Medicare for All? Why can’t we have something that would actually help people, like a completely government-run healthcare system without private for-profit insurance companies?
Medicare for All? That’s Not Nearly Enough
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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Ted, you must cease and desist from this Communist propaganda (irrespective of what is written in the First Amendment to the USA’s Constitution) ! Think of the children !…
Henri
The political war waged against Medicare/Medicaid (MM) is similar to that of US foreign policy covert, or pre-overt, war techniques.
It can be summarized as constant undermining (aka “meddling,” sanctions and myriad other cynical, lethal methods ) followed by complaints BY THE MEDDLERS about the effects of their own meddling.
The policy of $$$BIG$$$ towards Cuba, Venezuela and MM can be likened to a doctor putting a tourniquet on the leg of a patient for a few weeks and then castigating the patient for having developed gangrene.
Bush (aka “the profoundly impaired”) II’s Medicare part B “reform” contributed significantly to this destructive process. It ended the government’s authority, and previous practice, to negotiate the price of prescription drugs for Medicare. The recipients of Medicare constitute a very large group which was able to command significant discounts on drug prices.
Another boondoggle was Medicare “Advantage.” It confers onto private insurance companies Medicare provider status – with all of the “advantage” going to said companies with attendant poor service, not to mention all financial risk, to Medicare, its members and taxpayers in general.
Medicaid is a state based/administered program and it doesn’t take the next Einstein to predict its fate as the feckless Democrats (as IF they’d be any better !?!) have conceded 30 states to essentially complete GOP control.
To get people to criticize MM as if it were a defective idea is, no doubt, part of the strategy to kill it. It’s an excellent idea, should be considered an “unalienable” right (see “LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”) but the cost is that which $$$BIG$$$ refuses to accept being spent for the benefit of the 99.99% — rather than for further engorgement their already obscenely turgid financial accounts.
Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.
Conservative Democrats—Scoundrel Patriots
I suggest that today, along with patriotism, the scoundrel finds his or her last refuge in accusing opponents of «antisemitism». Cf the manner in which the Blairites in Labour are attacking Jeremy Bernard Corbyn….
Henri
Hospitals and their suppliers love pointing their finger at the insurance companies while they pig out on everyone’s money.
1/3 of the money spent on health care is spent at hospitals. They have a good profit margin. Only pharma & device manufacturers have higher profit margins than hospitals. Government needs to be pushing back on these high costs. It doesn’t matter who pays if the bill is overcharging.
Articles about hospital mark-ups, and profit margins:
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/study-finds-hospitals-continue-to-mark-up-medicines-up-to-500-of-their-cost-300881243.html.
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/healthcare/reports/2019/06/26/471464/high-price-hospital-care/
Yep, that sucks that your mom did all that saving but what good did it do?
I”m sorry, Ted, you are totally wrong. Medicare does NOT have a spend-down option. That is Medicaid. So, ranting about how awful Medicare for All is based on misinformation is no public service, and not funny. Medicare as it currently is does not pay for nursing home care at all. So, in order to get nursing home coverage, folks have to spend down until they are eligible for Medicaid. That’s awful, but it’s not about Medicare.
Medicare For All as envisioned by Bernie Sanders will INCLUDE benefits it currently does not, including Dental, Mental Health, and Nursing Home Care. Medicare for All will be provide much more coverage than the current version.
You need to learn about the proposal before you fly off the handle giving misinformation. Not helpful at all.
I know when you’re dealing with it personally, it is confusing and maddening. Please take the time now to learn what you’re talking about.
Clearly something like hip surgery is covered in an actual universal medical insurance program. (There may be some symbolic fees but nothing like the rip-off shown here).
Care for the elderly on the other hand is a little more dicey. While there are support payments (increasing with an assigned level of need) in a European-style system, it won’t be quite enough to cover 24 hour care that elderly people may come to need (often for years). So, yeah, they will have you burn through your life savings before picking up the tab 100%.
There are some legal avenues around this, i.e. gifting the bulk of savings to children before that happens.
Apart from that, we’re back to the good-old-fashioned way of stashing paper money in mattresses. For those of us who cannot afford to park their ill-gotten gains in some banana republic like a Caribbean tax haven or a Swiss bank…
“There are some legal avenues around this, i.e. gifting the bulk of savings to children before that happens.”
Illinois has some nasty claw back provisions for gifting too close in time to the enabling event.