Democrats are now firmly behind single-payer. Thanks, Trump and Republicans - Wash Post today (1 Viewer)

[JacksinPA]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...trump-and-republicans/?utm_term=.71c7bbd457b6

Today, the Center for American Progress released a single-payer health plan (or thereabouts), planting a significant marker in the evolution of the Democratic Party, and eventually perhaps the American health-care system.

And we have President Trump and the Republicans to thank for it.
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Way to go, Republicans! Single-payer health care may be just around the corner thanks to your efforts.

 

[danielpalos]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...trump-and-republicans/?utm_term=.71c7bbd457b6

Today, the Center for American Progress released a single-payer health plan (or thereabouts), planting a significant marker in the evolution of the Democratic Party, and eventually perhaps the American health-care system.

And we have President Trump and the Republicans to thank for it.
=======================================================================
Way to go, Republicans! Single-payer health care may be just around the corner thanks to your efforts.

Let's end the drug war, to pay for it.

 

[Helix]

Democrats are now firmly behind single-payer

seems a bit premature to make that statement.

 

[Fishking]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...trump-and-republicans/?utm_term=.71c7bbd457b6

Today, the Center for American Progress released a single-payer health plan (or thereabouts), planting a significant marker in the evolution of the Democratic Party, and eventually perhaps the American health-care system.

And we have President Trump and the Republicans to thank for it.
=======================================================================
Way to go, Republicans! Single-payer health care may be just around the corner thanks to your efforts.

Even though I'm fairly right on most issues, I've come to the conclusion that single-payer is the way forward, with all the variables and considerations taken into account. I wasn't always, in fact, I was against it until maybe only about 2 years ago.

 

[Chomsky]

The ACA was total B.S. The move should have been to single-payer, in the first place. If it was, we'd have a working national healthcare system with majority political support.

To force citizens to buy a private commercial product, was asinine & unconstitutional in my opinion.

 

[Barnacle]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...trump-and-republicans/?utm_term=.71c7bbd457b6

Today, the Center for American Progress released a single-payer health plan (or thereabouts), planting a significant marker in the evolution of the Democratic Party, and eventually perhaps the American health-care system.

And we have President Trump and the Republicans to thank for it.
=======================================================================
Way to go, Republicans! Single-payer health care may be just around the corner thanks to your efforts.

I think it's mostly thereabouts ... :lol:

 

[Nickyjo]

The ACA was total B.S. The move should have been to single-payer, in the first place. If it was, we'd have a working national healthcare system with majority political support.

To force citizens to buy a private commercial product, was asinine & unconstitutional in my opinion.

I think it was the best deal available at the time, such is the power of insurance companies.

 

[JacksinPA]

The ACA was total B.S. The move should have been to single-payer, in the first place. If it was, we'd have a working national healthcare system with majority political support.

To force citizens to buy a private commercial product, was asinine & unconstitutional in my opinion.

But the health insurance lobby drives the Republicans.

 

[Chomsky]

And to portray the Center for American Progress as the Democratic National Committee platform, is quite deceptive.

I think this article is political fear-mongering, but I'd personally be delighted if it were true.

 

[Chomsky]

I think it was the best deal available at the time, such is the power of insurance companies.

Perhaps. That's a reasonable enough a thought, to say it's plausible.

 

[X Factor]

In other shocking news, water is wet.

 

[X Factor]

But the health insurance lobby drives the Republicans.

Yeah, that much was obvious when Republicans actually made it a law that you had to buy health insurance. Oh, wait....

 

[vesper]

Just what we need, government healthcare for all.
Why they have done such a bang up job with the veterans. :roll:
And look how state governments have provided care for the mentally ill......not.

This is my first year on Medicare. What a doozy! I signed up in August of last year. I chose a provider that claimed to have my family doctor and a specialist I go to in their plan.
I received my Medicare card in Sept. and first trip out with my Medicare card was to the specialist Oct. 1, 2017 for a previously scheduled appointment. When I arrived for my appointment I was told I needed a referral before I could see the doctor. Funny but when I was signing up I was told no referrals were needed. So I had to cancel my appointment which included crucial lab tests and seek a referral from my family doctor. Unbeknownst to me on the back of the card they had listed a doctor whose name I can not pronounce as my primary caregiver not my family doctor. And not only that he was located in Ft. Worth Texas. I live in a suburb of Columbus Ohio.

