7 thoughts on “Single-Payer Health Care

  1. I think the key is to explain the benefits to the business community. If a single payer plan is better, then we need to sell it to the Main Street. By better, I mean not only cheaper, but more efficient.

    Additionally, if we go to universal health care, I think many of us can agree that we don’t want to be providing extraordinary care to people who live self destructive lifestyles. Oregon has (has?) a system wherein they said we have this much money, we can anticipate our population to need a certain amount of certain types of care; they prioritized the most urgent health care needs (fix broken bones, etc.), and any procedure which couldn’t fit wasn’t offered.

    As a recovering alcoholic from a family of alcoholics, in practical terms that means the public doesn’t pay to give me a new liver if I blow mine up with vodka. Do we pay for quadruple bypass surgery for 70 year olds?

    Sell it to the businesses and it will become real.

  2. who cares anymore about paying tax dollars for this or that? The Repubs once cared but they spend like Dems….heck, both parties spend like mad

  3. The Repubs once cared but they spend like Dems….heck, both parties spend like mad.

    Republican propaganda to the contrary, going back several years Republican administrations have far outspent Democratic ones. You might recall that the last Democrat president actually grew a budget surplus.

    Regarding health care, the fact is that our hodgpodge health care system is massively wasteful; we spend way more per capita than any other nation on the planet and get worse results. A national system should save us quite a bit of money.

  4. Business people care about tax policy, and people who are employed by businesses SHOULD care about taxation, as tax policy will affect employment and wages in the long run.

    Demonstrate to the business community that the current hodge podge system is wasteful, as Maha writes, and you will get Main Street to back a more efficient health insurance system. They understand, through education or experience, how margins work.

  5. Business people care about tax policy, and people who are employed by businesses SHOULD care about taxation, as tax policy will affect employment and wages in the long run.

    Demonstrate to the business community that the current hodge podge system is wasteful, as Maha writes, and you will get Main Street to back a more efficient health insurance system. They understand, through education or experience, how margins work.

  6. Changing to Medicare For All will have an impact on a huge billing industry which accompanies the present schemes. The savings resulting from a one payer system will come largely from the simplified data mangement. There are a number of fine Americans whose work consists of processing claims. Many of these are local companies whose ventures have responded to the need created by complexities of the innumerable schemes for matching patients with doctors (consumers with providers) and confirming eligibility and medical necessity. Not all of this work has been sent off-shore, but is performed by local outfits which enables close contact with local providers. I am not aware of the numbers of employees and entreprenuers engaged in this vital activity.

    Any plan to change to a simpler and more direct health provision plan would drastically affect these people. Not all of them will be needed to inplement and maintain the planned medical record sharing system.

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