The public option is certainly the way to go. As conservative think tanks publicized in the 1960’s, insurance and healthcare were the ripe grapes awaiting harvest. The biggest barrier to the public option is the unlimited funds that insurers will pay to convince the population that they have their interest at heart and that government running healthcare will result in inferior care and fewer options. Examples of successful government systems are abundant and the current American system is a catastrophic embarrassment. Reforming is essential.
I'm retired Navy. I've had universal healthcare my entire adult life. There's no reason we can't all have the same. We don't because voters don't believe it's possible and politicians don't have what it takes to deliver. It has nothing to do with money. It has everything to do with valuing human beings.
It’s a matter of government supporting policies which allow people to thrive. Our priorities are severely disordered, and they have been disordered for a long time.
The real problem is that most people do not understand how health insurance actually works. Most do not know how to read their explanation of benefits and many vote against their own interests
Absolutely. The fine print is mostly impossible. Long ago, home economics in school used to be cooking and seeing and whatnot. We need that still, but now add how to find good health insurance, manage your 401k, interview for a job, register to vote, write a resume, etc.
I fear the oppositiion to universal Health Care is not the people, it is the Republican Party that have been bought by the special interests that profit from reactive medicine rather than Unifersal Health Care services that actually reduce illness. For a snarky alalogy, Towtrucks do not make money from good tires and brakes. Should towtruck companies be allowed to buy policies that create road standards and services? Big Pharma has bought Congress.
Don't blame only the Republicans--Jeffries just as the Dems close in on winning the house now no longer supports Medicare for all. Both parties are bought and paid for by the insurance companies and Big Pharma. Therefore, first, you need the Hawaii experiment to get money out of politics to succeed and then start attacking these opportunities.
I will agree, the whole of Congress are subject to "Citizens United" who are not Citizens, they are a what, not a who. The paradigm of big money owning the laws that allow them to own more, it is now such a norm that many think it is ok and American. As well the 2 parties blame eachother. I will not minimize the treason in the Republican Party, and I will not deny the crimes of Democrat members of the same.
A so called Democrat in Michigan just came out and formed a group to vote for Republican Mike Rogers into the Senate and against Abdul El Sayed, on the grounds that individuals will lose their chosen doctors if the government is allowed to implement universal healthcare. It was disgusting to watch! The free world, even third worlds, have private and public health insurance systems, their arguments are all BS and meant to keep our system privatized for profiteering at the expense of our lives. Crony Capitalism has purchased our politicians, regulators, the courts and the SCOTUS too.
In the richest country in the world all Americans should be entitled to free healthcare, don’t let anyone tell you the country can’t afford it - they’re lying to you!
The Saskatchewan detail should end the "no state has ever done this" objection permanently, under a million people, a 23-day AMA-backed strike, and it worked well enough that the whole country copied it within a decade. But the sharper structural point is the category-two-to-three collapse, a growing public insurer eventually functions as single payer without anyone needing to pass an abolition bill. That's the strategy hiding in the taxonomy: you don't have to win the ideological fight up front, you just have to make the public option good enough that it wins by attrition.
Great piece! I’ve been writing and calling about this for years. I represented insurance companies in the 1990s. (Slap me.) The lobbying, bribery and disinformation has worsened exponentially since then. I presently live in a wealthy area in one of the poorest counties in California. The last two years have seen a remarkable uptick in cash pay concierge practices, thanks to upper tier tax breaks. Family practice at the largest medical provider here are residents. I recently consulted a brilliant foreign schooled resident. He wishes to coordinate care for multiple sclerosis as they do in the
UK. (I’m thinking his optimism just might hit a brick wall!) Physicians are no longer employees of the medical entity; they’re independent contractors. Those entities employ medical financial consultants who prioritize savings over care. Also, private equity has bought anesthesia, ambulance, lab and other services formerly directly attached to hospitals. It’s no wonder young Americans are unwilling to amass crushing debt for med school. Finally, the concept of risk pooling is utterly forgotten. The more in the pool (young and healthy, older or ill), the greater the efficiency. This can certainly be achieved at the state level.
