Posted on 08/23/2018 10:16:07 AM PDT by Simon Green
A vast majority — 70 percent — of Americans in a new poll supports "Medicare for all," also known as a single-payer health-care system.
The Reuters–Ipsos survey found 85 percent of Democrats said they support the policy along with 52 percent of Republicans.
Medicare for all has been in the headlines after a study by the libertarian-leaning Mercatus Center at George Mason University found it would lead to $32.6 trillion increase in federal spending over a 10-year period.
The study’s author, Charles Blahous, wrote in The Wall Street Journal earlier this month that even doubling taxes would not cover the bill for a single-payer health-care system.
The policy’s proponents, however, point to a note in the study showing that health-care costs would also decrease by $2 trillion by 2031 if it became law.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has introduced a Medicare for all bill, has said that the Mercatus study is “grossly misleading and biased “.
The new Reuters poll also showed that a majority of Americans supports free college tuition. Forty-one percent of Republicans said they supported the policy, pollsters found, compared with 79 percent of Democrats.
The move to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was also opposed by a majority of respondents. Seventy percent of Republicans said they opposed abolishing the 15-year-old agency, while Democrats said they were evenly split on the issue, with roughly 44 percent in favor of abolishing it and 44 percent saying it should remain.
The Reuters poll consulted American adults throughout June and July this year. Reuters asked 2,989 respondents about Medicare for all, 5,339 about free college tuition, and 7,737 about abolishing ICE. The results have margins of error of 2 percentage points for the Medicare for all and free college tuition questions. The margin of error for the question about abolishing ICE is 1 percentage point.
I wonder if that 70% will still want it when they find out they will be taxed at a much lower income and be in the 70% tax rate leaving them with just 30% of what their current income is.
Hmmm... doesn’t sound so great when it actually costs them money eh.
So they make under $20k a year now and don’t pay taxes. Next year with Medicare for all; their income will be the same but then they have to pay over half of that $20k in taxes leaving them $4k to live on all year long. Even with a sliding scale they will still lose money. The funds to pay for it has to come from somewhere. This will increase crime and getting paid under the table.
Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn’t be best to give them exactly what they ask for then listen to them cry like little babies when they find out what it costs THEM.
Wish we could just print/create out of thin air what we need to pay our bills ...just like our gov. does.
$20 trillion debt, why not 50T, 100T...it's only(fake)money.
Elites don't give 2 shitz about future generations...or the country itself.
Some of that may just reflect disgust with the current corrupt system.
Present a false choice between “the current corrupt system” and “something different” and likely you can get this result.
Change that question to: Do you want Medicare for all even if your Medicare deduction goes from 1% of your gross pay to 15% of your gross pay?
Medicare is not free. Once you are on it you still have to pay a premium. If you are taking social security they deduct the premium from your social security check. If you are not taking your social security benefit yet and still working you pay your premium quarterly. You also pay additional premium if you make to much money. Medicare only pays 80% of doctors and hospitals so you need to purchase a medicare supplement in the open market to cover what medicare doesn’t pay. You also have to purchase a Medicare Prescription drug plan if you want coverage for prescription drugs. I repeat medicare is not free.
Well, I do blame them.
The Democrats fight for what they want, regardless of whether they control Congress or not. And guess what? Over the years they have been getting what they want.
Republicans don’t fight, even when they have the upper hand. Heck, they barely even try.
Save the bogus excuses for somebody who doesn’t know better.
One can also buy up to a better grade of service, either through Medicare Advantage, supplemental coverage, or out of pocket payments.
This is not possible under single-payer systems such as Medicaid.
The Socialists have the upper hand.
Throw in an F plan supplement plus part D drugs and you’re paying nearly $400mo out of pocket per person. You’re right, the dumb libs think it’s free medical. Have at it kiddies.
Yep.
Not only that you pre-pay for Medicare even if you never live long enough to use it.
I have to send a check for 3.8% net of everything I earn to prepay for Medicare.
And when you turn 65 and are forced into Medicare you will be paying between two and five hundred dollars a month for your required "supplemental" insurance.
It’s single payer from the patient’s point of view.
And Medicare is heavily subsidized by the government. I once worked as a consultant to a Medicare Managed Care plan. They were charging the patient anywhere from 0 to $120 a month depending on what the plan covered. But they were getting $1000 a month per patient from the government.
There’s many reasons not to do this, but if they do, I hope they allow supplemental plans for things that Medicare doesn’t cover.
“It’s single payer from the patient’s point of view.”
Then why do they need to pay for a Supplemental Plan?
I don’t believe it!
Still pie in the sky and circling around the Big Rock Candy Mountain.
Personal health is a personal responsibility, first, last and always. Medical services shall always remain scarce, and must be applied to the greatest needs first.
Since some 95% of personal woe is in some way self-induced, this may be a very good way to undertake REAL medical care reform. Stop inducing woes upon yourself. There already are a multitude of instruction manuals for the feeding, grooming, caring for and maintaining the human body, and innumerable rules about which kinds of behavior to avoid, that may lead to sometimes intense medical care needs.
Requiring that the participant in any government medical payment scheme either prove a real contractual right to this care (as VA for service-connected disorders), or as a participant in other employment or retirement plans, to even have assistance in payment of medical bills, should also be putting up some fraction of their own resources for the retention of medical service. The idea is to take this out of the realm of “welfare”, and puts it in the category of shared responsibility. Essentially, rationing services by pricing, by making it incumbent on the consumer of medical services to scrutinize just how much the services are REALLY needed.
The GOP now owns “Obama Care” by design.
methinks the public is unaware of what Medicare for all means and what the cost would be. And methinks most people do not realize Medicare is completely paid for by taxpaying workers of America who should reap the benefits of the program, which is not the case. Congress has been robbing our money for a long time.
It’s only single payer for the things Medicare decides it covers. (One of the reason not to go single payer. But the flip side is you need a law degree to figure out what is covered by insurance companies)
If you can’t purchase supplemental plans and Medicare says no, then it’s either out of pocket or you’re just out of luck.
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