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I think most people realize that Medicare is not "free" healthcare. You pay into it during your working years, when you retire you pay some premium, and you are still on the hook for some percentage of your medical bills. I think that is why democrats are pushing Medicare for All - because it would not go all the way to universal healthcare like they have in Europe or Canada. Thus maybe more palatable to American voters.
But in fact no healthcare system is free. You either pay for it directly, or through insurance premiums or you pay it in taxes.
Democrats will continue to convince ignorant voters that they can get something for nothing.
And they'll also try to claim that elderly adults who are now on Medicare, after 40 to 50 years of paying taxes into the program, are the same as welfare mothers in subsidized housing, with four and five kids, living off the dole.
I have not seen this discussed but a large percentage of the candidates for president in 2020 seem to be supporting Medicare For All.
I am wondering if all these folks supporting this concept realize that Medicare only covers 80% of your required healthcare needs. Who is going to pay the remaining 20%? What if the patient says they can't afford it, will they be turned away?
Today when you go into the hospital or see a doctors they ask for your Medicare card and what supplement you carry. No Medicare Supplement plan, you much pay the 20% upfront. Will this fly with folks thinking they are getting free healthcare?
In addition, Medicare is not free, there is a modest premium for it. What about those that will not or say they cannot pay it?
I really believe there is a general misunderstanding about Medicare, it is not free healthcare!
Please folks that are fans of Medicare For All, please respond to the above. I'm not totally against Medicare For All but am against Free Healthcare, big difference and I think there is a bunch of confusion between the two.
Universal does not equal free of cost. I am for universal coverage including a payroll tax to be paid in lieu of private base health insurance.
One of the reasons I like Medicare for all. Copays and deductibles are important gatekeepers from frivolous use.
80% (or 70% even) coverage with OOP limits is fine. No more people losing a lifetime of assets because they have a layoff.
Still does not even look at the cost end as big pharma and big hospitals own congress to get their own crony laws passed protecting them from having to compete and/or making Americans pay 2x to 10X more than the citizens of other countries.
I think most people realize that Medicare is not "free" healthcare. You pay into it during your working years, when you retire you pay some premium, and you are still on the hook for some percentage of your medical bills. I think that is why democrats are pushing Medicare for All - because it would not go all the way to universal healthcare like they have in Europe or Canada. Thus maybe more palatable to American voters.
But in fact no healthcare system is free. You either pay for it directly, or through insurance premiums or you pay it in taxes.
But would it be the same premium for everyone, regardless of age? So a 65-year-old, who has paid in nearly a quarter of a million dollars, would pay the same $200 a month (or whatever it is) that a 30-year-old would, having contributed maybe $10,000 total? Everyone starts from the same line?
Also, it's been reported that health care costs, on average, $11,000 a year. Add in the bloated government agency to administer it, and, conservatively speaking, it's $12,000 a year. So that's the equivalent of $1,000 a month, per person. Will a young working family with three kids, earning $70,000 a year, pay $5,000 a month - or $60,000 in premiums? Or do we subsidize them, and charge the single professional earning more than $70,000 a year even more than $1,000 a month to make up the difference? And how much more? Should it be $1,500? $2,000?
And how would that be different than we have now - where lower-middle class (and below) get subsidized plans, and middle class (and above) get fleeced to subsidize it for them?
Please. As much as you leftists like to equate Medicare, which responsible tax-paying adults who do indeed pay into their entire lives so they will have medical care when they are no longer to work with "freebie" programs like welfare, they are not the same. It's just your way of trying to justify all the hand-outs.
Sorry; what is the difference between Medicare and welfare? Both are paid for by taxes. Those taxes are involuntary in both cases. For one the benefits are based on age and the other based on income.
Please. As much as you leftists like to equate Medicare, which responsible tax-paying adults who do indeed pay into their entire lives so they will have medical care when they are no longer to work with "freebie" programs like welfare, they are not the same. It's just your way of trying to justify all the hand-outs.
then you simply dont understand how medicare and the govt at large works. Its okay, dont be embrassed as most US citizens dont either as govt. schools dont teach the reality of it all. That requires self study.
Im an ancap who doesn't support any govt scheme, but here again you seem to have a problem with understanding ideologies especially where your own is concerned which is decidedly leftist in nature.
Universal does not equal free of cost. I am for universal coverage including a payroll tax to be paid in lieu of private base health insurance.
One of the reasons I like Medicare for all. Copays and deductibles are important gatekeepers from frivolous use.
80% (or 70% even) coverage with OOP limits is fine. No more people losing a lifetime of assets because they have a layoff.
Still does not even look at the cost end as big pharma and big hospitals own congress to get their own crony laws passed protecting them from having to compete and/or making Americans pay 2x to 10X more than the citizens of other countries.
That's true, to an extent. But deductibles of $7,000, such as we now have with Obamacare, are ridiculous. On the other extreme, requiring no co-pays from low-income does indeed encourage frivolous use of medical resources.
I say we should go back to "low-income" clinics, subsidized by the government, where low-income people go with the usual assortment of routine ailments. Qualifying families would be issued a card that stipulates their co-pay, but it would always be SOMETHING.
And this would be supplemented with catastrophic insurance plans for any serious illness or injury.
That's true, to an extent. But deductibles of $7,000, such as we now have with Obamacare, are ridiculous. On the other extreme, requiring no co-pays from low-income does indeed encourage frivolous use of medical resources.
I say we should go back to "low-income" clinics, subsidized by the government, where low-income people go with the usual assortment of routine ailments. Qualifying families would be issued a card that stipulates their co-pay, but it would always be SOMETHING.
And this would be supplemented with catastrophic insurance plans for any serious illness or injury.
Or said another way; "paid for by my neighbor for my benefit"
Medicare is socialized medicine, you can protest all you want but it is what it is. Medicare is funded by the taxes paid by current workers. Any amount that you paid in is paltry compared to the cost of the benefits that you now receive. I saw $200k as a ballpark estimate of what seniors paid in Medicare tax. So, you paid for maybe one or two surgeries or hospital stays. Your payments were not even close to funding what could be 30+ years of coverage.
I always find it funny that people will attempt to justify the government handouts they benefit from as being entirely different than the handouts that other people receive. The money they steal to pay for them all comes from the same place.
Correct. There is no correlation between what one pays in and what one gets out. Its a failure from the get go
then you simply dont understand how medicare and the govt at large works. Its okay, dont be embrassed as most US citizens dont either as govt. schools dont teach the reality of it all. That requires self study.
Im an ancap who doesn't support any govt scheme, but here again you seem to have a problem with understanding ideologies especially where your own is concerned which is decidedly leftist in nature.
No, that's because I'm not an anti-government type like you, who thinks government should never help anyone, ever. There IS a place for moderation, you know.
Just as there is a difference between programs that are funded by the beneficiaries themselves (such as SS or Medicare) and truly "free" programs (to those receiving them) such as EBT.
What would you have? Our elderly just eat cat food and suffer in pain when they get sick?
There seem to be three groups:
1) The leftists, who say we should give free whatever to whoever needs it, be it college, loan forgiveness, guaranteed income, etc., etc.
2) People like you, who say nobody gets anything ever - and everyone is totally on his own - even a five-year-old, a mentally disabled adult, or an 80-year-old who can no longer work.
3) And then there are people like ME, who have it exactly right: Assistance to those who are truly incapable of supporting themselves, and nothing to able-bodied adults in their working years, other than a temporary "hand" for a few months when someone loses their job through no fault of their own. (Taking a bow.)
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