One thing though, if we do get Medicare for All, people will lose their right to choose

[Uncle Joe]

medical bankruptcy, so we have to be prepared for that.

[BeckyDem]

1. hee hee

[DownriverDem]

9. Where are the details?

Seniors will not vote for M4A without knowing the details.

[BeckyDem]

13. I'm a senior :) These doctors have been fighting for this and collecting data for decades.

https://pnhp.org/news/only-a-single-payer-system-would-fix-our-health-care-troubles/

About Single Payer

Single-payer national health insurance, also known as “Medicare for all,” is a system in which a single public or quasi-public agency organizes health care financing, but the delivery of care remains largely in private hands. Under a single-payer system, all residents of the U.S. would be covered for all medically necessary services, including doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs.

The program would be funded by combining our current, considerable sources of public funding (such as Medicare and Medicaid) with modest new taxes based on ability to pay. Over $500 billion in administrative savings would be realized by replacing today’s inefficient, profit-oriented, multiple insurance payers with a single streamlined, nonprofit, public payer.

Premiums would disappear, and 95 percent of all households would save money. Patients would no longer face financial barriers to care such as co-pays and deductibles, and would regain free choice of doctor and hospital. Doctors would regain autonomy over patient care.

The Medicare for All Act of 2019, H.R. 1384, based on PNHP’s AJPH-published Physicians’ Proposal, would establish an American single-payer health insurance system.


https://pnhp.org/what-is-single-payer/

https://pnhp.org/news/does-anyone-really-love-their-private-health-insurance/

Physicians’ Proposal
Beyond the Affordable Care Act: A Physicians’ Proposal for Single-Payer Health Care Reform

Dear colleague,

We invite you to add your name to the list of endorsers of “Beyond the Affordable Care Act: A Physicians’ Proposal for Single-Payer Health Care Reform,” which is displayed below. (To view a PDF of the proposal and other, supplemental materials, click here. To read and view media coverage of the proposal, click here. To access content from the May 5, 2016 news conference, click here.)

This proposal was drafted by the 39 member Working Group on Single-Payer Program Design. It was published in the June 2016 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, and has been endorsed by 2,525 other physicians and 186 medical students to date. (See below for a complete list of endorsers.)

Thank you for partnering with us in this effort.

Sincerely,

The Working Group on Single-Payer Program Design

Co-chairs:

Adam Gaffney, M.D., Pulmonary & Critical Care Fellowship Program, Massachusetts General Hospital

David U. Himmelstein, M.D., Professor of Public Health, City University of New York; Lecturer in Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H., Professor of Public Health, City University of New York; Lecturer in Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Marcia Angell, M.D., Former Editor-in-Chief, New England Journal of Medicine; Senior Lecturer, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School

* Affiliations listed for identification purposes only and do not imply institutional endorsement.

https://pnhp.org/what-is-single-payer/physicians-proposal/

[Autumn]

18. Bernie's plan was released and posted here, you can probably search DU or google it.

His plan adds a lot to our basic Medicare.

[Uncle Joe]

11. ...

[Ninga]

2. Oh horrors! I suppose they will lose their right to eat the cats food, too!

[Uncle Joe]

12. ...

[blm]

3. Woe is us.

[BeckyDem]

15. lol +1

[Blistering Sun]

4. But if this $34 Trillion "plan" crashes the economy...

it will offer many other avenues for (formerly) working Americans to end up in bankruptcy.

It is hard to stay solvent without a job.

[dpibel]

5. Unlike the current $35 trillion plan

Medical spending in the U.S. in 2017 (latest available numbers) was $3.5 trillion dollars.

Over 10 years, that's $35 trillion.

Why will a $34 trillion expenditure crash the economy when a $35 trillion one won't?

[Uncle Joe]

7. It's even worse,

I found this for 2018

U.S. Health Care Costs Skyrocketed to $3.65 Trillion in 2018

A new analysis from U.S. federal government actuaries say that Americans spent $3.65 trillion on health care in 2018, according to a report from Axios. The amount is larger than the GDPs of such countries as Brazil, the U.K., Mexico, Spain, and Canada.

The level of spending is by far the highest in the developed world, according to data from the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development.

That was an increase of 4.4% over 2017 and, according to the analysis, things will get even worse. The report in the journal Health Affairs estimates an average annual growth rate of 5.5% from 2018 to 2027. The current inflation rate is 1.6%. Wage growth, while up from recent years, remains below 4%, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. At this rate, by 2027, health care will be 19.4% of the country’s entire GDP.

The $3.65 trillion in spending represents $11,212 per person, with 59% of the spending going to hospitals, doctors, and clinical services. Prescription drug spending was up 3.3% year over year. Most of the increase was due to higher prices, not increased use of services.

(snip)

https://fortune.com/2019/02/21/us-health-care-costs-2/

[dpibel]

8. I guess we're all doomed then

We're looking at a crash that's 107% of the $34 trillion one.

Damn.

[blm]

16. You prefer Americans spend 3.5trillion a year for nonuniversal healthcare?

Why would you want to spend 1trillion dollars more after 10yrs AND still have millions of families unable to seek medical help, or going bankrupt when they do?

[Blistering Sun]

17. No. I'd like to cut costs, expand coverage, and encourage competition through the ACA Plus.

Adding a Public Option is the sensible path forward for us to make progress on these common aims.

