Liz Gets Real: Single-Payer Is The Answer

[task0778]

So how has it hurt your Medicare? I'll wait.

So now you have stopped denying it? That is progress!

I haven't denied it and it hasn't hurt you a damn bit, in fact, if you are truly on Medicare and have a Part D plan it's helping you.

How does the theft of 970 billion from Medicare help me?

They didn't take that money from Medicare.

Sure they did. Stop lying

Absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, seniors will feel the impact of Obamacare’s cuts through decreased benefits or the inability to access health care. Heritage expert Bob Moffit has clarified, “Financing directly affects the quantity and quality of the benefits available to the beneficiaries.”

For example, the Medicare actuary projects that the cuts to Medicare Advantage ($156 billion over 10 years), the popular private alternative to traditional Medicare, where 27 percent of all beneficiaries are enrolled, will decrease enrollment by 50 percent by 2017. Millions of seniors will be forced to give up their current plans and go into traditional Medicare, where they will receive fewer benefits and pay higher out-of-pocket costs.

Further, seniors will face greater barriers when attempting to access care. The Medicare actuary projects that over the next 10 years, Medicare Part A providers (i.e., hospitals and nursing homes) may stop accepting Medicare patients or 15 percent of them will become unprofitable due to the severe Obamacare cuts. If Obamacare remains on the books, the number of providers becoming unprofitable will reach 40 percent by 2050. A doubling of Medicare patients with a major reduction in the number of providers will guarantee access problems for senior citizens.

The Medicare program today is in a desperate situation. The hospital insurance trust fund that finances Part A of Medicare is projected by the Medicare trustees to be bankrupt by 2024. Worse, over the long term, the Administration and Congress have made $37 trillion worth of benefit promises to future seniors that they cannot keep—there simply won’t be funding for them. Despite these enormous issues, Obamacare cuts the program instead of reforming it to last for future generations.


Presidential Debate Prep: Understanding Obamacare's $716 Billion in Cuts to Medicare

 

[debbiedowner]

[

If you didn't have your head stuck up your ass and do some deep research you might learn something. Oh wait, never mind that won't happen. You're probably dictating to someone so they can type your responses.

Research what, Brown Shirt? That single party is such a total disaster that even the fascist state of California, where you Nazis have absolute control, had to toss the idiocy as completely unworkable?

California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon shelves single-payer healthcare bill, calling it 'woefully incomplete'

Nazicrats are fucking retards.

Oh, I see you're quite the intellectual.

Yes I am, Brown Shirt.

I see you're also a comedian.

 

[sealybobo]

Elizabeth Warren Calls For Democrats To Embrace Single-Payer Health Care

Obamacare was based on ‘’a conservative model,’’ the Massachusetts Democrat says.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) says it’s time for Democrats to run on single-payer health care across the country.

President Barack Obama “tried to move us forward with health care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts,” Warren, referring to Mitt Romney, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Tuesday.

“Now it’s time for the next step. And the next step is single payer,” she said.

Warren’s comments represent a shift to her position on the U.S. health care system. In March, she said her support for switching to single-payer ― in which the government handles coverage of health care costs, rather than insurance companies ― would depend on whether Democrats could find Republican lawmakers willing to help fix the Affordable Care Act passed under Obama.

More: Elizabeth Warren Calls For Democrats To Embrace Single-Payer Health Care

I agree that Single-Payer is the way to go! It's time to take insurance companies out of our health care!

A good analogy is transportation. If transportation was necessary then we should provide a bus system that anyone can use. It's a good idea for many reasons. But people with money can buy a car.

Same with healthcare. Everyone should receive the basics. You want to choose your doctor pay for it

 

[debbiedowner]

So now you have stopped denying it? That is progress!

I haven't denied it and it hasn't hurt you a damn bit, in fact, if you are truly on Medicare and have a Part D plan it's helping you.

How does the theft of 970 billion from Medicare help me?

