Health Care Reform: Which One?

Health Care with the New Law:
Help over 30 million people,
but at a horrible cost in taxes, premiums and more,
as documented below,
Maintain complexity. Pay more.
Leave out over 20 million people.
— compared to —
Improved Medicare for All:
Establish simplicity. Get more. Pay less. Cover everyone.

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 law signed March 2010, super-rich persons will pay more.

— See tax
— See costs and savings

— The state of New York implemented stiff regulations on health insurance companies; the law signed March 2010 will do that also. 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 visits each year; they have more elderly; they live longer; and they do far better at minimizing deaths due to preventable diseases, compared to an unnecessary death in the U.S. every five minutes. No wonder 86% of Canadians favor public solutions for health care.

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Additional References for additional information and sources

• The USA compared to Six countries
• 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
• Education section of this website

Follow the Plan for
How to Get Improved Medicare for All

Quality, Affordable Health Care