Answers
Answers to Questions and Replies to Comments
Go HERE for information about the Feb/March Answers Project.
ABOUT VIEWING THESE ANSWERS – ESPECIALLY THE NEED TO TRY ZOOM (larger font sizes).
— Please try ZOOM. Know the zoom feature of this web page (and this website) for your viewing options. The formatting of this web page was designed in order to best present a zoom level of 5 levels greater than normal. If you want to get to the 4th or 5th level, you will need to click on the large “A” at the top of this web page, at the upper right corner, 4 or 5 times.
— About searching. The answers are grouped into topic areas, as seen below. As necessary, you may want to use the search feature of your internet browser (typically Ctrl-F) to search this web page and determine if your question is here. — About linking to one of these answers. To link to one of these answers you can refer to the hyper-link information provided immediately before each answer.
The Answers’ Topics
- Understanding Medicare for All via Single-Payer
— benefits, cost- How Medicare for All will work
- Current condition of health and health care
— spending, performance- Impact of current condition
- Impact of Medicare for All
- Concerns about Medicare for All
- Feasibility of getting Medicare for All
- How to get Medicare for All
- Other countries
- Media and related communications
- Alternatives
- Other Factors: people taking care of themselves
- Additional questions: health care or health insurance?; medical tourism
- Million Letters for Health Care campaign
- Medicare for All website
The Answers
UNDERSTANDING MEDICARE FOR ALL VIA SINGLE-PAYER
— hyper-link to here:
http://www.mforall.org/pages/Answers#sameassocializedmed
Terms: Is single-payer the same as ‘socialized medicine’?
No. Single-payer health insurance, Medicare for All, means that the doctors, who keep their private practices, get paid from one (single) public insurance agency instead of hundreds of (government and private) insurers. Socialized medicine means that the government hires doctors and runs hospitals. The use of the term “socialized medicine” was popularized as part of opposition to single-payer.
See: Socialized Medicine
— hyper-link to here:
http://www.mforall.org/pages/Answers#whatmedicalcare
Benefits: What medical care will be provided?
All medically-necessary care. Examples are primary care; inpatient care; outpatient care; emergency care; prescription drugs; durable medical equipment; hearing services, midwives; long term care; palliative care; podiatric care; mental health services; dentistry; eye care; chiropractic care; substance abuse treatment
See: H.R. 676 resolution.
— hyper-link to here:
http://www.mforall.org/pages/Answers#costforhealthcare
Cost: How much will health care cost me and my family?
Most individuals and families will pay mainly or only for an increase in the Medicare tax that is already paid out of payroll. The expected increase is 3.3%, raising the tax to 4.75%, which results in these examples.
— $49/month health care payroll cost for $12,500/yr earned income
— $198/month for health care payroll cost $50,000/yr earned income.
About paying for health care when the U.S. has Medicare for All:
— No premiums to health insurance companies for medically-necessary care
— No major medical bills.
— Little or no co-pays.
— Lower federal, state and local taxes due to elimination of many government programs and the reduction of health care costs for governmental units.
— No more need for spaghetti dinners and applying to the hospital to request possible reductions in the prices on bills. There won’t be any major medical bills.
See: Costs and Savings, Costs - Lower for Government, Costs - No Major Bills
HOW MEDICARE FOR ALL WILL WORK
— hyper-link to here:
http://www.mforall.org/pages/Answers#anothergovtpgm
Public Agency: Who will manage Medicare for All? Is this going to be another government program?
No! Our Medicare for All must be set up as a separate (public insurance) agency that is isolated from the day-to-day decision-making of either national or state politicians. In fact, Medicare for All will result in a dramatic reduction in the number of government programs across the federal government, the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Most or all existing government programs that related to providing health care will be shut down.
See: Government Bureaucracy to eliminate
— hyper-link to here:
http://www.mforall.org/pages/Answers#regionaldifferences
Public Agency: Will the improved Medicare for All have regions set up as part of running the system and addressing regional differences?
The regions are already defined, because the current U.S. Medicare has regions defined.
See: Regional Offices
CURRENT CONDITION OF U.S. HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE
— hyper-link to here:
http://www.mforall.org/pages/Answers#usathebestinworld
Comparisons: Is U.S. health care the best in the world?
No! Definitely not, as seen by our health outcomes and by our hardships.
See: Real People, Performance, Real Life Stories
— hyper-link to here:
http://www.mforall.org/pages/Answers#usaspendingonhc
Comparisons: How does U.S. spending on health care compare to other free-market countries?
The U.S. is the only country with out-of-control spending.
See: Spending Among 30 Countries.
The U.S. is the only country with an extremely high cost per person with a relatively low life expectancy.
See: Cost and Life Expectancy
— hyper-link to here:
http://www.mforall.org/pages/Answers#impactofcurrentcond
Impact: What is the impact of our current condition on our lives?