They didn't take that money from Medicare.

Sure they did. Stop lying

Absolutely, without a shadow of a doubt, seniors will feel the impact of Obamacare’s cuts through decreased benefits or the inability to access health care. Heritage expert Bob Moffit has clarified, “Financing directly affects the quantity and quality of the benefits available to the beneficiaries.”

For example, the Medicare actuary projects that the cuts to Medicare Advantage ($156 billion over 10 years), the popular private alternative to traditional Medicare, where 27 percent of all beneficiaries are enrolled, will decrease enrollment by 50 percent by 2017. Millions of seniors will be forced to give up their current plans and go into traditional Medicare, where they will receive fewer benefits and pay higher out-of-pocket costs.

Further, seniors will face greater barriers when attempting to access care. The Medicare actuary projects that over the next 10 years, Medicare Part A providers (i.e., hospitals and nursing homes) may stop accepting Medicare patients or 15 percent of them will become unprofitable due to the severe Obamacare cuts. If Obamacare remains on the books, the number of providers becoming unprofitable will reach 40 percent by 2050. A doubling of Medicare patients with a major reduction in the number of providers will guarantee access problems for senior citizens.

The Medicare program today is in a desperate situation. The hospital insurance trust fund that finances Part A of Medicare is projected by the Medicare trustees to be bankrupt by 2024. Worse, over the long term, the Administration and Congress have made $37 trillion worth of benefit promises to future seniors that they cannot keep—there simply won’t be funding for them. Despite these enormous issues, Obamacare cuts the program instead of reforming it to last for future generations.


Presidential Debate Prep: Understanding Obamacare's $716 Billion in Cuts to Medicare

I have seen 2026 28 and 2034 do you know it was suppose to run dry much sooner before ACA was past.

Medicare Is Not “Bankrupt”

Claims by some policymakers that the Medicare program is nearing “bankruptcy” are highly misleading. Although Medicare faces financing challenges, the program is not on the verge of bankruptcy or ceasing to operate. Such charges represent misunderstanding (or misrepresentation) of Medicare’s finances.

Medicare’s financing challenges would be much greater without the health reform law (the Affordable Care Act, or ACA), which substantially improved the program’s financial outlook. Repealing the ACA, a course of action promoted by some who simultaneously claim that the program is approaching “bankruptcy,” would worsen Medicare’s financial situation.

The 2016 report of Medicare’s trustees finds that Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund will remain solvent — that is, able to pay 100 percent of the costs of the hospital insurance coverage that Medicare provides — through 2028. Even in 2028, when the HI trust fund is projected for exhaustion, incoming payroll taxes and other revenue will still be sufficient to pay 87 percent of Medicare hospital insurance costs.[1] The share of costs covered by dedicated revenues will decline slowly to 79 percent in 2040 and then rise gradually to 86 percent in 2090. This shortfall will need to be closed through raising revenues, slowing the growth in costs, or most likely both. But the Medicare hospital insurance program will not run out of all financial resources and cease to operate after 2028, as the “bankruptcy” term may suggest.

The 2028 date does not apply to Medicare coverage for physician and outpatient costs or to the Medicare prescription drug benefit; these parts of Medicare do not face insolvency and cannot run short of funds. These parts of Medicare are financed through the program’s Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI) trust fund, which consists of two separate accounts — one for Medicare Part B, which pays for physician and other outpatient health services, and one for Part D, which pays for outpatient prescription drugs. Premiums for Part B and Part D are set each year at levels that cover about 25 percent of costs; general revenues pay the remaining 75 percent of costs.[2] The trustees’ report does not project that these parts of Medicare will become insolvent at any point — because they can’t. The SMI trust fund always has sufficient financing to cover Part B and Part D costs, because the beneficiary premiums and general revenue contributions are specifically set at levels to assure this is the case. SMI cannot go “bankrupt.”

