From 2008: 'Obama Touts Single-Payer System for Health Care' - WSJ

[dflprincess]

34. I'm glad your niece is covered

I'm happy her parents can afford the premiums - I just hope the coverage they got doesn't have out of pockets that are so high they can't afford to use the policy except in an emergency.

I know people who can't afford coverage for themselves or their families or they have coverage that has out of pockets that are so high they are effectively cut off from care. More people are finding themselves in that situation as more employers and private policies go to high out of pockets. The current allowable out of pocket on the PCIP (for pre-existing conditions) available from HHS is $5,950 (single coverage). Many of the high deductible private policies have the same out of pocket maximum.

In 2014, when we're all required to buy insurance from one of the private companies that have been robbing us blind, the allowable out of pocket for a single person will be over $6,000 a year. That's a potential medical expense of over $500/month PLUS the premium (and a single person making more than $46,500/year will not be eligible for subsides).

Yeah, this was real great deal all from the guy who opposed mandates.

And nothing explains why we couldn't even have a discussion about beginning to expand Medicare until everyone was covered. Fine, so it wouldn't have passed, but the dialogue could have been started. A majority of the public wanted single payer or at least a public option but the public's opinion was ignored. No doubt because we can't come up with bribes the way the insurance companies and pharma can.