The Inevitable Trade-Offs of Medicare for All | Intellections

Many people feel that “Medicare for All” sounds like a good idea: get rid of private health insurance and have the government pay for all medical care. But digging a little deeper reveals that creating government-provided coverage for all Americans while attempting to lower health care costs would come with some steep trade-offs. There are much less disruptive and more targeted ways to help those who cannot afford medical care.

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[douglewis]

I have a friend in Poland where they operate under public healthcare. And he's right: it is slower and generally of lower quality. Plenty of people still go to private healthcare physicians as a result.

However, I've personally come to the decision that if I'm ever seriously injured or afflicted with a severe condition, I will opt to die, rather than incur medical bills on myself or my family, should I no longer be around to pay them.

That is the state of privatization in American healthcare.

I mean I can bring up what they did to insulin, but I think you get the picture.

[williams]

right now, insurance companies have the financial incentive to bid up prices. If you want cheaper healthcare, payments to hospitals must necessarily decrease. Not every solution that reduces payments to hospitals is right, but every solution that doesn't reduce payments is wrong. About 70% of hospital expenditures is on adminstration, not on doctors, and not on medical supplies or equipment. The argument quality of care would significantly decrease is unconvincing. Having to wait an extra hour is nothing compared to being in medical debt for the next 5 years. Here's a targeted approach, ban insurance companies from negotiating prices, and require hospitals to list all prices in advance.

[danieldimartino]

I love your videos. Always to the point, great animations, and well explained and cited

[pyiemadofarmule]

no no citizen you must realize spending $25, 000 to survive after a car crash that wasn’t your fault is actually good instead free healthcare coverage

[sats]

I think gov could take care of the most dire medical procedures and private insurance can take of the lesser expensive medical procedures

[amarok]

Honestly these videos are pretty informative, they deal with actual policy, rather than mere rhetoric.

[alaakela]

Right... Not one mention of insurance companies making money. But let's pitch patients against doctors in a binary false choice. Propaganda much?

[inquietube]

Cost of medical procedures IS part of the problem, and caused by private insurances that drove those costs nuts. A cotton swab does NOT cost 7 dollars. It's maybe a few cents. And for this example, you can climb up all the ladder of overpriced medical procedures. An ambulance trip does NOT cost 2000+ dollars. They should be on a payroll and it would cost gas money, like it happens everywhere else. Prices must be under scrutiny, and everything and more will be covered for. There is plenty for doctors to make, provided that they are not charging totally unreasonable amounts. If anything, they would be collecting all those bills people leave unpaid now. You guys like tell weird stories about how it works in other countries to keep people ignorant and replenish the pockets of health insurance CEO's. Spoiler: it works great. If waiting time is an issue, you have the option to go private and not go bankrupt over it either. The only good idea for healthcare in the US and some people want to keep the horror system they currently have? That's insane.

[Dies_ultima]

This is true if you allow big pharma to continue charging massively inflated prices for their products if we limited the profits they could make on the items or even have the pharma companies run by the government we could fix this problem.

[bvegannow]

Let everyone that wants use an acre of free tax free land to grow their own food and live on. Ban farm subsidies. That will likely reduce healthcare costs.

[damianbartlett]

How about you remove your parasite propaganda right off my algorithm, thanks.