Current US healthcare system spends $3.5 trillion. Bernie's plans- 3 trilion. Breakdown: To fund Medicare for all researchers calculate the government would have to bring in an additional 773 billion in relation to current levels. 10% could come from payroll tax- $436B. Employers currently pay around 12% contribution to healthcare. $375B from 5% household income tax. In their breakdown of the numbers, researchers applied the existing Medicare fee structure across the entire health-care system and found it would save about $100 billion annually. Keep in mind that this basically represents less money going to doctors and hospitals, a major sticking point for medical groups that oppose Medicare-for-all. But those declines would be more than offset by several hundred billions in savings from reduced administrative and billing costs, Galvani and her colleagues estimate. The lack of patient billing under a Medicare-for-all system would also eliminate the roughly $35 billion a year that hospitals. The authors estimate an additional $219 billion in savings from reduced “administrative overhead” that the current decentralized system creates, including “the elimination of redundant corporate functions and the truncation of the top-heavy salary architecture of health insurance corporations.” For instance, the plan would replace dozens of health insurance executives, many of whom make well over $20 million a year, with one administrator paid the same salary as the current Secretary of Health and Human Services. Finally, letting the national Medicare system negotiate pharmaceutical prices would save about $180 billion, according to the analysis.
This is the only part I disagree with you. This will not happen. But the quality of healthcare for those who will be forced to use the government system will indeed plunge. And it'll be just like here in Brazil: the politicians that promote "our Medicare for all" (Sistema Único de Saúde - SUS) always feed the ignorant the same crap that your politicians are pushing now, but when they need treatment for themselves, they only go to the best private Hospitals in the country. The public employees, that always defend this crap too, have endless group insurance agreements with these hospitals(if, for example, one looks at the list of "Sírio-Libanês Hospital", one of the top hospitals in the country, which is private and does not take patients from the government system, one can easily see this). My first job after college many years ago was as a primary care physician from SUS. I was very young and idealist at the time and the system (which was created in 1988) was already known for being a mess. But, I thought that no matter what others did, I could give great healthcare and the salary was not bad at all(which was one of my motivations for doing that in the first place). I even payed from my own pocket the UpToDate (www.uptodate.com) system, which is a top quality american service for information for physicians. When people asked me, I used to tell them that what I was trying to do was to bring top quality healthcare (from the U.S.) to one of the poorest neighborhoods of Foz do Iguaçu (the city famous for the Iguaçu falls on the border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay). Even though I was able to help a few patients indeed, in reality I could almost never get anything done(example: a patient with an obvious Atrial Fibrillation needed an echocardiogram to see if there were any "valvular causes" for the arrhythmia, but as a primary care physician, I couldn't order this, so I had to send the patient to a cardiologist in the hopes that he would order it. Many months later(which is the usual time for the consultation with an specialist to take place) the patient comes back, the echocardiogram wasn't ordered and there was nothing I could do but to try to send the patient back and start the process all over). This is a very representative real example of the whole system. It took me a few years to realize that the problem was the structure and the incentives(contrary to the bullshit I was fed during college). You can have a good salary and be willing to do the best possible, but almost everything else around you(with rare exceptions of people who were also motivated, like one nurse that was very kind and competent and always tried to help me because she understood what I was trying to do) simply doesn't work. The vast majority of government employees don't have the incentive to provide a good service, because their payment doesn't depend on the quality of their work. It is the usual difference between private and public management. And the few idealists who try to do it are never able to get anything done because of the bureaucracy and all the others who simply don't give a shit. After that experience, I left the public system and, worked in the private sector exclusively.
Costs never went up this much. Of course, people think that with President Donald Trump winning the US Presidency, he changed the healthcare system. This is all the result of Obamacare which is what we have now. The reason for the huge increases is because of the subsidy where some people pay premiums of $150 a month and low deductibles, there is only a handful of them. Of course, other people will subsidize him/her and pay more. Chances are good he/she is not paying his/her fair share. So, people lost their good employer paid healthcare under Obamacare with reasonable premiums and deductibles and now, have to pay much higher premiums and deductibles because of Obamacare. We still have Obamacare for the ignorant fools who still do not realize it. John McCain's and other RINOs legacy is keeping Obamacare alive. This is just a sample. When you have Medicare for All, the subsidies would even be higher and the costs of medical care will go up even higher on majority of Americans because you would have more people leeching and depending on others to carry their asses.
Did you even watch the debate? When Bernie Sanders does not even know the total cost of his Medicare for All, numerous articles mention the figure $50 trillion? Pete Buttigieg put the cost after our taxes have been increased a huge amount at over $30 trillion? What savings you get will be neglible to the huge cost increases in premiums and deductibles for 95% of Americans who pay for their health insurance. Hospitals, doctors, nurses are not the problem. It is Obamacare and now, Medicare for All. When, you have people not paying enough for their health insurance, it has to come out of someone else's pockets. That is just common sense. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Someone is paying for this out of his pockets. Hospitals will not take the losses because they have to pay their staff, not counting doctors and nurses salaries too. So, you and I end up paying for it.
The rest actually do not have single payer. Not Japan, not Germany, not Canada, not Sweden, not France
“Across the country, single payer health care has been rejected by each state that has given it serious study because the significant tax increases needed to support the system would leave the state uncompetitive, crippling economic growth and job creation,” said Lori Pellegrini, president and chief executive of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans, in prepared testimony before the legislative panel. So let's inflict on the rest of the country so we all become noncompetitive and have crippled economic and job growth. Yeah, yeah sign me up. NOT
I'm not a doctor, but can we hit you up for an Aripipazol scrip for Tony here? Just mail it c/o Baron @ Elite Trader, USA. ...Tia. Medication is an essential component of treating schizophrenia. Medication can help relieve symptoms of schizophrenia such as delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized thinking by blocking certain chemical receptors in the brain.