One fine day, the USA will join every other civilized nation in the world with a health care system NOT run by corporate executives who care about their shareholders, not patients.
Over 200,000 people in Alabama alone have been kicked off Medicaid.. Medicaid in Alabama mainly covers children, the elderly and the disabled. This includes children with cancer or other terminal illnesses. 23% of Obamacare enrollment dropped after tax credits as families couldn't afford to pay for it if they were already struggling to pay for their rent and other necessities.
This is unacceptable when we have millionaires that could easily pay more for their fair share of taxes.
Universal health care and these programs all sound great, but my concern is what these programs will cover, what are the restrictions, how long would someone have to wait to see a doctor. I heard that Canadians in some cases have come to the US to see a doctor because the wait to see a doctor is too long. I would have to see the programs before endorsement.
The US Healthcare system costs double universal healthcare systems and inarguably produce substantially worse health outcomes.
This is well substantiated by the data.
The US Healthcare system costs double what universal healthcare systems and inarguably produce substantially worse health outcomes.
This is well substantiated by the data.
Cost: the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker puts US spending at $14,775 per person in 2024 against a $7,860 average for comparable wealthy countries, 88% more, using the federal government's own National Health Expenditure Accounts.
Outcomes: the Commonwealth Fund's Mirror, Mirror 2024 report compared ten high-income countries across 70 measures. The US ranked last overall and last on equity, health outcomes, and access. US life expectancy in 2024 was 79 years against 82.7 in peer countries, and the US premature death rate under 70 runs at nearly twice the peer average.
Wait times: Canada does have long waits. Canada is one design among many. Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Australia all cover everyone and all beat the US on the share of patients seen within a month for non-emergency surgery. On waiting two months or more for a specialist, Germany sits at 3% and the Netherlands at 7%, against 30% for Canada.
On Canadians coming here for care, researchers checked hospital and clinic records in Michigan, New York, and Washington, plus Canada's national health survey. Of 18,000 Canadian respondents, 20 said they'd gone to the US to obtain care. The authors titled the paper "Phantoms in the Snow."
Coverage and restrictions are design choices written into each bill. The baseline is settled: we already pay double for the worst results in the peer group.
Yes we can improve our system primarily in a better distribution of patients, but I’m still concerned about actual coverage and wait time. The US is not like other countries and we are not use to a universal system. It would be a drastic change and would need to be a slow process. I’m still not a fan until i see proposal and how it would work
Americans often have to wait a long time to get into see their own doctors or specialists. If they can’t afford healthcare, they don’t get into see anyone.
I’m not sure were you live or what Doctors you try to see because I only have the issue of seeing a doctor only on a rare occasion as to surgery I’ve had no problems
Eastern US, but there is a crisis in the VA hospitals, the veterans cant get surgeries or hardly an appointment. But it takes a month or more to see a specialist around here and forget it if you want to see a dermatologist. And if you are rural in this country, your local hospital may have closed.
I’m sorry to say I blame trump and the republicans for the VA hospital issues and for the closing of rural hospitals as to the rest I do not know why you area has such a problem
Mike, what kind of insurance do you have, and where do you live? I'm wondering, because you make it sound like waiting two months to see a doctor is a Canadian problem - but I have had to wait that long many times for an appointment here in the US. When I was in the military (under universal health care) was the only time I got rapid and excellent care.
I can’t just walk in to see a specialist. Appointments are scheduled months out. Other than that,I haven’t been able to see an MD for years. What I see is a Nurse Practitioner. All of the supposed talking points for the United States are just that, talking points & fall apart when faced with reality.
