MalG

Question: how much do the private insurance companies shell out to politicians and lobbyist? Kev, do you know what the projected cost for single-payer is (are) and where on internet is a source for full and true description, not from Fox of course. BTW, some might tell me to shut up since I depend on social security (which I've contributed to since the minimum wage was fifty cents an hour) and I'm helped by the VA but I read and can think logically.
Keep contributing accuracy into this site.

straightUp Loc: California

Of course not. It's part of their institutionalized ignorance. I would argue that there is no mastermind design behind this. Fox has a very successful business model... Pay for cheap commentary and broadcast it to an addictive audience. Basically, pulp fiction with a news media theme. Sponsors pay top dollar to put their ads on the screen. So you can't call it anything less than a resounding commercial success. It just so happens that the Fox audience are like crack heads about politics and so that's the crack Fox is serving. That just happens to work out for the politicians that benefit most from delusional voters. So the institutionalization I'm referring to is much more an effect of circumstance than a diabolical plan.

In any case, facts about things like whether a congressman is actually exempt from the rules of the ACA are casually left out. These facts are sobering and they interfere with the addiction and really, you can't analyse the healthcare crisis in this country without addressing the issue of bias media and the choice people have now to block out the facts entirely.

straightUp Loc: California

Gotta love those conspiracy theories... Any more word on that child slavery colony the Democrats are running on Mars?

Bad Bob Loc: Virginia

Thanks for a little sanity.

straightUp Loc: California

In total? Per year? Per campaign? Kevin might have total figures but in my experience it's hard to find all the money insurance companies shell out on political favors in one place. Not only that but following that paper trail is a almost impossible now since Republicans have insured that political funding is free of limits AND disclosure (...and protected by the 1st Amendment.)


Here's an excerpt from politifact...

The highest-profile single-payer plan is one promoted by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Under this plan, "as a patient, all you need to do is go to the doctor and show your insurance card," says a Sanders website. "Bernie’s plan means no more copays, no more deductibles and no more fighting with insurance companies when they fail to pay for charges."

Sanders pegs the price tag for his plan at $1.38 trillion per year during the first 10 years. This is based on an analysis by Gerald Friedman, an economist at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.

However, "there is a great deal of disagreement and controversy" about this number, said Jonathan Oberlander, a health policy and management professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Kenneth Thorpe, a professor of health policy and management at Emory University, put the cost at $2.4 trillion a year. A team from the Urban Institute put the number at $2.5 trillion a year. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget projected $2.8 trillion a year.



http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/jul/21/how-expensive-would-single-payer-system-be/

The key to understand is that the difference between a market system and single-payer system isn't the bill, but how the bill is being paid. Single-payer will look like a nuclear attack on the federal budget, so obviously the government would have to levy taxes to cover it, but even if taxes are raised it's likely that the tax payer will still come out ahead because he won't have to pay insurance premiums anymore. Since everyone (is supposed to) pay taxes, the total cost of single-payer can be spread over a wider span, making each contribution smaller than what insurance companies could possibly offer.

Something else the article mentions... is that Broadly speaking, "single-payer programs abroad are far more cost-effective than American medical care and cost much less," Oberlander said.

I've actually been able to make that comparison personally, having lived in Europe for a while and that statement matches my personal observations.

straightUp Loc: California

Sometimes it's really needed, eh?

Bad Bob Loc: Virginia

More than ever.

straightUp Loc: California

It's a weird time to be living... I guess every generation says that. Look... they're not around anywhere (The other posters)... Fox isn't putting healthcare in the limelight, so all they had was whatever one-liners they could remember, then they rushed off to another thread more in-line with the currently sponsored delusions. lol.

so predictable.

maureenthannon

I suppose you think it's good for the people that health care costs have doubled since the ACA was passed. So many people sign up for it because they have no choice. If they don't they have to pay the IRS thousands of dollars. The Left think that people are too stupid to take care of themselves and need the nanny state to control everything they do. Look how great Socialism worked for the biggest Socialist nations in the world, the USSR and Nazzi Germany.

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

The single payer plan is what government involvement has always been about...just ask Berney...

Bad Bob Loc: Virginia

Nonsense

maureenthannon

To pay for the ACA, tey stole, excuse me, borrowed $700 billion from Medicare. Medicare is the health program for America's senior citizens and disabled. The seniors and the disabled are the Americans with the most diseases and health care costs. SO, why is it a good thing to take healthcare dollars from the sick to support a politicians plan for state control of the people?

1935boxer

we have to pass it to know whats in it, just don't have the time to read it. NANCY PALOCI. im sure it must be ok ,the democrats want it.

Bad Bob Loc: Virginia

What are you crying about? Ya got the govment controlled Medicare.

free believer

I worked in healthcare for forty years in all types of systems; private, public, and religious. I spent the last 27 of those years in a Catholic system because it was the only system that actually covered Anyone who came in no matter what their financial status. I firmly believe that Everyone has the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as our Founding Fathers promoted: you can't do that if you are dead!