So I call these yahoos to find out why they screwed everything up. I got a woman on the phone who could either not speak English fluently or she was eating her lunch while trying to talk. From the time I signed up with this outfit 8 weeks later my doctor is not on their plan but she said she could provide me with another one in the area and could guarantee they could speak English. That is when I hung up and went about changing providers. Only problem with that is I had to wait till Jan. 1, 2018 for the new provider to go into effect. And finally got into see the specialist 4 months later to have the needed testing. And I finally got into see my doctor for my physical 4 months later.

You people wanting government provided healthcare are either young and dumb or just ignorant.

 

[Winchester]

Just what we need, government healthcare for all.
Why they have done such a bang up job with the veterans. :roll:
And look how state governments have provided care for the mentally ill......not.

This is my first year on Medicare. What a doozy! I signed up in August of last year. I chose a provider that claimed to have my family doctor and a specialist I go to in their plan.
I received my Medicare card in Sept. and first trip out with my Medicare card was to the specialist Oct. 1, 2017 for a previously scheduled appointment. When I arrived for my appointment I was told I needed a referral before I could see the doctor. Funny but when I was signing up I was told no referrals were needed. So I had to cancel my appointment which included crucial lab tests and seek a referral from my family doctor. Unbeknownst to me on the back of the card they had listed a doctor whose name I can not pronounce as my primary caregiver not my family doctor. And not only that he was located in Ft. Worth Texas. I live in a suburb of Columbus Ohio.

So I call these yahoos to find out why they screwed everything up. I got a woman on the phone who could either not speak English fluently or she was eating her lunch while trying to talk. From the time I signed up with this outfit 8 weeks later my doctor is not on their plan but she said she could provide me with another one in the area and could guarantee they could speak English. That is when I hung up and went about changing providers. Only problem with that is I had to wait till Jan. 1, 2018 for the new provider to go into effect. And finally got into see the specialist 4 months later to have the needed testing. And I finally got into see my doctor for my physical 4 months later.

You people wanting government provided healthcare are either young and dumb or just ignorant.

I don't know anyone on Medicare who would rather go the private medical insurance route... well except maybe you. :2razz:

 

[vesper]

I don't know anyone on Medicare who would rather go the private medical insurance route... well except maybe you. :2razz:

Yeah as long as there are no kinks and you don't fall into the cracks along the way but that isn't life now is it Winchester.

 

[Winchester]

Yeah as long as there are no kinks and you don't fall into the cracks along the way but that isn't life now is it Winchester.

There are always kinks, especially when it comes to insurance of any flavor. That being said do you know which coverage consistently gets the highest satisfaction ratings? Hint it ain't private insurance.

 

[Greenbeard]

This is my first year on Medicare. What a doozy! I signed up in August of last year. I chose a provider that claimed to have my family doctor and a specialist I go to in their plan.
I received my Medicare card in Sept. and first trip out with my Medicare card was to the specialist Oct. 1, 2017 for a previously scheduled appointment. When I arrived for my appointment I was told I needed a referral before I could see the doctor. Funny but when I was signing up I was told no referrals were needed. So I had to cancel my appointment which included crucial lab tests and seek a referral from my family doctor. Unbeknownst to me on the back of the card they had listed a doctor whose name I can not pronounce as my primary caregiver not my family doctor. And not only that he was located in Ft. Worth Texas. I live in a suburb of Columbus Ohio.

Did you enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan?

 

[GDViking]

It's about time.

If you want to bring companies back to the U.S. get rid of employer paid healthcare.

 

[vesper]

Did you enroll in a Medicare Advantage plan?

No because through my husbands employment I have a health savings account that refunds all I pay into Medicare. And refunds on some drugs and testing, etc.

 

[Roadvirus]

I'd support Single-Payer if it weren't for 2 things:

1. The cost. It'd mean an increase in taxes to pay for.
2. The government running our healthcare means we'd all be ****ed. See the VA as proof.

 

[Greenbeard]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...trump-and-republicans/?utm_term=.71c7bbd457b6

Today, the Center for American Progress released a single-payer health plan (or thereabouts), planting a significant marker in the evolution of the Democratic Party, and eventually perhaps the American health-care system.

