I don’t understand how Medicare for all became the liberal end all be all for healthcare. I mean, sure, it’s better than the status quo. It’s much better than what came before the ACA.
But it’s still insurance reform rather than healthcare reform. Granted, it’s a rather extreme version. But it still says that we need insurance for everyone. I would rather have the Federal government build and staff hospitals and doctors offices than be everyone’s middle person.
Also, given some states’ grossness, I don’t think they would implement it, at least for a while. It took a while for the states to implement Medicare in the first place. Many are still resisting expanding it basically for free under Obamacare. It’s tough to imagine them being on board for covering everyone.
“I would rather have the Federal government build and staff hospitals and doctors offices than be everyone’s middle person.”
They already do for veterans, which should give you some idea of how that might work on a larger scale.
@1 Canada has a great medical system, but occassionally there is a oops or black eye or scandal, and arguments in government…ohhh the politics. Still Canada has it we don’t.
The Federal Government does provide health care beyond the VA. It supplies it to Indian Tribes, to Federal forestry workers. And to the military. A major who is working in the DOD is paid the same as a major in charge of the bases communication systems.
There would be significant savings if the government handled all medical insurance (the way it would have to operate to be effective) and the overhead of one to two percent would allow wider overage and cost everyone much less. The government in this position would have an interest in controlling costs. It can mandate what doctors can be paid by the government in total for the year just as if they are majors in the military. It can negotiate price for treatment. It can set the price of a heart valve replacement or removal of an appendix. Rather than the current system where hospitals in the same city price for the same treatment can vary by thousands of dollars. Not something consumers are in a position to price due to lack of information and urgency of need.
With political will government can deal with brining price of medical services down. Of course some of the incentives are removed with Medicare for all. A greater reliance of clinics or mandates that doctors will work in small towns, and more non specialists can be mandated without government actually providing the service. Though government can provide the total system and can do so effectively does not mean that will happen. After all we don’t want to admit that the Post Office a service the government absolutely requires is well socialist. No way Ben Franklin cold have been a socialist. Ummm the guy invented paper money and the basis of it, kinda socialist basing it on the value of real property in the various states.
Single payer (“Medicare for all”) applies fixes to most of the worst abuses in our system.
Right now when the service payer, the premium payer, and the service recipient are all three completely separate entities, market pricing signals dont exist. How the fuck does an insurance company, who pays the clinic, know or even really care if the billing code matches the service? How the fuck does your employer, who pays the premium, know or even really care if the procedure ever took place? Our current system is built for abuse. And most of the time it doesn’t even have to be criminal.