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One in the same. My friend seems to think that Bernie and Elizabeth are running to GIVE free health insurance to all. We all pay something and I pay for my Medicare and Medicare has a schedule of payments for all medical work done.
I have NOT followed Bernie and his plans too much but I can't see how any insurance is all FREE. No insurance is free and thank goodness I carried auto insurance for 60 yrs and NEVER used it,,,,so the insurance companies made a LOT of money on me.
Even other countries that make claim to FREE health insurance, PAY somehow. Nothing is FREE, but hot air.
No they aren't the same. There are several variants. Medicare for All in its purest form is literally that - the Medicare progran expanded to cover everybody. Of course even Medicare has the hybrid Medicare Advantage - I haven't heard much from the Democratic candidates that propose some variant of Medicare for All about whther that would continue (althiough I haven't sought out the information). Single payer is a little further to the UK model where the government operates the health care system, or at least pays for it.
Either way it isn't free. It is paid either by taxes and premiums as Medicare is now or by taxes alone.
One in the same. My friend seems to think that Bernie and Elizabeth are running to GIVE free health insurance to all. We all pay something and I pay for my Medicare and Medicare has a schedule of payments for all medical work done.
I have NOT followed Bernie and his plans too much but I can't see how any insurance is all FREE. No insurance is free and thank goodness I carried auto insurance for 60 yrs and NEVER used it,,,,so the insurance companies made a LOT of money on me.
Even other countries that make claim to FREE health insurance, PAY somehow. Nothing is FREE, but hot air.
Of course, nothing is free. Politics is always about who gets what.
If Medicare for All sounds a lot like a single-payer health care system — where the government foots the bill for people’s health care — that’s because the two are largely the same. The new name is intended to make the concept more popular.
Sander's is fairly vague about how he plans to pay for his very generous plan. In the bill he introduced in 2017, it would pay for every medically necessary service, from routine doctor visits to surgery to mental health to prescription drugs. Dental and vision care are part of the package, too.
I have no problems with soaking the rich with taxes (within reason of course) but it is political malpractice to think middle class taxes won't have to increase to pay for some of this plan.
One of the bigger issues I have with Sander's plan is the idea that there will be zero co-pays. Insulating people from any costs of care will drive usage through the roof. No other developed nation has zero out of pocket costs (based on visits to the doctor).
One of the bigger issues I have with Sander's plan is the idea that there will be zero co-pays. Insulating people from any costs of care will drive usage through the roof. No other developed nation has zero out of pocket costs (based on visits to the doctor).
This is one of my concerns too. He and some of the others advocating sonme type of MEdicare for All or single payer also say that there will be huge savings from the decrease in bureaucracy. One example he gave is that doctors wouldn't have to bill anymore. I find that hard to believe. They would still have to bill the single payer. Even if they don't use a fee schedule with doctors they would still want to use some type of encounter data (like that used by managed care companies that pay their PCPs per capita) in order to keep tabs on the care being provided, etc. I spent years in maanged care and while I can see where there might be some savings, such as by eliminating corporate profits, it seems like they are overestimating the savings on operating the system.
You want EVERYTHING going in the door.. then you start negotiate down with the other side, to allow people paying copays to reduce use, remove hearing aids or maybe dental from the bill.
You still get 80% of what you want...
Over here.. we still have to pay out of pocket most dental work. Only "medical conditions" are covered under our "Medicare" with dental care. Cavities, cleaning of teeth or braces are out of pocket.
There would be MASSIVE savings in the US. $1-2 Trillion each year..
Now you understand why Big Pharma and Insurance want nothing done!
For universal health insurance.
WITH copays and deductibles
Paid for by eliminating private basic health insurance.
Replaced with a payroll tax replacing above.
Call it everyone gets a hamburger. Steak available from the private sector.
Note NOTHING will work until congress is willing to tack big pharma and big hospitals monopolies and oligopolies. Since congress is bought by big pharma and hospitals, nothing will happen.
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Originally Posted by jaminhealth
One in the same. My friend seems to think that Bernie and Elizabeth are running to GIVE free health insurance to all. We all pay something and I pay for my Medicare and Medicare has a schedule of payments for all medical work done.
I have NOT followed Bernie and his plans too much but I can't see how any insurance is all FREE. No insurance is free and thank goodness I carried auto insurance for 60 yrs and NEVER used it,,,,so the insurance companies made a LOT of money on me.
Even other countries that make claim to FREE health insurance, PAY somehow. Nothing is FREE, but hot air.
The main difference is in terms of contributions and the private or public sector.
Some countries just require citizens to have insurance and offer incentives, others pay for healthcare out of the tax revenues and in terms of systems some universal healtcare systems use private companies and private hospitals, whilst others mainly use state owned hospitals and provisions.
There are numerous types of universal healthcare, as for Bernies plan, it sounds like he just wants to extend the medicare syste that is already in place, in order to cover the entire population. I think nationalising hospitals and other services would be quite complicated in terms of the US.
America is brilliant and motivated enough to afford to have an extremely sophisticated rover driving around the planet Mars right now collecting high density photographs and analyzing complicated soil and air chemistry yet we can’t figure out how to create affordable and high quality healthcare in this country
One in the same. My friend seems to think that Bernie and Elizabeth are running to GIVE free health insurance to all. We all pay something and I pay for my Medicare and Medicare has a schedule of payments for all medical work done.
I have NOT followed Bernie and his plans too much but I can't see how any insurance is all FREE. No insurance is free and thank goodness I carried auto insurance for 60 yrs and NEVER used it,,,,so the insurance companies made a LOT of money on me.
Even other countries that make claim to FREE health insurance, PAY somehow. Nothing is FREE, but hot air.
Medicare is not free.
There are out of pocket fees. A private Medigap plan helps pay for that which Medicare does not.
Conversely, one can opt out of traditional Medicare and instead obtain private Advantage Plan, partially or totally funded by Medicare.
No two countries do Universal Healthcare the same way. Some rely entirely on private insurance. Most are a mixed bag of public and private insurance.
Forget about how health exposures are insured. Instead look at how other healthcare systems control costs. Again, no two countries do it the same way.
Some countries rely most on public hospitals. An ever increasing number of systems are trending towards polyclinics. For example, there is no reason to give birth in a full service hospital with the overhead necessary to perform an organ transplant or address emergencies, when a birthing clinic and midwife can do an equal or better job.
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