Single Payer Health Care

[fadedrose]

How does it work?

I understand that the government pays all health costs and they get the money from every person. Does the government buy insurance from private insurance companies, or are the private insurance companies out of it altogether?

And do they take the premium from paychecks? Unemployment checks? How do they manage to get a premium from everyone? Is it based on income or it a standard deduction?

It sounds so good...would love to know the details. Isn't this how Canada does it, single payer?

[jwirr]

1. A look at Medicare may be helpful. I have this but still have Medica how administer it.

[fadedrose]

3. Vermont just got it, according to a DU post (cali might know)

Maybe cali knows how it will work there, but it's new, so details may not be finalized...

[cali]

7. vermont passed single payer 2 1/2 years ago

The Governor signed it into law.

Here are some links about H. 202

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont_health_care_reform

http://theincidentaleconomist.com/wordpress/an-update-on-vermonts-single-payer-system/

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/05/vermont-single-payer-health-care

[HockeyMom]

2. Wouldn't it be run like Medicare and Medicaid?

You pay into it. The government then pays doctors, hospitals, etc. Medicare would then be expanded to include Parts C & D now run by private insurance companies. The poor, maybe unemployed, will get Medicaid?

[laundry_queen]

4. How I understand it

The government acts as the insurance company. Basically, the doctors are private and contract their services to the gov't.
Here's a good link explaining a lot of things:
http://mapleleafweb.com/features/canada-s-health-care-system-overview-public-and-private-participation

All of this is funded by taxes and some provinces have premiums. When I was in BC premiums were $140 a month for our family of 6 (we didn't qualify for any subsidies). Now I'm in Alberta I pay nothing at all but if I was in BC I'd pay nothing currently as I'm low income. It varies province to province. The costs are shouldered by the province and the federal government. The government provides some funding but the majority comes from the province.

There are private insurance companies for 'extra' services like dental, prescriptions and eye care. Those things are not covered by the provincial plans (for the record, I disagree with this as it does cause hardship for many). As in the US, most people who have plans have them through their employer. I have a plan through my university. You can also buy private insurance yourself, but just like the US, this means more money, screening out because of pre-existing conditions, etc. Many people have no supplemental insurance, but at least our drug costs are significantly lower than yours. Dental...not so much - it's absolutely ridiculous even with coverage (costs me $200 for a cleaning with insurance). Eye care costs are not really prohibitive unless, like me, you have kids who need glasses every year.

Hope that helps.

ETA: yes the taxes come off your paycheck but there are also sales taxes in some provinces. The premiums, for provinces that do have them, are usually adjusted for income, with low income not having to pay anything at all.

[woodsprite]

5. Saw the title and thought "Republicans are for "Single prayer health care"" n/t

[Prophet 451]

6. I can only tell you about the NHS

Here, the government collects the money in taxes (income tax is about 20% for most, not counting National Insurance (our version of Social Security)) and dispense it to the NHS. We don't pay premiums at all. The only co-pay is a small fee (currently about $15) for filling a prescription and the young, old and poor are exempt from that. Every citizen is covered, no exceptions. Doesn't matter how old you are or your employment status and, contrary to the lies of your right, care isn't rationed. The NHS directly owns the majority of hospitals and employs the majority of doctors and nurses.

It's not perfect and I wouldn't want to mislead you that it is. But it is a lot better than you've been told. Only major downside is that there are sometimes "waiting lists" (actually availability lists where you and teh surgeon arrange a mutually convienient time and date) for some elective operations. But, even if you have to wait a month or so, the operation will get done and if you don't like teh wait, you can just ring up BUPA and put the money down.

We still have private insurance companies here, BUPA being the biggest. People buy private insurance for all kinds of reasons. Some want to skip the availability lists. Some want namebrand drugs (the NHS uses mainly generics to keep costs down), some want luxurious hospitals (the NHS tends toward functionally spartan both to keep costs down and make cleaning easier). Some just want the status symbol. The important thing is that, because the NHS provides a bottom floor of care for cost, private insurance has to be better than that to get anywhere.

[Joel thakkar]

8. They are many things to look in single payer

One of type of single payer system directly eliminates private insurance for many people. Hospital usually give govt the bills and govt pays it. Single payer is usually funded by income tax and other general revenue.

Now the problem arises when hospital are private-for-profit. They will always want to make fees higher for all types of medical services. Govt usually puts a cap on fees for majority of the medical services. They will start lobbying, starting crying in the media to make medical fees higher to get more profits.

To eliminate this problem, Vermont bill passed a law which bans for-profit-hospitals. Thus, vermont can only have Govt hospitals or non-profit org. hospitals.

Single payer usually doesn't have nay premium but there may be co-pay for few medical treatments.

[cali]

10. all hospitals in vermont are non-profit. I don't think there's ever been a for profit hospital here

more importantly the state has passed legislation which now makes the state the overseer of any price increases in any hospital above 4% annually.

[Joel thakkar]

11. Yeah i know that

but i think they also made a law to ban for-profit-hospitals so that they don't spring up in the future.

4% increase law is also good measure.

[Dawgs]

9. WATCH VIDEO INSIDE...