America 2022 Medicare for All

US residents with employer-based private health insurance, with self insurance, with Medicare or Medicaid or military health care and uninsured in Million; U.S. Census bureau: Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well…it’s the best way to advertise it. Medicare for All, if put in place, would necessarily be quite different from our current Medicare system.

Instead of a pay per service system, Medicare for All, for cost and implementation efficiencies , would be a service provider. Doctors and nurses, as well as all other health and health service workers would be government employees. Pay scale? To start, perhaps a scaled average of current incomes for each. After that, a results and service based bonus as well as a COLA.

How would a system be implemented quickly? How about making current state, county, and local health care systems the start for the national system? All those government bodies would probably love to get that cost off their shoulders. Also, VA hospitals would be folded into the system, but still be Veteran oriented more than public, tho they could be Trauma Centers in areas that lack one until one is built in that area.

Purchasing for all, including military needs would be consolidated for purchasing power with suppliers.

The Medicare tax would probably need to be increased…perhaps 14%: 7% for employees, 7% for employers. Still would probably less than current insurance costs. A 10% co-pay would also be put in, with a streamlined Medicaid system put in for those that cannot afford it.  It would also allow insurance companies to offer Medicare Supplemental Insurance.

To get doctors and nurses into the system, a 10 yr. employment option might be used. 5yrs. as a General Practitioner, then, if they plan to be a specialist, 5yrs. performing that specialty. In return, all their Medical school costs would be paid for. They would also get the current pay and be able to learn from more experienced professionals in the system.

It would cover all types of medical needs, mental health, vision, dental, etc..

Private hospitals could contract with Medicare to provide their hospitals for a fee, according to the hospital’s bed count, location, current equipment, and condition. A certain amount would be assigned for upgrades and remodeling costs.

Admittedly this is just a broad outline.  Such a system would need to be worked out between government, professionals, and providers, but it can and should be done. The least it would save is the 15% difference between current Medicare overhead costs and insurance company costs.

Of course, elective surgery would not be covered, but I’m sure insurance companies would come up with a policy to cover those eventually.

Doing this would finally bring America into the 21st century as well as joining the other industrialized nations.

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We’ll never contain healthcare costs the way we’re going….

Think about it. Insurance companies, drug companies, many hospitals, all hmo, ppos, doctors are all in it to make money…the more the better. Especially the publicly held companies. They need to show stockholders profits constantly. There is ONLY one way to get this entire mess under control and that’s single payer healthcare….or, “Medicare for all”.

In my mind, Medicare for all is a modified Medicare plan. It raises the amount it pays to 85% instead of 80%, it covers everything; vision, dental and mental, and provides bonuses to doctors for keeping their patients healthy. Current health insurers will be able to cover the other 15% and procedures that would be electives. Of course the current Medicare tax would need to be raised slightly, my best guess might be to 2.5% from 1.45% for employed and 4% from 2.9% for self-employed. Medicaid would still be provided for those that cannot afford the 15%.

It would fold in Part D and close the ‘doughnut hole‘ for drug coverage…and malpractice law will need to be re-examined and probably need caps on certain areas.

With everyone and everything covered by Medicare…and adding in the VA and Military…the Government would be able to put the brakes on the massive leaps in costs and provide a more reasonable increase, more in line with inflation than profit needs. It would allow bulk buys of drugs and equipment. Of course all state, county and city medical providers would be able to join in buying through the Medicare system and get the discounts as well.

If costs weren’t running wild, if companies weren’t so greedy, this proposal wouldn’t even be needed…but it is. It covers everyone and everything…should be set up to encourage preventive medicine, and provide areas with little or no providers with them.

But it makes too much sense….

Sidelined Buddah

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Floods, Flood Insurance, Government, and The Tea Party

Here we go again. Every year we hear about flooding, many times in the same places. Why people insist in building on flood plains in the first place, much less the intelligence of rebuilding time and time again is beyond me. Perhaps the flood insurance program helps this foolishness. Maybe this is one government program that both Tea Party followers and others can agree is a total waste of government resources.

In my opinion, the ONLY people that should be building and getting government insurance in flood plains are crop producers. No residental areas, no business districts, no manufacturing or industry, not even livestock producers…just crop producers. They can gain advantages by using organic farming practices and the soil renewal flooding allows. Farmers on the Nile knew this before the time of the pharoes…the yearly floods renewed the soils along the river and allowed them to grow crops consistently on the same land without artificially improving the soil.

The ONLY flood insurance available in the U.S. is ONLY issued by FEMA through participating insurance providers. There is NO privately issued flood insurance. Insurance companies decided long ago that providing it cost them more than they could ever take in. The government decided in 1968 to provide flood insurance.

There is no reason to pay out damages more than one time in a flood plain. First time, mistakes happen. Not checking topography of an area near a river might not come to mind to people new to an area, but after the first time…it’s on the property owner to either decide to move…or put aside funds for their own rebuilding.

There are clues….  Seeing the land rise on either side of a river….living behind a levee…living downstream from a dam…there are clues…and there ARE publicly available flood plain maps that can be gotten as well. The view may be fantastic, but is it really worth risking life and finances to live there?

The ONLY government payment that should happen after a flood…is paying people to move away and save the yearly drain on government resources…rescues, infrastructure repairs, insurance payouts, levee repair and upkeep…first responder usage and risks to them.  It’s not worth doing this year after year. It’s good money after bad.

I feel bad that people lose things in floods, but after the first couple of floods, it’s time to cut losses and move.

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