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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHere's why creating single-payer health care in America is so hard
I'm interested in what you all think of this article.
Being for single-payer and Bernie myself I understand what is being written here in terms of what we face.
We must continue forward towards healthcare as a right and not a privilege!
Here's why creating single-payer health care in America is so hard
To become politically feasible, an American single-payer system would necessarily replicate our current systems most glaring defects.
Updated by Harold Pollack on January 16, 2016, 11:20 a.m. ET
Yet as proponents rightly observe, these taxes would replace many visible and invisible ways we now provide to support a health sector that consume more than 17 percent of our economy. The experience of peer industrial democracies suggests that a well-designed single-payer system would be more humane and markedly less expensive than what we have right now.
More:
http://www.vox.com/2016/1/16/10779270/pollack-single-payer-in-america
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librechik
(30,674 posts)These two concepts are all you need to understand why our Naz.. I mean our bloodthirsty conservative trillionaire owners will never allow it. The notion we can "democracy" healthcare into place at any point is sadly delusional. In a way, that is why Obamacare was so clever. It tosses a bone to the snarling pitbulls out to stomp on the grave of the New Deal. And of course they will eventually turn that bone into a twelve course meal with bonuses for them and a trickle for the rest of us.
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)Benefits are one of the many ways they control us. If for-profit wealthcare were taken out of the picture, more people would leave shitty underpaying jobs or strike out on their own. Employers could likely be sued for age discrimination if the excuse that older hires cost more due to benefits didn't apply.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)But, I think it will be more than an 8% tax on individuals when things are analyzed. Not saying we shouldn't pay it to ensure everyone has care and the health care system is improved, but it will not be cheap as Vermont learned when they tried to start a single payer system.
SHRED
(28,136 posts)Many don't even understand how a marginal/progressive tax rate works.
I've heard people say Bernie wants to tax you at 90% if you make over $150K. As if that were true they think it's on the whole amount.
American idiots.
stillwaiting
(3,795 posts)Hillary Presidency.
I strongly believe we would be much closer to single payer after a Bernie Presidency for many reasons.
And, I also believe we would be FURTHER from single payer THAN WE ARE TODAY if Hillary becomes President.
That is very important to me, and it is worth fighting for Bernie because of it.
Vinca
(50,269 posts)the savings from not forking over thousands of dollars to insurance companies in premiums and more thousands of dollars in uncovered expenses because of deductibles. I can't imagine anyone would end up paying more for single-payer. One of the big reasons I don't get the reluctance to have everyone covered, no questions asked, is that insured people do not travel around in a bubble that protects them from illness. They can be in line at the post office and have a person with undiagnosed tuberculosis cough all over them. There are lots and lots of people still uninsured or who won't go to the doctor because of deductibles.
R. P. McMurphy
(834 posts)SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)Anyone that currently receives free insurance from their employer would pay more, as would many high income earners.
Not a huge number of people by any stretch.
treestar
(82,383 posts)Good for thought.
Surprised Bernie has never introduced a bill. He gets credit as if he had
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)Introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The American Health Security Act of 2013 (S. 1782) provides every American with affordable and comprehensive health care services through the establishment of a national American Health Security Program (the Program) that requires each participating state to set up and administer a state single payer health program. The Program provides universal health care coverage for the comprehensive services required under S. 1782 and incorporates Medicare, Medicaid, the Childrens Health Insurance Program, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program and TRICARE (the Department of Defense health care program), but maintains health care programs under the Veterans Affairs Administration. Private health insurance sold by for-profit companies could only exist to provide supplemental coverage.
5. That was interesting
Good for thought.
Surprised Bernie has never introduced a bill. He gets credit as if he had
treestar
(82,383 posts)Also note it did not pass. I suppose President Obama is to blame? Because it was put on the table after all. Didn't get enough support to go anywhere.
SickOfTheOnePct
(7,290 posts)that no bill for single payer was drafted while the ACA was being drafted. Which is true, as Bernie's bill was proposed in 2013, years after the ACA was signed into law.
TexasProgresive
(12,157 posts)Insurance premiums by individuals and companies
Out of pocket fees by insured and uninsured
My spouse and I are paying about $3,600 in premiums with other out of pocket costs everytime we need care. This is Medicare and supplement insurance. This year we paid about $950 in out of pocket costs not counting prescriptions. So that's $4,550 which is about 10% of our gross income- an 8% increase in tax would be a savings.
SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)enough strong dems in the house to finally tell the insurance companies it'd time to get off the gravy train....and then shove them off the train..
We will have to enact laws that PROHIBIT companies from providing sweetheart coverage to their upper crusties..
Companies that once provided coverage will have to PAY THE EMPLOYEES WHAT THEY (employers) once paid ...in the form of wages (that should have been regular raises all along)..
Now that employees are making more money in their pockets, THEY will have to start ponying up more than they used to in the form of FICA.... They will still be ahead, because EVERYONE will be paying in based on their income..(the new limit should be $ 1 million).. They will no longer be paying for "employee share" on a policy that may or may not actually do much for them..
Employers will win because they will no longer have to do all that pesky paperwork, and their out of pocket will never increase..
Employees will win because they no longer have to stay in a job they hate because they like the insurance...they will be paid for the job they do, and any raise will not be immediately offset by an increase in insurance premiums.
Insurance will still have a function..they can sell policies to cover the "fancy stuff"..boob jobs..nose jobs..tummy tucks..and of course IF rich folks want concierge doctors or private clinics, insurance enter that market too..
They have ridden the gravy train right off the rails and there will be pain.. but we need healthCARE..not health care INSURANCE..
annabanana
(52,791 posts)he was such a dick.
The massive profit margins for drugs are Standard Operating Procedure for the whole pharmaceutical industry.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Gotta do something with the rest of the system that has been controlled fairly well by Medicare and private insurers ratcheting down rates.
ChisolmTrailDem
(9,463 posts)JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,339 posts)So, the health insurance companies will dangle money and revolving-door jobs in front of a corrupt congress, ensuring single-payer never happens.