“No,” she said. “People often say, like, how are you going to pay for it? And I find the question so puzzling because, how do you pay for something that’s more affordable. How do you pay for cheaper rent? You just pay for it. We’re paying more now.” As you might have noticed, she didn’t answer the question.

Actually, she did. You just have to connect the dots.

Trump will work well with Pelosi. He has always believed in universal health care coverage of some sort, and with the victory of Medicaid expansion in three red states, there's a visible way forward to get coverage for the working poor and lower middle class, a way that red state Trump voters will accept.

So, that's what we'll see: Medicaid expansion in all states, and that will largely cover the big insurance coverage gap.

Trump will fix something, get a victory, and Pelosi and the Democrats will have something to show for their holding the office.

We're in the situation we were in the first 6 years of Reagan: controlling the White House, the Supreme Court, and the Senate, with the House under Democrat control. Reagan got his agenda enacted, and so will Trump.

The NeverTrump Republicans have been wiped out: it's Trump's party now.

It will be easy to pay for universal health care for all. Just control the cost of all facets. Everyone can work for $40K a year, whether the head of Microsoft, or a busser at Mickey D's. That includes doctors, nurses, ditch diggers and airline pilots. With all that money saved in wasted luxury, tax rates for all over $30K can be set at 75%. The housing crisis will be solved also, as those with more rooms than people will be required to rent rooms out for $50 a month. Power companies will cut back on rates, cell phones should be free, with monthly charges capped at $10 a month.

I just cannot see a downside to this .

It will be easy to pay for universal health care for all. Just control the cost of all facets. Everyone can work for $40K a year, whether the head of Microsoft, or a busser at Mickey D's. That includes doctors, nurses, ditch diggers and airline pilots. With all that money saved in wasted luxury, tax rates for all over $30K can be set at 75%. The housing crisis will be solved also, as those with more rooms than people will be required to rent rooms out for $50 a month. Power companies will cut back on rates, cell phones should be free, with monthly charges capped at $10 a month.

Seems insane, given that the total cost of health care is a lot less than that.

We're living

In an endless Trial

Of Trayvon idioTs

Blaming normal socieTy

For Their dysfuncTional crimes

Love
boris

It will be easy to pay for universal health care for all.

Just print lots of dollars.

Nope.

We're already spending vast sums of money on health care. We have the same quality of care and access to care as France does - they have the other top health care system - but ours costs 40% more.

What is that 40%? The main sources of this difference are threefold:

(1) The profit margin of health insurance companies. In France, they have what amounts to universal Medicare. Everybody is insured for 80% of costs by the state (the poor have the equivalent of Medicaid for the other 20%, everybody else co-pays; there is private medical insurance to cover that 20% gap). So, 4/5th of health insurance expenses are not handled by health insurance companies, and the profit margins of that 80% don't go into investor's pockets but into savings for consumers.

Also, because payment is done by the state to individuals, French doctors offices do not have the massive billing departments that American doctors offices do. French doctors pay a lot less in overhead, and so don't pass those costs along to consumers.

(2) Lawyers profits and malpractice insurance company profits. The French legal system is much saner and more consistent with regards to medical malpractice. American doctors spend up to a fifth of their income (depending on their specialty) on malpractice insurance and lawsuits. French doctors spend only a couple of percentage. The savings from having a sane tort system are passed along to consumers.

(3) Medical school is paid for by the state. American doctors graduate with a quarter million dollars in interest-paying debt, which then drives up the cost of medicine as the repayment cost is passed along to consumers over time. French college costs less to operate, and the doctors graduate without debt. This keeps the cost of medicine down.

Those three factors combine to make French medicine very much like American medicine in terms of quality, but 40% cheaper.

We already have French-style health care for people over 65. It's called Medicare.

Our main problem, really, is not publicly insuring everybody. The middle class get insurance through their employers. The very poor get Medicare. It's the working poor who really are uncovered. Expand Medicaid to cover them, and you'll be ensuring probably 25 million people. You don't have to nationalize the whole health care system (like Obamacare did) to do that. Nor do you have to massively jack up taxes. Yes, it costs more, but remember: RIGHT NOW our law is that if you go into the emergency room, they have to treat you.

Right now the working class without insurance don't get preventative care and show up in the emergency room with their disastrous illnesses, and then can't pay for them, so those costs all get passed along to the state, either directly for reimbursement, or through tax writeoffs.

