Tuesday, August 30, 2016

IT'S TIME TO LOWER THE HAMMER

Drug and health insurance costs year to year are rising rapidly, pricing lots of folks out of the drugs and or health insurance we all need.  These crooks have shown total disregard  for the welfare of those they are supposed to serve.

We spend twice as much for healthcare as other industrialized countries and get less better care then most.  A family of four in the US spend 23,215 annual insurance costs.  1 in 3 have difficulty paying their medical bills and it is the single biggest cause of bankruptcies. It's time to take action.

It would appear by all  economics that can  be applied to health insurance  costs  that going to a single payer system would save us tons of money..  How much money?  Well that is a hot topic and you will see all kinds of outcomes predicted good and bad.  What's the truth?  I will attempt to give you some facts to apply to the problem.

We spend 3.1 trillion dollars in annual heath care costs.   Estimates of how much we would save or how much it would cost to implement this plan wonder all over the place.  Multiple arguments surface on why we can't do this but they are mostly without fact.   So I will use just one set as an example to help you decide.

Some estimates of savings run as high as 591 billion a year. (476 billion  of that is admin  costs. There are all sorts of numbers out there pro and con but the bottom line is quite easily figured out for us common folk.  From a high of $23,000 a yr for a family of four to nothing for the 41 million people who have no insurance.  A side note many of us with Cadillac high plans don't have eye or dental coverage and if you have had dental work lately you know they can break your bank without breaking a sweat.

So how do we pay for this transition ?
Here's how!
For those making less than $53000 or less  will pay $900/yr
                                            $100,00 will pay $6000/yr
                                            $200,00 will pay $1200/yr
In the article most of these numbers came from the costs above are all paid by the employee.  I think it would be fair to have the employer pay half that cost , most likely a huge savings for them too.

There is a big problem in switching to single payer ,"What do you do with all the insurance company workers.  Some would be working for the government, some would seek other employment and some would have to be retrained.  Hardly a reason to not go to single payer. Nobody was concerned when our corporations shipped jobs overseas.  I don't know how many insurance company employees are now actually  overseas jobs but you can bet a bunch.

Now for the big argument " I DON'T WANT GOVERNMENT INVOLVED IN MY HEALTH CARE"  .  The government is already involved in Medicare and there are few complaints of quality of care provided.  I ask you to ask yourself a simple question, what does my health insurances compny really do.  Quite simple they simply pay the bills at some highly reduced rate than you or I would pay without insurance, they provide no health care, and in actual practice  they interfere with the quality of care.  Ask most doctors how insurance companies cost them time and money and force less care than the doctor wants to use.

Here's a little personal opinion on quality of care using Medicare for the last 15 years.  I have never had a procedure denied or even questioned.  If Medicare covered dental and eyes I would have no worries over health care.  So do your homework.  And if you live in Ca look up prop 61 on the ballot this November that would limit drug costs to no more than paid by the VA.  A huge savings estimated at saving Californians 9 billion a year.


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