See: Real Life Stories for the unnecessary hardships
— hyper-link to here:
http://www.mforall.org/pages/Answers#employees
Employees: What will happen to all those employees of all those health insurance companies and government programs that will be shut down?
The will have first priority for getting employment in the new system and eligible for two years of employment transition benefits not to exceed $100,000 per year.
See: HR 676
— hyper-link to here:
http://www.mforall.org/pages/Answers#physicianincome
Physicians: What will happen to the income of our family physician?
The net income, which is what matters, will increase significantly for family physicians, also called general practitioners. Why? There are at least the following reasons:
— no need to pay for a large billing staff or a billing service
— no need to pay for any staff person to call a health insurance company to ask for permission to give health care
— a dramatic reduction in malpractice premiums, since a patient can only sue for a mistake, not the cost of health care for the rest of their lives.
Result: net incomes go up due to fewer expenses.
— hyper-link to here:
http://www.mforall.org/pages/Answers#howhcqualityimipacted
Impact: How will our health care quality be impacted?
U.S. health care quality will significantly improve. Please refer to the many real life stories that are available from Americans living in the U.S. and from Americans living and working abroad. When you see the multi-million dollar campaigns that do not mention non-profit national health insurance and Medicare for All, think about these stories. Whose stories do you really think are a better indicator of the truth? The ones collected with no funds by ordinary Americans or the ones collected by millionaires?
See: Real Life Stories, Health Care Quality
— hyper-link to here:
http://www.mforall.org/pages/Answers#howhealthimpacted
Impact: How will our health be impacted?
Health will improve. The U.S. has only one direction to go when it comes to improving health. Our life expectancy is low, having dropped from 27th/28th to 30th in the world as of June 2008. Our ability to minimize deaths due to preventable diseases is dead last at 19th of 19 countries. Our maternal mortality is poor, so our mothers do not survive a pregnancy and birth nearly as well as other countries.
See: Real People, Maternal Mortality, Money’s Worth
CONCERNS ABOUT MEDICARE FOR ALL
— hyper-link to here:
http://www.mforall.org/pages/Answers#largetaxincreases
Taxes: Some politicians have sternly warn us that single-payer means a large increase in taxes.
They are correct when they state this half-truth. They are misleading the public. Yes, taxes will go up to have enough money to pay for health care. The impact for most people will be a relatively small increase in the Medicare tax, relative to the huge decrease in health insurance premiums, which go to zero. Neither employers or employees will be pay health insurance premiums.
Note: that the Congress plan of 2009 specifies (or specified) maintaining government programs (the current bureaucracy) and expanding some programs and adding more. The tax impact on citizens is large.
See: Costs and Savings
[for hyper-links to this answer: govtrunhc]
Why would I want government-run health care? I am concerned that Medicare for All would be a government-takeover of health care
Most Americans do not want government-run health care.
— Medicare for All means less government, not more.
We will reduce government and its spending of our taxes.
— The single public (insurance) agency will replace most or all existing entitlement programs related to health care.
— The agency will be a public agency that is separate from the government, reportable to the people, not politicians.
— In general, people who have been on Medicare like it. We are going to extend the popular Medicare program so that everyone benefits, not just those who are 65 years old and older.
See: Government Bureaucracy for what programs will be shut down.
See: Medicare Popularity
— hyper-link to here: http://www.mforall.org/pages/Answers#likecanadianhc
Will this be like Canadian health care?
No. This will be better than Canada’s. It will have 1 health insurance plan, not 13 (which cover the 9 provinces and the territories). Therefore, it will be even more efficient and cost-effective than Canada’s. And drug prices can be negotiated even lower, due to the size of the U.S. compared to Canada. Also, we know from a Canadian experience that we must have the single-payer set up as a public agency, where the budget and money management are separate from the day-by-day debates and decisions of the politicians. The budget must be insulated from the politicians. Canadian politicians cut the health care budget years ago; as a result, wait times increased for a period of years. [Comment: this answer will undergo further reviews and refinements, as needed, including adding links to more information.]
[for hyper-links to this answer: canadaproblems]
Doesn’t Canada’s health care have serious problems?
No. Canadian health care is fine with an 85% approval rating by its citizens and spending in control. Just like all other free-market countries, Canadian citizens do not have any major medical bills. As part of being a caring country, patients are treated in order of priority; patients with the more critical needs have a higher priority for getting health care. Most Canadians accept that their excellent health care is provided after patients with greater needs are treated first.
See: Canada, Canada vs. U.S. Spending
[for hyper-links to this answer:usatoolarge]
The United States is too large to have Medicare for All, single-payer work compared to other countries, which are relatively small.
