This is (Literally) Why We Can't Afford Nice Things

[odanny]

Im not a fucking idiot, is the reason.

Agreed.

 

[TNHarley]

Agreed.

You cultists like to agree with yourselves for some reason.
Just another reason why I hope you all donate your body to science. So we can figure out what causes this illness. So we can eradicate it with gene therapy or something.

 

[Grumblenuts]

I never had any problem with them either. It was good insurance.

You're lucky. BC/BS largely turned to the dark side ~2008.

It gets worse. Year after year, the corporate Democrats, along with the Republicans, are facilitating expanding corporate takeovers of Medicare and Medicaid. The giant and widening attack on Medicare is called “Medicare Advantage,” which more accurately should be called “Medicare [Dis]advantage.” Our corporatized government, under both Parties, has been allowing deceptive promotional seductions of elderly people to take Medicare [Dis]advantage – now fully 40% of all Medicare beneficiaries – which is just a corporate insurance plan with multiple undisclosed tripwires.

Once more, Medicare (and Medicaid) limit the amounts that can be charged for medical equipment, drugs, and procedures. That means doctors, hospitals, and yes, insurance corporations - can't just charge you whatever the hell they want like they do now otherwise. Government healthcare - horrors! The Republican Plan - still - die quickly. Democrats - gee, I wonder how we can maximize our corporate campaign donations? It's on us to protect Medicare and insist upon Medicare-For-All. Idiots. (btw, proper Medicare-For-All largely eliminates the corporate insurance cabal from the equation).

 

[dblack]

You're lucky. BC/BS largely turned to the dark side ~2008.

One more, Medicare (and Medicaid) limit the amounts that can be charged for medical equipment, drugs, and procedures. That means doctors, hospitals, and yes, insurance corporations - can't just charge you whatever the hell they want like they do now otherwise. Government healthcare - horrors! The Republican Plan - still - die quickly. Democrats - gee, I wonder how we can maximize our corporate campaign donations? It's on us to protect Medicare and insist upon Medicare-For-All. Idiots.

Medicare (the core program, not Medicare Advantage) was a corporatist collaboration from the beginning. The numbskulls clamoring for Medicare For All are just herding us into their pens.

 

[odanny]

You cultists like to agree with yourselves for some reason.
Just another reason why I hope you all donate your body to science. So we can figure out what causes this illness. So we can eradicate it with gene therapy or something.

Go get your schlong cut off and start over, Hayley. You might have a clue if you change genders.

 

[Grumblenuts]

Medicare (the core program, not Medicare Advantage) was a corporatist collaboration from the beginning. The numbskulls clamoring for Medicare For All are just herding us into their pens.

Bullshit. Originally and ideally, Medicare For All is single payer health insurance. What practically everyone has wanted all along.

 

[TNHarley]

Go get your schlong cut off and start over, Hayley. You might have a clue if you change genders.

What a weird thing to say

 

[odanny]

Bullshit. Originally and ideally, Medicare For All is single payer health insurance. What practically everyone has wanted all along.

The irony is these people against such an idea say it can't be done effectively. Even though the rest of the western world has done just that.

 

[dblack]

Bullshit. Originally and ideally, Medicare For All is single payer health insurance. What practically everyone has wanted all along.

Not if it's just an expansion of, or based on, the current Medicare model. That setup is replete with corporate feeding.

33. Medicare is a Private–Public Partnership - Center for Medicare Advocacy

Most people think Medicare is a government program. That’s only partly true. While Congress created Medicare, and continues to develop Medicare coverage and appeal rules, decisions to pay claims are actually made by private companies. The government does not make those decisions. This was one of...

medicareadvocacy.org

Want to expand Medicare? You’ll need to hire the insurance companies, not fire them

The depth and scope of Medicare’s reliance on for-profit companies is hard to understand from the outside.

thehill.com

 

[dblack]

The irony is these people against such an idea say it can't be done effectively. Even though the rest of the western world has done just that.

Does the rest of the world have the kind of partisan shit show we have here? Do you want every election to be a fight to the death over health care? Because that's what you're asking for.

 

[odanny]

Does the rest of the world have the kind of partisan shit show we have here? Do you want every election to be a fight to the death over health care? Because that's what you're asking for.

There shouldn't even BE a fight, the system we have is broken and has never worked for most Americans, why is this even a partisan issue? A broken healthcare system treats everyone the same. I can't even imagine someone from a western democracy seeing our healthcare in this country and not thinking this country is nuts. But I also know that this country is nuts, and they are right.