It is less good at creating class warfare, but I'll accept the trade-off.

[blm]

20. Only 51 OTHER nations can do it. GreedInc only needs to yell

Class warfare and white flags are immediately raised.

Even though we all KNOW they are completely full of shyt every single time they say it.

Raising the white flag doesn’t work for me. Your mileage may vary.

[Blistering Sun]

21. LOL. Figured as much.

People who are so attached to populist rhetoric that they undermine genuine progress to the detriment of those who pay the price for the beating of chests, don't deserved to be called "progressives."

Only those who make real progress are worth of the term.

[blm]

22. And who owns the words "class warfare", Blister?

Who is attached to that pro-fascist rhetoric?

[Blistering Sun]

23. I think we all know.

Surprising you'd call this person a pro-fascist. I won't quibble.

Populism is a stain on both extremes.

[blm]

24. Those who use the words "class warfare" in every battle they waged

against human progress probably laugh at those on the left who take up their whine and use it to promote fear.

[Blistering Sun]

26. Whatever that means.

Populists always rely on stoking anger, division, and fear. Such emotions crowd out the ability to reason.

Liberalism is based on embracing reason.

Therefore populism is a threat to the ideological basis of our Democratic party.

Dividing people, fueling rage, and claiming one has all the answers is a bad path.

Leads to demagoguery.

Bill

[blm]

27. You chose to employ the words "class warfare"

as a fear tactic.

No demagoguery there, eh?

[Blistering Sun]

29. Not a bit.

Class warfare/class conflict/class struggle are all terms that have been long embraced as virtues by the populist left.

Your accusations are simply invalid.

[LAS14]

6. Very well stated!!!! K & R

[DownriverDem]

10. How come no one

can explain the details? You support something that you can't explain.

[Uncle Joe]

14. Can you give me the details as to why the U.S

should allow hundreds of thousands of its' people face financial ruin every single year just for the sin of needing health care?

What are the details that would allow such an overriding adverse dynamic to happen to the wealthiest nation in the world?

[Autumn]

19. Here are the details.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/1129/text

[Uncle Joe]

25. Thanks Autumn.

[PhoenixDem]

28. Just empty propaganda

I'll wait for the CBO to score the bill.

Until then, it is just unicorns, magic beads and pixie dust created to rile up a vocal few who were uninsured or underinsured. Obamacare with subsidies has been available since 2014. There is no reason to wreck a system hundreds of millions are comfortable with.

[BigMin28]

30. What about the millions left out of the ACA?

They should go without and die early needlessly because those that can get medical care are comfortable with what they have. Is that really what you are saying? You are talking about 30 million people.

[PhoenixDem]

31. They will be covered with an ACA extension and public option. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

32. Not good enough.

(snip)

A new study from academic researchers found that 66.5 percent of all bankruptcies were tied to medical issues —either because of high costs for care or time out of work. An estimated 530,000 families turn to bankruptcy each year because of medical issues and bills, the research found.

(snip)

“Despite gains in coverage and access to care from the ACA, our findings suggest that it did not change the proportion of bankruptcies with medical causes,” an article on the study published in the American Journal of Public Health states.

(snip)

The number of debtors who cited medical issues as a contributing reason for their bankruptcy actually increased slightly after the law’s implementation — 67.5 percent in the three years following the law’s adoption versus 65.5 percent prior.

The culprit for the lack of improvement was inadequate health-care insurance, according to a co-author of the research, Dr. David U. Himmelstein, a distinguished professor at Hunter College and founder of advocacy group Physicians for a National Health Program.

(snip)

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/11/this-is-the-real-reason-most-americans-file-for-bankruptcy.html

[PhoenixDem]

33. Some people will always fight anything that didn't come from BS

and BS is history -- he will drop out sooner or later and MFA will be seen as a magical fantasy for what it is.

[Uncle Joe]

34. What you responded to has nothing to do with Bernie and everything to do with

medical bankruptcies and the ACA.

You had no logical response to that post so you resorted to a petty "personalize" attack.

[PhoenixDem]

37. It is just propaganda for BS's MFA -- albeit disguised cleverly nt

[Uncle Joe]

40. Medical bankruptcy; despite your fervent wishes is not "propaganda,"

it's all too real for hundreds of thousands of Americans every single year.

[PhoenixDem]

41. I never said it was not real.

and MFA will not solve it because 100 times more people will file bankruptcies because their drastically reduced take-home pay will no longer pay their existing bills.

[Uncle Joe]

36. and who doesn't

along with paying deductibles and conflict of interest laden corporate bureaucrats trying to find loopholes to deny health care coverage.

Nice catch Modern Fictions, I never thought of the romance angle.

[PhoenixDem]

38. Medicare also has premiums, deductibles and copays. nt

[Uncle Joe]

39. Medicare for All does not and that's what we're talking about,

of course you know that.

You're still trying to change the subject, I see.

[PhoenixDem]

42. Yes yes yes

Medicare for all will eliminate hunger
Medicare for all will mean no one will ever get sick
Medicare for all will mean there will not be any crime
Medicare for all will mean all students will get straight-A's
Medicare for all will mean there will be no earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes or blizzards
Medicare for all will mean everyone will have sublime and surreal thinking
Medicare for all will mean there will be zero unemployment
Medicare for all will prepare food, set the table, serve and then wash dishes without anyone lifting a finger

Did I miss something? If I did, I apologize.