Our large size is a contributor to why Medicare for All will be a definite success. For example, we will be the best negotiator of drug prices. For decades other countries have negotiated drug prices, while we have paid high prices. We’ve been subsidizing the low drug prices of other countries! That will now change with Medicare for All.
[for hyper-links to this answer: feasibility]
FEASIBILITY OF GETTING MEDICARE FOR ALL
We think positively. We have a vision and strategy and plan. We are focused and committed.
We can and will get Medicare for All.
[for hyper-links to this answer: whataretheodds]
actions: What are the odds that we will get the attention of the U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives in the U.S. Congress so that they will respond to us?
The odds are excellent, as long as enough average Americans do the following set of actions:#1 Believe. Affirm.
Know in your mind and your heart that we will do this. Do the self-affirmations that are suggested in the Vision web page. Know what the Strategy is.#2 Follow ALL of the steps of the Million Letters for Health Care campaign plan. All five steps must be followed, except as noted below. The most important actions are the ones that establish the Knowledge and the Numbers.
Exception about the steps: donating should be read as a “please consider”. Also, if you cannot afford $2 per month or a small donation, then you should NOT consider the donate step; other people will donate, so don’t worry about it; focus on surviving, because the rest of us are going to get you health care via the more caring society in which you will be living.
#3 Stand firm in your belief.. A million of us will act in unison. Ignore anything that seems contrary … no matter what you see in the media: the negative, scary videos or anything you hear or read that tries to impact your opinion. This moment is ours. We will do this.
See: How to Get Medicare for All (the plan), Vision, Strategy
[for hyper-links to this answer: howtogetit]
HOW TO GET MEDICARE FOR ALL
Legislation: Is there any proposed legislation in the U.S. Congress for Medicare for All?
Yes. U.S. House Resolution 676.
See: HR676
[for hyper-links to this answer: othercountries1]
Shouldn’t we consider what other countries have done with respect to health care insurance?
Yes. Definitely, because other free-market countries provide health care access to all at a much lower per person and have a very high patient satisfaction. Even the Americans living and working in other free-market countries are very satisfied.
— Canadians love their national health insurance as per very high percentage results on multiple polls (85% to 86%) and their health care costs are dramatically lower.
See: Canada, Canada vs. U.S. Spending
— Other countries control their costs.
See: Spending Among 30 Countries.
— Citizens in other countries live longer lives, but pay much less for health care.
See: Cost and Life Expectancy
— Americans living and working in other countries like living in a country that has a national health insurance program.
See: Real Life Stories from more than 10 countries
— There is much information available on other countries’ systems:
See: Systems of Other Countries
— “The Healing of America” by T.R. Reid, published in 2009, includes chapters on France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
MEDIA AND RELATED COMMUNICATIONS
(An answer(s) will be added.)
[for hyper-links to this answer: congresshcplan2009]
Congress: What do you think about the Congress’ plan that is members developed during 2009? (reference H.R. 3200 and Senate Resolution 3590)
We think that the Congress plan is very bad. It would make the situation of health care and health care insurance in the United States much, much worse.
See: Health Care Reform
[for hyper-links to this answer: whynotfreemarket]
Free-Market: We had all free-market health care years ago. Why don’t we go back to it now?. American society is much different now from the days of pioneering in the wilderness, bartering with food and services, and a much lower density of population. The differences involve both the economics and health care.
See: Free-Market Health Care
Lower age: Let’s lower the eligibility age for Medicare to 55.
“Lowering the eligibility age for Medicare to 55 only works if it is mandatory. Otherwise it becomes the place where all the sickest patients get dumped. That might be okay for the sick people since Medicare is often better and more secure than private coverage, but it would drive total health care costs (and premiums) up, not down.” — PNHP
States: Let’s implement single-payer in individual states.
Although this topic is out of the scope of this website and our Million Letters for Health Care campaign, we do maintain the Single-Payer Support Monitor’s web page that documents which states have citizens working to get a single-payer law established. Look for “State focus” at the information on single-payer organizations.
See: Single-Payer Organizations
[for hyper-links to this answer: peopletakingcare]
Healthy habits: Why don’t we have people simply take care of themselves?
Even if everyone in the United States had excellent health habits, there would still be some degree of diseases and accidents. Taking care of ourselves is very important, but it does not reduce all risks of disease or accidents. That is why we need to take advantage of the U.S. ability to minimize risk like no other country can.
See: Lowest Risk
[for hyper-links to this answer: healthcareorinsurance]
Health Care or Health Insurance? Some people say that we are talking about health care, not health insurance. What are we talking about?
Our objective is to achieve health care access for all by having all of us be issued national health insurance cards. Health care for all will be achieved by having insurance automatically provided. Our national health insurance will “pool together” our money to cover the risk that we as individuals might need health care. We will have one and only one “risk pool.” The fairest and most efficient “risk pool” of all is to have only one payer involved. That will be the way that we pay for health care. We each pay into only one place to help ensure that all medical bills are paid.