And we have President Trump and the Republicans to thank for it.
=======================================================================
Way to go, Republicans! Single-payer health care may be just around the corner thanks to your efforts.

The problem isn't the structure. After the GOP has succeeded at their goal of destroying commercial markets, we'll almost certainly move in that direction. The CAP strikes me as realistic in presenting a scenario of Medicare + a rebranded Medicare Advantage with the optional preservation of self-insured employer coverage (though there are some adverse selection issues to think through there).

What's concerning is this:

Medicare Extra rates would reflect an average of rates under Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial insurance—minus a percentage. For illustrative purposes, CAP estimates that if Medicare Extra rates are 100 percent of Medicare rates for physicians and 120 percent of Medicare rates for hospitals, the rates would be roughly 10 percentage points lower than the current average rate across payers.26 For rural hospitals, these rates would be increased as necessary to ensure that they do not result in negative margins.

What happens if you tell every health care provider in the country to cut 10% from their budget?

STAT did a whole profile of one hospital's effort to cut 2% from its budget (which was coupled with "an aggressive push to boost revenues 4 percent a year"): Not even the mattress pads were spared: An inside look at a top hospital’s struggle to cut costs.

There's lots in there but at the end of the day much of it came down to far and away the biggest component of health care costs: labor.

I don't see CAP presenting any thoughts on what they're going to do about the massive displacement of labor--nor, as is a common weakness with single-payer advocates, any acknowledgement that this labor displacement is a primary goal of the project. Where is the thinking on what it's going to mean if we cut people, services, and facilities out of the American health care system? There's a little bit of a bone thrown to that thought with the "well, we'll prop up rural hospitals with extra revenue" but really that pseudo-acknowledgment just raises more questions. I like CAP but when is someone going to get serious about what we're actually proposing here and what the implications will be?

 

[Mach]

Even though I'm fairly right on most issues, I've come to the conclusion that single-payer is the way forward, with all the variables and considerations taken into account. I wasn't always, in fact, I was against it until maybe only about 2 years ago.

I'm hoping a side effect of getting universal care will be universal data on health issues and a leap forward in "big data analysis" of medicine (includes surgery, other treatments, drugs, etc.). It's very hard to consolidate that data, or even the manner in which it's collected, when it's different companies and organizations. It's like trillions of dollars worth of research data just waiting to be tapped.

Anyway, glad to see you have a nuanced approach to reality.

 

[Greenbeard]

It's about time.

If you want to bring companies back to the U.S. get rid of employer paid healthcare.

Most single-payer plans call for employers to finance some or even most of the expenses. So it's not as though employers just stop paying for health care--their contribution may change from a premium or setting aside funds to self-fund their employees' health expenses to a federal tax but they're still going to pay something.

 

[Fishking]

I'm hoping a side effect of getting universal care will be universal data on health issues and a leap forward in "big data analysis" of medicine (includes surgery, other treatments, drugs, etc.). It's very hard to consolidate that data, or even the manner in which it's collected, when it's different companies and organizations. It's like trillions of dollars worth of research data just waiting to be tapped.

Anyway, glad to see you have a nuanced approach to reality.

We could definitely see advancements if we could all get on the same page. That said, it's not my ideal system but it's the only system I see addressing all the current problems. I don't think my ideal system could even be implemented anymore, even if I could have 100% control over all decisions.

Sometimes you don't get your ideal so you have to go with what is possible.

 

[Mach]

Most single-payer plans call for employers to finance some or even most of the expenses. So it's not as though employers just stop paying for health care--their contribution may change from a premium or setting aside funds to self-fund their employees' health expenses to a federal tax but they're still going to pay something.

True, and he did say paid. But having had to do this for nearly 20 years, I think it's a huge benefit in two important ways:
1. while you do pay for it, it becomes basically automatic/no-brainer, and you do not have to select plans, manage brokers, worry about rates going up because someone had surgery, etc., etc. The list of headaches that come from employee managed insurance plans is a long one.

2. It's one of the few ways that has as good chance of reducing our costs over time, which helps the "pay" part...and improve health outcomes, which I suppose is a general "yay". I know you know this stuff, just remarking from the trenches.