 

[dblack]

There shouldn't even BE a fight, the system we have is broken and has never worked for most Americans, why is this even a partisan issue?

Agreed.

But it is a partisan issue. Everything is. And until we change that, taking over health care with government will make things worse, not better.

 

[Grumblenuts]

Not if it's just an expansion of, or based on, the current Medicare model. That setup is replete with corporate feeding.

The current, increasingly corrupt version. Huh, must be why I said "Originally and ideally, Medicare For All is single payer health insurance." JFC! Medicare still beats the piss out of Obamacare though, especially if one stays clear of so-called "Medicare Advantage." Quick, which party originally proposed that crap?

But it is a partisan issue. Everything is. And until we change that, taking over health care with government will make things worse, not better.

But it's the only route. You thinking the insurance industry will magically reform itself or what? As I said before:

The Republican Plan - still - die quickly. Democrats - gee, I wonder how we can maximize our corporate campaign donations? It's on us to protect Medicare and insist upon Medicare-For-All.

Pay attention and quit whining.

 

[dblack]

The current, increasingly corrupt version. Huh, must be why I said "Originally and ideally, Medicare For All is single payer health insurance." JFC! Medicare still beats the piss out of Obamacare though, especially if one stays clear of so-called "Medicare Advantage." Quick, which party originally proposed that crap?

Can't care.

But it's the only route.

If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that when someone proposes a solution to a problem and tells you it's the only way - they're lying.

 

[Grumblenuts]

To answer my own question:

TEFRA was introduced November 13, 1981 and was sponsored by Representative Pete Stark of California. After much deliberation, the final version was signed by President Ronald Reagan on September 3, 1982.

"Medicare Advantage" or "Medicare Choice" or Part C was introduced by a Democrat and signed into law by a Republican. Part D also sucks. Parts A and B still seem fine. Medicaid is also doing well.

 

[dblack]

To answer my own question:

"Medicare Advantage" or "Medicare Choice" or Part C was introduced by a Democrat and signed into law by a Republican. Part D also sucks. Parts A and B still seem fine. Medicaid is also doing well.

Still can't care.

People think Medicare For All will remove insurance companies from health care. Nothing could be further from the truth. It will cement them as permanent middle men.

 

[Grumblenuts]

People think Medicare For All will remove insurance companies from health care.

If the legislation is written so as to make that largely inevitable, then they will be removed. If you and your ilk continue to just whine and say "can't care," then sure, nothing will happen.

https://jayapal.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Medicare-for-All-Act-of-2019-Section-by-Section-Summary.pdf

 Prohibits the sale of health insurance coverage that duplicates the benefits available under the Program.  Prohibits employers from providing benefits that duplicate the benefits under the Medicare for All Program.  Allows the sale of insurance and employer-sponsored benefits that provide supplemental coverage.

 

[Grumblenuts]

If there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that when someone proposes a solution to a problem and tells you it's the only way - they're lying.

Fine, what's your solution then? Wait, let me guess. Do nothing! Just don't get sick!

 

[dblack]

Still can't care.

People think Medicare For All will remove insurance companies from health care. Nothing could be further from the truth. It will cement them as permanent middle men.

If the legislation is written so as to make that largely inevitable, then they will be removed.

If... I certainly didn't see anything in the doc below about an entire restructuring of how Medicare works. Indeed, one of the big selling points is that it won't require creating a brand new infrastructure. Which means your 'if' won't happen.

If you and your ilk continue to just whine and say "can't care," then sure, nothing will happen.

What I can't care about is your repeated attempts to make it a partisan issue.

 

[dblack]

Fine, what's your solution then? Wait, let me guess. Do nothing! Just don't get sick!

You're a bad guesser.

The first thing we need to do is get rid of all the laws promoting and propping up employer provided health care. That means tax any such "benefits" as we would any other compensation. It also means eliminating all mandates and incentives goading employers into providing health care benefits.

Then we need to break up the fiefdoms that insurance companies have created for themselves at the state level. State regulation of insurance companies is, essentially, controlled by the insurance companies and regulates insurance consumers far more than it regulates insurance companies.

Those two changes together would begin the climb out of the hole we've been digging. But neither would have an immediate impact, and in the meantime we should expand the safety net for people who currently can't afford health care, with a solid plan for phasing it out once the health care market returns to some semblance of sanity.