Visual Explanation of the HealthCare Debate

[Hoser]

He completely ignores the problems with the US system and spouts lies and tired arguments against the Canadian and UK systems.

Yep. He talks to a conservative anti-UHC think tank (again) and the doctor that gave Giuliani false cancer stats to fight UHC. By that point I gave up.
Not that it's in any way important, like they said, that option's not even on the table in the states.

As for the napkin video, how much did Obama's cronies pay to put that out?

Zip. The guy who did it wrote the Administration to see if they could use it, but he hasn't heard back from them.

 

[Amaris]

No, oftentimes the people paying in don't ever get to become patients, as their insurance company drops them when they get sick.

I have never ever had anyone I know tell me insurance refused to cover them. I'd be interested in some stats on this.

But don't get in the way of me calling the doctor and getting an appt that day with the doctor. Don't ruin healthcare for 280M just so a few million can be covered on our dime.

As for the napkin video, how much did Obama's cronies pay to put that out?

Hello, my insurance refused to cover me. I'm diabetic.

J.

 

[Iasius]

Medicare currently pays about 15 cents on the dollar

That figure is quite obviously wrong. Medicare spending is about 4% of US GDP, so if the cost is actually 100/15 times as much, that would be around 27% of US GDP which is almost twice as much as the total health care expenditures in the USA, private and public combined.

There's simply no way other people are subsidizing Medicare to the extent of 23% of US GDP. And if they did ... wow! That's one massively expensive program, considering it would actually cost about three times as much as the next most expensive system in the world (which covers everyone) while Medicare covers only a fraction of Americans.

 

[Iasius]

But don't get in the way of me calling the doctor and getting an appt that day with the doctor. Don't ruin healthcare for 280M just so a few million can be covered on our dime.

About that seeing a doctor within a day ...

 

[Mr. B]

Medicare currently pays about 15 cents on the dollar

That figure is quite obviously wrong. Medicare spending is about 4% of US GDP, so if the cost is actually 100/15 times as much, that would be around 27% of US GDP which is almost twice as much as the total health care expenditures in the USA, private and public combined.

It's really not that hard to believe. Hospitals have inflated rates to try and get more from private insurers (I think a Medicare-accepting facility must have uniform rates) and Medicare's per-person overhead costs are around 25%. Never underestimate the government's ability to waste money.

 

[Kestra]

But don't get in the way of me calling the doctor and getting an appt that day with the doctor. Don't ruin healthcare for 280M just so a few million can be covered on our dime.

About that seeing a doctor within a day ...

This is actually something I'm concerned about. I try to stay out of healthcare debates as I'm too close to the topic but also ignorant of a lot of the details.

Regardless of policy change, I'm concerned about a shortage of primary care physicians. I don't think leaving people uninsured is any sort of answer to this, of course. I'm ashamed of our healthcare system. I'm just concerned about attitudes like those expressed in this CNN article because I know that he is not alone in the feelings expressed here.

I don't know, I guess I don't have much useful to add. It's a bad situation from all different angles, but something definitely needs to change.