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Bernie Sanders "Medicare for All" plan makes all the sense in the world. Expand medicare for everyone. Pay the government instead of insurance premium. Medical
by l8again 9y ago
Bernie Sanders "Medicare for All" plan makes all the sense in the world. Expand medicare for everyone. Pay the government instead of insurance premium. Medical costs go down. Doctors/hospitals might earn less, but will have guaranteed payments. Medicare, a government program, is considered the gold standard of healthcare, so this isn't the government's first rodeo.
- GarrisonPrime 9y agoThe only reason it's the gold standard is because it's everywhere. Having worked in 6 hospitals since 2006, I'm not quite sure how you think expanded medicare is any sort of solution.
- abalone 9y agoNor are we quite sure how you think it’s not, other than logically fallacious argument from authority.
- tertius 9y ago> Doctors/hospitals might earn less No, they HAVE to earn less. Also, if the exact same medicare that pays out today is replicated to the whole population the medical industry will go broke overnight.
- tehlike 9y agoMaybe that will force the industry to increase their efficiency(hopefully not through decreased attention to patient, but through cost reduction, better negotiation power with pharma industry and all)
- prklmn 9y agoThat's what the hospitals have been doing recently through consolidation of both hospitals and private practices. Not reducing their costs overall per se, but trying to grow as much as possible to increase buying power. I'm of the opinion that this is a bad road to go down, one with a lower degree of competition and choice compared to what we had 15 years ago.
- tehlike 9y agoI think you need to have incentives in place to foster innovation in healthcare somehow. Consolidating hospitals sounds like a way on monopoly, i agree, but consolidation could also happen on payer (single payer?) side, which would give some bargaining power. I think at this point US healthcare system is too complex for many of us to follow. We have different private practices, labs, hospital facilities, and all that comes with the cost of opacity. When you can't really tell how much you are going to pay to whom in advance comes with loss of power to choose (a different care-giver), which probably creates local monopolies.
- refurb 9y agoNo, it will cause the medical industry to do less. A big reason (though not the only reason) why the US is so expensive is because way more medical procedures are done here vs. other countries.
- tehlike 9y agoI dont follow. More medical procedures done should reduce cost, unless you are constrained by the supply of doctors. Is that what you are saying?
- maxerickson 9y agoAbove they mean system wide spending when they say cost. Also, we are very likely doctor constrained. The patients/doctor in the US isn't hugely different than other countries, but it is difficult to estimate the impact of how a payment model causes them to direct their care. The current US model needs lots more doctors.
- walterstucco 9y agoMore medical procedures means a worst healthcare system If healthcare works it prevents unnecessary medical procedures
- tehlike 9y agoon a second read of the original message, maybe that's exactly what he's talking about. More medical procedures because of less preventive care, or more procedures "to cover their ass". I heard doctors tend to be on the super cautious side to reduce liabilities, and require more testing, procedures, and what not.
- walterstucco 9y ago> More medical procedures because of less preventive care Yes, I hit reply on the wrong box.
- abalone 9y agoSource or it didn’t happen.
- tertius 9y agoLook up what Medicare pays out.
- slickdifferent 9y agoIf you think government run healthcare is the solution you should talk to any military member or veteran; people are literally killing themselves in VA parking lots because the care is so bad.
- pgodzin 9y agoIsn't a big part of it the huge wait times because VA hospitals are overburdened by the number of vets? If they were covered by any hospital in their area rather than specific VA hospitals, presumably the care would be a lot better.
- schmidty 9y agoAnd who controls for the number of vets and the number of VA hospitals? The government. Do you think they would do better in a bigger version of this for the whole country?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]