When it comes to Medicare For All, a cute way of saying Single Payer, we already know it would be beyond expensive. It was too much for tiny Vermont to run, and studies found that the California proposal would see it cost twice the yearly Ca. budget, a number so high that the Ca. general assembly leadership refused to bring it up for a vote. But, Democrats won’t give up on it, so
Health care CEO: Medicare for all ‘would just collapse the system’
Health care is becoming a main point of contention as the U.S. gears up for the 2020 presidential election. Several Democratic presidential candidates, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Kamala Harris (D-CA), have called for Medicare for all, while Republican politicians like Mitch McConnell are in favor of cutting health care spending.
Medicare, along with Medicaid and Social Security, are the largest expenses in the U.S. And according to eHealth CEO Scott Flanders, this is “all the more reason†why an idea like Medicare for all is “nearly irrational†to discuss.
“You’re already saying that it’s a challenge to fund what we’ve already committed to our seniors,†Flanders said on Yahoo Finance’s On the Move. “So, to layer on another 180 million people outside of the employer market into Medicare would just collapse the system.â€
I’m sure people like Bernie and Kamala will totally say that it wouldn’t happen, but have no facts to back that up.
The Congressional Budget Office stated in a May 2019 report that a single-payer health care system transition “could be complicated, challenging, and potentially disruptive.â€
As it stands, approximately 156 million Americans are insured through their employer, while another 21 million are insured through the private market. At the same time, more and more Americans are becoming uninsured in the Trump era.
In Sanders’ proposal, Americans would gain universal health care coverage, while employers would be prohibited from providing separate plans. However, it would also require at least $3 trillion a year in new government revenue, as Yahoo Finance previously reported, leading to higher corporate and individual taxes.
“The bill that’s been promulgated by Bernie Sanders would actually outlaw all private insurance,†Flanders said. “So, 180 million employer-insured individuals and families would lose the insurance they have now.
Wouldn’t it be simply awesome to have the Central Government fully in charge of your health insurance/health care? I mean, they do such a great job with so many other things, right? And they’re super responsive! And this wouldn’t be subject to the whims of Congress, judges, presidents, political appointees, and unelected bureaucrats, right?
I’m sure people will like to attack Flanders personally, make an issue about his salary, assign bad motives, but, who would know the way health care and insurance work better than someone like Flanders? Instead, we’re supposed to listen to politicians with delusions of grandeur who’ve never actually worked in either insurance nor health care? Flanders has to take into account client care vs company profit. Those pushing Medicare For All are only considering their personal power and how to give government more power over citizens, the better to control their lives.
Nearly every consumer product in America is delivered by the market including housing, food and energy which arguably could be considered “human rights” alongside health care. There is no reason why health care/insurance should not be also. But to do that we need to actually limit the governments role not expand it.
The problem is that as usual, the left conflates “health care” with “health insurance” thereby muddying the ability to discuss either. If health care is a “human right” then people working in the health care industry can be compelled by penalty to provide it on demand. That’s called slavery. But if you admit it’s not a human right the urgency and the ability to compel is removed from the left’s argument. It seems the object is to provide neither health care nor affordable health insurance but rather to place the power to compel in the hands of government regulators. Again.
The same mentality that is currently trying to compel Trump to reveal his personal taxes for no other reason than humiliation and ridicule will then also be able to compel you and me to comply with whatever they decide based on your voter registration even to deny care.
When we deal with leftists we deal with uncompromising vindictive and vengeful people incapable of separating their politics from daily life. These are the people who deny free speech to conservatives if they own Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. These are the people who would deny Chick-fil-A a location on a college campus thus killing 80 local jobs because they don’t like the owner’s crazy non-main line religion: Christianity. Do you want them determining what health care you and your family can receive based on your voter registration, tax returns or religious affiliation?
Politicians like Bernie and Harris would appoint activist judges who who start to erode the Bill of Rights. They would determine if you have the right to own a gun or determine what hate speech is and prohibit from public discourse.
It can go like this;
Citizen, why do you need a gun? We will protect you, beside you want your healthcare and check don’t you.
Citizen, why do you speak poorly of your government. You must praise your government if you want your check and healthcare.
This would go on until the Bill of Rights is no more. Remember folks as Thomas Jefferson said:
“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.â€
“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.â€
Someone said it, but probably not Thomas Jefferson.
https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/government-big-enough-give-you-everything-you-wantspurious-quotation
Who cares? They’re right.
