Benefits of Improved Medicare for All
vs. the Congress/Obama Plan

… compared to the
the health insurance reform developed by the U.S. Congress during 2009
… which was the basis of President Obama’s proposal of 1st Quarter 2010

Improved Medicare for All
Get more. Pay less. Cover everyone.
Compare to the Congress/Obama plan.

Information and Explanations about an improved Medicare for All

How does this work? We pool our money together with much less government and no use of health insurance companies for medically-necessary care. Risk of hardships from medical bills is as low as it can be: risk is spread among 308,000,000 people. One public (insurance) agency, the single-payer, collects our money and promptly pays the medical claims for us. There are very little or no additional costs; prescription drugs are negotiated to a lower cost; no one receives a major bill.

Benefits. Improved Medicare for All covers everyone with one health insurance plan that provides all medically-necessary care: Primary care; inpatient care; outpatient care; emergency care; prescription drugs; durable medical equipment; hearing services, long term care; palliative care; podiatric care; mental health services; dentistry; eye care; chiropractic care; substance abuse treatment. The efficiency of one agency and one plan saves over $400 billion/year. Go here for a list of all types of the benefits, not just the medical coverage.

Cost. Most Americans will mainly or only experience the proposed small increase of a few percent in the Medicare tax out of our paychecks. Like the U.S. Congress/Obama plan, super-rich persons will pay more.

The improved Medicare for All cost of health care from payroll checks will be …
— For $50,000 / year of earned income: the total health care payroll tax: $198 per month for health care
— For $12,500 / year of earned income: the total health care payroll tax: $ 49 per month for health care
— If there is only one person in the family with employment income, then that is the total payroll health care cost, since everyone automatically always has full coverage.
— See tax. — See costs and savings for more details.

— The state of New York implemented stiff regulations on health insurance companies; the U.S. Congress and President Obama plan to do that. In Allegany (pdf) County, one of the poorest counties of New York (NY) state, a family could get insurance for between $2,882 per month and $4,768 per month (from NY website) in the fall of 2009 for partial coverage and added costs. By February 2010 those costs for a family in that county had risen to a minimum of over $3,000 per month. Such huge costs are a result of the regulations
— The improved Medicare for All health care payroll cost ($49-$198 above) is the primary cost: no major medical bills, little or no co-pays, no deductibles.

Quality care due to receiving all medically-necessary care our entire lives from happier, more satisfied, health care professionals. We get affordable care from efficiency: no premiums to health insurance companies; no major medical bills. Huge savings for millions of Americans, for American businesses and for governmental units.

Taxes. Improved Medicare for All will replace current health care entitlement programs at the federal, state and local levels. Significant savings at all levels will result.

Bureaucracy. The public agency must be set up as truly public, not impacted by the day-to-day debating and decision-making of the politicians. Accountable to the people, not politicians.

Choices. With an improved Medicare for All we won’t need to choose a health insurance plan. Instead, we will be able to choose our profession, our employer and our job … or change of jobs … with health care automatically provided via the public agency, the “single-payer”. We will select physicians and medical facilities. We’ll be able to take reduced hours or leave of absence or early retirement … if our job situation allows it … to care for a sick or dying relative.

Jobs. The U.S. health care jobs are leaving the country as Americans leave to get good care at a decent price in other countries … and a vacation along with it. It’s called medical tourism An incredibly high 750,000 Americans did that in 2007, and the number is skyrocketing. In addition, many jobs are in danger due to companies trying to control costs. The U.S. is the only free-market country with out-of-control health care costs, dramatically impacting U.S. companies’ ability to compete.

Peace of Mind or Hardships. Americans have experienced a long list of hardships for decades. It’s time to get rid of bureaucracy. We need an improved Medicare for All, no longer privatized.

Other free-market countries have had national health insurance and its benefits for years. Those countries’ citizens, on average, pay 40% of what Americans pay; they have more physician in the U.S. every five minutes. No wonder 86% of Canadians favor public solutions for health care.

Does an improved Medicare for All look good to you? Then let’s get it … NOW!

Goal: One Million Before July 4, 2010

Over one million persons are needed. Please sign up to stand up for single-payer, an improved Medicare for All, for the purpose of not only documenting support of Americans for an improved Medicare for All, but also for flooding the offices of all 435 U.S. Representatives with our letters in the U.S. Mail. Date: have one million Americans signed up before July 1, 2010 and then continue monthly letters until we get an acceptable Medicare for All resolution signed into law by the President.

Results: Improved Medicare for All Now (not later! who wants later?)

Reaching the goal will be a major contribution to establishing the “political will” for single-payer and getting single-payer as law by 10/10/10.
— We’ll conduct one of the biggest citizen actions the U.S. or the world has ever seen.
— We’ll then get our Medicare (for all) cards in our hands by 2012.
— We will save over $400 billion/year.
— We will use that to Get More. Pay less. Cover everyone.

Plan:

Each person who signs up at this website and who is also able and willing to make contacts to individuals by phone or face-to-face needs to please consider doing the following:
1) tell other people about improved Medicare for All and
2) contact enough people to get at least ten new participants to sign up.

