Posted on 01/31/2019 10:14:50 AM PST by TangledUpInBlue
Whatever your views of billionaire politicos Howard Schultz and Michael Bloomberg, they are unassailably correct about a viral political issue: There is no chance of a single-payer “Medicare for all” plan happening any time soon. Maybe ever.
This is heating up because Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris, now a leading presidential contender, has fully embraced a single-payer health care system that would completely replace all private coverage. Medicare for all was a fringe idea when Bernie Sanders endorsed it in the 2016 election. Now, more Democrats (though not all) are backing it, which means the future of health care coverage is going to be a knockdown issue in the 2020 election.
But Medicare for all is a fantasy at the moment, and voters should be extraordinarily skeptical of any politician who suggests otherwise.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Putting everyone on to the current Medicare would be a complete disaster. Bankruptcy within days.
If they plan to create a totally new system, then why do they call it “Medicare”? No. They plan to put everyone on it (except themselves).
The end goal is eliminating private medical insurance, and ultimately taking over the entire health care sector, and after that taking over the whole economy (communism.)
I humbly disagree.
Obamacare has destabilized the existing health insurance system, and once people grow frustrated enough with that they’re gonna throw up their hands and demand single payer.
I can see it starting to happen here in Pittsburgh, where a knock-down drag-out battle between Highmark and UPMC is really p*ssing people off.
They’ll start by dropping the enrollment age for Medicare to 55 or 50. Then people are going to question why private insurers should get to cherry pick the young and healthy while we subsidize them.
The Left was playing the long game with Obamacare.
Medicare has already been running in the red since 2008 and the Medicare Trust Fund will be exhausted by 2026. When that happens, benefits must be reduced, by law, to equal the revenue collected. The average Medicare recipient receives twice as much over his lifetime of the contributions made.
90% of Medicare recipients have supplemental insurance to cover the costs that exceed Medicare reimbursements. The insurance companies will profit from Medicare expansion. The numbers covered would go from 44 million today to 220 million if we have Medicare for all. This doesn’t include the 74 million now on Medicaid.
This reminds me of the story about the factory owner when told that he was losing a nickel on every widget he produced responded, “Don’t worry, we’ll make it up in volume.”
Bullet point 1. There is rationing of care in Socialized Medicine. But those who advocate for it push the point that an INSURANCE COMPANY is making your healthcare decisions.
2. Socialized Medicine will, of necessity, will destroy private health insurance. When your taxes go up 20% to cover everybody else, it is much more difficult to find the money to pay for your private insurance.
3. When there are no more private health insurance companies, there is only the Government to provide your healthcare. But when your care is rationed under your country’s Socialized Medicine, there is NOWHERE ELSE TO TURN for healthcare.
4. The very young and the elderly are the most affected by rationing of care. As Obama said, when asked if a Townhall participant’s mother could get e pacemaker at age 100, ‘well, sometimes you really just need to take a pain pill’. (WHY has Obama escaped blame for our opioid crisis???)
5. Britain’s NHS has just now started debating whether the NHS should pay for Pap smears for women under 25. The discussion is only being started after some women, in their mid 20’s, have died of cervical cancer. As of now, ia Pap is only available to women 25 and older and only every three years. And for those who say ‘well, I would just pay for it myself’. You need to understand that you need a Dr’s authorization/requisition to get medical tests. Without a Dr’s authorization, you cannot just pay for the test yourself because the test providers are not allowed, BY LAW, to give you the test.
Please feel free to use these true rebuttals to the Libs lying advocation for Socialized Medicine.
Whether it happens or doesn’t happen, a zillion gullible people who think it would be Utopia will vote for whomever promises it.
And then we can talk about it for four or eight (more) years.
And anyone trusts what these people say?
It is a far better issue for the Reps if they explain that the Medicare Trust Fund will be exhausted in 2026 and that reform will be needed to sustain the program. Adding 175 million people to a program that is already going bankrupt will hurt the people already on Medicare. Up to 20% of doctors do not accept Medicare patients because the reimbursement rate is 80% of what private insurers pay. Over 30% of doctors don't accept Medicaid patients.
Medicare for all would destroy our medical delivery system. 40% of all Medicare costs come from the General Fund. The premiums for Medicare Part B only cover 25% of the costs by law. The other 75% comes form the General Fund where we must borrow up to 40% to cover the budget deficit. These costs are increasing as the population ages. Our population over 65 will double by 2030. And this does not include those 74 million who get free medical care under Medicaid.
Do you REALLY think most voters on Medicare are going to stand by and watch their benefits being cut?
NO, which is why those on Medicare will fight expanding the program provided they under the facts. Single payer will cause a two-tier medical system like they have in Europe. A private system for the wealthy and a DMV like system for everyone else. Rationed care will be a necessity. And there will be so called Death Panels. And there will still be private insurance costs to supplement Medicare.
They'll propose to fund it with a Tobin Tax and they'll win in a landslide.
LOL. How much would a Tobin Tax raise? The fact is that everyone's payroll taxes will increase and business will pay half of it. This will hurt employment and the economy. The welfare state in Europe demonstrates how these "benefits" will smother and then destroy a country. The first thing to go will be defense funds. In the battle of guns versus butter, butter always wins because it has more constituents. And then taxes will continue to rise and like what happened in Germany, benefits will be reduced. It is all unsustainable as you run out of other people's money.
The existing Medicare patients should be very afraid. We are going to see Zeke Emanuel’s complete lives system enforced which reduces the annual value of life as an individual ages. IOW, older people will not be entitled to expensive regimens, porocedures because their life is valued less.
The government won’t do this directly, the “insurance” companies as administrators will be the enforcers. Hospital systems will also be reimbursed on lives covered and not actual care given. This is so called “capitated” care. The hospital system receives a fixed sum to cover people, so the incentive is to deliver the least amount of care possible and realize profit from not delivering care.
Some of these systems are already in place.
I guess we’ll find out which of us is right in about seven years. I have very little faith in the general public to make the right call on these things.
Get rid of Medicare altogether. That will solve most of the problem.
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