Here’s a little video explaining how radical leftists are trying to get everybody from banks to credit card companies to cut off any group the left disagrees with. Do you want highly propagandized and politicized maniacs like these deciding your health care?
https://youtu.be/Fmzxa4GL9LQ
While I oppose Medicare for All, citing Flanders as a disinterested expert is either naïve or disingenuous. His company sells private health insurance. He’s an expert in management, not health or health insurance. He was CEO of Playboy Enterprises before taking over eHealth a couple of years ago.
Every other advanced nation on the planet has found ways to supply health care coverage to all citizens and for much less than the US pays per person. Almost all use private insurance as the basis for their programs. Did you even know that?
To claim that “the market” is best to handle health insurance distribution consigns poor people to not being able to afford health care, and especially for older Americans not being able to afford health care – talk about your death panels. Can someone explain how a “free market” will deliver health care to poor seniors without any government involvement?
Commenter: “These are the people who would deny Chick-fil-A a location on a college campus thus killing 80 local jobs because they don’t like the owner’s crazy non-main line religion: Christianity.”
Although unrelated to the topic: health insurance, it is still a dishonest framing of the situation. No one would have known about the Chick-fil-A CEO’s bizarre religious beliefs without his rants about LGBT people. So it was not his religion that was a problem, it was his pointless declarations of hate toward other Americans.
If the commenter had gone to college, would he have wanted a restaurant on campus that donated millions to pro-choice groups and whose Christian CEO made public statements supporting abortion?
While I oppose Medicare for All, citing Flanders as a disinterested expert is either naïve or disingenuous. His company sells private health insurance. He’s an expert in management, not health or health insurance.
Of course you want ti. It’s that universal healthcare you say is so wonderful (and, of course, it’s not). And an expert in management is just what you want because healthcare is about how to make sick people better. Management is about measuring what resources you need and how best to handle them.
Every other advanced nation on the planet has found ways to supply health care coverage to all citizens and for much less than the US pays per person. Almost all use private insurance as the basis for their programs. Did you even know that?
No, because it’s a lie.
People pay usurious taxes to support these monstrosities. Don’t make me get out the charts again.
To claim that “the market†is best to handle health insurance distribution consigns poor people to not being able to afford health care, and especially for older Americans not being able to afford health care – talk about your death panels. Can someone explain how a “free market†will deliver health care to poor seniors without any government involvement?
A free market gets the best care for the best price and one of the biggest cost factors is all that bookkeeping the government requires.
Duh. Ever hear that government governs best which governs least?
No one would have known about the Chick-fil-A CEO’s bizarre religious beliefs without his rants about LGBT people. So it was not his religion that was a problem, it was his pointless declarations of hate toward other Americans.
How many heard of his positions on homosexuals? Nobody I ever knew. It was the Lefties thjat brought it up, but I can understand your obsession.
Chick is the third biggest fast food place in the country.
If the commenter had gone to college, would he have wanted a restaurant on campus that donated millions to pro-choice groups and whose Christian CEO made public statements supporting abortion?
He probably wouldn’t have known.
And how do you know he didn’t go to college?
Bigot.
Just so you know Elwood, I did go to college and got a BS in economics in three years. You really need to get a grip on your constant condescension and false superiority. It makes you uglier than you already are.
Commenter typed: “Don’t make me get out the charts again.”
By all means, get out your irrelevant charts. EVERY advanced nation on Earth pays less (on average 50%) per person on healthcare than we do. Period.
Mr. Cathy, the CEO of Chick Fil A, made very public proclamations regarding gays and his company donated millions to anti-gay organizations.
On a broadcast radio show Cathy said, “… I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage. I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we would have the audacity to try to redefine what marriage is all about.â€
No one forced Mr. Cathy to make proclamations about his anti-gay beliefs or his company’s credo. Actions have consequences.
Let me start by saying I did not cite Flanders as a “disinterested expert” and to accuse me of such is either naive or disingenuous. He is however in the health insurance business, and expert in “management” as you cited and a businessman with experience which in my view makes his opinion 100 times more worthy than a Congresscritter who has no practical business experience, who is on a Rolls Royce government program and who “opted out” of Obamacare because they realized it sucked.
