ACA Repeal/Replace: Progressives Face Moral Dilemma

[David Horn]

(03-29-2017, 02:55 PM)Kinser79 Wrote: There will never be single payer in the US.  There are several good reasons why.

1.  People who've used Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA find it difficult to find a doctor who will take them, and in the case of the VA--yeah that is government run health care and it works great.  Said no one whose ever tried to use it, ever.

I'm on Medicare, and have no trouble finding a doctor.  I've also used the VA, and they are only limited by their funding.  The services are good if certainly not great.  The funding can be fixed, and the VA would be much less burdened if Medicare For All handled non-veteran-specific healthcare.  Let the VA take care of PTSD (they are the best in the world) and provide prosthetics and similar services for the wounded and disabled.

Kinser79 Wrote:2.  Where is the money going to come from to pay for this single payer?  Are we going to raise taxes?  Cut spending elsewhere (say the military and intelligence agencies) or will the government just inflate its way out.  As we know the printing press option never ever has consequences.

First, raise taxes on the those who have paid far less than they should.  Both Reagan and Clinton handed the wealthy tax bonanzas.  Time to take them back.  But that may be less an issue, since single payer is vastly more efficient than the kluge system we currently have.  We spend 2 to 3 times as much of our GDP by percentage than other advanced countries.

Kinser79 Wrote:3.  Diversity is not our strength.  European countries (and the Anglophone countries--except the US) implemented their systems when they were more or less monocultural and homogeneous.  The US has never been homogeneous even when it attempted to be monocultural.

Blah, blah, blah.  The linkage is not supported by data anywhere.  People get sick and injured.  We can take care them efficiently or not.  If not, then many become disabled and wards of the state.  Why does that make sense?

Kinser79 Wrote:So we have the perfect trifecta as to why single payer isn't ever happening in the US.  1.  If the government runs something, it turns to shit--always.  2.  We don't have the money to pay for it without having either inflation or taxation--and the former will end the petrodollar faster than the latter.  3.  Lack of clear tribe on the national scale.

Medicare and its less generous cousin, Medicaid, have much lower imbedded costs, and work better all around.  I have not had to fight with Medicare over services and disallowed charges -- not once.  Even errors were corrected fast and with no pain.  You are simply wrong on this.