Health reform, along with other factors, has significantly improved Medicare’s financial outlook, boosting revenues and making the program more efficient. The HI trust fund is now projected to remain solvent 11 years longer than before the Affordable Care Act was enacted. And the HI program’s projected 75-year shortfall of 0.73 percent of taxable payroll is much less than the 3.88 percent of payroll that the trustees estimated before health reform. (See Figure 1.) This means that Congress could close the projected funding gap by raising the Medicare payroll tax — now 1.45 percent each for employers and employees — to about 1.8 percent, or by enacting an equivalent mix of program cuts and tax increases.

The trustees’ projections incorporate the physician payment mechanism and other provisions of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), enacted in April 2015. They also assume that the ACA’s cost-control provisions, including the productivity adjustments to Medicare payment rates and the Independent Payment Advisory Board, will be successfully implemented. The recent, continuing slowdown in health care cost growth and the trustees’ latest projections offer encouraging signs that these savings are achievable, if challenging.

Along with directly reducing Medicare costs, the ACA and MACRA payment changes — and payment reforms in the private sector — may encourage structural changes in the health care delivery system that will generate further savings. The trustees note that, in their projections, they do not assume such additional reductions in health care spending.

The trustees’ finding that health reform has improved Medicare’s financial status is consistent with the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate that health reform will reduce federal budget deficits — modesty in its first ten years, but substantially in the following decade.[3] Medicare is a part of the federal budget. Therefore, spending cuts or tax increases that reduce projected deficits in Medicare also help reduce projected deficits in the overall budget. Consequently, contrary to some claims, no “double-counting” is involved.[4]

FIGURE 2

The trustees’ latest projections are broadly in line with those that the trustees have issued for some time. Since 1970, changes in the law, the economy, and other factors have brought the projected year of Medicare HI insolvency as close as two years away or pushed it as far as 28 years into the future.[5] The latest projection falls well within that spectrum. Trustees’ reports have been projecting impending insolvency for four decades, but Medicare has always paid the benefits owed because Presidents and Congresses have taken steps to keep spending and resources in balance in the near term. In contrast to Social Security, which has had no major changes in law since 1983, the rapid evolution of the health care system has required frequent adjustments to Medicare, a pattern that is certain to continue.

Despite the improvements the Affordable Care Act makes, Medicare continues to pose long-term budgetary challenges, stemming from the aging of the population and the continued rise in costs throughout the U.S. health care system. Total Medicare spending is projected to grow from 3.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015 to 5.6 percent in 2040.

Medicare has been the leader in reforming the health care payment system to improve efficiency and has outperformed private health insurance in holding down the growth of health costs. Since 1987, Medicare spending per enrollee has grown by 5.7 percent a year, on average, compared with 7.0 percent for private health insurance.[6] (See Figure 2.)

Health reform envisions that Medicare will continue to lead the way in efforts to slow health care costs while improving the quality of care. The research and pilot projects that the ACA establishes should yield important lessons. Until these efforts bear fruit, it will be difficult to achieve big additional reductions in Medicare expenditures.

Some additional savings can be achieved over the next ten years, however, while preserving Medicare’s guarantee of health coverage and without raising the eligibility age or otherwise shifting costs to vulnerable beneficiaries. Possible measures include ending Medicare’s overpayments to pharmaceutical companies for drugs prescribed to low-income beneficiaries, increasing funding for actions to prevent and detect fraudulent and wasteful Medicare spending, further reducing overpayments to Medicare Advantage plans, and ensuring efficient payments to other health care providers.

A key fiscal policy goal is to stabilize the federal debt relative to the size of the economy. But it is neither necessary nor desirable to accomplish this by radically restructuring Medicare — such as through “premium support” proposals that would convert it to vouchers whose purchasing power fails to keep pace with the cost of health care — or by severely cutting Medicare or other programs that protect Americans with low and moderate incomes.[7] Policymakers and the American public should not be driven into adopting such proposals by misleading claims that Medicare is on the verge of “bankruptcy.” Instead, we should pursue a balanced deficit-reduction approach that puts all parts of the budget on the table, including revenues.


