I have been on Medicare with a BCBS and also use the VA for medical care. One has to remember not all companies have the same insurance plans and who says they will continue to cover you once you retire. It is better than what anyone else has to offer. I say Medicare for ALL with the provision if you have an employer that offers better then you can keep that until something changes.
I also love the VA as they deal with a problem and don't try to make up problems just to make money.
Those that are against having a form of Medicare for all just are not thinking this through. When people use the emergency room as a Doctor appointment not only does it take up recourses but the cost is extremely high. A healthy population will be one that is at it's lowest cost per person.
This has nothing to do with Republicans or Democrats, it has ALL to do with us as a society.

The cost would be absurd
 

There is no free lunch. The idea that Medicare for all would be cheaper for people is ridiculous. Either the government will run up more debt, or we will see huge tax increases, or both. Plus, Medicare rarely covers leading edge treatments.

I am one person who wishes to see at least a portion of our medical system remain private. Vast improvements could be made if politicians were not so bought off (both parties) by the industry.

Medicare I believe is great but it should be the same price for all Medicare members. Drugs should be competitively priced same price for all countries

I think the goverment overspends for contracts but on the other hand I wouldn't want the private sector to control our military.

Medicare for all is not the answer. I pay for my health insurance because I am not old enough for Medicare and my coverage sucks. When I was on a employer based my insurance had vision and dental which were with doctors that were excellent.

I like my Medicare better than any of my previous employment plans, however, I certainly would like your employment plan. I don’t believe Congress (no matter which political party is in) will ever pass a health plan that removes options.

I served in the armed forces for 20 years and was always told I and my family would be taken care of. When I retired we had Champus and all was well. Then they moved us to Tricare and Tricare Prime. We had to pay for that but a very reasonable premium, all things considered. At age 65 we HAD TO go on Medicare and our monthly premium, deducted from our SS, was nearly 10 times more than we paid for Tricare but our generic prescription were free. Now we pay for all presciptions, at a very reasonable sum but even those on Active Duty pay for coverage for their dependents. However, Tricare for Life as a supplement to Medicare can't be beat. That is until the government comes back and changes the rules AGAIN.

My understanding is that the phrase "Medicare for All" does not mean the current Medicare program, but rather is a plan to provide all health care needs for all Americans. It recognizes that health care is a basic human right and not something that should be available just for those who can afford it. It would keep all of us from possibly experiencing bankruptcy if a catastrophic health condition occurs. It also includes using volume discounts to lower the cost of health care for everyone.

This is my understanding also.

For those that feel it will be too expensive or run up the debt. There are several plans that have been suggested, and in those tax increases to pay for the plan are included - yes, people will pay more taxes. On the flip side, the plan will pay all healthcare costs, which will result in a net reduction in living expenses for most people.

The rub is that some people don't believe they need healthcare/health insurance because they are "young and healthy" and that works fine until the drunk runs a stop light and puts them in an emergency room where you and I get to pay to save their lives, because they don't have insurance. That works fine until they get a contagious disease because they don't have current vaccinations and we and our children get sick and we have to lose work and pay medical bills because they didn't.

There has been a lot of work studying the true costs of healthcare and there are a lot of costs to the government in the form of lost income tax from lowered productivity due to sickness and injuries.

The problem is not a simple one. But, other nations have shown it is possible to have universal single payer healthcare to provide basic healthcare and then to have private health care insurance for people that want it and can afford it.

NO, I liked my employer paid BCBS a lot better, but I turned 65

I agree, l’ll take my companies Ins. over Medicare anytime. Medicare is going to continually going to get worse. My Ins. I had with my company almost pays more than Medicare & my companies is secondary.

I used to be on private health insurance with a big company until I retired. It was a great plan paid for by the company. However, when I turned 65 I did not have a choice. I had to go on Medicare. Which I think most companies do to save money. I agree, the company paid plan was much better than Medicare.

Many people are not as fortunate as us. Medicare may be their only option or improve ACA.

Everyone wants something for nothing. Selfish. I love medicare and my supplemental insurance. I was in the hospital for 3 days and the bill was over $100,000. I paid about $80 out of pocket. America is great!

If I understand the rules for signing up, no restrictions at 65 regarding health status. However if Advantage plan to start and then wanting to make a change health status could be used to reject.

