by William Thornton » Thu Feb 27, 2020 8:25 am
Haruo asked earlier: "William, William, what is it that you see as a reason to believe that Medicare for All (I don't care if you use the Bernie version or Warren's as a benchmark) will bankrupt the nation and/or cost the average taxpayer more than the current system's hodgepodge of payment schemes? Assume that you are addressing real live Christian brethren, human beings, literate and capable of basic arithmetic. I for one will look seriously at whatever arguments you adduce, and while I don't promise to agree with your reasoning, I will assume that you too are a real live Christian brother, human, literate, and numerate, and that the arguments you put forth are ones that you, at least, find compelling."
And said above in this thread: "Obamacare was not MFA, not single payer, not designed with all Americans' well-being as the primary target. It's a hodge-podge, designed with the profitability of the insurance companies at least as high in the priorities as health care for all Americans. It might be a bit better than what Hillary would have preferred, but that's not saying much. Here are my questions again."
The presumption is that gummit should pay for all health care. I reject that. Maybe gummit should pay for all housing costs, or food costs, or clothing costs, since those are necessities. The republic and its citizenry (and some illegals) manage to get health care without gummit paying all the bills and have done so for over two centuries. If gummit pays all the bills, they own the system and employ all who work in it. Obamacare is available to all, right? What's the problem there? The reflexive slaps at huge insurance profits are just demagoguery.
I think the burden is on you and others to convince me that the system we have is not adequate, if imperfect. Maybe the issue of the insurance industry could be addressed. Are insurers to be eliminated? Will providers be require to accept MFA patients? Will there be any private health care allowed? My physician now works for a huge hospital group. Is it a small jump from that to working for CMS?
We could go full socialist in medicine. Don't know that would improve anything.
My stray thoughts on SBC stuff may be found at my blog,