What truly compassionate politicians would do about health care

[OldJourno]

But this first:
15 or so years ago, when high-def TVs were new to the market, you could get a pretty good set for $10,000. Certainly not as big as some sets today, but about 50 inches.
Now you can get a 65-inch set for less than $1,000. Not the highest quality, but probably better and certainly bigger and smarter than what was available in 2002.
What did government have to do with improved televisions that are a lot less expensive? Ab-so-fucking-lute-ly nothing.
You want affordable health care? Let the government take care of the 10 percent of working-age poor who can't afford it, get the government out of health care for everyone else who is of working age, and work to phase out Medicare except for major medical insurance.
Skeptical? Explain how buying rotator cuff surgery differs in principle from buying a television? The only real difference I can see is that there isn't a price list for rotator cuff procedures at your local surgeon's office.
Better yet, go to this site, check the price and compare it to any surgery or other health issue that you or your insurance paid for.

https://surgerycenterok.com/

 

[Conager]

To begin to unwind this, you make every dollar of employer-provided health insurance taxable income. You lower the nominal tax rate to make this move revenue neutral.

Money an employee puts into a medical account is tax free, can invest and grow tax-free. Everyone wil go to catastrophic insurance and shop for and pay as they go most medical services.

BTW why did Healthcare become a buzzword? That's just stupid. I don't need health care at all ever. From time to time I need medical services for medical professionals that's only when I'm sick or injured, or want assurances I'm not about to be sick.

 

[Hard_Rom]

Would be to get healthcare out of private hands and almost fully under government control with a single-payer UHC. That could conceivably save over 5% of the GDP. You could buy a couple of F-22s with the savings.

 

[RobDownSouth]

But this first:
15 or so years ago, when high-def TVs were new to the market, you could get a pretty good set for $10,000. Certainly not as big as some sets today, but about 50 inches.
Now you can get a 65-inch set for less than $1,000. Not the highest quality, but probably better and certainly bigger and smarter than what was available in 2002.
What did government have to do with improved televisions that are a lot less expensive? Ab-so-fucking-lute-ly nothing.
You want affordable health care? Let the government take care of the 10 percent of working-age poor who can't afford it, get the government out of health care for everyone else who is of working age, and work to phase out Medicare except for major medical insurance.
Skeptical? Explain how buying rotator cuff surgery differs in principle from buying a television? The only real difference I can see is that there isn't a price list for rotator cuff procedures at your local surgeon's office.
Better yet, go to this site, check the price and compare it to any surgery or other health issue that you or your insurance paid for.

https://surgerycenterok.com/

There's a good rebuttal HERE on why many people don't price shop medical care.

Another reason that people don't shop around is because much medical care is time-sensitive. I actually DID tear my rotator cuff last year and went to two different clinics (both "preferred providers" by my Blue Cross policy). There wasn't an appreciable difference in cost.

The bottom line is that Queerbait's facile bumper-sticker ideology doesn't pass muster when exposed to "real world" conditions.

 

[Hard_Rom]

I don't have to pay for rotator cuff surgery. Major medical event! No bills coming my way. I don't know what all the kerfuffle is about!

 

[phrodeau]

Once all surgeries are done by robots or cheap foreign labor, then the costs will drop.

 

[KingOrfeo]

But this first:
15 or so years ago, when high-def TVs were new to the market, you could get a pretty good set for $10,000. Certainly not as big as some sets today, but about 50 inches.
Now you can get a 65-inch set for less than $1,000. Not the highest quality, but probably better and certainly bigger and smarter than what was available in 2002.
What did government have to do with improved televisions that are a lot less expensive? Ab-so-fucking-lute-ly nothing.

You seem to be saying that eliminating government health insurance will stimulate competition among doctors -- or insurers -- or something and drive prices down. How? At present, the health insurance industry is cartelized and non-competitive; eliminating Medicare would bring it new business but would not make it competitive. Doctors already compete for patients to some degree, and changes in the insurance field would not make them compete any more or less (the only thing doctors ever seriously compete for is prestige).

 

[Colonel Hogan]

I don't have to pay for rotator cuff surgery. Major medical event! No bills coming my way. I don't know what all the kerfuffle is about!

The kerfuffle is about affordable health insurance coverage being available only to the permanently employed. Sufficiently large insurable risk groups mean that young healthy people pay for the less healthy minority within their midst. It is precisely why the elderly NEED Medicare -- as a group they do not constitute an affordable, insurable risk. So, a part of your tax dollars goes to insure us.

Obamacare and the Republican substitute plan for it is totally about covering those unemployed, uninsurable individuals (either temporarily or permanently) who are not of Medicare age.