Giving healthcare to the states.

[kvnchrist]

Would it be better, instead of a national healthcare bill to challenge the different states to come up with a healthcare bill that will work for them. That way the best one of of the 50 states could be adopted by those states who see a working model within the state it was created in and opt to copy that framework for their own state. The national government could support this to a degree just to get the programs off the ground and then give some of the tax money collected from the state to support it after it is off the ground.At least then we won't have this one size fits all approach that the government wants to shove down our throats.

 

Who knows. Maybe if the country likeswhat a state has created then we can come together and have that plan be nation wide.

[HeyYou]

We should just do what almost every other 'advanced' nation has done..... Single Payer. Cut out the host of middle-men, and healthcare instantly becomes less expensive.

[kvnchrist]

We should just do what almost every other 'advanced' nation has done..... Single Payer. Cut out the host of middle-men, and healthcare instantly becomes less expensive.

If we do that, then we have to deal with the fear of socialism in a country that can't comprehend the difference between socialism and communism, which they demonize, even thought there has never been an actual true communist country anywhere in the world.

That's why I would think that a program that was created by the individual states would work, because most people think that what comes from the government is infringing on the rights of it's citizens, but on that comes from the states would not.

[HeyYou]

Yeah, folks like to label it in such fashion as to make it sound scary, and 'un-american'..... And that's why it has never passed muster. It has been brought up often enough, even as recently as when Obama was working on an update. He wanted single-payer, and even had democratic control of congress, but STILL couldn't get it passed.

 

Ah well.

[kvnchrist]

Yeah, folks like to label it in such fashion as to make it sound scary, and 'un-american'..... And that's why it has never passed muster. It has been brought up often enough, even as recently as when Obama was working on an update. He wanted single-payer, and even had democratic control of congress, but STILL couldn't get it passed.

 

Ah well.

Well, that was the fault f the blue dog dems.. I think they were more concerned with not jeopardizing their cushy little seats than anything. They ended up getting their seat booted out of office during the midterms.

 

As far as unamerican, I don't think that term can be applied untill a definition of what exactly is American can be found. I live here and don't know that. Seeing recent events, I would just submit a picture of a good old fashion grade school cafeteria food fight and lable that American.

[Aurielius]

We should just do what almost every other 'advanced' nation has done..... Single Payer. Cut out the host of middle-men, and healthcare instantly becomes less expensive.

Ah yes, the single payer model..such as Canada or the UK? I've seen the NHS in action, I wouldn't let them take care of my dog. Everyone that can afford private insurance has it in addition to NHS in the UK. When in serious health risk they go to that instead of what the government offers if they are interested in surviving the exceedingly long NHS wait times.

[JimboUK]

 

We should just do what almost every other 'advanced' nation has done..... Single Payer. Cut out the host of middle-men, and healthcare instantly becomes less expensive.

Ah yes, the single payer model..such as Canada or the UK? I've seen the NHS in action, I wouldn't let them take care of my dog. Everyone that can afford private insurance has it in addition to NHS in the UK. When in serious health risk they go to that instead of what the government offers if they are interested in surviving the exceedingly long NHS wait times.

 

 

With the NHS it's not so much the model that the problem, it's the way it's run, prior to Labour taking office in '97 it worked pretty well. Labour to their credit increased funding but then they started interfering, setting targets for various conditions leaving those with unfashionable diseases to wait for ridiculous periods of time, they filled the thing with managers, hiring managers at five times the rate of qualified nurses, then when Labour started running out of money like they always do they massively increased the use of PFI which has left the service in a mountain of debt. The NHS isn't so much an example of why universal healthcare is a bad thing, because run correctly it isn't, it's more an example of why the government shouldn't be allowed to run anything.

[Lisnpuppy]

Some of the issues in the U.S. that some do not know (and I include the supporters of the current bill):

 

1) Healthcare Insurance chooses in which states it wishes to do business and must abide by the laws of the state's Insurance Commissioner. So every state is run a bit differently and insurance companies can pull out of a state no longer writing business.

 

2) Actual healthcare is stupidly expensive and the expense rises every year. Because hospitals, doctors, etc have to bill everyone the same (so they can't just gank people with or without insurance) to cover cost of uninsured, underinsured and sometimes due to Medicaid/Medicares low payment they artificially jack up the prices for services to do business. (And the cost of medical malpractice insurance doesn't help this either.) Trust me when I say the actually hospitals don't make money hand over fist here..someone does but not them. I give an example of high healthcare charge. When I had my recent bout with pancreatitis I had to have a CT with contrast. It was quick, three passes. The charge for this, a technology that has been out for a long time...almost 6 grand. And that didn't include the radiologist bill.)

 

3) Prescription medications in the US is out of control price wise. And the script companies do not care. Example, recently Milan Pharmaceuticals, based in my state and run poorly by one of our Senator' s daughters (and former governor) raised the price of the life-saving epi-pen to a mind-boggling $600 bucks. The price has been raised year after year on a medicine that has not changed. In 2007 the price was just $100 dollars.)

http://fortune.com/2016/09/27/mylan-epipen-heather-bresch/

 

4) Insurance is a risk game. As much as anyone in the government wants to believe it isn't so, all insurances base their risk and try to even the amounts they have in reserve against people who pay more or do not use the insurance as much. Car insurances do it, health insurances, even life insurance to some extent. This is how they do business and in many, many markets this is the only way that the insurance can stay solvent in that market. If it becomes too much, they can and do pull out. Do you think whatever you pay a year for your health insurance will be able to cover the expenses for say, if you get cancer or have a stroke? It has to come from somewhere.

 

5) Health Insurance lobbyist are active and they spend huge amounts on both sides of the aisle on political campaign contributions. None of them want a single payer system.

(here is the amount spent https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indusclient.php?id=F09)

 

These things to some degree can't/won't change if the insurance is market-driven.

 

The cost of healthcare is a primary reason that people's insurance goes up. That isn't going to change under the current plan. The roll back of the expanded medicaid is going to hurt people who lose jobs due to health but are considered "able bodied" or their household income is over the limit (but not enough to afford insurance.) Applying for temporary disability is a joke that takes far, far to long to be helpful for those with immediate needs. Falling through the cracks sucks.

 

I had this happen to me. When I was pregnant with my daughter I could not work due to pre-existing conditions that were impacted by my pregnancy. I had no where to leave so lucky (well not really) my Father and Mother had just separated. I moved in with my Mom who did not make enough money to really support 2 or 3 people (she made about 22K/yr). I went to apply for a medical card for me and my child once born and hopefully some help. At the time Medicaid was run as a HMO which was terrible.

 

I was given $112 dollars in food stamps a month, and was told I had a collage degree and did not qualify for the job skills program which was how you got any welfare money help. The worker then said if my car had been in my name and not my Father's that I would have gotten nothing. I asked what if I had not been able to live with my Mother, he frowned and said I would probably have ended up in a shelter. Fortunately I had qualified for the insurance and the food stamps was doubled after my daughter was born and I had a place to live.

 

Though my issue was not the insurance at this time (though as soon as I healed from birth and finished the medical treatment I had to have due to my pre-exsisting issues my insurance was removed. As soon as I obtained employment of over at the time, 13K/year the food stamps ended) I was one of those people that fell through the cracks because of budget cuts in the Health and Human Resources budgets. I got lucky, very lucky.

 

I think the republican proposal needs a great deal of work.

[HeyYou]

Of course the insurance industry doesn't want a single-payer system. It would put them out of a job.