Re: “uninformed.”

Post #433,045 by a6l6e6x 3/16/20 11:09:24 PM 3/16/20 11:09:24 PM Reply	Re: “uninformed.” You are conflating the final goal with the path to it. I do not have a problem with Bernie's goal. Bernie is looking for a revolutionary change which voters will not accept. Trump can easily and successfully paint it communist! Bernie would lose the election and we would have a minimum of 4 years of Trump, possibly followed by Queen Ivanka. Biden is proposing an evolution via the "public option". If the public option is successful by eliminating the need for profit for stockholders and perhaps needless paperwork bureaucracy, over time the commercial insurance companies would shrink to only providing insurance for exotic services. Personally, I do not believe obscene profits should be made in providing essential medical services. Alex "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." -- Isaac Asimov
Post #433,056 by mmoffitt 3/17/20 10:20:44 AM 3/17/20 10:20:44 AM Reply	The public option is the surest path to never having an NHS here. Why? Because only the folks priced out of the private market will buy into it, making it unsustainable. Medicare's current problem is that roughly 70-80% of all medical costs for Americans are incurred during their final handful of months alive. Guess how old they are, on average? Medicare does not currently have the healthy people in the pool and so the risk is dramatically higher than anything in the private sector. There's a reason why, for all the Harry & Louise advertisements, the private insurance sector never talks about taking over the above 65 population. Private health insurers are not in the business of paying medical claims. They are in the business of collecting premiums. Bernie's plan incrementally expands Medicare until it covers everyone, just as it was originally designed. But the public option will be loved by the private sector for when it inevitably fails they can say, "See. Single Payer will never work here." bcnu, Mikem It's mourning in America again.
Post #433,057 by a6l6e6x 3/17/20 10:55:35 AM 3/17/20 10:55:35 AM Reply	I know we've been through some of this before, but... the public option has to be made attractive enough for companies to buy for their employees. Companies are always interested in lowering their costs. I agree that younger and healthier people have to be part of the equation. The "mandatory health insurance" part of Obamacare was addressing that need. Alex "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." -- Isaac Asimov

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