Maye Musk was born in Regina (pile of bones) Saskatchewan where healthcare became a Human Right in Canada and Joshua Norman Haldeman was the head of Saskatchewan's's National Socialist Party the Social Credit Party. Dr Haldeman eLON'S GRANDFATHER fled the subjugation of the Premier of Saskatchewan the Presbyterian Minister and leader of Saskatchewan's serving parliament Tommy Douglas for the Freedom of South AFRICA.
tODAY Scott Moe IS THE premier OF Saskatchewan AND HE IS A RIGHT WING CONSERVATIVE. and the opposition is democratic socialists. Saskatchewan still says healthcare is right not a privilege and so are education and welfare and Saskatchewan has petroleum and fertilizer up the Yin Yang. Saskatchewan is however unAmerican. Its citizens are healthy wealthy and wise because we can't change what was or what is and we can only influence what might be.
In Quebec's matriarchy we have liberal democracy while America decays and rots and stinks to the high heavens.☯️
The article does the opposite of equating them. It separates four models precisely so they can't be blurred together, defines single payer as its own category, names the New York Health Act, CalCare, and the Washington Health Trust as what that category means, and says outright I'd be most thrilled to watch a state enact full single payer directly. Describing how a publicly owned insurer can grow into single payer describes a route between two different things. A route only exists between things that are not the same.
The public option is certainly the way to go. As conservative think tanks publicized in the 1960’s, insurance and healthcare were the ripe grapes awaiting harvest. The biggest barrier to the public option is the unlimited funds that insurers will pay to convince the population that they have their interest at heart and that government running healthcare will result in inferior care and fewer options. Examples of successful government systems are abundant and the current American system is a catastrophic embarrassment. Reforming is essential.
I'm retired Navy. I've had universal healthcare my entire adult life. There's no reason we can't all have the same. We don't because voters don't believe it's possible and politicians don't have what it takes to deliver. It has nothing to do with money. It has everything to do with valuing human beings.
It’s a matter of government supporting policies which allow people to thrive. Our priorities are severely disordered, and they have been disordered for a long time.
The real problem is that most people do not understand how health insurance actually works. Most do not know how to read their explanation of benefits and many vote against their own interests
Absolutely. The fine print is mostly impossible. Long ago, home economics in school used to be cooking and seeing and whatnot. We need that still, but now add how to find good health insurance, manage your 401k, interview for a job, register to vote, write a resume, etc.
I fear the oppositiion to universal Health Care is not the people, it is the Republican Party that have been bought by the special interests that profit from reactive medicine rather than Unifersal Health Care services that actually reduce illness. For a snarky alalogy, Towtrucks do not make money from good tires and brakes. Should towtruck companies be allowed to buy policies that create road standards and services? Big Pharma has bought Congress.
Don't blame only the Republicans--Jeffries just as the Dems close in on winning the house now no longer supports Medicare for all. Both parties are bought and paid for by the insurance companies and Big Pharma. Therefore, first, you need the Hawaii experiment to get money out of politics to succeed and then start attacking these opportunities.
I will agree, the whole of Congress are subject to "Citizens United" who are not Citizens, they are a what, not a who. The paradigm of big money owning the laws that allow them to own more, it is now such a norm that many think it is ok and American. As well the 2 parties blame eachother. I will not minimize the treason in the Republican Party, and I will not deny the crimes of Democrat members of the same.
A so called Democrat in Michigan just came out and formed a group to vote for Republican Mike Rogers into the Senate and against Abdul El Sayed, on the grounds that individuals will lose their chosen doctors if the government is allowed to implement universal healthcare. It was disgusting to watch! The free world, even third worlds, have private and public health insurance systems, their arguments are all BS and meant to keep our system privatized for profiteering at the expense of our lives. Crony Capitalism has purchased our politicians, regulators, the courts and the SCOTUS too.
In the richest country in the world all Americans should be entitled to free healthcare, don’t let anyone tell you the country can’t afford it - they’re lying to you!
Sent to my State Rep and State Sen. Waiting........waiting......waiting
It’s wonderful how you come up with such creative but doable solutions, if only those who must effectuate them have the smarts and courage to do it.
Brilliant❗
Sent this article to two of my states candidates for office, Jamie Ager and Roy Cooper. I will be shocked if a get a response from either one.
