General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe good news is that the next advancement in Healthcare will be a full public option
We have tried other methods with varying success. The next one will be a Medicare for all/public option. It is inevitable.
lapfog_1
(29,166 posts)to sell you.
MineralMan
(146,189 posts)I can't envision it happening right now, but it is the only logical endpoint.
Renew Deal
(81,801 posts)The republicans only choose regression.
MineralMan
(146,189 posts)I think it's very, very unlikely, but there is a small possibility that they might choose that path out of desperation to find some sort of solution. If they did, though, they'd try to find a way to privatize it and hand it over to the insurance companies. That would be a disaster, of course.
The reality is that turning the entire healthcare system over to Medicare would be the simplest possible solution. As with current Medicare, it would still offer the insurance companies the opportunity to sell supplemental coverage. Frankly, based on the number of mailings and phone calls I get every year trying to get me to switch my supplemental policy, the insurance companies appear to love selling those policies that cover the Medicare deductible and co-pays. For just over $100/month, I never have to pay anything at all for medical services, except dental and vision.
I've asked myself many times why the insurance companies love those supplemental policies so much. But, the answer is that it's profitable for them.
So, handing over the 80% of the business to Medicare and selling supplements would seem to me to be a good business model for health insurance companies. Medicare for all would, of course, require premiums for everyone not of Medicare age, but those could easily be calculated on a national basis and the same model Medicare uses for paying providers would result in cost control.
The only thing I'd add would be prescription coverage and cost control added to the basic Medicare coverage.
Still, this is not a solution the GOOPers would like, unless the insurance companies sold them on it. But, it's the obvious way to shift to single payer for most medical coverage. Letting the insurance companies sell gap insurance would be the gift to them.
rgbecker
(4,806 posts)Everyone on Medicare pays a premium, regardless of age, most through an auto deduction from monthly SS benefit. Oh, I guess there are some, of extreme low income, that may be exempt.
MineralMan
(146,189 posts)Major medical for seniors, however, is covered without a premium. Part B, the day-to-day medical 80% payer, does have a premium. Mine is $109 per month. I pay about the same for the supplement that covers the remaining 20%. Part A doesn't have a premium.
The reality is that premiums for people under Medicare age would be similar to what they're paying now, although having a national pool of those covered and a single bureaucracy to administer it should result in lower premiums overall. A lot depends on how they calculate how much providers are paid.
Bottom line is that Medicare for all would lower insurance costs to individuals in most cases. It would also allow the government to provide automatic subsidies for those who need them, without too much trouble.
It's a workable system. It would require an expansion of the Medicare system, of course, which would probably be filled with people already working in the health insurance sector. Premiums would be paid as they are now, through payroll deductions, employer payments and straight premiums for the self-employed and some others.
The math is complicated, of course, to calculate risks and premium levels, but the information is out there. Most providers already accept Medicare payments for a full range of procedures and services. That wouldn't have to change. Those providers who do not currently accept Medicare payment levels would have decisions to make if we went to Medicare for all. Most would discover that their options for alternative sources of revenue would be severely limited.
It's all workable, though. It would simplify everything and bring us up to par with other industrialized nations. It's past time for this to be implemented.
Disclaimer: I am on Medicare.
rgbecker
(4,806 posts)Sooner the better. Main reason I supported Bernie Sanders and the main reason I'll continue to support Bernie's progressive plans.
apnu
(8,722 posts)I think the OP means the Republicans will remove this quasi-free-market system the ACA set up for a free-for-all that will see medical costs skyrocket, then the public will recoil from that and the ground will be fertile for a public option.
It's going to take a great deal of pain and early death to get there.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)Renew Deal
(81,801 posts)flamingdem
(39,303 posts)and small hospitals will go bankrupt
Renew Deal
(81,801 posts)The Republican congress is the Death Panel
flamingdem
(39,303 posts)They need to be very clear on a complex topic.
Death Panel is right but too hyperbolic.
I'm not sure how they can simplify it for the simpletons.
I know what it means to me - back to having a huuge deductible most likely and never seeing a doctor or paying cash.
librechik
(30,663 posts)we will finally enter the company of every other nation on earth in about 2175.
Renew Deal
(81,801 posts)librechik
(30,663 posts)cheers!
spanone
(135,627 posts)spanone
(135,627 posts)they are experts at removing.
librechik
(30,663 posts)Grey Lemercier
(1,429 posts)I am 26 and I would be pretty willing to lay wager that the US will never have universal public health care in my lifetime.
(I am a dual citizen, live in London, so have universal public healthcare via the NHS)
libtodeath
(2,888 posts)They will never go along.
librechik
(30,663 posts)Silly Obama took Republicans at their word that they wanted the best for the country. He presented the Heritage Foundation
healthcare plan, a Republican invention, thinking the GOP would accept their own baby, even though it had a tiny bit of black person in its blood. How wrong he was.
and sadly, no, the party that now (thanks to Russian intervention) has a stranglehold on our political process for who knows how many years, hates the poor and wants them all to just shut up and die. And thank goodness the Saviour is behind them 100% (becuz wimmen) so when TRump is gone, monsignor Pence can step in to control the femmes. Fuck you Hillary!
I imagine them saying this to each other in black robes by candle light so you can't see they are all holding each other in a dickchain. It's necessary for the spell--I mean the prayer--to work.