Posted on 11/11/2016 12:17:01 PM PST by tekrat
House Speaker Paul Ryan has his eyes on privatizing Medicare.
The Wisconsin Republican leader, who has long expressed his disapproval of the Affordable Care Act, will also be the leading voice in health-care reform.
“What people don’t realize is that Medicare is going broke, that Medicare is going to have price controls. Because of Obamacare, Medicaid is in fiscal straits,” Ryan said in an interview with Fox News Thursday. “So you have to deal with those issues if you’re going to repeal and replace Obamacare. Medicare has got some serious problems because of Obamacare. Those things are part of our plan to replace Obamacare.”
(Excerpt) Read more at salon.com ...
Yes, I used to have health insurance companies as clients, and their whole mindset is to have the government pay them directly for seniors’ health insurance plans. They don’t want to deal with individual payers at the senior level unless they’re buying individual supplemental plans.
No one is going to change the health insurers’ minds about that. It’s impossible.
So if that’s the case, we have to figure out how to fund senior health plans. The GOP and the Democrats thought the best way to do that was with mass immigration — just get more people into the country and paying into the system. This is after stagnant and reduced population growth designed by statists (all their policies are centered around entropy).
The answer is to get more money flowing into the coffers. I can’t think of any other better way than with pro-American economic growth. Wages must rise. Jobs must be created.
Instead of importing foreign cars manufactured overseas, the cars should be manufactured here using American labor. That’s the new globalism for the free market crowd. Make stuff where you sell it.
Sounds like a plan ... or at least a direction. Make everything service in the country, except the Armed Services, private-pay or private charity.
A slippery slope. If the government can tell private business how it may compensate its employees then where does it end. Can the government say that it must pay different genders the exact same salary? How about limits on executive compensation. Are you OK with those?
But if the only people purchasing it are the ones using it, prices would fall quickly.
The exact opposite will occur. If only sick people buy health insurance then the costs to the insurance company goes through the roof. Everyone is filing claim after claim and money is going out the door to doctors and hospitals faster than it's coming in. What you propose would bankrupt insurance companies not cause them to drop their premiums.
If health insurance was paid for like car insurance, it would be a LOT cheaper.
Apples and oranges. If I total my car the insurance company is out $30,000. If I get cancer the bills could run into the hundreds of thousands.
I believe we would see huge deflation in the price of everything related specifically to health care. Equipment prices, services prices, etc.
I'm sorry but that is wildly optimistic thinking. GE will continue to charge the same for MRIs. Doctors will continue to want to maintain their income. Hospitals will still want to make a profit.
Ditto
Paul Ryan should be gutted
Paul Ryan should be gutted
Doctors and hospitals are going to be incentivized based on the number of patients who recovery quickly and go home without additional post-acute care.
Medicare calls this "incentives for quality" but just like in the HMO era, "quality" is spelled C-O-S-T. Those who are too old or have complicating conditions will be steered toward "less invasive" care paths (Percocet and physical therapy instead of hip replacements).
And as payments to providers continue to drop, doctors will decide it's in their best interest to keep cutting back on the number of Medicare patients they see. Hospitals will do the same.
And the great thing from the government's point of view is that all the blame gets put on the doctors and hospitals.
This will happen under a Trump administration. It would have happened under a Clinton, Sanders, O'Malley, Cruz, Bush, Walker, Fiorina, Rubio, or Kasich administration.
The demographics and the ensuing Medicare deficits are that irresistible.
I think you are entitled to get $130,000 in health care from the government.
Everything over and above that is welfare, paid for by your kids and grandkids.
“Salon is such a reliable source on any point.”
I agree. I would not trust a thing that Salon puts out.
Medicare already has some privatization with the Medicare Advantage Program in many states.
Obama tried to end Medicare Advantage, but Congress balked.
Medicare Advantage allows clients (patients) to choose private insurance companies who have Medicare-approved MA plans for most of their medical needs. Most MA plans have somewhat better benefits than regular Medicare does.
Let's do it right.
Let the people have input - not just elite insurance companies, elite hospital organizations or elite doctor groups.
NO MORE LEGISLATION BY CORRUPT ELITES WITH DONATIONS IN HAND.
After inflation, that'll last you about six months. No form of healthcare "reform" is going to work unless it addresses cost. Any plan that focuses on subsidizing healthcare is going to fail in the end, and probably take the rest of the economy with it.
Perfect! That was exactly my reaction when I read the post, but you articulated much better than I would have.
Obama took about 700 billion dollars from Medicare to fund Obamacare. And then denied doing so.
Then what is going to happen to the Military’s Tricare Prime and Life? Both are tied to Medicare as secondaries. Just comes out of DOD budget. DOD MANDATED all daily scripts be gotten from a Military base or FRAUD prone Express Scripts, who just dumps your meds in your mail box UNSIGNED for. Rep Fincher heard from me every 3 months about this stupidity. Not all meds are available at smaller bases. We are not talking cheap generics, but $900 for 1 and $1200 for the other retail for 3 months. Both are must have meds.
And what about all that money we already paid into Medicare since we were 16 and are now in our late 60’s and 70’s. GO after the $60 BILLION in FRAUD each year. They can start with my estranged DIL.
“I’m old and I want what I paid for while I worked for 50 years.”
Same here for 50 plus years. Unfortunately for my late wife she passed after 3 years on Medicare. She also worked for 50 plus years.
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