In Iowa, Bernie Sanders calls Pete Buttigieg's health care plan 'a failed idea'

[TexasTowelie]

by Nick Coltrain


BURLINGTON, Ia. — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said Saturday that South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg's "Medicare for all who want it" health care hybrid would be "unfair" to working families.

Sanders' "I wrote the damn bill" quote about "Medicare for All" has become a cheer line on debate stages and in rallies, and his decades-long consistency on supporting universal health care coverage is a draw for many of his supporters.

Buttigieg, like many candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for president, outlined a health care plan that stops short of Sanders' goal. Instead, Buttigieg proposes giving people a choice between buying into a public option of health care coverage or private insurance. And that's its fatal flaw, Sanders said. It would overload the government with the most expensive patients, he said.

"When you talk about having a system where you're going to have private insurance and you're going to have (a public) option going in, the rich and the healthy will go into private insurance, the poor and the sick will go into Medicare and cost that system an enormous amount of money," Sanders said. "So it's a failed idea in my view."

Read more: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2019/12/14/bernie-sanders-attacks-pete-buttigiegs-health-care-plan-calls-unfair/2654495001/

[Otto Lidenbrock]

1. In the UK the NHS co-exists with private health insurance like BUPA

[redqueen]

8. True - but it's it covering the same services as the public plan,

or does it only apply to services not covered under the public plan?

[Recursion]

2. It works pretty well in France

The idea that we're in a death pact with one and only one model of financing is kind of annoying

[George II]

3. So says that Senator who introduced a plan to Congress that has gone nowhere.

[comradebillyboy]

4. Nowhere. That's where all his plans go.

[loyalsister]

5. He's correct

States had the choice whether or not to expand Medicaid. Those which did not have left rural populations with fewer possible options for healthcare delivery.


More Rural Hospitals Closing in States Refusing Medicaid Coverage Expansion

The University of North Carolina’s Rural Health Research Program tracks closures of rural hospitals across the country. From 2010 to the present there are six states with five or more rural hospital closures. Texas leads with a stunning 15 rural hospitals closed, followed closely by Tennessee (9 rural hospitals closed) and Georgia (7 rural hospitals closed). Alabama, Mississippi and North Carolina round out the list with five rural hospital closures each.

A common characteristic of this group of states stands out – none have expanded Medicaid. Although there are multiple factors at play in any decision to close a rural hospital (economist Austin Frakt gives a nice overview of the issue here), the fact is that the states with the most closures are all in the group of 17 states still refusing federal money available for Medicaid expansion. And a recent federal report from the US Government Accountability Office on rural hospitals found that “rural hospitals located in states that increased Medicaid eligibility and enrollment experienced fewer closures.” This confirms work published in the journal Health Affairs earlier this year where researchers found that “…Medicaid expansion was associated with improved hospital financial performance and substantially lower likelihoods of closure, especially in rural markets…”

https://ccf.georgetown.edu/2018/10/29/more-rural-hospitals-closing-in-states-refusing-medicaid-coverage-expansion/

[thesquanderer]

6. re: "the poor and the sick will go into Medicare"

I'm not sure this argument holds any water. It would if the private insurance companies could be selective about who they took, which used to be the case, but under ACA, they can't refuse people, even for pre-existing conditions. So there's no longer a situation where the private companies can take the healthy and push off the sick, which is what would create the situation he's talking about.

Now, if ACA ends up largely dismantled (which could happen based on court rulings and continued oppositional efforts to end it), then he would have a point. So it may depend on what infrastructure does or does not exist by the time Trump leaves office.

[Cha]

7. Well, I'd MUCH rather have PB for POTUS than BS.

MUCH.

[TidalWave46]

9. This is from a person who introduced an incomplete piece of legislation...

That is supposedly one of the cornerstones of his campaign. Get that. One of the cornerstones of his campaign is an incomplete thought.

It is nice to see him campaigning as a second tier candidate now. I think he might have better luck trying to sway Williamsons support.