Will we ever have single payer health care in this country?

[Mac1958]

To make a very long story short, our Medicare system includes a significant free market component in the form of Medicare Supplements, Medicare Advantage Plans and Prescription Drug Plans, and true Single Payer does not.

So the basic Medicare program IS single payer.

Thanks you

Yes.
.

 

[easyt65]

FACT: The Bernie/Kamala 'Single Payer' Scheme Would Rip Healthcare Plans Away From 177 MILLION Americans

Is either one of these 2 Socialists going to have the 'b@lls' to pull an 'Obama' - promise people if they like their plans they can keep them anyway?!

 

[SmokeALib]

Look no further than our VA system to decide if single payer will work.

 

[Markle]

No, I'm against Single Payer.

If you don't know the difference between our current Medicare system and Single Payer, go and educate yourself.

If I use Medicare, which I do, other than the government, who pays for my health care?

Since my retirement, I have used more than double everything I ever paid into Medicare. By the time I croak, that could rise to three or four times easily. How do you propose that is paid for by other taxpayers?

 

[Markle]

To make a very long story short, our Medicare system includes a significant free market component in the form of Medicare Supplements, Medicare Advantage Plans and Prescription Drug Plans, and true Single Payer does not.

Now you're splitting hairs.

Frankly, it is not surprising to see you backpedaling. This is not at all unlike Socialism in the eye of Democrats. Democrats, supporters of Socialism always say, well it has not been done right but all these other countries. WE would do it right!

 

[Mac1958]

No, I'm against Single Payer.

If you don't know the difference between our current Medicare system and Single Payer, go and educate yourself.

If I use Medicare, which I do, other than the government, who pays for my health care?

Since my retirement, I have used more than double everything I ever paid into Medicare. By the time I croak, that could rise to three or four times easily. How do you propose that is paid for by other taxpayers?

Medicare doesn't pay for all your health care. It has gaps, and co-insurance. It also has no built-in drug plan or out of pocket maximums.

If you have a Medicare Supplement to cover those gaps, you're going through an insurance company. If you have a Medicare Advantage plan, that is a partnership between CMS and the insurer.

Very, very few people have Medicare alone.
.

 

[Mac1958]

To make a very long story short, our Medicare system includes a significant free market component in the form of Medicare Supplements, Medicare Advantage Plans and Prescription Drug Plans, and true Single Payer does not.

Now you're splitting hairs.

Frankly, it is not surprising to see you backpedaling. This is not at all unlike Socialism in the eye of Democrats. Democrats, supporters of Socialism always say, well it has not been done right but all these other countries. WE would do it right!

I'm not backpedaling, I've been saying the same thing all along.

If you don't know how the system works, your ignorance is not my fault.

Back away from the radio for a while, educate yourself, think for yourself.
.

 

[Kondor3]

Yes - I think that the U.S. will eventually implement single-payer healthcare.

It's not all-that-radical a concept in most parts of the world, although it freaks-out Big Insurance and Big Pharma here.

The Devil's in the details, though, and I'm guessing we'll make huge mistakes during the early going.

But, I also think that the planets are going to have to align "just so", before it's even attempted.

Requiring a Democrat -controlled House, Senate, Oval Office and (quite possibly) Supreme Court.

That may take another half-generation or more before we see any such alignment.

If that happens we will become what Venezuela is today, get ready to eat your dogs and cats and zoo animals.

Why would some sort of universal healthcare result in us becoming a Third World $hithole?

 

[H B Lowrie]

I think the very next time the dems the presidency and both chambers of Congress we’re headed for single payer healthcare.

It will happen if Trump wins a second term. He has always favored single payer.

And when it is his idea all of his sheep will say it is the best idea ever


Sent from my iPhone using USMessageBoard.com

wrong, it will never happen, the country cant afford it and Trump knows that.

We can afford a militarist occupation of the planet and endless wars for the Wall Street/donor/"job creator" class however.

New York, N.Y., October 8, 2015 — The U.S. spent more per person on health care than 12 other high-income nations in 2013, while seeing the lowest life expectancy and some of the worst health outcomes among this group, according to a Commonwealth Fund report out today. The analysis shows that in the U.S., which spent an average of $9,086 per person annually, life expectancy was 78.8 years. Switzerland, the second-highest-spending country, spent $6,325 per person and had a life expectancy of 82.9 years. Mortality rates for cancer were among the lowest in the U.S., but rates of chronic conditions, obesity, and infant mortality were higher than those abroad.

“Time and again, we see evidence that the amount of money we spend on health care in this country is not gaining us comparable health benefits,” said Commonwealth Fund President David Blumenthal, M.D. “We have to look at the root causes of this disconnect and invest our health care dollars in ways that will allow us to live longer while enjoying better health and greater productivity.”

U.S. Spends More on Health Care Than Other High-Income Nations But Has Lower Life Expectancy, Worse Health | Commonwealth Fund


U.S. Healthcare Ranked Dead Last Compared To 10 Other Countries

U.S. Healthcare Ranked Dead Last Compared To 10 Other Countries


Major Findings
· Quality: The indicators of quality were grouped into four categories: effective care, safe care, coordinated care, and patient-centered care. Compared with the other 10 countries, the U.S. fares best on provision and receipt of preventive and patient-centered care. While there has been some improvement in recent years, lower scores on safe and coordinated care pull the overall U.S. quality score down. Continued adoption of health information technology should enhance the ability of U.S. physicians to identify, monitor, and coordinate care for their patients, particularly those with chronic conditions.

· Access: Not surprisingly—given the absence of universal coverage—people in the U.S. go without needed health care because of cost more often than people do in the other countries. Americans were the most likely to say they had access problems related to cost. Patients in the U.S. have rapid access to specialized health care services; however, they are less likely to report rapid access to primary care than people in leading countries in the study. In other countries, like Canada, patients have little to no financial burden, but experience wait times for such specialized services. There is a frequent misperception that trade-offs between universal coverage and timely access to specialized services are inevitable; however, the Netherlands, U.K., and Germany provide universal coverage with low out-of-pocket costs while maintaining quick access to specialty services.

· Efficiency: On indicators of efficiency, the U.S. ranks last among the 11 countries, with the U.K. and Sweden ranking first and second, respectively. The U.S. has poor performance on measures of national health expenditures and administrative costs as well as on measures of administrative hassles, avoidable emergency room use, and duplicative medical testing. Sicker survey respondents in the U.K. and France are less likely to visit the emergency room for a condition that could have been treated by a regular doctor, had one been available.

· Equity: The U.S. ranks a clear last on measures of equity. Americans with below-average incomes were much more likely than their counterparts in other countries to report not visiting a physician when sick; not getting a recommended test, treatment, or follow-up care; or not filling a prescription or skipping doses when needed because of costs. On each of these indicators, one-third or more lower-income adults in the U.S. said they went without needed care because of costs in the past year.

· Healthy lives: The U.S. ranks last overall with poor scores on all three indicators of healthy lives—mortality amenable to medical care, infant mortality, and healthy life expectancy at age 60. The U.S. and U.K. had much higher death rates in 2007 from conditions amenable to medical care than some of the other countries, e.g., rates 25 percent to 50 percent higher than Australia and Sweden. Overall, France, Sweden, and Switzerland rank highest on healthy lives.

How the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally


No other advanced country even comes close to the United States in annual spending on health care, but plenty of those other countries see much better outcomes in their citizens' actual health overall.

A new Commonwealth Fund report released Thursday underscored that point — yet again — with an analysis that ranks 13 high-income nations on their overall health spending, use of medical services, prices and health outcomes.

The study data, which is from 2013, predates the full implementation of Obamacare, which took place in 2014. Obamacare is designed to increase health coverage for Americans and stem the rise in health-care costs.

The findings indicate that despite spending well in excess of the rate of any other of those countries in 2013, the United States achieved worse outcomes when it comes to rates of chronic conditions, obesity and infant mortality.

One rare bright spot for the U.S., however, is that its mortality rate for cancer is among the lowest out of the 13 countries, and that cancer rates fell faster between 1995 and 2007 than in other countries.

"Time and again, we see evidence that the amount of money we spend on health care in this country is not gaining us comparable health benefits," said Dr. David Blumenthal, president of the Commonwealth Fund. "We have to look at the root causes of this disconnect and invest our health-care dollars in ways that will allow us to live longer while enjoying better health and greater productivity."

US health care: Spending a lot, getting the least


Ranking 37th — Measuring the Performance of the U.S. Health Care System
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp0910064#t=article


Health Care Outcomes in States Influenced by Coverage, Disparities
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-st...-in-states-influenced-by-coverage-disparities


One explanation for the health disadvantage of the United States relative to other high-income countries might be deficiencies in health services. Although the United States is renowned for its leadership in biomedical research, its cutting-edge medical technology, and its hospitals and specialists, problems with ensuring Americans’ access to the system and providing quality care have been a long-standing concern of policy makers and the public (Berwick et al., 2008; Brook, 2011b; Fineberg, 2012). Higher mortality rates from diseases, and even from transportation-related injuries and homicides, may be traceable in part to failings in the health care system.

The United States stands out from many other countries in not offering universal health insurance coverage. In 2010, 50 million people (16 percent of the U.S. population) were uninsured (DeNavas-Walt et al., 2011). Access to health care services, particularly in rural and frontier communities or disadvantaged urban centers, is often limited. The United States has a relatively weak foundation for primary care and a shortage of family physicians (American Academy of Family Physicians, 2009; Grumbach et al., 2009; Macinko et al., 2007; Sandy et al., 2009). Many Americans rely on emergency departments for acute, chronic, and even preventive care (Institute of Medicine, 2007a; Schoen et al., 2009b, 2011). Cost sharing is common in the United States, and high out-of-pocket expenses make health care services, pharmaceuticals, and medical supplies increasingly unaffordable (Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance System, 2011; Karaca-Mandic et al., 2012). In 2011, one-third of American households reported problems paying medical bills (Cohen et al., 2012), a problem that seems to have worsened in recent years (Himmelstein et al., 2009). Health insurance premiums are consuming an increasing proportion of U.S. household income (Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance System, 2011).

Public Health and Medical Care Systems - U.S. Health in International Perspective - NCBI Bookshelf


Once again, U.S. has most expensive, least effective health care system in survey

A report released Monday by a respected think tank ranks the United States dead last in the quality of its health-care system when compared with 10 other western, industrialized nations, the same spot it occupied in four previous studies by the same organization. Not only did the U.S. fail to move up between 2004 and 2014 -- as other nations did with concerted effort and significant reforms -- it also has maintained this dubious distinction while spending far more per capita ($8,508) on health care than Norway ($5,669), which has the second most expensive system.

"Although the U.S. spends more on health care than any other country and has the highest proportion of specialist physicians, survey findings indicate that from the patients’ perspective, and based on outcome indicators, the performance of American health care is severely lacking," the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based foundation that promotes improved health care, concluded in its extensive analysis. The charts in this post are from the report.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...care-system-in-survey/?utm_term=.3bea55276072


US healthcare system ranks 50th out of 55 countries for efficiency
US healthcare system ranks 50th out of 55 countries for efficiency


The U.S. healthcare system notched another dubious honor in a new comparison of its quality to the systems of 10 other developed countries: its rank was dead last.

The new study by the Commonwealth Fund ranks the U.S. against seven wealthy European countries and Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It's a follow-up of previous surveys published in 2010, 2007, 2006 and 2004, in all of which the U.S. also ranked last.

Although the U.S. ranked in the middle of the pack on measures of effectiveness, safety and coordination of care, it ranked dead last on access and cost, by a sufficient margin to rank dead last overall. The breakdowns are in the chart above.

Conservative pundits hastened to explain away these results after the report was published. See Aaron Carroll for a gloss on the "zombie arguments" put forth against the clear evidence that the U.S. system falls short.

The U.S. healthcare system: worst in the developed world

U.S. Health Care Ranked Worst in the Developed World
U.S. Health Care Ranked Worst in the Developed World

 

[H B Lowrie]

No, I'm against Single Payer.

If you don't know the difference between our current Medicare system and Single Payer, go and educate yourself.

If I use Medicare, which I do, other than the government, who pays for my health care?

Since my retirement, I have used more than double everything I ever paid into Medicare. By the time I croak, that could rise to three or four times easily. How do you propose that is paid for by other taxpayers?

The rest of the advanced post-industrial world has figured it out; we're the pig headed ones so our system costs more for worse outcomes. How? The same way we pay for endless war and global militarist occupation. No one ever asks how will we pay for that, and NONE of it is defensive.

 

[dblack]

I think the very next time the dems the presidency and both chambers of Congress we’re headed for single payer healthcare.

I have no idea how it will pan out, but I sure hope we can avoid that. But you're probably right. Republicans want power as much as Democrats, and if they can pretend that even a slim majority of voters want the government to take over health care, they'll be all over it.

 

[dblack]

We spend 3.5 trillion dollars a year on healthcare now.

What do you mean by "we"? Are you referring to government spending on health care?

