Posted on 11/03/2019 4:24:15 AM PST by karpov
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Here’s a summary of what Ms. Warren has proposed on either side of the ledger.
To reduce the plan’s costs:
Change the way Medicare pays for certain types of hospital stays, such as paying a package rate rather than different fees for surgical services, and paying doctors in hospital-owned practices the lower prices paid to those in private practices. ($2.3 trillion)
Assume that the Medicare for all program itself can operate very leanly. The Urban Institute estimated that Medicare would devote about 6 percent of its health budget on administrators to decide what and how Medicare would pay for things, and to prevent fraud. In Ms. Warren’s plan, that rate is 2.3 percent. ($1.8 trillion)
Assume very aggressive drug discounts. Ms. Warren believes a government system will be able to reduce spending on drugs substantially, including lowering the prices of branded prescription drugs by 70 percent. ($1.7 trillion)
Assume slower growth in health spending over time. The federal government now thinks health spending will increase by 5.5 percent a year; the Warren campaign assumes 3.9 percent growth under Medicare for all, closer to the rate of growth in gross domestic product. ($1.1 trillion)
Assume lower payments to hospitals. The campaign believes hospitals can be paid around 110 percent of what they are currently paid by Medicare, a number that would cause some hospitals to operate at a loss. Currently, private health insurers often pay a lot more to hospitals than Medicare for similar procedures. ($600 billion)
To pay for the plan:
Employers would be required to pay fees to the federal government, equivalent to 98 percent of what they now spend on their employees’ health care. Some companies would be exempt, and companies with unionized work forces would be able to lower this payment if they increased workers’ wages.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Da Da Comrade, what could possibly go wrong?
Judging by the way they hate Carbon, they apparently hate all life forms!
I've seen some of the Medicare reimbusement rates from when my dad was in the hospital. The only way that hospitals can stay in business is to overcharge other patients to make up for the cram down on Medicare. One that stuck in my head was $8 for an x-ray. That only would work if the equipment was free and the tech made under minimum wage.
No wonder so many doctors won't accept new Medicare patients.
“No liver transplant for you! You are Republican.”
Just the whole concept of “Medicare for all” is absolutely insane. What this translates into is “Healthcare for the entire world courtesy of the US taxpayer! Just sneak into the USA” not to mention the insane amount of insurance fraud that would be going on. This would be like trying to save the sinking Titanic by nuking it. The only answer for healthcare is get government the F out of it and let the free market work!
That includes the 47% sales tax, I assume.
Yes, just take AO-C's math wizardry on sending the country back to the Stone Age and eviscerating the US economy with her Green New Deal.
She has said, "It doesn't matter if we don't have the money for the Green New Deal. It's the right thing to do so we should just spend the money anyway." Huh?
It's good thing she doesn't have an economics degree from Boston College. Oh, wait a minute.... Never mind.
Not only do Marxists not understand math, but instead of Warren using conservative estimates of how her Medicare-for-all plan would be paid for, she gets loose and free with the numbers and uses liberal estimates of the costs, which we all know will grow larger and larger because big government is involved in the implementation.
Her estimates of the cost of the program need to be multiplied by 3 to 5 times, if not more, for her already inflated numbers to be anywhere close to being realistic.
And just wait until she finally admits that the middle class will be heavily taxed to come up with the money for this epic fail plan.
At first blush this plan is already DOA. After taking a closer look at Warren's numbers, it is six feet under.
The costs above total $8.7 trillion - Twice the current budget. No matter how much taxes are increased do you squeeze that much money out of the economy. Not unless you spend nothing on anything else - no defense, no SS, no welfare, no social programs, no subsidies, no foreign aid, no Congress salaries, etc.
:)
No, not yet.
Democrats have forgotten how they were nuked by the Obamacare catastrophe.
Their answer is to quintuple down on it. They’re insane.
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