Bernie Sanders/Single Payer Plan

[gimmethesimplelife]

i agree with you. But I often see posts that equate Medicare for all with free coverage. Untrue. Some people may actually see increased costs. But no one will have zero coverage.

have you used Medicare much since becoming eligible? Because even one hospitalization can be quite costly

This is one HUGE perk of living in Arizona and being over 65....we have this wonderful thing here called a Medicare Advantage plan that very much makes insurance and medical issues affordable. I don't know if all states have them but there are Medicare Advantage plans in Maricopa County (metro Phoenix, suburbs, and outlying areas) that are $0 premiums and I mean tiny, tiny, tiny deductibles and reasonable copays to the point that it actually saves you money to stay HERE for health care as opposed to fleeing to Mexico for health care - these Medicare Advantage Plans are truly that good. My mother is with Health Net of Arizona and has only nice things to say about them, and this is after spinal surgery in 2012 and a knee replacement earlier this year. Rob

PS Came back to edit - my bad. Should have been $0 premiums and not $0 co-pays.

[ApatheticNoMore]

review that document and you will see Medicare is not free. There are deductibles, premiums, copay and some things are excluded. Drug coverage and MD coverage require premiums.

Before anyone throws a celebration about Medicare for all check out the costs. I imagine your glee will disappear.

yes but some of the proposed plans don't have all these costs. So you have to look at the actual bills and not Medicare (I do realize no such bills are likely to be passed right now). The House bill is specifically called "EXPANDED and IMPROVED Medicare for all", because it's not just Medicare. I don't actually know how Sander's plan differs from the House bill.

They do need to control costs, mostly because hospitals etc. are price gouging. Americans as a whole might use a lot of healthcare (if so they definitely don't have the lifespans to show for it) but most of that is probably already paid for by the government, if it's things like end of life care, that's in most cases people over 65. The most expensive people are already being covered by the government (even granted that they are still nickle and dimed).

[flowerseverywhere]

Gimme and Apathetic your input is great. I just cannot imagine with the current crew in power a wonderful free healthcare for all system will come to be. I can imagine more of the traditional Medicare that everyone pitches into would be far more likely to pass and even that is not too likely. How are all the medical insurers, Pharma and equipment maker donors going to get their payback?

[Yppej]

One thing I have not heard proposed is funding to retrain personnel to care for the underserved instead of processing insurance paperwork.

[Ultralight]

Republicans and other corporatists (Pelosi types, for instance): Relax!

There will never be a single-payer or other universal healthcare system in the US.

Never.

Never ever.

The people in power simply will not allow it. And the American middle and working classes are too provincial and ignorant to know how much better things could be.

Call me a cynic or a realist if you like. But I am tellin' ya how it is!

Ain't never gonna happen.

[flowerseverywhere]

Republicans and other corporatists (Pelosi types, for instance): Relax!

There will never be a single-payer or other universal healthcare system in the US.

Never.

Never ever.

The people in power simply will not allow it. And the American middle and working classes are too provincial and ignorant to know how much better things could be.

Call me a cynic or a realist if you like. But I am tellin' ya how it is!

Ain't never gonna happen.

absolutely true. And gutting Medicaid makes them clap their hands with glee. And they will never have the rich redistribute their wealth.

[Ultralight]

Like George Carlin said: "Be happy with what ya got. It is never gonna get any better."

[Tammy]

I thought we'd never have gay marriage. I thought we'd never have legal marijuana for recreational use. Don't give up hope yet ...

[Tybee]

Tammy, I know, the changes come really fast when they finally come, and the world becomes very different, thank God.

[gimmethesimplelife]

I thought we'd never have gay marriage. I thought we'd never have legal marijuana for recreational use. Don't give up hope yet ...

I'm still reeling over the first one here......sometimes I amazed to this day I'm actually married to another man and that the marriage is legally recognized not just in Massachusetts (has had gay marriage since 2004, and was the first state to have this)! I believe there is some hope BUT I also believe this one is going to be more of a mountain to move. What really needs to happen is to have more and more people offshore their health care and to have more and more people apply for and receive retirement visas to lower cost countries with the main reason for fleeing being health care costs. In other words, the system needs to be starved, boycotted to some degree, and denied inputs. This is the only way I can realistically see change happening.

I've done my bit to offshore my health care - though here I will add that my last hospitalization was in Phoenix with my liver infection - I really was too sick to get myself to the border. So I grant that this is not always possible or realistic. But at least for lesser things I have no problem offshoring and now that I'm not on Medicaid it's my most cost effective and realistic option. As costs continue to rise with no wage increases to cover this, watch more and more people forced to flee America for health care - and if the government unwisely attempts a crack down on this - watch more and more people come to realizations I already long since have about this country. This all will be interesting to witness from my vantage point of having realized all of this in the 80's as a teenager........Rob