[for hyper-links to this answer: medicaltourism]
What is medical tourism and what is its impact?
Each year hundreds of thousands of American patients go to other countries for decent care at a much better price, experiencing another culture and seeing the sites. Impact: a huge loss of U.S. health care jobs related to the treatment of those 750,000 patients (2007).
See: Medical Tourism.To those looking for help loading a link into an e-mail or a comment on some web page: this has idea has been temporarily removed. The idea of providing that is being considered.
Some people suggest that we give the health insurance companies a chance to solve the problems, perhaps even increasing their involvement instead of eliminating it. What about the U.S. doing that option?.
Increased use of health insurance companies has been in use for the last 30 years, first with the establishment of the concepts of “managed care” and “health maintenance organizations” in the 1970’s and later by the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. During that same time the costs have health care in the U.S. dramatically pulled out-of-control compared to other free-market countries.
See: Spending Among 30 Free-Market Countries
Why did the health insurance companies and a for-profit version of Medicare fail so badly between the mid-1970’s and now?
The use of health insurance companies is extremely costly for our nation. Administrative costs are a conservative 25-30% instead of the 3-5% that are realized with single-payer.
See: Improved Efficiency with Medicare for All
Why did support for the Congress plan of 2009 go from strong to weak during that year?
We think that at least some of the problem is the result of these reasons:
1) it’s a bad plan and bad resolution(s);
2) one of the factors in the election of U.S. Senator Scott Brown to replace Ted Kennedy was the outrage that Massachusetts citizens have about mandatory health insurance, causing lifelong Democrats to vote for Republican Scott Brown.
See: Health Care Reform
MILLION LETTERS FOR HEALTH CARE CAMPAIGN
[for hyper-links to this answer: whyonlytoreps]
Is the campaign only about sending letters in the U.S. Mail to the U.S. Representatives? … NO! There is more …
The campaign is all about SIMPLICITY.
#1 — the simplicity of one: 1 monthly reminder to send 1 letter to 1 person, the U.S. Representative.
#2 — the simplicity of doing “extras” … extra actions to consider taking, which are fully supported with instructions intended to help minimize the time and effort for each additional action:
— Send a copy of your monthly letter in the U.S. Mail to President Obama; instructions are provided for how to do that with the least amount of effort.
— Make Calls. Make a short toll-free call(s) not only to your U.S. Representative, but also to the list of current targeted persons, which are either mainly or only members of the U.S. Congress.
— Send FREE fax. Send a free fax to the White House Office of Health Reform. Please note that this is truly free to the single-payer movement: that is, the movement that will get us an improved Medicare for All and then keep it.
See: AFTER you sign up you will receive the link in each monthly reminder that takes you to ALL instructions for all the above actions.
[for hyper-links to this answer: whyfocusonreps]
Why is the primary focus only on the U.S. Representatives?
The need is NOT to have 1 person know a lot and do a lot. The need is for 1,000,000 have the necessary knowledge and do a little each month: 10-15 minutes per month to send the 1 letter to 1 person. That is what will get us the best results is to have as many Americans as possible participate. It is much more important for each of us to be educating each other and getting more participants than it is to do more work on communicating to the U.S. Congress beyond sending 1 personalized letter to 1 person 1 time per month.
Bonus. However, since there will likely be 5 to 10% of the million persons who will do the “extra actions” we will also have the following actions occurring:
— 50,000 to 100,000 letters going to President Obama each month
— tens of thousands of phone calls spread out over the month based on each participant’s “day of the month” for calling
— 50,000 to 100,000 faxes going to the White House Office of Health Reform based on each participant’s “day of the month”
(first question will be here)
February through March 2010 Answers Project
This web page is undergoing a major expansion, including subsequent reviews and refinements by the Answers Project Team. If you would like to contribute to the reviews and give your feedback to help make the result be the best it can be … or if you would simply like to be notified each time that another group of additional answers has been added, for your information, and also be notified when the project is complete, please include the following in the Comments area — when you sign up at this website or by contacting Bob:
Communicate one of these …
“I WILL REVIEW AND PROVIDE FEEDBACK” (which will include notifying you about answers)
… or … “NOTIFY ME ABOUT ANSWERS” (if you simply want notifications about the updates).
ZOOM FEATURE
… which you may find to be important
for your viewing pleasure and for sharing information with others
— To zoom-in and zoom-out at this web page (and this website):
do a left-mouse-click multiple times at the large “A”
or small “A” at the upper right of the web page. Go to the very top of this web page to see the large and small A’s.
Please contact me if you have a question or topic about single-payer, Medicare for All, for which you would like to have an answer. Our Answers Team would be very happy to consider your input as part of our continuous improvement process. — Bob
Bookmark with: