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Thee's no way on earth Cali will go single payer. Something that gives 'essentially universal coverage' - sure. But single payer, no way. 'Single payer' often
by edblarney 10y ago
Thee's no way on earth Cali will go single payer.
Something that gives 'essentially universal coverage' - sure. But single payer, no way.
'Single payer' often means that Steve Jobs waits 12 months for his knee replacement, in behind a lot of unemployed folks, immigrants, many undocumented migrants etc. which is the objective of socialized medicine.
In Canada, it's illegal to pay a doctor to fix you. Granted, we're the only country where this is the case.
I could be wrong, but a UK friend indicated that if you 'go outside the NHS' then you have to basically stay outside of it.
The 'real challenge' is to try to find the right balance and make it fair, but still allow people to have choice etc..
Probably for 2/3rds of people, 'single payer' is best, but for a not-insignificant-minority it's definitely not.
It's tricky because I'm not sure anyone in the world has the solution.
- Randin 10y agoI would say that France may have it right.
- labster 10y agoI think I meant single-payer in the way that Medicare works in the U.S. There can be companies who manage it, or supplemental policies, but the primary payer remains the U.S. Government. So the approach would be to extend Medicare to everyone (or in our case, MediCal). Increase payroll taxes to pay for it; remove the requirement that employers provide health insurance. All other laws remain the same.
- edblarney 10y agoI agree that a medicare extension to 'everyone' might help. But that won't work, it will blow up healthcare. Why? Because young people just won't buy coverage. They'll all just use Medicare. :) Most people will = destruction of the industry. So, yes, 'getting everyone covered somehow by nudging in Medicare' sure ... but it can't just be done by simply extending it.