As we’ve tried to explain before saying “every other nation” does this or that is no reason for us to. When you do that it sounds like an excuse not a reason.
I “claim” is that the market can best deliver health insurance because it does the best job of delivering every other commodity you and I use from food to cell phones. We already have a government health insurance plan for “poor people” called Medicaid and a health insurance plan for “older Americans” called Medicare or have you completely forgotten? Why do you always bring up people already covered under special plans as those who will “suffer most” under any free market plan when they already can and do buy over the counter health insurance to supplement what the government “provides”?
Therefore the free market has little need to “”deliver health care” (there you go again mixing “care” with “insurance”, which is it?) to all those poor seniors since a poor senior will qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid. Did you even know that?
Also on an unrelated topic, what difference does it make if the owner of Chick-fil-A as you said ranted about gays? We have freedom of both speech and religion and it does not matter HOW they learned of his MAIN STREAM religious beliefs it only matters they are trying to practice religious discrimination because of them. By your standard all Halal food and it’s sellers should be banned because their religion believes in the death penalty for gays. You could start by banning all Mohammadans from campus because of that belief. Sound good?
Elwood, sometimes a sandwich is just a fukin’ sandwich. Everything does not have to be politicized by radical leftists.
Everything does not have to be politicized by radical leftists.
You’re kidding, right?
Teach cited Flanders as an expert.
“Healthcare Expert: Medicare For All Would Crash System, “Nearly Irrational†To Even Discuss”
Are you trying to say you disagree with Teach’s depiction of Flanders?
Commenter typed: “We already have a government health insurance plan for “poor people†called Medicaid and a health insurance plan for “older Americans†called Medicare or have you completely forgotten?”
You may have forgotten but Medicare and Medicaid are government programs. So except for obvious market failures, such as health coverage for the poor and the old, the free market system will work. The free market would also not cover pre-existing conditions at a reasonable price, so don’t get sick! In a free market system the poor and the old would lose their coverage, duh.
I suspect you believe that Medicare wasn’t instituted to correct a market failure but was a way for government to control people!
Again, regarding Mr. Cathy of Chick Fil A, actions have consequences. It has nothing to do with freedom of speech. There were no government sanctions for his speech. People were not speaking out because Cathy was Christian, or for his beliefs, but because of what he proclaimed. No one tapped his phone to hear what he said, they didn’t secretly tape him – no, he broadcast his hatefulness over the public airwaves. Refusing to buy fried chicken from a bigot is not religious persecution.
Do you believe that anti-gay bigotry is a tenet of Christianity or just of conservative Christians?
Hey Elwood, I typed “We already have a government health insurance plan for “poor people†called Medicaid and a health insurance plan for “older Americans†called Medicare or have you completely forgotten?†and you responded by saying “You may have forgotten but Medicare and Medicaid are government programs”. You repeated what I had just written and are trying to argue about it?
Again and again I repeat: We already have a government system to cover the poor and elderly because a free market plan proved too expensive for those demographics. You keep repeating about the poor and the old and they are not the problem.
A free market could be modified to cover pre-existing conditions in a similar manner as the auto insurance industry covers high risk drivers. At least it’s worth looking at. If a pre-existing pool were to b established and funded by private insurers with government help perhaps we could create coverage for pre existing conditions.
“I suspect you believe that Medicare wasn’t instituted to correct a market failure but was a way for government to control people!”
You suspect wrong you condescending blowhard. I too was around in 1965 when Medicare was created and I am well aware of the reason it was done. Lyndon Johnson devised Medicare for the same reason he created The Great Society and the War on Poverty. Medicare was to ensnare elderly voters and capture them as Democrat voters and the other two were to entrap blacks into a world of poverty and dependency while the Democrats offered the free shit. Democrats never create a program that doesn’t benefit them at the ballot box and deliver them more votes.
Neither the Cathy family not Chick-fil-A have ever been accused of harming, harassing or denying any gay service or even JOBS! Anti gay bigotry is a tenet of Islam not Christianity however Christians believe sodomy to be a sin. We love the sinner and hate the sin. You hate everybody who won’t bow to your heathen demands. You are being irrationally bigoted against an entire company and their employees simply because you don’t like the belief of the owner. Anyone like that is a confused pompous ass. Your fear of Christianity is borderline psychotic. And stopping people from getting jobs because you’re bigoted against their boss
is hateful and narrow minded.