Yeah. 21T is what will probably be spent on HC in the next
So, would I want to spend 250 a month on insurance that I'll have to change each time I get a new job or 350 a month on taxes that goes with me and which I only pay when I'm not laid off? I mean, it's a good question. Right now, I'd be ok with expanding Obamacare to what it was when it was originally proposed or how Pelosi passed it. I get it. Too many people are dependent on the status quo to immediately nationalize a sixth of the economy. That girl I almost married almost voted for Romney over Obamacare because she was into hospital revenue.
Cute. You really have no idea how expensive insurance is without subsidies from the tax system or employers or directly from the government, especially when you get old. Here's a hint. IT"S DAMN EXPENSIVE!!!! I'm a 50-55 year old non-smoker who gets his insurance from the Marketplace. Pre-subsidy it's around $900/month. Thankfully, the subsidy cuts that down considerably, but it's still a pain.
Angry_weasel knows what he’s talking about. You’re just marveling at big trees with no concept of the forest you’re lost in.
I'll grant that single payer will reduce costs, but if you think it'll cut two-thirds of the cost, you're living in fantasyland. By one-third is possible, but going beyond that is going to lead to considerable impacts on quality and availability of care. Already with some specialties, if you're on Medicaid, you're screwed. You may have to wait months if there's even a specialist available. Squeeze the turnip too much and there will be no more blood as health care providers leave the system to do other things that pay more. Moreover, even if we were to get health care down to the fantasy one-third level, we're still talking an average of $800 per worker per month in costs.
You must remember an ultimate reality of the high cost of the medical system we have. Much of it isn't going into medical treatment per se. Inflated costs include easy profits for people who have no other way of a gravy train. Start with monopolistic pricing of prescription drugs and medical devices. Add to that the unusual feature of a for-profit bureaucracy that has every incentive to load costs onto any payer. Medical facilities have their 'edifice complex' which does wonders for building contractors and construction workers. In many communities the hospital is the biggest or second-biggest employer (the other is the school district, but at the least, public K-12 education is one of the most efficiently-run activities around). Then come lobbyists and ambulance-chasing attorneys.
Don't forget people who fail to take care of themselves. I need go into few details about such. Sure, I used a riding cart at Wal*Mart a couple times -- during gout attacks. If I can spend two hours in the store and leave with $15 in merchandise, I probably got a good hike in.
Then there are the outright crooks -- people who hustle the system with fraudulent claims. You know -- the fellow with a horrific back injury who brags to his buddies about his perfect game bowling. (I got a backache so severe that it imitated a coronary and I got the coronary treatment. Sure, someone else ended up paying for it, but I sought and got the least expensive treatment for the backache. Physical therapy -- no pills).
