Health insurance now in turmoil...thanks to trump

[deasmatt90]

Also charges for medication that the patient already has but not allowed to be used by the patient while in hospital due to hospital policy. Instead hospital pharmacy provides all medication while patient under care charging ten times neighborhood pharmacy price. Essentially price gouging.

[deasmatt90]

Thinking more on this. With only one hospital in my area if healthcare would fall under antitrust regulation? Have really have no choice for a different emergency provider when it comes to major medical

[schnurrbart]

Of course, I realize that you will say “SOCIALISM” very loudly but healthcare in Europe is basically single govt paid unless you have a lot of money and want a “Cadillac” policy. I had a friend in Berlin who suffered from a relapse of uterine cancer in 2015. I visited her in 2016. I asked her about insurance and she told me that yes she had the state insurance. She also told me at that time her hospital and dr fees was a little over 350,000 Euros. She was very ill and passed last Nov. she had not had to pay a single Euro. Women here get the same disease and also die from it and many times it costs them and their families everything they have under our “GREAT” insurance policies. And of course, all you guys want to do away with Planned Parenthood which provides low cost care for women including check ups designed to help detect and prevent killing diseases like uterine cancer!! MAGA - IMPEACH TRUMP!

[deasmatt90]

Sorry about your friend.

Believe it or not, I would not be opposed to a national plan. It would have to be something like Medicare for all, and it would have to be free for everyone because let's face it the one who can pay are paying for the ones that can't anyway. From the poorest of the poor to the richest of the rich, free, and not cover cosmetic surgeries. However, first I would want the price gouging in the medical industry addressed.
We are a wealthy enough nation I believe this could be done financially and is a social issue which warrants addressing.
This is my fear. I don't trust the gov leaders to maintain common sense throughout the process for the time it would take to get something like this set up. By the time it got to the end of the line it would be so warped and out of line with the original idea, we would have Obama Care all over again!
If a plan like Medicare for all had been proposed by the democrats I would have supported it, once price gouging was addressed!

[schnurrbart]

In Germany, everyone pays a healthcare tax that is rather high but much less than the premiums that for profit insurance companies charge. I don’t know all the ins and outs of it. I don’t how many are welfare folks. I don’t know how many are unemployed but... There are a lot of things that seem pretty good in Europe—big and little. A little thing we noticed that we thought was a great idea. You know when you pull into a parking garage, you drive up and down rows looking for a free space? In Germany, all the spaces on the ceiling above them have red and green lights. Red if the space is occupied and green if it isn’t. They have a sensor that detects a car. A big thing is here we go school for 13 yrs, K-12 and then go to 4 yrs of college and then, if you want to be a dr or lawyer or something like that, you go another 4-8 us. In Germany, I met a young vet 24yrs old who had been practicing medicine for 2 yrs.
After their high school everyone is tested. If they don’t score high enough or don’t want to go to college, they go to a trade school. If they tested high enough and know what profession they want, they go straight to that school. They also don’t take 14-15 yrs of German or Math or German history like we do here. They take the courses that directly relate to what they want to do in life. Much less costly and they get into the work market much earlier. I know, SOCIALISM! Well we have socialism here also— police, fire, roads and bridges, Medicare, etc. seems to work pretty good in those areas. Well maybe not roads and bridges!!

[hardnox]

Exchange premiums go up further- just as the GOP has done previously in sabotage attempts.

The people who get subsidies don't pay more- the government does.

The people and small businesses who don't qualify for subsidies (the hostages) get crushed further.

This is pure political terrorism, just because they voted umpteen times to eliminate it but hadn't thought of an alternative- because all alternatives would also be unpopular and they'd have to own it.

BTW, remember, Trump's all time low approval came following the botch job on HC.

[deasmatt90]

That's my point hardnox. We did have a national plan, it would have to be free. Funded by income or sales tax. No mandate to have it and no subsidies for it, a health insurance funded by the gov free for all!
IMO they could lower the age for Medicare to six months old and have it cover 99% of costs and Meds. Sure taxes would be raised but if it was done right everyone who worked for a living could afford to have all of their needs met.
But like I said before, I don't trust our politicians to start off with a good idea and not screw it up in the end.
You would also be putting a lot of medical insurance companies out of business, and you have a lot of lobbying power there!

[deasmatt90]

And democrats take just as much of those campaign donations as the republicans.

[hardnox]

Yes, VAT funds a fair amount of the European social programs and is relatively regressive.

Although I think that any workable scheme to fund national single payer will have to be somewhat progressive in nature.

Which is always going to be difficult for the party made up of Social Justice Warriors for the Wealthy and Their Heirs to accept.

I'd say a split payroll tax with a fairly high cap would work just fine.

But the target ought to be on how to do it all for something closer to 10% of GDP like the rest of the developed world does rather than the 17ish we spend.

Death panels and such.

BTW, a very quick calculation says that with a 5% national sales tax and split 5/5 payroll tax I'd end up spending about the same as I do now.