Alternative individual plan: If you cannot work on this plan, then please do whatever you can, whether it’s donating money and/or sending a letter each month, based on the monthly reminders, and/or praying and maintaining the vision. Each of these is very helpful; always know that. If you need more ideas, please contact whatever individual or group or organization in your area is using the resources at this website to help achieve the goal of one million persons signed up by July 4, 2010.

Tip(s)

What not to do: Don’t panic. Don’t be reactive.

What to do: Move. Be positive. Be proactive. In other words, contact people. Tell them about what is on this web page. As implied above, be with them, either face-to-face or on the telephone. Above all, get them to sign up on paper or on the internet immediately. We Americans need help in taking that first step. All you need is at this website. The graphs are here that automatically record the progress by state and by U.S. Congressional District. The graphs show you the progress over time for your district and for nearby districts.

What to know: #1 We can do this, and don’t let anyone tell you differently. #2 If you think that there are any brick walls, please contact me and I will try my best to tear down those brick walls.

Tell Others about Single-Payer

… to 1) increase the knowledge among Americans
and … to 2) increase the number of Americans who participate.

1. Increase the Knowledge … among Americans

Tell others about Medicare for All and also the Congress/Obama plan. It’s best to contact individual persons and/or small groups to make the most solid contact for communicating the necessary knowledge. An alternative way is to invite them by e-mail.

• Starting a conversation.

  • Face-to-face. Print the reference sheet: startconversation (pdf) document for when you contact someone about single-payer. It’s a double-sided “Ever heard of …?” sheet that you could laminate or have laminated to use for contacting many people. Go here if you need help accessing PDF files.
  • By telephone. Guide the other person(s) to the top of this web page directly via sending them the link … or … have them go to www.medicareforall.org and then select one of the “Health Care Reform” links.

• What to do when you find a person who is interested.

  • Face-to-face. When the person you contact expresses definite interest, you must ask them to please provide their information on a sign up sheet. Why? Because most Americans (over 95%), no matter how much they intend to act, do not take the follow-up action. In other words, we help them and we help the single-payer movement by politely asking them if they want to sign up. On the other hand, do not apply pressure.
    
    After you present the information and ask if they want to sign up to be counted as a supporter, then they will provide their information if they are interested.
  • Face-to-face. Be prepared in advance: print a copy of the sign up (pdf) sheet to have one with you. If they are interested in the U.S. establishing Medicare for All, ask them to provide their information at the sign-up sheet. After they sign up, then provide them with a copy of the hcreform (pdf) sheet, which has more information on it than the “startconversation” sheet. Optionally, also give them a copy of the benefits (pdf) sheet.
    
  • By telephone. If the person(s) is interested in the U.S. establishing Medicare for All, ask them to go to the Sign Up web page. Guide them through it in case they have any questions, such as determining their U.S. Congressional District number.
• Summary list of documents to explain health care reform and get participants:
  • start-conversation (pdf) reference sheet to start a conversation and use as a reference during the conversation
  • handout (pdf) for giving to person who responds positively and signs up.
  • sign up (pdf), a critical document to use, as explained above

2. Increase the Numbers … of participants

To achieve single-payer, Medicare for All, it is critical not only to contact people and provide them with knowledge about single-payer and its benefits, but also to get some of those people to sign up to stand up for single-payer. (If they have no e-mail address, then note that on the sign up sheet.) Politely ask people if they would please sign up to stand up for single-payer and become participants.

Suggestion for a personal goal: as a participant yourself, please consider contacting enough other people until you get 10 new participants. Since some people have very limited opportunity or capability to contact anyone, that means that some of us need to get 20 or more participants out of the Americans we contact.

The following suggestion is what some people would call a “Critical Success Factor”.

• If someone is clearly not interested:
  • Don’t waste their time and yours.
  • Very politely end the contact.
• If someone is definitely interested, help them by doing one of the following:
  • Ask them to provide their information on the sign up sheet that you will seal well and send to the Midland, Michigan address on the sign up sheet
  • … or … ask them to sign up immediately at a computer while you are still having the contact with them. This can be helpful due to the confirmation of their U.S. Congressional District number during the sign up.
  • … or … give them a very polite follow-up contact from you some days later to confirm that they are still interested and have signed up.

From the experiences of many Americans across the country who have contacted other Americans, we have confirmed that even the interested, supportive American typically needs a bit of help for the process of taking action. Therefore, please do the above suggested procedure.

Accessing PDF Copies

When selecting the link to a pdf file, if the file does not automatically download, then you may need to install Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer. You can download a free copy by clicking on the following image:

Zoom Feature

— 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.

Additional References for additional information and sources

• Benefits as defined in H.R. 676: all medically-necessary care
• Health care spending among 30 countries
• Insurance rates in state of New York and Allegany (pdf) County from adding regulations onto health insurance company plans
• Poll of Canadians August 2009 86% in favor of public solutions
• Single-Payer Education section of this website

Additional Information

• Benefits: all types of the benefits; a printable pdf file is accessible. Single-payer activists across the U.S. helped the develop this reporting of information, as they did for other information at this website.

Signing Up and Donating

If you have not yet signed up to be counted as a Medicare for All supporter, please do.

Also, this website and its services and the associated massive million letters campaign very much needs your help to continue providing its services. Please donate.