Universal health care - it's what grown-up countries do

[cal04]

https://twitter.com/pittgriffin

[Cal Carpenter]

1. But...but... it's IMPOSSIBLE

here...


K & R

[Scuba]

14. No, no, we have it here in the USA, right now. Or so I was told yesterday ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6326398

[KG]

2. well, we got the 'uniquely american' solution.

[Doctor_J]

3. But your friends and family need those insurance jobs. And Lieberman.

Last edited Sun Mar 8, 2015, 12:56 PM - Edit history (1)

And we can't let the perfectl be the enemy of the awful. And medical bankruptcy is as much a part of America as baseball, apple pie, and Jamie dimon. So stop being a racist and embrace heritage/Gingrich/Romney/Obamacare.

[Enthusiast]

4. Pffft!

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[mountain grammy]

5. But, don't you see? That's what makes us exceptional!

exceptionally stupid!

[Matrosov]

6. But they're in the communist third world

At least that's what Bubba and Cletus always tell me

[RedSpartan]

7. Oh, yeah?! So why does EVERYBODY

come to America for medical care when they really need it?! Huh?! Cuz we have the best healthcare system in the world, that's why!

[RufusTFirefly]

8. Universal health care: Public policy's equivalent of "unelectable."

We are brainwashed into believing that we must stay within very strict boundaries and limit ourselves to modest goals and mediocre politicians.

Bullshit.

Our lack of vision and poverty of imagination are destroying this country.

[ND-Dem]

9. +100

[mwooldri]

11. Simply needs to be sold as "Medicare for all".

I have issues with Medicare's holes but getting everyone, not just seniors, onto Medicare will then qualify the USA as having universal healthcare.

It will make life simpler for everyone. Medical providers will know exactly how much they get paid. Employers won't have to worry about providing healthcare for their employees. And states won't have to offer Medicaid, so they can lower state taxes and those states that refuse Medicaid expansion are simply bypassed as it would all be now at the federal and private level. This can all be funded with a modest increase to the Medicare tax that we already pay.

I think this is an easy proposal - and it can keep private insurance companies on board as well.

• Everyone would be enrolled into Part A (Hospital), B (Medical) and Part D (drugs) on birth.
• There would be a public Part C (presently it's private insurance).
• The public part C would offer only one plan - Plan P - which has no deductibles, co-pays or maximum benefit amounts. This fills the holes in parts A & B.
• Part D prescription plans would continue, but without deductibles, maximum payouts and only charge a modest co-pay. This would be waived for the young, the elderly and the poor.
• Private insurance companies can still sell the other Medicare part C and D letter plans
• Those who don't choose a Part C plan automatically get the public Plan P by default.
• People who choose anything other than Plan P can receive a tax credit.

This is how I think America's health care system should work. It wouldn't be a government takeover of health care as the government wouldn't be purchasing any hospitals and employing health care providers. Insurance companies would still be in the game and would be in a better place to control losses. Big Pharma can still work with private companies and still get more money per customer than they do in other parts of the world.

[LiberalArkie]

13. Medicare is better than nothing, but the patient still has to pay a lot.

You have the monthly payment taken out of Social Security every month, then you have your supplement taken out and then your part D prescription insurance that may or may not cover or even come close to covering the medication. Medicare has a long way to go before it even comes close to what civilized nations have. I think we have a long way to go before we even get close to Sadamn Care before we shut it down. I quit taking asthma med since it was $195 a month, at least it is only $15 in the UK.

We have a long way to go, but Medicare for all isn't it. We should strive for the european model for all.

[RufusTFirefly]

15. There's already a bill, the reintroduced H.R. 676, that's ready to go.

It's remarkably sensible and readable.

Doctors group hails reintroduction of Medicare-for-all bill

Physicians for a National Health Program, February 4, 2015

Single-payer health program would cover all 42 million uninsured, upgrade everyone’s benefits and save $400 billion annually on bureaucracy, physicians say

A national physicians group today hailed the reintroduction of a federal bill that would upgrade the Medicare program and swiftly expand it to cover the entire population.

The “Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act,” H.R. 676, introduced last night by Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., with 44 other House members, would replace today’s welter of private health insurance companies with a single, streamlined public agency that would pay all medical claims, much like Medicare works for seniors today.

...

More at PNHP

[hifiguy]

18. One of the strongest supporters of single-payer I ever met

was a Republican doctor who came from a long line of Republican doctors. He said any loss in revenues would be more than offset by the vast gains in efficiency in dealing with one bureaucracy instead of dozens of insurance companies. He said patient care would improve, doctors would be able to practice better medicine and the whole system would be vastly more efficient.

[RufusTFirefly]

19. Yes. The insurance morass is especially hard on independent physicians n/t

[LiberalArkie]

10. I had a friend of mine in England who came over to visit on week

He gave my dad a picture of the church he visited that was built and still used back in 650 or so.

It hit me when he told me. Columbus wasn't even sperm when this church was built. When the Revolution was being fought, people have been going to church over 1,000 years to that church. Back in 1776 the Magna Charter which established the laws that ours are based on had been in existence for 500 years.

I get so tired of the "teen agers" thinking they know more than the adults. When I mean "teen agers" I meant the U.S. of A. We are just the new kids on the block. I hope we grow up some day and learn how adults think without blowing up the world.

[hifiguy]

17. Visiting Europe gives one an appreciation for time.

In '03 I visited Lyon. My wine-bottle French let me learn that construction of the Cathedral de St. Jean was begun in 1035. That's thirty years before the Norman Conquest.

We walked up to the oldest part of the city and sat for a while in an ancient open air amphitheater. Said amphitheater had been constructed on the order of one Gaius Julius Caesar.

That rearranges and rattles yer mental jimmies and gives one some perspective.

[99Forever]

12. Yeah but...

... can their already rich extort a whole lot more money from the masses by holding their very lives hostage?

Huh?

Well...

... can they?

[hifiguy]

16. No one sensible has ever thought of the US as anything other than

a hopelessly spoiled and irresponsible adolescent in the family of nations. And for good reason.

[daredtowork]

20. Some of those countries trying to roll it back now

in imitation of the United States economic philosophies. Both UK and Canada under pressure. Possibly Australia, too.

[Dragonfli]

21. Neoliberalism is a very aggressive cancer, it is infecting more of the world than ever before /nt

[Stinky The Clown]

23. The scourge of Dumbfuckistan.

Its like a cancer

[Stinky The Clown]

22. ACA. Its what you get when your leader starts in the middle and moves right.

Yeah, yeah. Lieberman.

The boss never even TRIED.