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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBernie Sanders: Time is ripe for Medicare for all
Bernie Sanders Published 3:16 a.m. ET Sept. 25, 2017
Excerpt:
We now have the most wasteful, inefficient and bureaucratic health care system in the world. In fact, we are spending almost twice as much per capita as any other country, while our health care outcomes are often worse. Instead of providing quality care to all in a cost-effective way, our current system is designed to provide hundreds of billions in profits to insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry and medical equipment suppliers.
Moving to a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system would eliminate insurance industry profits and reduce waste, saving up to $500 billion a year on administrative costs. Today, about 21 cents of every dollar spent on private health insurance goes to overhead and profit in an incredibly complicated system of hundreds of different plans, each with different deductibles, co-payments and premiums. In contrast, Medicare spends only 2% on administration.
Under Medicare for all, the American people would be able to go to any doctor or hospital they wanted. The major difference is that instead of writing out large checks to private insurance companies, they would be paying substantially less into a Medicare trust fund saving middle-class families thousands of dollars a year.
The truth is that the only reason we, among all major countries, do not have universal health care has everything to do with politics and greed. Now is the time to tell members of Congress that their job is to protect the American people, not the insurance companies and the drug companies. Now is the time for Medicare for all.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/09/25/medicare-for-all-bernie-sanders-editorials-debates/105971268/
ucrdem
(15,512 posts)"Now is the time"? Because the ACA is on the ropes? This looks for all the world like Sanders is lending a hand to GOP efforts to overturn the ACA. Please explain how he isn't.
burnbaby
(685 posts)Not all of us can afford ACA and I am one of them. Please give me medicare
still_one
(92,190 posts)progressives who refused to vote for the Democratic nominee, or decided not to even vote because they believe the false equivalency that there was no difference between the republicans and the Democrats
burnbaby
(685 posts)but no one seems to listen. There are others on this board, as I have had discussions with them, who are in the same boat as me.
Lower income people can't afford it. The premiums and deductibles are too high
stevepal
(109 posts)It would be better to start by having hand-counted paper ballots. No more Russia or local hackers of various stripes hacking our elections.
No one listens because the losing candidates keep getting elected.
It's really pretty simple.
workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)And millions more americans no doubt.
Not all of us live in big blue states that expanded medicaid with the ACA.
The red state I live in did all they could do to stop it.
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)Do you live in a state where Medicaid was expanded?
still_one
(92,190 posts)burnbaby
(685 posts)for long
Dustlawyer
(10,495 posts)House, the Senate and the WH?
Why should we be afraid to fight for what we want? Why shouldn't we push our policies and educate the American people how our policies are good for them while the Republicans want to further enrich corporations and the extremely wealthy?
Sure the Republicans will kill it, but the contrast will be made that much clearer! The Republicans would rather kill Americans than give up money for their rich Donors, while the Democrats are fighting for them!
still_one
(92,190 posts)when you're up to your neck in alligators, it's hard to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp
Dustlawyer
(10,495 posts)To Republican holdouts what the future is. Which side of this should they choose, be the key vote in passing something even their own supporters don't want or vote against this crappy bill and help themselves get re-elected down the road.
still_one
(92,190 posts)the ACA
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)But there are other things a bit more achievable right now that could use the focus more.
Dustlawyer
(10,495 posts)You will do what you need to do, but it is looking like we beat this back again. To someone who's life is at stake that is the most important thing to focus on. Glad you are not in that column.
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)and arguably the least likely way, to achieve that.
To tell other people that need Universal Health Coverage, whose lives are at stake, that we're not going to get there the quickest way possible, is not something I can support.
Glad I'm not in that column.
I'm with with the vast majority of developed countries with universal health coverage.
https://www.thenation.com/article/medicare-for-all-isnt-the-solution-for-universal-health-care/
Dustlawyer
(10,495 posts)ehrnst
(32,640 posts)in the service of holding out for single payer.
Making perfect the enemy of good can be worse for everyone.
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)VOX
(22,976 posts)Goddamnit save the fucking ACA NOW, IN THE FUCKING PRESENT, for fuck's sake. We can dream big next week.
Sorry for the explosion, but, jesus, first things first. You know, common sense?
Autumn
(45,082 posts)Out of the goodness of their hearts? There are a lot of things that they will use to destroy it, they have alreaday talked about it. If anyone is paying any attention they have heard them say if they can't repeal it they will let it die. The vote is nothing but symbolic just a bone. Common sense seems to be in short supply.
They decide better to shore up the ACA until they get another chance to kill it, lest Bernie's idea starts to take hold and drive the question toward MC4All.
Autumn
(45,082 posts)blinds them to everything is undoing what Obama did. They want anything he did erased.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)But in the mean time, we need them to be thinking defensively, not offensively.