Why preface your comment with that? No one is proposing something for nothing. They are being very up front with the costs, some of which are enormous. But, they are proposing methods to pay those costs which involve increased taxes and lower healthcare so in the end you pay less than today.

America used to be great at finding and implementing solutions to big problems - Post Office, Interstte Highways, Moon landings, Social Security, and on and on. Now it seems no one wants to solve this problem and we are caught in an endless debate on why it can't work. Funny, it is working in lessor countries. Even Ecuador, a poor 3rd world country manages to ope it's borders and allow foreigners (me) to go there and receive quality healthcare for 1/4 the cost of the same care here.

Come on folks, let's make America truly great again, and show the world how to provide our citizens with the best healthcare in the world, instead of our current #17 rating for 2 to 3 times the cost of other places.

I must retain my employer sponsored health plan which the Villages Health said they would accept when they encouraged us to join. Less than three years later they dropped us from their services, insisting we enroll in their much inferior plan. We are still upset with Village Health.

I have been on Medicare for eight years and have also had an AARP supplement plan F for all that time. My wife has had numerous health issues and has been in the hospital off and on for 30-40 days in the last 3 years with zero $ out of pocket. If you review the bills you find that the amount medicare pays is a fraction of the billed expense. I guess I would wonder how the healthcare industry would survive on only medicare approved charges. Not that they couldn't survive on a great deal less than their maximum charges, but it is a question in my mind.

At least one solution is to regulate the healthcare industry and big pharma so that they are guaranteed a fix percentage of profit - say 10% to 15%. In return they have only one customer to negotiate with - the US government. It does mean no more $25 epipens for $1500. Insulation at prices the rest of the world pays, durance etc. Personally I would prefer that no profit be allowed, but I am sure that won't fly.

It also means 100s of thousands of health insurance employees will have to be retrained to work in the medicare devision of the US government.

If you begin thinking of healthcare as a right not not a profit center then a lot of things change. There are plenty of profit arenas in the world, it will not kill us (pun) for the healthcare industry to no longer be one.

I too have VA healthcare as I am 100% disabled Veteran. While I agree the care is good the government red tape it takes to get a referral outside of the system is long monthly wait. I just went through it and if you don’t keep on top of it and make plenty of phone calls you soon get forgotten in the seas of others who need the same services. I had my top teeth removed April 9th. To date I still don’t have any dentures to eat with. Can you imagine having to not have teeth for over 4 months and eating soggy cereal. I just got an appointment to start the process but it took a call to DC Veterans Healthcare to get it up and moving. I will agree when you get care the appointments with the doctors are not rushed. They are not under insurance time restraints of having to see so many patients a day and schedule plenty of time with each patient to discuss concerns. Ok now imagine every citizen is offered the same type of care. Can you imagine? After working as an RN in healthcare for 20 years I can guarantee that there will not be enough doctors to see that many people. The care will decline. Also do people who have worked all of their lives for the benefit of having Medicare want to lumped into a group including every US citizens. Hospitals stay open not because profits they make from Medicare but from private insurance. Hospital administrators have already said if Medicare for all were implemented it would close their doors. What would we do without hospitals. Private insurance has worked fine for years. It was only when the government started getting involved in healthcare did we have problems that are massive. The Medicare and social security programs are already broke because our lovely congress had borrowed from it. I don’t think the cost of Medicare for all would even be feasible. Thoughts??? Just my two cents worth that is probably only worth a penny!

Just keep in mind just because you are in good health things can change quickly and drastically. At the age of 49 and with a good job as a RN I got sick with a common childhood virus which is serious in adulthood. My life changed overnight. I went to never sick a day in my life to severely sick for over 6 months, left with other complications and never able to return to work. Luckily I am a veteran because the cost of my medicines would be crippling. I was only on one medication but the cost of it was 1000 dollars a prescription. The cost of COBRA was astounding. I went from taking one medication a day to taking 10. That is how quickly it changed. Fine one day and the next day so sick I couldn’t hold my head up. Luckily I still had my hospital insurance for 6 months because I was having tubes of blood drawn twice a week and many diagnostic tests. I got so sick that I thought I was going to die. I am glad you are healthy. My point is that illness is not always progressive.

