I agree with you on many positions, and even when I do not I think highly of you and from out interaction on the boards I think you are a very good person. However I have to disagree with you somewhat on this issue. I cannot say in M4A in the long term is better for the USA. I suspect like most things it is complicated and there are good and bad parts. I will say this, I cannot see anyway that M4A will be as good as a solid private plan. For example, I can currently go to almost any doctor I want. I do not need a referral and while my treatment is limited to who is "in network", almost every single provider is in my network. The treating doctors I go to in general do not have long waits and are very good. With M4A you likely will see longer waits and more difficulty getting into specialists. The quality of doctors will be hit or miss and we may well see some of the best students avoid going into medicine.
Yes, I am half expecting Brown to enter the race. I am not sure why he decided not to, as he was being pushed hard to run.
I really like him. I’ll straddle the fence and say that I could see it both hurting and helping now if he decided to run. Hard to say what might happen, but I’d like to see him jump in, even though I want to see the field paired down in a big way. @jiggyfly i didn’t see the interview where he was against it. I saw him on a couple interviews that would seem to suggest he may be open to it. That said, I did see where he suggested that he’d really have to go all in and he may not be willing to do that.
One possibility is that Brown believes that Trump will win in 2020 and will try in 2024. Brown is not THAT old, and if Trump does win in 2020 there is no question that there will be a huge backlash by 2024.
I've said before that these discussions are purely theoretical because nothing like this will pass congress.
I do not at all fault anyone for reasonable disagreement. I don't think I or anyone else know for sure what M4A would look like. I am only going by the fact that nations with better health care for their citizens have similar programs. Everyone is covered and can usually choose whichever doctors they wish. I acknowledge that it is a risk. As far as it not being as good the best insurance, I would disagree. But even if that were the case. What percentage of our population will have the best level of insurance? In the end, I think it will be an overall net gain. But I appreciate different opinions. I think even without M4A there are lots of ways to improve the Healthcare system we have now.
I don't think anyone knows. It is a radically different style of care than what we have now. With that comes excitement and also concern. How many of those nations are as large and populated as the USA. Also, for example in Canada you can wait months sometimes to see a doctor for surgery. It is a risk, however the status quo clearly isn't acceptable either. This I have to strongly disagree with. I have lived in nations that are wealthy and have government ran healthcare. The quality of care and the facilities and easy or treatment and in great part, quality of treating doctors is not as good as those in the USA that have premium insurance. The second sentence is really what this is about but no one on either side of the debate politically will touch. Those that have high end insurance do not want to lose it, those that do not have premium insurance (most Americans) will be about where they are now or possibly better. There is no question that the poor and many working class people would be in a better position with M4A. Even the completely incompetent VA medical care is better than no medical care. It may very well be a net gain, in fact I believe that it would be a net gain for the USA. I believe that as a society we have an obligation to ensure those that need medical treatment, housing and food get it. However, convincing someone in the suburbs with a family income of $150,000 that it is a good idea to get rid of their platinum insurance isn't going to be a popular sale.
I can tell you that in Medicare currently there is no need for referral, have rarely heard of any doctor that doesn't accept it, the wait times are exactly the same as for private insurance, and the quality of doctors is no different from private insurance. If we had a true M4A system then I don't see why any of that will change except for a bit longer waits if there is a flood of new patients. It's not like doctors aren't going or accept it, they need the volume.
In Canada and the UK there seems to be some restrictions on that, regional and doctors have to accept you. Also it seems there is a longer wait time than usual and its not minutes.
This is just not true. I know plenty of doctors that don't take medicare and I know there are very long waits in clinics and doctors that do accept medicare. Why do doctors need the volume?
the majority of doctors and hospitals accept original Medicare (meaning not advantage) and there are waits at some and not at others. Medicare doctors are not like some sort of charity.
Never said they were charity and it depends on where you are located. In rural areas and small cities there is definitely longer waits, I I know a lot of people who use medicare and they are always complaining about wait times and the appointments are usually a week off if not longer. And they penalize you majorly if you miss appointments. This is in BCS Texas and the surrounding counties. Here is good article talking about doctors dropping out of medicare. https://www.hlc.org/news/more-physicians-no-longer-seeing-medicare-patients/
In the UK if someone needs a procedure and there is nobody available they pay to transport the patient to a European nation that can perform the procedure immediately, so there is no wait at all for that. If the patient needs one caretaker they are flown to the other nation as well. Both the UK and Canada's healthcare system is ranked above that of the United States.
Doctors can drop out of medicare because insurance covers enough patients that they can still prosper. Once everyone is covered and medical insurance as we know it no longer exists, that won't be the case. Doctors will either accept M4A or cash only. Even with the cheaper cost of healthcare cash-only doctors will be few and far between.
I am gonna need you to link this, I read something entirely different. https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...k-what-choices-are-available-to-me-in-the-nhs
