‘Take Away Healthcare’ to Improve Health Care

American Thinker ^ | 17 Jan, 2025 | Deane Waldman, M.D.

[MtnClimber]

Anti-Trump progressives are shouting the now-ascendant Republicans are going to “take away your healthcare” and “deny Americans their ACA insurance.” Bravo! Because if that happens then finally, maybe, Americans might get the health...care they need when they need it without declaring bankruptcy.

There is healthcare, health insurance, and health care: all different yet frequently conflated. Healthcare as one word is a massive, byzantine system that consumed nearly 18 percent of U.S. GDP in 2023 ($4.9 trillion, more than the entire GDP of Japan.)

Health insurance is a promissory note to deliver specified “benefits” (medical care) in return for a premium paid. Such insurance is widely considered, albeit falsely, the necessary key to getting medical care. People with insurance frequently cannot get care, and most uninsured do get care because of EMTALA’s (Emergency Medical Transport and Labor Act of 1986) unfunded mandate.

The benefits or medical care provided by insurance is at the discretion of the insurer rather than chosen by the patient with advice from the doctor. Denials of needed care are common. Wait times to see a physician are dangerously long, with an average maximum of more than 132 days. Death by queue has been documented in both Medicaid and Tricare patients — they are dying while waiting in line (a queue) for technically possible care that is not provided in time to save them.

Health care (two words) is an intimate, confidential service contract between one patient (buyer) and one physician (seller) to provide medical care in exchange for compensation. Medical autonomy — a patient’s right to choose — is a fundamental, supposedly legally protected element of the patient-doctor fiduciary relationship.

[Drago]

Nope not guessing...the Feds publish the “Part C”/Advantage reimbursement rates...average of $1,100.-$1,200. per month per person:

https://www.cms.gov/medicare/payment/medicare-advantage-rates-statistics/ratebooks-supporting-data/2024