TOPICS:
Federal Budget, Long-Term Fiscal Challenges, Budget Outlook, Health, Health Care, Health Reform, Medicare

 

[LeftofLeft]

Elizabeth Warren Calls For Democrats To Embrace Single-Payer Health Care

Obamacare was based on ‘’a conservative model,’’ the Massachusetts Democrat says.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) says it’s time for Democrats to run on single-payer health care across the country.

President Barack Obama “tried to move us forward with health care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts,” Warren, referring to Mitt Romney, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Tuesday.

“Now it’s time for the next step. And the next step is single payer,” she said.

Warren’s comments represent a shift to her position on the U.S. health care system. In March, she said her support for switching to single-payer ― in which the government handles coverage of health care costs, rather than insurance companies ― would depend on whether Democrats could find Republican lawmakers willing to help fix the Affordable Care Act passed under Obama.

More: Elizabeth Warren Calls For Democrats To Embrace Single-Payer Health Care

I agree that Single-Payer is the way to go! It's time to take insurance companies out of our health care!

Liz is an elitist fraud that can afford single payer out of her single teaching class $300K salary. If you were truly against insurance companies you would embrace free market principles that would pit them against one another vs. crony capitalism. Think!

 

[WillowTree]

Elizabeth Warren Calls For Democrats To Embrace Single-Payer Health Care

Obamacare was based on ‘’a conservative model,’’ the Massachusetts Democrat says.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) says it’s time for Democrats to run on single-payer health care across the country.

President Barack Obama “tried to move us forward with health care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts,” Warren, referring to Mitt Romney, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Tuesday.

“Now it’s time for the next step. And the next step is single payer,” she said.

Warren’s comments represent a shift to her position on the U.S. health care system. In March, she said her support for switching to single-payer ― in which the government handles coverage of health care costs, rather than insurance companies ― would depend on whether Democrats could find Republican lawmakers willing to help fix the Affordable Care Act passed under Obama.

More: Elizabeth Warren Calls For Democrats To Embrace Single-Payer Health Care

I agree that Single-Payer is the way to go! It's time to take insurance companies out of our health care!

A good analogy is transportation. If transportation was necessary then we should provide a bus system that anyone can use. It's a good idea for many reasons. But people with money can buy a car.

Same with healthcare. Everyone should receive the basics. You want to choose your doctor pay for it

Is everyone going to pay the same taxes?

 

[Lakhota]

Rural people should be especially fearful of Trumpcare. Without Medicaid - most of them wouldn't have any source of health care.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

Rural people should be especially fearful of Trumpcare. Without Medicaid - most of them wouldn't have any source of health care.

Funny....I lived in a Large county in Texas that only had eight thousand people in it and I had no trouble with healthcare.

 

[sealybobo]

Elizabeth Warren Calls For Democrats To Embrace Single-Payer Health Care

Obamacare was based on ‘’a conservative model,’’ the Massachusetts Democrat says.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) says it’s time for Democrats to run on single-payer health care across the country.

President Barack Obama “tried to move us forward with health care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts,” Warren, referring to Mitt Romney, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Tuesday.

“Now it’s time for the next step. And the next step is single payer,” she said.

Warren’s comments represent a shift to her position on the U.S. health care system. In March, she said her support for switching to single-payer ― in which the government handles coverage of health care costs, rather than insurance companies ― would depend on whether Democrats could find Republican lawmakers willing to help fix the Affordable Care Act passed under Obama.

More: Elizabeth Warren Calls For Democrats To Embrace Single-Payer Health Care

I agree that Single-Payer is the way to go! It's time to take insurance companies out of our health care!

A good analogy is transportation. If transportation was necessary then we should provide a bus system that anyone can use. It's a good idea for many reasons. But people with money can buy a car.