It still makes a difference, without a doubt. Thank you for your activism 🌲 🌲🌲
The Saskatchewan detail should end the "no state has ever done this" objection permanently, under a million people, a 23-day AMA-backed strike, and it worked well enough that the whole country copied it within a decade. But the sharper structural point is the category-two-to-three collapse, a growing public insurer eventually functions as single payer without anyone needing to pass an abolition bill. That's the strategy hiding in the taxonomy: you don't have to win the ideological fight up front, you just have to make the public option good enough that it wins by attrition.
Great piece! I’ve been writing and calling about this for years. I represented insurance companies in the 1990s. (Slap me.) The lobbying, bribery and disinformation has worsened exponentially since then. I presently live in a wealthy area in one of the poorest counties in California. The last two years have seen a remarkable uptick in cash pay concierge practices, thanks to upper tier tax breaks. Family practice at the largest medical provider here are residents. I recently consulted a brilliant foreign schooled resident. He wishes to coordinate care for multiple sclerosis as they do in the
UK. (I’m thinking his optimism just might hit a brick wall!) Physicians are no longer employees of the medical entity; they’re independent contractors. Those entities employ medical financial consultants who prioritize savings over care. Also, private equity has bought anesthesia, ambulance, lab and other services formerly directly attached to hospitals. It’s no wonder young Americans are unwilling to amass crushing debt for med school. Finally, the concept of risk pooling is utterly forgotten. The more in the pool (young and healthy, older or ill), the greater the efficiency. This can certainly be achieved at the state level.
https://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/items/8fcb6d56-b3bc-4e22-9c82-c20b3856ee6c
Thanks as always.😊
One fine day, the USA will join every other civilized nation in the world with a health care system NOT run by corporate executives who care about their shareholders, not patients.
So, Mexico has Universal Health Care, I hope the US can figure out how to do the same.
Over 200,000 people in Alabama alone have been kicked off Medicaid.. Medicaid in Alabama mainly covers children, the elderly and the disabled. This includes children with cancer or other terminal illnesses. 23% of Obamacare enrollment dropped after tax credits as families couldn't afford to pay for it if they were already struggling to pay for their rent and other necessities.
This is unacceptable when we have millionaires that could easily pay more for their fair share of taxes.
Universal health care and these programs all sound great, but my concern is what these programs will cover, what are the restrictions, how long would someone have to wait to see a doctor. I heard that Canadians in some cases have come to the US to see a doctor because the wait to see a doctor is too long. I would have to see the programs before endorsement.
The US Healthcare system costs double universal healthcare systems and inarguably produce substantially worse health outcomes.
This is well substantiated by the data.
The US Healthcare system costs double what universal healthcare systems and inarguably produce substantially worse health outcomes.
This is well substantiated by the data.
Cost: the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker puts US spending at $14,775 per person in 2024 against a $7,860 average for comparable wealthy countries, 88% more, using the federal government's own National Health Expenditure Accounts.
https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/health-spending-u-s-compare-countries/
Outcomes: the Commonwealth Fund's Mirror, Mirror 2024 report compared ten high-income countries across 70 measures. The US ranked last overall and last on equity, health outcomes, and access. US life expectancy in 2024 was 79 years against 82.7 in peer countries, and the US premature death rate under 70 runs at nearly twice the peer average.
https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2024/sep/mirror-mirror-2024
https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/u-s-life-expectancy-compare-countries/
Wait times: Canada does have long waits. Canada is one design among many. Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Australia all cover everyone and all beat the US on the share of patients seen within a month for non-emergency surgery. On waiting two months or more for a specialist, Germany sits at 3% and the Netherlands at 7%, against 30% for Canada.
https://www.health.org.uk/reports-and-analysis/briefings/feeling-the-pressure-what-the-2023-commonwealth-fund-survey-reveals
On Canadians coming here for care, researchers checked hospital and clinic records in Michigan, New York, and Washington, plus Canada's national health survey. Of 18,000 Canadian respondents, 20 said they'd gone to the US to obtain care. The authors titled the paper "Phantoms in the Snow."
https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.21.3.19
Coverage and restrictions are design choices written into each bill. The baseline is settled: we already pay double for the worst results in the peer group.
