Average health care spend in the US is $10k per person. Somebody still has to pay for it

[hill2016]

whether it's insurance premiums or co-pays or deductibles. Maths. You can't avoid it.

https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-and-systems/statistics-trends-and-reports/nationalhealthexpenddata/downloads/highlights.pdf

[HumanityExperiment]

1. Shorter...

People get sick, it's a negative externality that we all have to contend with both as a society and as individuals

[Baobab]

29. Single payer is so much cheaper than what we are doing now we're probably already paying more than

enough for a health care for everybody with no additional costs to end users (since the government already pays around two thirds of all health care costs)

by Single Payer i mean NO insurance companies, no other payers- thats important- A single payer has to negotiate cost directly, also the cost of bookkeeping is vastly reduced, when people get sick they can go to the doctor immediately without fear of bankruptcy.

[HumanityExperiment]

30. Agreed

[HumanityExperiment]

2. Shorter...

Keep your germs to yourself

[HumanityExperiment]

3. Shorter...

let's play the game... 'Your health is a commodity' spin the wheel to see if you're covered for X this time....

[SHRED]

4. Trillions for war though...No problem

[Downwinder]

12. Public health is a National Security issue.

Call it Defense spending.

[msongs]

18. yes, if we could get bernie sanders to stop voting for trillions for war... nt

[Rosa Luxemburg]

27. Nobody bats an eyelid when it's for war - mention health or education nada

[GeorgiaPeanuts]

5. Holy hell... I guess we aren't going to realize Truman's dream

Since when have DINOs decided healthcare at a right was wrong?

[amborin]

6. you ignore the info provided in another OP: administrative costs are what drive up healthcare costs

[hill2016]

9. that's all of 10%

of health care spending.

[dogman]

11. Compound interest.

A 10% savings would be huge.

[NWCorona]

22. Maths

[Hoyt]

31. What compound savings? Expenditure increases will wipe that out within two years, probably day one

if we are going to pick up copays, coinsurance, deductibles, millions of uninsured people, do nothing to control utilization, etc.

I think we need universal single payer, certainly a public option to see if people will accept it, but somebody has got to be honest about the cost and what it will take to get there. Sanders darn sure isn't.

[dogman]

34. You may know more about the cost than Bernie or I.

Neither he or I are economists. Of course, unlike me, he probably knows some. Maybe you are a better economist than his consultants. I just figure if you save an unnecessary 10% overhead, that is a savings. If your expenditure increases comes along, the 10 % savings would still occur. If they can tack on 10% to an increase, that compounds. I'm not real up to date on the new math and maybe percentages work differently than they used to.

[Hoyt]

37. That 10% is just not enough. I think we do agree single payer or something close

is worth figuring out how to legitimatelyou pull it off.

[dogman]

38. It seems there is never enough.

But 10%(+-) is still as significant savings, why pay unnecessary overhead?

[Hoyt]

40. Well, there is none if you think Congress is going to enacut single payer and invest

the money to build the systems needed to implement the system.

[insta8er]

7. Or better yet, Go and die....because you with your sickness are a burden to me and my pocket book.

(sarcasm)

[SHRED]

8. So even Mexico can, but we can't...I see

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_health_coverage_by_country

[Armstead]

10. Fuck it. I agree with you. Let's restore a 35 year life expectancy.

Healthcare will be much more financially efficient if we don't have tio deal with the ailments of middle and old age.

Grandma -- step onto the ice flow.

[Downwinder]

13. Send out euthanasia pills.

At least allow Death with Dignity.

[Ed Suspicious]

14. No! You will die naturally of cancer caused by man-made chemical

compounds, slowly, in agonizing fashion, without any money. It's the way God intended it.

[Downwinder]

16. Damn, and here I thought we rejected torture.

Good thing we have gunz.

[reddread]

28. healthcare or not, the real baby boom is going to hit

elderly populations lacking secure retirement prospects will hit us hard. harder still if we dont steer away from the sort of profiteering middlemen mandated to grow fat while increasing premiums, deductibles and co pays.

[insta8er]

15. Could we please reinstate the dead panels? (sarcasm! don't you dare press that abuse button!)

[Downwinder]

17. No, have to keep Consumers around.

[My Good Babushka]

19. As has been pointed out

a sizeable portion of that is administrative costs, and the drug monopolies , the collusion of insurance, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies to get prices as high as possible. Once the incentive to do that has been eliminated, prices would be more in line with the per capita expenditures of other OECD countries.

The second prong of bringing down health care expenditures is to change the culture that makes people sick. No more overworked, underpaid, no vacation, status quo. You wouldn't work a beast or a machine the way that this country expects low-wage workers to function. The result is they have no rest, inadequate diets, incredible stress, and become disabled and very sick much earlier than a person should. Low wages cost much more in the long run.

[Downwinder]

20. $10K -- That won't cover two months of medication!

If you are really concerned about costs, send me 100ml of Pentobarbital and a good bottle of wine.

Otherwise I will consider this faux concern.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

21. Last year the government spent $66bn on health care. $598bn on killing.

[hill2016]

23. ha ha

no you are only including discretionary spending. Please look up the mandatory spending as well.

Like I said, Maths.

[Avalux]

24. What don't you understand about single payer?

That average healthcare cost you quote would be irrelevant. Not sure what you're trying to say with your post (well actually I do), but your logic is faulty.

[JackRiddler]

25. So why is it higher as % of GDP here than elsewhere?

You don't have to pay for the for-profit insurance system, its 28% in "administrative" costs, or the awesome drug-price gouging.

People die, life sucks, life is unfair, etc. etc., so your argument is that profiteering and price-gouging should be tolerated, nay, allowed to be central principles of the society?

No.

[revbones]

26. So take out the 30% for administrative costs

then get rid of ridiculous drug pricing by allowing price-negotiations, etc...

Were you pretending to be right-wing or something? Those were similar arguments to those about the ACA.

[kgnu_fan]

32. $3.7 Trillion For U.S. Wars, $12,000 Per Person

Iraq War Cost U.S. More Than $2 Trillion, Could Grow to $6 Trillion, Says Watson Institute Study
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/14/iraq-war-cost-more-than-2-trillion_n_2875493.html

Report: $3.7 Trillion For U.S. Wars, $12,000 Per Person
http://www.globalresearch.ca/report-3-7-trillion-for-u-s-wars-12-000-per-person/26039

Fighting for a U.S. federal budget that works for all Americans
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/

[lumberjack_jeff]

33. Maybe it ought not to be $10k?

The reasons it costs $10k are the differences between our system and the rest of the developed world ($5k)

[libtodeath]

35. Only if you think our current corrupt system is good.

[reformist2]

36. We can negotiate prices down. Way down.

[Logical]

39. How funny Hill fans now hate free health care. nt

[KingFlorez]

41. Transfer of costs

People would just go from paying an insurance company to paying a tax, which is really just a transfer of costs. That might or might not result in a savings for some, but it's still not really free.