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)ehrnst
(32,640 posts)As long as Democrats dont hold unusually large majorities in Congress, plus the presidency, the pathway to universal, affordable health coverage wont be through one omnibus new law. We must have the persistence, and the commitment, to take incremental steps toward that goal.
Incrementalism should not be considered a four-letter word. It produced numerous expansions and improvements in Medicaid, which now covers more than 70 million people. It led to the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which resulted in historically low uninsured rates among children. It added much-needed prescription drug coverage for seniors and people with disabilities in Medicare. It added home and community-based care as an alternative to nursing homes. And it helped people with preexisting conditions combat insurance company discrimination.
https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/9/8/16271888/health-care-single-payer-aca-democratic-agenda
Common sense tells us that the ACA was able to get passed, and has become popular enough to withstand many of the attacks from the GOP.
Its apparent what needs to be done to stabilize the marketplaces and who owns the ACA going forward. Its no longer Obamacare; its now just the nations health insurance system.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-not-obamacare-anymore-its-our-national-health-care-system/2017/07/28/1a6583fe-73d3-11e7-9eac-d56bd5568db8_story.html?utm_term=.89378fd177d0
CherokeeFiddle
(297 posts)And there is no better time than the present.
People are literally dying in this country because they don't have health insurance and can't get health care. It is time we do better as a country, a country where nobody should be dying because we don't have what is considered a basic human right here. It is disgusting and hangs a very dark cloud over the image of our country.
People are literally trapped in jobs, not able to leave them despite wanting wanting to, all due because them getting insurance from their employer. We pay the highest cost on the world for prescription drugs. People in red states are suffering because Medicaid wasn't expanded. People are trapped in states and unable to move to other states because of the aforementioned.
The ACA must be saved and the conversation needs to turn to M4A. Without the ACA, 32 million are at risk dying annually and this is completely unacceptable. We need to begin talking though about M4A as well because it something the majority of American's want & favor. We need a BIG turn out in 2018 and 2020 and the only way that is going to happen is to be in touch with the voting base. People want something to vote FOR, not simply "against" and considering polls have been less than favorable to us a party, telling us how voters feel the sooner we have this conversation, the better. It won't be an easy fight, health care never is and it will take time but the sooner we have it, the sooner we get there and the sooner deaths can be prevented.
still_one
(92,190 posts)CentralMass
(15,265 posts)However it did state that more Democrats, including Hillary voters, view their party unfavorably then republicans view their own party unfavorably.
CherokeeFiddle
(297 posts)NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)George II
(67,782 posts)FSogol
(45,484 posts)ehrnst
(32,640 posts)Vinca
(50,271 posts)I would push to lower the age to 55 and let that settle for a couple of years, then go to 45 and so on.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)You can present the plan as a phased in, with "circuit breakers" in place to slow the phase in if it isn't panning out as planned. I figure once you are about to 40 years old, all those betwix 26 and 40 will want in too. Truth is, to keep from swamping the system, lower it to 60ish or so, basically as a "demonstration project". Besides letting the system adjust, there will be the evidence of watching people retire/pursue alternate vocations which will demonstrate how it actually would energize the employment market in this country.
LexVegas
(6,060 posts)Joe941
(2,848 posts)ehrnst
(32,640 posts)Weekend Warrior
(1,301 posts)taught_me_patience
(5,477 posts)Most state legislators... But the time is right now? Damn he's smoking some good shit.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)Nixon started the EPA
Bush started Medicare Part D.
Reagan did tax "reform" with a democratic congress. Sometimes the least likely time, is the most likely time.
And if nothing else, challenging the system causes those in power to offer something else instead. Right now we are getting the whole "ACA is imploding" schtick. So offer a "solution" that is better, and make them "match" it.
Rene
(1,183 posts)How many jobs and other tangent businesses will be destroyed also.
Not the whole industry, just the health insurance industry. Mostly the secondary insurance markets. Not to mention the whole "health insurance navigator" industry.
Look, health "insurance" really isn't a classic insurance industry anyway. Everyone to some extent will need it if they live anywhere near long enough. Mostly it's an "extended payment plan" in one sense or another. The industry isn't serving the country at all. And as most folks don't know, Medicare is actually handled by private insurance companies FOR the government. It is an "insurance" program, just one designed and managed by the federal government. It is generally administered by insurance companies. (Which, by the way, is how the company I work for handles health insurance. They contract with a health insurance company to administer a plan for which our company pays all the actual costs, and the insurance company charges a fee. It's a forms of "self insurance" by our company.)
WoonTars
(694 posts)Lordquinton
(7,886 posts)Is there a reason this is a problem?
Cuthbert Allgood
(4,921 posts)They suck.
But do you think that the administration of M4A is going to happen without hiring people to do it? There will be jobs for those people.
Kimchijeon
(1,606 posts)So sick of the "oh let's wait" ... Sorry but no. Times up, cut the crap. Suck it up and let's go . At this point I am honestly thinking naysayers are just trolls or brainwashed by industry shills. LET'S DO IT