 

[dblack]

To make a very long story short, our Medicare system includes a significant free market component in the form of Medicare Supplements, Medicare Advantage Plans and Prescription Drug Plans, and true Single Payer does not.

So the basic Medicare program IS single payer.

Thanks you

Medicare, basic Medicare, is farmed out to private insurance companies, just like the employer provided variety.

 

[Lesh]

To make a very long story short, our Medicare system includes a significant free market component in the form of Medicare Supplements, Medicare Advantage Plans and Prescription Drug Plans, and true Single Payer does not.

So the basic Medicare program IS single payer.

Thanks you

Medicare, basic Medicare, is farmed out to private insurance companies, just like the employer provided variety.

Wrong...Basic Medicare is NOT farmed out...Medicare Advantage is

 

[dblack]

Medicare, basic Medicare, is farmed out to private insurance companies, just like the employer provided variety.

Wrong...Basic Medicare is NOT farmed out...Medicare Advantage is

Wrong...Basic Medicare IS farmed out:

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

And it brings them considerable revenue:

Nearly 60 percent of top health insurers' revenue comes from Medicare and Medicaid

Analysis: The 'Big 5' Insurers Are Increasingly Dependent on Medicare and Medicaid for Revenue

What You Need To Know About Medicare For All, Part I

 

[Lesh]

Medicare, basic Medicare, is farmed out to private insurance companies, just like the employer provided variety.

Wrong...Basic Medicare is NOT farmed out...Medicare Advantage is

Wrong...Basic Medicare IS farmed out:

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

And it brings them considerable revenue:

Nearly 60 percent of top health insurers' revenue comes from Medicare and Medicaid

Analysis: The 'Big 5' Insurers Are Increasingly Dependent on Medicare and Medicaid for Revenue

What You Need To Know About Medicare For All, Part I

You're an idiot.

You posted a link about Medicare Advantage...NOT basic Medicare.

Fukken dunce

 

[dblack]

Medicare, basic Medicare, is farmed out to private insurance companies, just like the employer provided variety.

Wrong...Basic Medicare is NOT farmed out...Medicare Advantage is

Wrong...Basic Medicare IS farmed out:

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

And it brings them considerable revenue:

Nearly 60 percent of top health insurers' revenue comes from Medicare and Medicaid

Analysis: The 'Big 5' Insurers Are Increasingly Dependent on Medicare and Medicaid for Revenue

What You Need To Know About Medicare For All, Part I

You're an idiot.

You posted a link about Medicare Advantage...NOT basic Medicare.

Fukken dunce

Uh huh - you go with that. Beats facing the truth.

 

[dblack]

Medicare, basic Medicare, is farmed out to private insurance companies, just like the employer provided variety.

Wrong...Basic Medicare is NOT farmed out...Medicare Advantage is

Wrong...Basic Medicare IS farmed out:

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

And it brings them considerable revenue:

Nearly 60 percent of top health insurers' revenue comes from Medicare and Medicaid

Analysis: The 'Big 5' Insurers Are Increasingly Dependent on Medicare and Medicaid for Revenue

What You Need To Know About Medicare For All, Part I

You're an idiot.

You posted a link about Medicare Advantage...NOT basic Medicare.

Fukken dunce

At least read the first linked article. I was surprised when I found this out. And I'd love to be proven wrong about what I'm telling you, but I don't think I am. We don't do socialism in this country. We do corporatism, which is even worse.

 

[Mike473]

I have always been torn on this issue. I have paid up to $25,000 per year for health insurance premiums. If we had Medicare for all, I would pay higher taxes instead of the premium, but would the new tax exceed the $25,000? I have no idea how it would really effect anyone.

 

[Markle]

The rest of the advanced post-industrial world has figured it out; we're the pig headed ones so our system costs more for worse outcomes. How? The same way we pay for endless war and global militarist occupation. No one ever asks how will we pay for that, and NONE of it is defensive.

Do they? To you.

Our system actually costs less. Please total up all the taxes paid in those other great "advanced post-industrial" world.

Who in the world has better QUALITY health care? No one.

What nation, or nations, have introduced to the world more life-saving or life-extending drugs?

What nation, or nations, have introduced to the world more new medical procedures?

What nation, or nations, have introduced to the world more new medical technology?

What nation, or nations, have more MRI machines and other diagnostic and technology for treatment available per capita?

What nation, or nations, has a longer life expectancy after the diagnosis of a serious disease?

Shall I continue?