The Republicans need to come up with an alternative health care plan or they will get demolished
in the midterms.
Somehow we must decrease healthcare costs AND make it available to everyone.
Sending billions to insurance companies will only refuel inflation.
We need to find a way to make them COMPETE against one another to drive the costs down.
Maybe they need to bid on the right to provide coverage and only the low bidders get the contracts.
Replies to: The Republicans need to come up with an alternative health care plan or they will get demolished
Boehner and co, offered a single sided large font 2 page bullet point HC plan
back when he was Speaker. Bullet points noting - the Republicans alternative would offer “better care”, “lower premiums”, that was it, nothing else.
Vis a vis
On the flip side, the democrats had proposed through extensive review and study thousands of pages issues and there corrections to create the ACA to actually bring down costs and create easy access to affordable HC and the ability to work with hospitals, established corporate insurance co.s
That was 17 years ago - DJT in his first campaign and as POTUS promised a better HC plan but has never offered one. - nada, nothing.
It's been 15 yrs now and the GOP hasn't offered anything, nor has it opposed Insurance Co's
desire to deny coverage for those with Pre-Existing conditions...good luck Sr. Quixote...
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Others, however...like Steven Brill (Author of "America's Bitter Pill") suggests the following elements of new federal legislation...i.e. he favors integrated Hospital/Insurance entities...like those I've mentioned earlier (Kaiser/Permanente, Cleveland Clinic, UPMC, etc.)...in essence cutting out the "Middlemen. Here are the key elements...from his book...(Note:...he's looking at HC providers as "Utilities")
>"The first regulation would require that any market have at least two of these big, fully integrated provider-insurance company players. There could be no monopolies, only oligopolies, as anti-trust lawyers would call them."
>"The second regulation would cap the operating profits of what would be these now-allowed dominant market players, or oligopolies, at, say, 8 percent per year, compared to the current average of about 12 percent."
>"A third regulation---which, again, the hospital systems would have to agree to in return for them being allowed to achieve oligopoly or even monopoly status---would prevent hospital finance people from playing games with that profit limit by raising salaries and bonuses for themselves and their colleagues (thereby raising costs and lowering profits). There would be a cap on the total salary and bonus paid to any hospital employee who does not practice medicine full-time (or) sixty times the amount paid to the lowest salaried full-time doctor, typically a first-year resident."
>"A fourth regulation would require a streamlined appeals process, staffed by advocates and ombudsmen, for patients who believe adequate care has been denied them, or for doctors who claim they are being unduly pressured to skimp on care."
>"A fifth regulation would require that any government sanctioned oligopoly-designated integrated system had to have as its actual chief executive (not just title) a licensed physician who has practiced medicine for a minimum number of years."
>"Sixth, any sanctioned integrated oligopoly provider would be required to insure a certain percentage of Medicaid patients at a stipulated discount."
>"Which brings me to my final regulation: These regulated oligopolies would be required to charge any uninsured patients no more than they charge any competing insurance companies whose insurance they accept."
Once again, I encourage you and any other viewer who cares about Affordable Health Care, to read Steven Brill's book...and others...to get details and a fuller understanding of previous, current, and future HC systems, so as to make informed voting decisions on this very important issue.
I'm with Bernie: Health care should be deemed a basic human right in America.
It's where we are headed.
Everyone kicks in for national health care -- like the military.
Wealthier folks can still have private supplemental plans -- which will be relatively cheaper than now -- as the privately insured pool will be a healthier one.
Link: https://www.sanders.senate.gov/press-releases/news-sanders-jayapal-dingell-hundreds-of-health-care-workers-introduce-medicare-for-all/
So now you don't understand what a "right" is.
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I do. It's why I believe in due process, even for people of color or for undocumented immigrants.
And yes, we celebrate Veterans Day for those who served the greatest nation ever -- a nation that used to protect human rights, human dignity .... until Trump.
Yes. I believe that one living in America ought not be denied clean air, food and shelter, and health care -- rights, not privileges.
Health Care isn't a right. Access to it is.
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Something all people should be given by virtue of their birth
I agree that, in a rich society, no one should die because of lack of basic health care.
So yeah, it is a right in my mind. How we assure that right is a matter of policy.
No. A right doesn't require anyone else to do anything for you.
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What about the right to counsel? See Strickland v Washington.
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You have just proclaimed The Right To Life.
Can’t have it both ways, Prof.
Since even the RCC has never taught that Personhood begins at conception, a woman's
"Right to Choose" takes precedent...you keep missing that fact.
Basic healthcare and public education should not be profit centers.
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Agreed.
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Just as everyone needs Utilities...everyone needs Health Care, so that industry needs to be treated
as a public good and not a Free Market based on Profit.
That's the same thing I've been talking about.
It's not a "basic human right" though, as it requires someone else to deliver the services.
Not surprised you are with the Communist/Socialist.
Nothing he says or proposes will ever happen.
Would single payor be more expensive? Bridge the gap between Medicare & Medicaid.
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What happens to the 60% of the population who are happy with their employer policies?
And who are happy with the freedom to choose their own doctor?
And will doctors and hospitals now be government employees and agencies?
THAT will require a rough transition for EVERYONE.
Supplemental policies and narrow networks. This exists now with Medicare, Medicare Advantage and
supp plans.
It's slightly more complicated, but not entirely so. It will actually make companies, and particularly small companies and startups, more competitive.
Our current system is the most expensive in the world.
Roughly double the cost of other wealthy countries.
We have way more people here getting it for free.
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The cost of prescription drugs is the largest driver of healthcare cost inflation. This seems
like a very solvable problem.
This is truth. We've exhausted the competition model, IMO.
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Here is something the guy you voted for said last night that might give you some confidence
Question, from Laura Ingraham: “What lessons do you think the Democrats should learn from this shutdown saga?”
Answer, from the President of the United States: “Well, the country loses a lot of money when they do this. And they’re not getting much. But nobody gets a lot. But it’s terrible.”
So....I wouldn't hold my breath until that genius comes up with a health care plan if I were you