innovation, longer waits and less convenient HC access. And then all Americans will buck.
The delivery of HC over the years has changed incrementally, and I think that needs to continue as we meander down our road to more universal HC. Medicaid and Obamacare. The private sector. And then lower Medicare to 50-55. That in itself will ease much of the high risk burden off Obamacare and the middle class.
Younger and healthier, lower medical risks can be attended to well enough in the private sector.
Employers spent $160 billion on employee health care last year? A mere $1000 per employee? You are living in fantasy land.
Yep. Missed a zero on the calculator. It was $1.6 trillion. Sorry about that.
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Urban Institute is anti-single payer but even they say its cheaper than what we pay now, as we currently pay $3.5 trillion, rising to roughly $6 trillion by 2027. Thats 18% of GDP, rising to 20% by 2027. Almost half of that is funded by taxes already. An absurd amount of money in an extremely wasteful system rampant with price gouging and we still leave tens of millions without proper care. There is no reason why we cant have health care costs in line with the rest of the developed world.
You yourself posted an article that had a spread of costs. Urban Institute published an analysis, as well. And you STILL haven't explained where the $3.2 trillion in additional tax revenue the Fed Gov would need to fund it would come from.
Even if ALL of the $1.6 trillion were shifted to the Fed Gov in a GIANT tax increase on employers, the 7.5% additional payroll tax would raise less than an additional $500 billion. You're still short $1.1 trillion
You replied to someone whose posts you claimed were a waste of keystrokes, as you never read them. I find that highly ironic.
I don't know about you, but I was taught to read left to right, top to bottom. When I come here the first thing I see is a posters name, if I see that poster, and they have not quoted someone I skip it, if they have quoted someone I check to see if it was me because I'm curious if I've been blocked (which I wish I was)...if its me that he has quoted I still skip reading what was written, but just continue on my way without reading the long rants of name calling or drivel that they usual are. So yeah I'm aware of their constant annoying posts, but that doesn't mean I actually read them. Pretty simple to deduce that one can see who posted something and who they quoted without actually reading what they write.
Maybe instead of jumping on me to make some stupid unfounded accusation, you should work on your reading comprehension and think about what you actually read vs. what you think you read before you make a smart @ $$ post about someone else.
What is verified? That some think-tank came up with that number and you're throwing it around like it's a law of physics.
It's your option to remain ignorant. /shrug
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Going to a universal health care system will drastically change the landscape of US' healthcare in a way that institute cannot calculate (and probably doesn't want to do). For one, the price of many services and drug prices will be greatly reduced.
The problem is FUNDING it. You can see how many people are fighting tooth and nail on here to not have to pay for it and make someone else do so.
Americans will never go for national health care as long as a rather large percentage of freeloaders get everything for free but others have to pay, a lot.
There is zero funding problem. Only a problem of having the guts to take on the corrupt elites today who benefit from our broken, callous and ridiculously expensive system.
I am not talking about what you pay out of pocket, but your compensation package includes the total cost of employing you. And the health care costs for you is a very big chunk of that compensation package. Its not the government who pays for that. Its you. They pay you less in wages as a result.
Partly true. But from a pragmatic standpoint irrelevant.
Unfortunately I feel her pain. I went to get my prescription filled this weekend. My insulin was going to be more than $500. Another med that I need was more than $200. And the pain meds that I need that I could not get my doctor to write a script for because some other person somewhere that isn't me might take someone else's pain meds -- not mine, mind you -- probably would have cost a lot too.
I have not read the entire thread, but a few things come to mind.
First, is that physicians are concerned about cost of medications. There are many different insulin preparations, and sometimes the cost is in the convenience of administration. Talk to your doctor and see if there is a less expensive approach. Sometimes using the older products is much less expensive.
Next, there are patient assistance programs that can help with cost.
Always let your doctor know if cost is a barrier to getting treatment for anything.
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