How silly Mr Grump. There would be no incentive for anyone to join the healthcare field .. No or ill trained doctors, nurses, pahrmacists.. Why specialize in pharmaceutical science ? No drug invention .. maybe no continuance of the manufacture of drugs you depend on. Will the government "force" people to join the medical field ? Or shall we import people from outside the US that have graduated from third rate medical schools .. Sorry about that knee replacement or stint you need .. And you don;t think there would then be a secondary for pay marketplace for people wanting real care ?? Oh maybe the government will outlaw that too .. Come on man !

I have Medicare and United Healthcare Supplemental. I have been happy with this after paying the standard deductibles. I looked into Advantage but was unimpressed since you really need to be careful as to what you want as a premium . Medicare for all taking away private insurance would be disastrous. I think Medicare for all who want but have the luxury of a private insurance e is an option. Or if they fixed Obamacare. Just as an FYI. I am a registered Indeoendent so no political discussion from me

I agree. Taking the profit motive away would be a disaster.

I am sorry to hear of your problems. I too have VA healthcare and am very happy with it.

It does sound like the areas you are experiencing the most issues are involved in having to go OUTSIDE the system, and I can see how that would be a night mare. The idea of medicare for all is there is no "outside the system" so there is no authorization, there is no complicated approval process etc.

It is pretty widely agreed that in 15 years or less the healthcare system we have (for profit) will bankrupt the country. The alternative is to just let everyone who can't pay die.

I would call that a "disaster".

I did say that no profit motive would be hard, and suggested a fixed regulated profit of 10% to 15%. Almost any company would be happy to have a guaranteed 15% profit with a guaranteed customer base of 300 million.

I expect more people would be interested than you think.

What you are suggesting is a "cost plus fee" Government contract. When I worked in the Federal Government, cost plus fee contracts were the most expensive ways to procure any product or service for the Government. The best and most economical way to get a product or service was to use a fair and competitive bidding process. If you think that Medicare billings and payments have a lot of fraud and overcharging in them now, just wait until you try to reimburse health providers for their actual costs plus 15 percent.

I despise having the government controlling my health care. I had private coverage through my school district which has become my secondary. Now i have medicare as my primary. What worse is that you have no chouce in the matter.

Maybe, I am not the smartest person when it comes to the details. I am trying to show possible alternatives to what is not working and is going to bankrupt the country while a few companies get excessively rich.

I do not think Medicare for all would be the same program Seniors now enjoy.

What is worse are the 30 to 50 million people that can't afford to get medicine for their children. Or the 1/2 million families that have to file bankruptcy every year because their "good" coverage through their employee ends up not being so good.

The first case drives a person deeper into debt and desperation as they watch their children grow more and more unhealthy, the second case results in entire families that had "everything" and their kids headed for college and the good life, suddenly bankrupt and with their entire futures lost.

That is what I call worse.

You don't like not having a choice? There is debate on the right way to provide medicare for all - one is to eliminate choice and private insurance, I don't think that has a chance. I am against it. I think Medicare for all must provide basic medical care for all Americans, it should be treated as a right. Then if someone wants and can afford a supplemental private policy there is no reason they should not be able to buy it.

I just want to make 2 points. One, when you offer a Government option for health care to everyone, private employer paid insurance will no longer be an option because the employers will stop paying for their employees' insurance altogether. And, second, no one is talking about the fact that any Govenment provided health care will need to be paid for with borrowed money, because the Government is 22 trillion dollars in debt. Yes, individuals will not pay for health care directly, but our children and grandchildren will eventually have to pay off the debt or continue to pay enormous and increasing interest payments forever.

I think the ship has sailed on what we are doing to future generations.

You failed to add that the deficit is growing by leaps and bounds despite what we were told. Fiscally, we are out of control

Removing employer healthcare is considered by many (me included) to be a good thing. In many cases (most) in the current system it acts as a lock to keep employees from seeking better employment elsewhere. It is NOT easy to find healthcare at a new employer and it often will not cover pre-existing conditions. And there is normally a gap when you move.

And no, borrowing of the plans being suggested all provide payment plans. The basic idea is everyone pays a higher "medicare" tax, which they are already paying, just higher. In return everyone gets medical health care for no charge - period. No deductibles, not excluded conditions, no fighting with the insurance company over if the doctor should have provided the test or service. No wondering if your insurance is going to cover something.

