Posted on 08/06/2017 10:31:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Every few years, the media gets low on ammo and decides they’re going to make a collective push to talk about bringing a single-payer healthcare system to the United States. And every few years, people who understand economics and business have to point out to them that it won’t work. This is one of those times.
What is Single-Payer Healthcare, Anyway?
When a term gets used so frequently for so long, it’s easy for there to be some misunderstanding. While the idea of single-payer healthcare gets thrown around a lot, would you be surprised that many people don’t even understand what it is? This results in confusion, misguided statements, and clouded judgment. So let’s clear this little issue up before systematically pulverizing the idea into a million pieces.
Single-payer national healthcare -- or “Medicare for all,” as Senator Bernie Sanders calls it -- is a system in which a single public organization or government entity finances healthcare for the entire population of a country, while the delivery of the care remains in private hands.
Quickly pause for a second and just think about that. Under a single-payer system, the government -- a convoluted, bureaucratic, slow-as-molasses, doesn’t-understand-how-to-spend-money organization of bickering career-politicians -- is tasked with financing healthcare for all. Okay… moving on.
Under a single-payer system, every American would have all “medically necessary” services and costs covered. This would include doctor visits, hospital stays, emergency room visits, preventative care, cancer treatment, dental, vision, and prescription drugs.
The money to support medical expenses of American citizens would be funded by implementing what proponents call a modest tax on the public. There would be no deductibles or premiums and almost every household would save money.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The singler pay needs to be the responsibility of the single adult seeking care.
Just lost a good friend who relied on the VA system for care. Sad.
RE: If honest, then, one must also declare that “socialized medicine” “will not work anywhere,” or, “at any time, period.”
Are Canadians and British citizens happy with what they have?
If they are, it’s because the Canadian and British systems as they are today are largely a product of the formerly free market US system’s innovation and technology and still rely on it for services and products that would never have developed under Socialism.
They are UNTIL..., a very serious health issue arises and they confront interminable delays in or outright DENIAL of expensive treatments! Even diagnostic tests are severely restricted...
Yet this crummy idea keeps raising its empty head on a regular basis when the current group of “deep thinkers” stumble upon the next great thing to bumfuzzle the voters. I’ve been around long enough to remember reading the previous group of “deep thinkers” like the twin “Aunt Blabbys” (Dear Abby & Ann Landers) regularly spout off on the niceties and necessity of nationalized health care.
Liberals at first don’t care much if single payer doesn’t work. What they most care about is that they want it. The wanting then transforms into the belief that it will work. It’s a vicious cycle from then on, accelerated by super-charged rage at whomever “keeps them from” what they want and believe in.
The problem is not the cost.
The problem it takes decision-making over your health care away from you and your doctor and transfers to bureaucrats.
And if you want to pay for experimental or additional medical treatment? Forget it, you won’t have that option.
HMOs are a far better if imperfect alternative to government-run health care. And the government has a terrible record with delivering quality services.
That’s plenty of reasons to keep the hands of politicians and bureaucrats out of our personal lives. No one should be trusted with that much power.
It still wouldn’t be a bargain if we could afford it and it would suck even if it was free. The Left won’t talk about it because its nowhere near as great as it claims.
Depends. If you’re in good health and have simple conditions, single payer can work well. I admit I’m happy with my state’s Medicaid expansion plan.
But if you’re chronically ill and are in need of treatment the plan won’t cover, you’re screwed. Two words come to mind: Charlie Gard. Single payer is fine - until you decide you need a different kind of treatment option.
To put it somewhat differently, a one-size fits all health care plan isn’t for every body. But that’s exactly what single payer essentially is because it doesn’t take into account people’s health conditions are different as well what they need and want from their doctor.
At the end of the day, what all it comes down to, is who should be in charge of your personal health: you or a bureaucrat whose only concern is with the bottom line? The answer is obvious.
The whole point of ObamaCare was to break the system to the point where people can be sold on the notion that Single-Payer is the ‘least worst option.’
The most insidious aspect, is that everything you do becomes the business of the government, because they are paying for your healthcare and want to minimize the costs.
It’s the ultimate power grab.
Yup, loss of freedom, personal autonomy, dignity and control over your own life.
Its nice have your parents take care of you. But the natural state of man is to be free.
A government powerful enough to provide you with the best health care money can buy is also a government powerful enough to take away the things you value most to make it happen.
Single payer isn’t a free lunch and there are hidden costs that come along with it.
“”What is Single-Payer Healthcare, Anyway?””
OBAMACARE
Here’s the real problem.
Under our present system, the patient has a contract for the insurer to pay for the provision of certain services in a medically appropriate manner and time frame. This contract can be enforced in court. The insurer knows these things and must budget an appropriate amount to pay for those services. The budget must fit the demand.
Under single payer, there is no contract that can be enforced. The government does not determine how many services it must provide, it determines how much it is willing to pay. The demand must fit the budget and lower quality and rationing are inevitable.
Obamacare was to be the final nail in the coffin of private health insurance and care. Many years ago, Ted Kennedy (who is approaching his 9th anniversary of sobriety this month) stated that the goal was to increase government meddling in health care in order to make it so bad that people would clamor for government-run single payer.
The reason politicians want socialized medicine is to gain complete control over people. They know that they will not suffer under the burdens they place on the rest of us. In socialism, some people are more equal than others. That is why Democrats can rant and rave about the evil rich and taking care of the poor while they become multi-millionaires. It’s a giant scam.
There is the major problem of things being free being overused. Right now, many people on Medicaid and Obamacare treat emergency rooms as if they were clinics. They show up with colds or hangnails and call an ambulance for no good reason, because it doesn’t cost them anything. Government can’t manage a 2-car funeral. Everything it touches costs more and delivers less than promised... government medical programs, the VA, education... you name it, if government is involved, it’s getting worse.
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