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Medicare for All Would Abolish Private Insurance. ‘There’s No Precedent in American History.’
New York Times ^ | March 23, 2019 | Reed Abelson and Margot Sanger-Katz

Posted on 03/23/2019 1:04:34 PM PDT by reaganaut1

At the heart of the “Medicare for all” proposals championed by Senator Bernie Sanders and many Democrats is a revolutionary idea: Abolish private health insurance.

Proponents want to sweep away our complex, confusing, profit-driven mess of a health care system and start fresh with a single government-run insurer that would cover everyone.

But doing away with an entire industry would also be profoundly disruptive. The private health insurance business employs at least a half a million people, covers about 250 million Americans, and generates roughly a trillion dollars in revenues. Its companies’ stocks are a staple of the mutual funds that make up millions of Americans’ retirement savings.

Such a change would shake the entire health care system, which makes up a fifth of the United States economy, as hospitals, doctors, nursing homes and pharmaceutical companies would have to adapt to a new set of rules. Most Americans would have a new insurer — the federal government — and many would find the health insurance stocks in their retirement portfolios much less valuable.

“We’re talking about changing flows of money on just a huge scale,” said Paul Starr, a sociology professor at Princeton University and author of “The Social Transformation of American Medicine: The Rise of a Sovereign Profession and the Making of a Vast Industry.”

“There’s no precedent in American history that compares to this,” he said.

Economists have begun wrestling with basic questions about what this sort of change would mean and disagreeing over whether it would cost more or less than the country’s current health care system.

No one has examined the full economic impact of such plans on jobs, wages, investors, doctors and hospitals — or the health insurance companies themselves.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Michigan; US: Minnesota; US: New York; US: Vermont
KEYWORDS: abortion; berniesanders; dnctalkingpoint; dnctalkingpoints; genderdysphoria; homosexualagenda; ilhanomar; infanticide; margotsangerkatz; mediawingofthednc; medicare; medicareforall; michigan; minnesota; newyork; obamacare; ocasiocortez; partisanmediashills; presstitutes; rashidatlaib; reedabelson; smearmachine; vermont
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We know this, but it's helpful to have the NYT say so. The ads write themselves -- the Democrats want to abolish your health insurance.
1 posted on 03/23/2019 1:04:35 PM PDT by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

What could possibly go wrong?


2 posted on 03/23/2019 1:05:07 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (We are in the midst of a Cold Civil War.)
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To: reaganaut1

Single payer works fine for the poor.. state covers the bulk of my living and health management costs.

Doesnt mean every one needs it. The saying about one size fits all comes to mind.


3 posted on 03/23/2019 1:07:31 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: Jeff Chandler

Why would the Left care?

They want power, or Revolution ... either way they labor under magical thinking that somehow it’ll all be alright and something good will just appear once they get their way and rid us of the last tatters of the Constitution (and possibly us as well).


4 posted on 03/23/2019 1:09:54 PM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: Jeff Chandler

Just because it works for me doesn’t mean it works for you. We’re all individuals with unique health needs and life circumstances.

That’s where Medicare For All falls short.


5 posted on 03/23/2019 1:10:15 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: reaganaut1
Abolish government regulation of medical insurance beyond contract and truth in packaging. That would go a long way to reducing costs. Remove the Feds entirely from medicine and insurance and watch costs drop like a stone. If the government were to severely sanction countries that clone US patent meds unless they are sold at generic prices and watch prices of new drugs come way down as the rest of the world begins to have to pay its share of development costs.

Alas, governments are unfamiliar with common sense.

6 posted on 03/23/2019 1:10:30 PM PDT by arthurus (tjlopư77)
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To: goldstategop

One size fits none.


7 posted on 03/23/2019 1:10:30 PM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: reaganaut1

Insurance companies out of business and thousands, perhaps millions of insurance company employees laid off. That alone would be a huge problem.


8 posted on 03/23/2019 1:12:01 PM PDT by Cubs Fan
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To: goldstategop

“You’re a male and don’t want child birth coverage? Forget that. You are going to take it whether you need it or not.”


9 posted on 03/23/2019 1:13:25 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: reaganaut1; vette6387; unkus; ZULU; NFHale; sheik yerbouty; Sarah Barracuda

What better way for the DemonRATs to decide who lives and who dies than controlling who gets care and what kind of care???? Cancer patients will be given a pill just as Zero described. Anyone want to count on AOC, Ilhan, Spartacus Booker, Camel Harris, Schitt, Schmucky, Piglosi, ChiFi; Madd Maxine, Abrams, et al. to determine what care you get?

Comments anyone?


10 posted on 03/23/2019 1:13:34 PM PDT by ExTexasRedhead
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To: Rurudyne

Yup. I can’t remember what meds to take and I need to be looked after. Your health needs may be different.

That’s why we have private insurance for those circumstances.


11 posted on 03/23/2019 1:14:03 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: reaganaut1

What we need is absolute equality in health provision.

If someone has an operation, everyone must have that operation.

If someone gets a prescription, everyone must get that prescription.

If someone has a medical procedure of any kind, everyone must have that medical procedure of that kind.

Only then will there be Medical Justice!


12 posted on 03/23/2019 1:14:29 PM PDT by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: Jeff Chandler

Heck!!! The invaders have better health care then you or I!!


13 posted on 03/23/2019 1:15:10 PM PDT by RoseofTexas
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

They don’t mention free comes with a huge price tag. Everyone likes free - until they learn how much it costs.


14 posted on 03/23/2019 1:16:10 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: reaganaut1

And health insurance would be just the start. They’d move on to other things until everything private is criminalized. Even a lemonade stand run by kids. And instead of a profit motive, these Public entities would make decisions based on criteria such as diversity and social justice. This is slowly happening in corporate America on its on, but at a pace not face enough to satisfy the Left.

And forget about being an entrepreneur. That will not be allowed. You’ll never see another Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. The best and brightest must aspire to being bureaucrats.


15 posted on 03/23/2019 1:17:30 PM PDT by rbg81 (Truth is stranger than fiction)
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To: reaganaut1

Rather than abolish medical insurance we should abolish Democrats. It would be more productive, and more progressive as then we could.


16 posted on 03/23/2019 1:20:01 PM PDT by rockinqsranch (Dems, Libs, Socialists call 'em what you will they all have fairies livin' in their trees.)
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To: Grimmy

The totalitarian notion of equality is everryone must be given the same thing whether they need it or not.

Let’s just shepherd everyone onto a government-run health care plan and hope for the best.


17 posted on 03/23/2019 1:20:04 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: reaganaut1
start fresh with a single government-run insurer that would cover everyone on the planet who comes here.

edited for truth
18 posted on 03/23/2019 1:20:48 PM PDT by LostInBayport (When there are more people riding in the cart than there are pulling it, the cart stops moving...)
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To: LostInBayport

Just like in Canada. They forgot we’re not Canucks.


19 posted on 03/23/2019 1:21:59 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever)
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To: goldstategop

I can actually see in my mind’s eye on of these scumbags deciding that if everyone were dead it’d be a whole lot easier to manage things.


20 posted on 03/23/2019 1:31:27 PM PDT by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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