The estimates are that the higher medicare tax will be offset by the lower cost of living (all medical costs paid). So everyone will save money - except those that don't bother to have health insurance, and let you and me pay for their illness or injury by going to an emergency room.

Will it work? No one knows, we do know various forms of it work in numerous other countries (actually 17 of them that provide better cheaper healthcare then were do), and the result is better healthcare (measured by results) happier and healthier citizens, and the cost is about 1/2 to 1/3 of what we are paying with our current multi-payer for profit healthcare system.

Our healthcare is NOT keeping you healthy, in fact they hope you get sick - there is no profit in curing anyone of anything, there is only profit in treating illness. In a system where there is no profit, the motivation is to keep you healthy. I KNOW this works, because I use the VA healthcare, and that is exactly what I see.

When I was in medicare, I went to for profit healthcare "groups" and saw a different doctor every visit, and if I was lucky I saw them for 15 minutes. There was a constant feeling of they really wanted to get done with me and get to the next patient.

Now that I am in the VA, I always see my primary care provider, and they speak with me as long as I want to talk. They are obviously interested in my healthcare because they want to keep me healthy to save money - see, they are not making a profit, they are working on a limited budget, and it is in their best interest to make sure I stay healthy.

That is what single payer healthcare can be - at least I believe it can be.

Seriously? Do you think that when the govt takes over you will be able to get any treatment or procedure or medication that your doctor wants you to have? Medicare doesn't do that now. (i.e. They pay for the cheap single-vision lenses after cataract surgery, not the more expensive multi-focal ones I got.) Medicaid/MediCal doesn't do that now. They have a list of drugs that you can have. If your drug is on the list, great. If it is not, oh, well ...

I know insurance companies don't pay for everything either, because (unlike the govt) they have to make money, whereas the govt just prints what it wants. But anybody who thinks universal healthcare will provide everything for everybody is not being realistic. Personally, I would rather fight with an insurance company over a treatment or a bill than fight with the govt, but that's just me.

kathy

I don't think, I know.Medicare is simply the government acting as a insurance company that pays for profit healthcare providers to provide healthcare. That system is doomed eventual for the reasons you mentioned and more.

In a single payer system, if modeled after the VA (which I think it should be) the for profit is removed, completely (currently the VA system is experiencing budget cuts and some services are provided for by for profit agencies (like glasses) and my experience with those services is that they suck. However, all of the services within the VA Healthcare system are excellent. When my doctor wants something I get it, and normally the same day.

Remember the VA is motivated to cure you and keep you well so you do not cost them more than necessary. For profit is motivated to treat you as long and as expensively as possible, so the insurance companies, and you constantly have to fight. They want to keep costs down and have entire departments dedicated to finding ways to NO PAY for your treatments. You on the other hand want to do what your doctor says, and have to fight with your insurance company to spend a little of the money you hang been paying them to spend.

Check plans...my Medicare covers drugs and a lot more

The problem is much deeper than simply providing health insurance for all. An infrastructure of medical personnel, clinics and supplies needs to be available. The two-tiered system of health insurance, such as that Canada has where those who can afford private health insurance in additional to their national health insurance, creates a system of those who don't receive services in a timely manner versus those whose private insurance covers it and they get timely services. Also, of interest to me is that Lithuania can't keep enough doctors since in their financial system, doctors aren't adequately compensated for their service, and they leave the country to go to another country. Sounded like it could be similar to Medicare where services aren't adequately compensated.

Finally, my previous doctor in another State, went totally no-insurance. She had great difficulty helping her Medicaid/Medicare patients find new doctors since no doctor in this suburb community was taking this "insurance".

Clearly, I don't know the answer, but certainly hope we don't allow Congress to dictate our "health" insurance as a political carrot to win our vote.

I agree completely, we don’t want Congress to decide. Studies from both Harvard and MIT show Congress votes against their own constituents best interests and in favor of big money over 85% of the time.

Medicare - NO
 

:ohdear: You really don't want anything that the government runs - if possible. I am dealing with the VA - and just to see a doctor - from a medical emergency has took almost 2 months. I can't tell you how many people I had to call - how many authorizations I had to have - how many people gave me the wrong phone number & information , then even once I got my authorization - it had a doctor's name on it I have never seen. It's preposterous - and a real shame. :MOJE_whot: