Democrats: We Demand a $32,000,000,000,000 Government Healthcare System

[GURPS]

Since we're going to end up having this argument at some point, I'm never going to stop making the following points about "Medicare for All:"

(1) In order for that policy to become a reality, leftists will need to figure out how to come close to paying for it. Some Democrats pretended to be deficit hawks over the 2017 tax cuts -- which, on paper, 'cost' about $2 trillion (yes, deficits are again ballooning, and both parties are to blame for this irresponsible outcome, which is not the fault of tax reform). Single payer healthcare would cost taxpayers an estimated $32 trillion, or roughly eight times what the federal government spent in total last year, and approaching double the size of the entire US economy. None other than the hard-left chairman of the Democratic National Committee has confirmed that making this math work would require gigantic tax increases on working and middle class Americans. A former hard-left DNC Chair has admitted the same thing:

"The only problem is -- and this is initially going to seem like heresy from a progressive is -- the truth is everybody needs to pay more taxes, not just the rich."​

​

Considering the lengths to which Democrats went in order to falsely claim that tax reform was a tax increase on the middle class (it was the opposite), I'm not sure how they intend to convince tens of millions of Americans to pony up huge new sums of money to Uncle Sam to fund an unaccountable, abuse-riddled, innovation-crushing, bureaucrat-administered system. The feds can't even pull this off for veterans, a sliver of the population whose care we all agree should be stellar. Liberals want to take the VA mess and inflict it upon more than 300 million people.



Dozens of Congressional Democrats: We Demand a $32,000,000,000,000 Government Healthcare System

 

[glhs837]

Still baffled by the idea that folks think you can keep more water in the collander if you just pour more water into it.

 

[marychic]

The problem with our healthcare system is that there is no accountability for spending when the gov / insurance companies / employers are paying the bills. I know so many people that get acupuncture done only because their insurance offers it as a benefit which we all pay for through our rising premiums. Recent personal example is that I needed a blood test for tb screening for work but my employer said that I would need to pay for it myself. I first tried doing it through my insurance and my doctor and it was going to be >$500. Instead, I shopped around and found a way to order the tb blood test I needed online:
https://www.accesalabs.com/QuantiFERON-Gold-TB-Blood-Test

Fast results and free market pricing keeps the labs and healthcare providers accountable by fighting for my business. Way more sensible than pouring more money into a system where a bunch of intermediaries take their piece of the pie...

 

[SamSpade]

I find this number almost impossible to believe. This is roughly 100,000 per man women and child in the country.
Per year.
Logically it does not make sense that if the entire economy is smaller than this, then the government cost
for it could exceed it. Right now, most people in the nation are getting health care - so how can replacing
it with a government plan cost twice what the entire economy creates?

That said - the ONLY way single-payer can ever work - especially the way government likes to manage things,
you can only do it a few ways - reduce coverage, increase wait times, lower quality.
Right now, my son sees his doctor once a month. The wait from arrival to seeing him is less than a half hour,
and part of that is because we get there before he shows up. (In contrast, virtually every *emergency* care
place I have gone to in the last 20 years, I've never waited less than an hour, and often much more). My wife
sees her allergist once a month. It's a short wait.

When you offer ANYTHING "free" - people line up out the door for "free".
Charge ten bucks, and the line goes away.
Give away free Slurpees at 7-11, and you can't get in the door. Charge 50 cents,
and people aren't so ready to get in line.

I've been in emergency rooms - with an emergency. Once, it was gall stones - and I had to compete
with a kid with a cold, and a drunk who wouldn't shut up.

If you want Medicare for all, you have to find a way to disincentivise people from showing up every
day with a sniffle. Charge 'em a small fee, and they'll come when it's important.

 

[Kyle]

If you want Medicare for all, you have to find a way to disincentivise people from showing up every
day with a sniffle. Charge 'em a small fee, and they'll come when it's important.

That's also been the biggest problem with insurance premiums rising over the years.

 

[BOP]

If you want Medicare for all, you have to find a way to disincentivise people from showing up every
day with a sniffle. Charge 'em a small fee, and they'll come when it's important.

Racist.

 

[Kyle]

Racist.

That's precisely how it would be played.

 

[SamSpade]

Racist.

You know what has also played out? Calling people racist (I know you're being funny - I am referring to something else)
when the pertinent insult might be "greedy" "cruel" or "bully". It's become so widely used, it simply doesn't mean
ANYTHING anymore.

 

[SamSpade]

Still - much as I would like to believe this cost - it simply cannot be. No matter who gets billed, you can't have an economy EXIST
where more money is OWED to a sector than the entire economy PRODUCES. It's just not mathematically possible.

 

[Hijinx]

Still - much as I would like to believe this cost - it simply cannot be. No matter who gets billed, you can't have an economy EXIST
where more money is OWED to a sector than the entire economy PRODUCES. It's just not mathematically possible.

Ben Jealous wants to try it in Maryland.