Same with healthcare. Everyone should receive the basics. But if You want to choose your doctor pay for it

 

[bripat9643]

The ACA has many,many flaws that SHOULD be fixed......

HOWEVER, these TWO immoral and cruel aspects of our former HC delivery system were fixed:

Before the ACA, one could never get coverage if one had a pre-existing condition....

Before the ACA, one had to deal with a fixed amount that a private insurance company was willing to pay for your condition....Once that maximum was reached, , you were screwed.......basically, one was in the hands of a "death panel."

Replacing the ACA WITHOUT those 2 issues, will cause the downfall of the current GOP nitwits.

the ACA method of solving the pre-existing condition problem is like sawing off someone's head to cure a tooth ache.

ACA still place limits one what insurance companies will spend on a given condition. Only fools like you believe it doesn't.

 

[bripat9643]

Elizabeth Warren Calls For Democrats To Embrace Single-Payer Health Care

Obamacare was based on ‘’a conservative model,’’ the Massachusetts Democrat says.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) says it’s time for Democrats to run on single-payer health care across the country.

President Barack Obama “tried to move us forward with health care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts,” Warren, referring to Mitt Romney, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Tuesday.

“Now it’s time for the next step. And the next step is single payer,” she said.

Warren’s comments represent a shift to her position on the U.S. health care system. In March, she said her support for switching to single-payer ― in which the government handles coverage of health care costs, rather than insurance companies ― would depend on whether Democrats could find Republican lawmakers willing to help fix the Affordable Care Act passed under Obama.

More: Elizabeth Warren Calls For Democrats To Embrace Single-Payer Health Care

I agree that Single-Payer is the way to go! It's time to take insurance companies out of our health care!

A good analogy is transportation. If transportation was necessary then we should provide a bus system that anyone can use. It's a good idea for many reasons. But people with money can buy a car.

Same with healthcare. Everyone should receive the basics. But if You want to choose your doctor pay for it

There's no reason for government to provide a bus system. If there's a demand for the service, then private companies will provide it at a much cheaper price.

 

[sealybobo]

Elizabeth Warren Calls For Democrats To Embrace Single-Payer Health Care

Obamacare was based on ‘’a conservative model,’’ the Massachusetts Democrat says.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) says it’s time for Democrats to run on single-payer health care across the country.

President Barack Obama “tried to move us forward with health care coverage by using a conservative model that came from one of the conservative think tanks that had been advanced by a Republican governor in Massachusetts,” Warren, referring to Mitt Romney, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Tuesday.

“Now it’s time for the next step. And the next step is single payer,” she said.

Warren’s comments represent a shift to her position on the U.S. health care system. In March, she said her support for switching to single-payer ― in which the government handles coverage of health care costs, rather than insurance companies ― would depend on whether Democrats could find Republican lawmakers willing to help fix the Affordable Care Act passed under Obama.

More: Elizabeth Warren Calls For Democrats To Embrace Single-Payer Health Care

I agree that Single-Payer is the way to go! It's time to take insurance companies out of our health care!

A good analogy is transportation. If transportation was necessary then we should provide a bus system that anyone can use. It's a good idea for many reasons. But people with money can buy a car.

Same with healthcare. Everyone should receive the basics. You want to choose your doctor pay for it

Is everyone going to pay the same taxes?

The poor can't afford. You pay based on how much you make. Do you object?

 

[Markle]

Want a visual as to WHO benefits from the Senate's HC bill???

As you know, there are NO CUTS in Medicaid. There is a reduction in the INCREASE. An underhanded scheme Progressives use frequently to divert attention from the facts.

 

[Markle]

We need Single-Payer! Time to join the civilized world.

Why do you want to join a failed system of health care?

 

[Old Rocks]

It won't work in a capitalist system and it's a tax drain. Furthermore, you would have a massive doctor and healthcare revolt as costs would have to come way down in order for it to even be feasible. Possibly lower than even Canadian costs. This would then affect medical school costs, standards, the whole nine.

In the end, it will still fail or be drastically inadequate. Your quality will go down, though you will have more quantity. I believe in a multi-tier system based on free market competition. This is somewhat the issue with a new Bill if cross state insurer competition is enacted.

This is why the focus on "America First" and jobs which have been stolen are so vital. If you have a job, chances are you will have healthcare. Generational welfare (a massive problem in England for instance) will simply tax the system to such a degree that it will not survive. Then, China wins, the world loses.

Every other first world nation has single payer universal health care, and they all have better longevity and infant mortality statistics than we do.

 

[Markle]

Every other first world nation has single payer universal health care, and they all have better longevity and infant mortality statistics than we do.

All bogus and what is worse, you KNOW it is bogus.

Grow up.

 

[Sun Devil 92]

BTW, some Canadians come to the states for their health care needs BECAUSE their respective provinces pay for their costs.....PLUS they get to have a vacation in Florida after the procedure.....We do have better weather than Canada....that much I will readily stipulate.

A while back I read an article about some guy up in Denver who needed a hip replacement......He found out that it would cost about $36,000 and that if he would travel to Switzerland, the same procedure (with the same prosthetic) would cost about $2,000.......

When he told his private insurer, they agreed to pay his airline costs and off he went overseas and is now happily skiing back in Colorado..

Wow, the market at work.

That's great.

Won't happen with the moronic government.

 

[Sun Devil 92]

It won't work in a capitalist system and it's a tax drain. Furthermore, you would have a massive doctor and healthcare revolt as costs would have to come way down in order for it to even be feasible. Possibly lower than even Canadian costs. This would then affect medical school costs, standards, the whole nine.

In the end, it will still fail or be drastically inadequate. Your quality will go down, though you will have more quantity. I believe in a multi-tier system based on free market competition. This is somewhat the issue with a new Bill if cross state insurer competition is enacted.

This is why the focus on "America First" and jobs which have been stolen are so vital. If you have a job, chances are you will have healthcare. Generational welfare (a massive problem in England for instance) will simply tax the system to such a degree that it will not survive. Then, China wins, the world loses.

Every other first world nation has single payer universal health care, and they all have better longevity and infant mortality statistics than we do.

37th weighted heavily towards access.

Why don't you move to Cuba.

 

[Sun Devil 92]

HIllary for President.

 

[Dragonlady]

It won't work in a capitalist system and it's a tax drain. Furthermore, you would have a massive doctor and healthcare revolt as costs would have to come way down in order for it to even be feasible. Possibly lower than even Canadian costs. This would then affect medical school costs, standards, the whole nine.

In the end, it will still fail or be drastically inadequate. Your quality will go down, though you will have more quantity. I believe in a multi-tier system based on free market competition. This is somewhat the issue with a new Bill if cross state insurer competition is enacted.

This is why the focus on "America First" and jobs which have been stolen are so vital. If you have a job, chances are you will have healthcare. Generational welfare (a massive problem in England for instance) will simply tax the system to such a degree that it will not survive. Then, China wins, the world loses.

None of them have any of this through.
The Government would then have to regulate:
1) All care costs
2) All drug costs
3) All wages, Doctor's, Nurses, Techs EVERY single employee wage all the way down to the front desk
4) The cost of Med School
5) The cost of ALL supplies
6) The cost of MAKING all the supplies
And on and on and on.

1 and 2 - yes.

3 is a "no way". Most doctors in Canada are in private practice. There are privately owned clinics, labs and hospitals. A doctor's rate of pay is based on how many patients he or she sees in a day and what treatments they provide. Doctors, hospitals and labs negotiate salaries with their own staff.

4. Again - no way. That's up to the universities.

5 and 6 are again no way.

What government does is decide on the rate of reimbursement for tests, drugs and treatments and then pay the doctors, pharmacies and hospitals based on those rates of reimbursement.