Health care problems and solutions in politics

Silverback

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I do, but not free, America does not need free healthcare, it needs affordable healthcare.

Everyone should have reasonable premiums, deductibles, and co-pays.

I would prefer modifications to the Affordable Care Act, vs, a single payer system.
 
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GodLovesCats

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These are only my proposals and not based on what would be realistic with a Republican Senate majority. For the purposes of this topic only I am assuming both sides of Congress will be controlled by Democrats. In no particular order of importance:
  1. Require all employers with at least 25 employees to include health insurance benefits to part and full time workers.
  2. Require private insurance companies to cover all lifesaving exams including colonoscopies no matter how much they cost.
  3. Prohibit price changes when patients have to switch from regular pills to the extended release forms of the same drugs.
  4. Put a low price cap on brand name drugs for people whose doctors submit forms they can't take the generic drug.
  5. Add hearing aids, hearing implants, and audiology appointments to the list of health care plans.
 
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dogs4thewin

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I do, but not free, America does not need free healthcare, it needs affordable healthcare.

Everyone should have reasonable premiums, deductibles, and co-pays.

I would prefer modifications to the Affordable Care Act, vs, a single payer system.
because there is no such thing as free, and "free" stuff people tend to abuse.
 
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Paulos23

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I would like to see health care lowered to the point the employer is not paying for it. Which would separate it from employment, which is the biggest issue I have with American health care.

Then I would have single payer at the state level, and let states join together to get more bargening strength from medical providers.

But the current system is costing us to much. The government is paying more than any other country on health care, and the public is paying about the same on top of that. The current medical system is a rip off.
 
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dogs4thewin

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I would like to see health care lowered to the point the employer is not paying for it. Which would separate it from employment, which is the biggest issue I have with American health care.

Then I would have single payer at the state level, and let states join together to get more bargening strength from medical providers.

But the current system is costing us to much. The government is paying more than any other country on health care, and the public is paying about the same on top of that. The current medical system is a rip off.
What is wrong with it being an employment benefit? In terms of it being offered as a possible benefit?
 
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Zoii

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I do, but not free, America does not need free healthcare, it needs affordable healthcare.

Everyone should have reasonable premiums, deductibles, and co-pays.

I would prefer modifications to the Affordable Care Act, vs, a single payer system.
Perhaps the USA should benchmark Holland which has been rated as the best health care system in the world and is insurance based.

One stark difference is that the USA health care system drives most of the health care dollar into tertiary and quaternary care while Holland has far greater support for primary health care and hence why their population is fitter and healthier.
 
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Paulos23

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What is wrong with it being an employment benefit? In terms of it being offered as a possible benefit?
Have you looked at the cost of health care during retirement? Or if you are between jobs?

It should not be so expensive that it is only afordable if you are well-off or employed.
 
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Paulos23

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Now that is an interesting idea - 50 payers. How would it work?
I would see it working like other single payer countries. They would have medical providers bidding for these states business, and these states could go for the lowest bidder, or the best product, or whatever.

And then states could have policies that match the way the people in their state wants. I could also see states with smaller populations or GDP teaming up to get better deals.
 
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Speedwell

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What is wrong with it being an employment benefit? In terms of it being offered as a possible benefit?
Nothing, really, as long as it is a uniform benefit so a person can changes jobs easily with losing anything and if it is also available at reasonable cost to entrepreneurs and the self-employed. Employer-provided health insurance is actually an accident of history unknown before WWII when it was invented by employers competing for a shrinking civilian workforce and prevented by a wage freeze from offering traditional salary inducements. There is certainly nothing inevitable about it.

I have the impression that you want to tie it to employment because you imagine a large pool of people who are able to work but choose not to and you don't want to give them anything for free, but that is largely a conservative myth.
 
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Occams Barber

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I am not in favor of a single-payer health care plan either, but the ACA does have some major flaws.

Many countries (including mine) use a single payer/universal healthcare system. I don't understand the objection to a single payer system which seems to be shared by many Americans.

OB
 
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ThatRobGuy

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Healthcare is one of the examples of where "How we imagine things would work out on paper" don't line up with "How things work out in the real world"...and it's one of the reasons that health care is one of the select few topics where I tend to stray from the libertarians (even though that's the party I still vote for most of the time).

"in a perfect world", entities in a free market healthcare system would compete with each other, and thus, produce better products, and the competition would drive prices down.

But any/all data points one would look at shows that isn't how things have played out. Countries with single-payer models, that cap prices on certain meds and procedures are consistently producing better outcomes at a lower per capita spending rate than the US.

Insurance companies are part of the problem, but not as big a part of the problem as some "100% free market" advocates would like to believe. Even if we could magically eliminate the insurance company meddling aspect of the equation tomorrow, the fact remains that healthcare organizations (hospital systems, etc...) have been working together (conspiring in a way) to make sure they don't undercut each other too much so that none of them has to lower their price by too much so that they can all keep profits high.

The major issue is that healthcare is a market with inelastic demand, so the normal laws of supply/demand don't have the same impact as in elastic demand markets like restaurants, consumer electronics, etc...
 
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GodLovesCats

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Many countries (including mine) use a single payer/universal healthcare system. I don't understand the objection to a single payer system which seems to be shared by many Americans.

America is a free country. We have the right to choose our lifestyles if our health and money makes doing what we want possible. So why shouldn't we have a choice on health insurance?

What I want more than anything from the government is universal health care. My opposition is to forcing everyone to have the same health insurance plan because we all have different needs beyond the regular wellness exams and disease testing.
 
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Desk trauma

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What is wrong with it being an employment benefit?

It handicaps US companies internationally as it saddles them with a coast that foreign companies do not have and pressures people into keeping jobs to maintain their benefits.
 
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Silverback

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Perhaps the USA should benchmark Holland which has been rated as the best health care system in the world and is insurance based.

One stark difference is that the USA health care system drives most of the health care dollar into tertiary and quaternary care while Holland has far greater support for primary health care and hence why their population is fitter and healthier.

Good point, however, Americans with a rash prefer to go straight to a Dermatologist. This is why managed care plans are the policies of last resort, people don't want to wait.
 
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GodLovesCats

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If ALL employers were required to offer health insurance to their employees people would not give up any benefits. They should just have to update their work contact information. The exception is people who get fired; that situation would be avoided if people did everything possible to obey employer rules.
 
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pdudgeon

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I would see it working like other single payer countries. They would have medical providers bidding for these states business, and these states could go for the lowest bidder, or the best product, or whatever.

And then states could have policies that match the way the people in their state wants. I could also see states with smaller populations or GDP teaming up to get better deals.

There's only one problem with that idea: people would be forced to move in order to get a health plan that let's them live, that they agree with, and that they can afford.
 
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