Looking for SLN Pundits on the Democratic Debate

[Yppej]

Well the best way to do this is just provide everyone with Medicare at no charge to themselves funded entirely via taxes, and if they wish to go outside Medicare let them. But first Medicare should be free to all like public schools, private schools still exist but public schools exist for everyone who wishes to use them (well for kids ha), at no charge.

+1

[frugal-one]

Well the best way to do this is just provide everyone with Medicare at no charge to themselves funded entirely via taxes, and if they wish to go outside Medicare let them. But first Medicare should be free to all like public schools, private schools still exist but public schools exist for everyone who wishes to use them (well for kids ha), at no charge.

It is NOT the best way. Many already have great insurance plans. They should not be taxed for medicare when it is not néeded or wanted. There should be a choice.

[frugal-one]

I think that like most large and complex situations, the best approach is probably a lot of smaller tweaks on a local or regional basis rather than some sweeping grand strategy that implements a central new authority to impose a final solution. I don’t think socialism, however you wish to qualify it, is particularly good at that for a large, heterogeneous society like ours. If that makes me a heartless monster, I’m fine with that.

Yikes, I agree with you.

[Yppej]

It is NOT the best way. Many already have great insurance plans. They should not be taxed for medicare when it is not néeded or wanted. There should be a choice.

I have one of those "great" insurance plans. My deductible is "only" $400, compared to $3000 at my previous job. Half of Americans do not have the funds to handle a $400 emergency. Last year our deductible was $250. Our premiums, 90% of which our employer pays, also went up this year. I pay $21 a week but they pay much more. It has cut onto the profitability of the company. Everyone received one less week of profit sharing for 2019 despite record revenues in part because of this high cost.

People do not go to the doctor early on because of out of pocket costs. Two in my location of 40 have landed up with pneumonia as a result, and one had to be hospitalized.

We have a PPO and there is no cap on out of pocket 50% coinsurance for out of network providers including radiologists if you need an x-ray or anesthesiologists if you need surgery. Preventive procedures are not always coded as such to prevent this. For instance, if you have ever had even the most benign colon polyp all future colonoscopies are considered diagnostic and cost thousands in out of pocket expenses if you have not met your deductible and due to hospital providers about whom you cannot know if they are in network. The company wants to encourage preventive care and offers a paid day off for a colonoscopy in addition to regular sick days but people still don't go because of the costs.

My parents have "good' insurance. My dad's former employer provides a health concierge to assist them in navigating the choices in all the Medicare parts and covers most of the premium costs of supplemental coverage, but they still pay thousands of dollars in out of pocket costs, spend countless hours on the phone with insurance companies, and have lots of paperwork to seek reimbursement for things. To keep down prescription costs they use a mail order pharmacy but the post office several times per year will deliver the package to the wrong address where it will sometimes sit out in the hot sun until it is found and redelivered. They have a PO box but either the service can't or won't deliver certain drugs to it. They are okay now but when one of them passes away the other will be hard put to afford out of pocket medical costs.

Most people want a government plan, including most people in the audience when Sanders went on Fox News.

[catherine]

Great insurance plans are vestiges of the past. I would not call the Amerihealth I had up until I was Medicare-eligible "great." My husband had to change doctors because of plan changes, we had very high deductibles, high premiums and high copays and high bills that took months to pay off. Since being on Medicare, The only thing I have to worry about is paying my Medicare, supplemental Medicare, and prescription plan bills, all of which are one third of the premiums of my private insurance.

And we get excellent care.

[LDAHL]

Yikes, I agree with you.

About the states not being subservient to the feds, or about me being a heartless monster?

[ApatheticNoMore]

Employer plans can be somewhat better, so if you have an employer sugar-daddy it works.

ACA plans where to start, very expensive, very few doctors take them (very narrow networks and I chose a plan had had a larger network than most), so if you think you can go to a doctor of your choosing, no in reality you'll have a hard time finding a doctor who takes an ACA plan period (better to just do Kaiser or something if you are going ACA but also very expensive). And yes I've had doctors offices straight out tell me we don't take ACA plans period, and this is a blue state that has tried hard to make the ACA work (heck CA even reinstated the tax penalty on the state level), not in some red state trying to sabotage it. So it is definitely in all possible respects just insurance for the poor that noone really cares about, second tier doesn't begin to describe it.

So since so few doctors do, very long waits to see any doctor who takes the plan, often several months wait for a basic doctor visit. Of course I was giving up and paying cash, not even using my useless insurance eventually, there are no words for how much I hated that insurance bill knowing the insurance was very expensive and yet basically useless for all practical purposes but feeling I *should* have it or something. I never felt I got less for my money ever almost (well I also hate AT&T but I get more for my money from them even ). The reality is if you are going through the ACA or ACA equivalent plans you can not get plans that equal a decent employer plan, you are just plain out of luck. You have to accept very inferior health coverage. Employer plans are degrading too, but not in my experience to the degree of the ACA.

[iris lilies]

I have started seeing a direct-care physician, which means I pay a flat fee for access to her.It is very reasonably priced.

[Yppej]

I forgot to mention the most telling moment in the debate. Bloomberg began talking about candidates he made large contributions to. He started saying, "I bought" then corrected himself to say something like "I supported..." Beware the Freudian slip.

[Teacher Terry]

IL, yes you are in a tiny town where that kind of service is cheap. Can’t imagine wanting to live there.