Yes we can improve our system primarily in a better distribution of patients, but I’m still concerned about actual coverage and wait time. The US is not like other countries and we are not use to a universal system. It would be a drastic change and would need to be a slow process. I’m still not a fan until i see proposal and how it would work
Americans often have to wait a long time to get into see their own doctors or specialists. If they can’t afford healthcare, they don’t get into see anyone.
We already wait a very long time for surgeries, or even for doctors appointments, like six months or so.
I’m not sure were you live or what Doctors you try to see because I only have the issue of seeing a doctor only on a rare occasion as to surgery I’ve had no problems
Eastern US, but there is a crisis in the VA hospitals, the veterans cant get surgeries or hardly an appointment. But it takes a month or more to see a specialist around here and forget it if you want to see a dermatologist. And if you are rural in this country, your local hospital may have closed.
I’m sorry to say I blame trump and the republicans for the VA hospital issues and for the closing of rural hospitals as to the rest I do not know why you area has such a problem
I’m not sure what kind of doctors see need to see because i have not had that C problem nor hat I had any problems with a surgery I’ve needed
Mike, what kind of insurance do you have, and where do you live? I'm wondering, because you make it sound like waiting two months to see a doctor is a Canadian problem - but I have had to wait that long many times for an appointment here in the US. When I was in the military (under universal health care) was the only time I got rapid and excellent care.
I agree.
I can’t just walk in to see a specialist. Appointments are scheduled months out. Other than that,I haven’t been able to see an MD for years. What I see is a Nurse Practitioner. All of the supposed talking points for the United States are just that, talking points & fall apart when faced with reality.
Thank you Christopher
I am an old useless idiot and I am autistic and one month older than Maye Musk of the People's Republics of Texas and China.
https://www.instagram.com/mayemusk/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd9cmlxt5sI&list=RDPd9cmlxt5sI&start_radio=1
Maye Musk was born in Regina (pile of bones) Saskatchewan where healthcare became a Human Right in Canada and Joshua Norman Haldeman was the head of Saskatchewan's's National Socialist Party the Social Credit Party. Dr Haldeman eLON'S GRANDFATHER fled the subjugation of the Premier of Saskatchewan the Presbyterian Minister and leader of Saskatchewan's serving parliament Tommy Douglas for the Freedom of South AFRICA.
tODAY Scott Moe IS THE premier OF Saskatchewan AND HE IS A RIGHT WING CONSERVATIVE. and the opposition is democratic socialists. Saskatchewan still says healthcare is right not a privilege and so are education and welfare and Saskatchewan has petroleum and fertilizer up the Yin Yang. Saskatchewan is however unAmerican. Its citizens are healthy wealthy and wise because we can't change what was or what is and we can only influence what might be.
In Quebec's matriarchy we have liberal democracy while America decays and rots and stinks to the high heavens.☯️
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Scott_Moe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIAa7aKQybE&list=RDbIAa7aKQybE&start_radio=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0lFNwlLpd4&list=RDV0lFNwlLpd4&start_radio=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iDfvoqOhD8&list=RD7iDfvoqOhD8&start_radio=1
It’s not wonderful to see the ways you sort-of equate insurance policies with Medicare For All .
The article does the opposite of equating them. It separates four models precisely so they can't be blurred together, defines single payer as its own category, names the New York Health Act, CalCare, and the Washington Health Trust as what that category means, and says outright I'd be most thrilled to watch a state enact full single payer directly. Describing how a publicly owned insurer can grow into single payer describes a route between two different things. A route only exists between things that are not the same.
Yes, I really like the way you've done this. It offers what should be palatable choices at every level of involvement.
I be happy to tell you but not on this site live in nj