As the major structural issues of Obamacare continue to crop up, issues that were exposed even before the law was passed, issues that were said were features, not bugs, ones that would lead to a leftist call for single payer, and we were told “oh, come on, stop with the conspiracies!”, well, the calls for a public option and single payer keep growing. Guess this isn’t so much of a conspiracy
Why A Single-Payer Healthcare System Is Inevitable
The best argument for a single-payer health plan is the recent decision by giant health insurer Aetna to bail out next year from 11 of the 15 states where it sells Obamacare plans.Aetna’s decision follows similar moves by UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, and by Humana, another one of the giants.
All claim they’re not making enough money because too many people with serious health problems are using the Obamacare exchanges, and not enough healthy people are signing up.
The problem isn’t Obamacare per se. It lies in the structure of private markets for health insurance – which creates powerful incentives to avoid sick people and attract healthy ones. Obamacare is just making this structural problem more obvious.
In a nutshell, the more sick people and the fewer healthy people a private for-profit insurer attracts, the less competitive that insurer becomes relative to other insurers that don’t attract as high a percentage of the sick but a higher percentage of the healthy.
Eventually, insurers that take in too many sick and too few healthy people are driven out of business.
Obamacare created a situation where there were more sick people than healthy joining the exchanges, yet, this was all turned around into blame on the insurance providers in order to say “see? We need single payer.” The structure of Ocare was designed to eventually collapse to pave the way to say “see? We need single payer.”
The real choice in the future is either a hugely expensive for-profit oligopoly with the market power to charge high prices even to healthy people and stop insuring sick people.
Or else a government-run single payer system – such as is in place in almost every other advanced economy – dedicated to lower premiums and better care for everyone.
We’re going to have to choose eventually.
Lest you think this is just some barely known or totally unknown crank yammering on at the Huffington Post, alas, no, the writer is Robert Reich, a big time lefty who served under Bill Clinton, and is a major supporter of single payer (for Other People). And he’s been saying virtually the same thing for years, such as in July, 2015.
As the structure of Ocare continues to degrade (in a manner exactly as opponents predicted), Leftists will increase their calls for single payer, putting the health care of over 300 million under the fingers of a tiny number of politicians and unelected bureaucrats.
Obama said as much, admitting he couldn’t get to single-payer in one step (he knew even with his Democratic super-majority he couldn’t ram THAT through).
It’s amazing that, by every measurable metric, Obama has made things WORSE regarding health insurance, and like everything else he does, no one holds him accountable for it.
Even if more people were now covered (they aren’t), astronomical deductibles are ensuring that people don’t use the plans they are paying for in many cases.
Heck of a job, Barry. Heck of a job.
Sadly, I agree: single-payer is the inevitable conclusion. Oh, it will be a bad single-payer plan, one like Japan’s, where people have to supplement it with private insurance — and bribes — to get good care, or Canada’s or the UK’s, where the government resorts to delaying care, often for months, to cut costs, just like we do here with the VA, but single-payer it will be.
Sooooo Dana you think it will not be like Germany or Switzerland or Israel where most people are quite happy with their care?
Since we spend right now about twice as much per person as any of the bad country cases you mentioned why would you expect us to fall to their standard?
@John.
Give me an example of ANYTHING OUR AMERICAN GOVERNMENT HAS DONE W E L L!
All we hear about in Medicare and Medicaid is WASTE, FRAUD and Abuse.
The VA is incapable of handling a heavy workload…..and how do you think this nation will fare when you tell a private based industry that they can no longer make a profit?
The answer is NO….you are pointing to countries who never had privatized health care but rather started out day one with single payer.
In America the government will be forced to nationalize healthcare…..at the expense of millions of jobs and trillions of dollars of infrastructure.
Oh sure they will not take over hospitals….but they might as well when you consider that any existing hospital is going to be paid 1/4th of what they have been making….forcing millions of layoffs……and business/corporations out of business.
So yeah….single payer will be a disaster in America….
It’s simple, John: we already have a record on single-payer, with the VA hospitals. The VA was doing exactly what Canada and the UK were doing, stretching out appointments and delaying care, to save money. The VA Hospital administrators who were doing this were doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing, taking measures to save money, and to earn bonuses. The only real problem was that they got caught.
Might want to check out why the VA is having so many problems.
Boils down to an inept federal bureaucracy and government unions running the show.
Is this what is in store with single payer?
You bet it is.
There are just so many people employed by the Government who need to be and should be fired…
Isn’t it a shame there is no one running for office famous for firing people….?
From the Department of LABOR.
Real Unemployment
9.7%
Isn’t it amazing how the left can say anything they want and its dismissed or rather supported by a complicit press ?
Just like The dude here saying Hillary is INNOCENT BECAUSE THE DEMOCRATIC APPOINTED FBI AND DOJ SAYS SHE IS…….lolololol
ENABLERS ALL….we are going to be enabled right into third world status in about 30 years…..
Mr Puppies wrote:
Doesn’t matter: the vast majority of federal employees are protected by civil service laws. The only way the President could get rid of them is to eliminate their positions, something that the Republican President George W Bush, with a Republican-controlled Congress, never tried to do.
Key words; never tried to do
Gallup says that people buying on the exchanges are MORE satisfied with their health insurance than the overall insured population especially on the cost
???? Gee why hasn’t Teach told us that? He is always chattering about skyrocketing premiums http://www.politicususa.com/tag/gallup-poll-obamacare
And puppy killer there are fewer Federal employees NOW than under Reagan, and our population has gone up a lot in 30 years
Gallup says that people buying on the exchanges are MORE satisfied
The article you refer too?
Cut and pasted from the article you linked.
By Jason Easley on Fri, Nov 14th, 2014
Thats like nearly 2 years ago John….Perhaps, just perhaps you could link current opinion polls.
HERES ONE FOR YOU………..George W. Bush’s High Point: 90 Percent…..Source Gallup.
Context matters in a debate or in our case a basic discussion.
Thursday morning links
When It Comes to Sex, Baby Boomers Aren’t Normal World’s largest pearl Ruling Class Madness Obamacare Website No Longer Addresses ‘You Can Keep Your Doctor’ Single Payer Is Totally Inevitable, You Guys! Health Care Is a Business, Not a Righ