We're ALREADY SPENDING enough money treating dire illness in a population that can't pay for it. Expand Medicaid, and most of those cases won't get that bad, so you'll be treating nearly twice as money people with the same money - they will be nipping things in the bud with preventative care long before they need major hospitalization.

The difference, several billion per year, will have to be paid by taxes, yes. But the overall cost of doing that will be offset by a much healthier and more productive population, and by much greater political stability.

It isn't necessary to put the whole middle class on Medicare.

And besides, we'll have the entertainment that the idiot progressive communist half breeds will bring to the arena. Pelousy, Jackass-Lee, and of course the irrepressible Watters. Shiff is immediately recognized as an idiot by bye vacant look on his silly looking face.

I think it will work out. Pelosi is really not a stupid woman. She's got good political instincts. She knows that if the opportunity comes along to do something that her electorate cares about, she needs to move on it, not obstruct just to obstruct.

Trump cares a lot about health care.

He and Pelosi will cut a deal.

Quit preaching satanic communism. If you only had a little faith and God.

I don't preach either Satanism or Communism. I am concerned about the working poor who do not have health insurance. There are about 25 million non-elderly working poor in the US, mostly in states that did not expand Medicaid coverage to cover them.

The net result of this is sicker uninsured people, who end up hospitalized, and the hospital ends up being reimbursed by government funds, so we end up paying for these people anyway, and it's three to four times as expensive.

What I advocate covers everybody, and thereby dramatically reduces the per capita cost of care. The reduced cost of care significantly offsets the cost of insurance.

There's nothing Communistic or satanic about it. You go over the top and lose your head about these things. Trump will be with me on this one. Then you can call him a satanic Communist too.

Pelosi is really not a stupid woman.

I guess I'm easily fooled.

"We've got to pass this bill (Ovomit Care) so we can all see what's in it."

"We've got to pass this bill (Ovomit Care) so we can all see what's in it."

SHE knew what was in it when she said that.

Just print lots of dollars.

Nope.

I guess I needed a /sarc tag, but I was responding to a (sarcastic?) claim that "It will be easy to pay for universal health care for all. Just control the cost of all facets. Everyone can work for $40K a year, whether the head of Microsoft, or a busser at Mickey D's."

The difference, several billion per year, will have to be paid by taxes, yes.

That would be at least hundreds of billions per year. If it were easy, individual states would just do it. When California ran the numbers, it projected to cost more than the entire existing state budget.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article151960182.html

The price tag on universal health care is in, and it’s bigger than California’s budget

By Angela Hart
May 22, 2017 11:04 AM
Updated May 23, 2017 06:03 PM

The price tag is in: It would cost $400 billion to remake California’s health insurance marketplace and create a publicly funded universal health care system, according to a state financial analysis released Monday.

California would have to find an additional $200 billion per year, including in new tax revenues, to create a so-called “single-payer” system, the analysis by the Senate Appropriations Committee found. The estimate assumes the state would retain the existing $200 billion in local, state and federal funding it currently receives to offset the total $400 billion price tag.

[snip]

What I advocate covers everybody,

Quit pretending. You preach communism.

People are responsible for themselves.

People should help other people when they can.

Stick your cover everybody up your ass.

I shouldn't pay for some faggot who got aids because they wanted it.

They should pay it in full.

If someone smokes. It is on them not society.

You're a commie. That is what socialism is dopey.

Public health care should not be universal. Middle class and upper class people up to 65 can pay for their own.

Over 65, everybody develops a terminal illness that cannot be profitably covered by insurance companies. Medicare needs to cover all of them.

The poor - especially the working poor - cannot afford heath insurance or health care. They should be covered by Medicaid.

It is not necessary to get everybody into public health care. It is necessary to cover the poor and the old. That is not nearly as expensive as public health care for all.

I don't preach Communism.

People are primarily responsible for themselves. But when the burden is unbearable there needs to be a social safety net.

And there is. And there will continue to be.

By your definition America has been a Communist country since 1965. That's silly.

Public health care should not be universal. Middle class and upper class people up to 65 can pay for their own.

At #6, you stated, "Our main problem, really, is not publicly insuring everybody."

At #15, you approximately describe the Medicare system that exists now.

https://www.hhs.gov/answers/medicare-and-medicaid/who-is-elibible-for-medicare/index.html

Who is eligible for Medicare?

Generally, Medicare is available for people age 65 or older, younger people with disabilities and people with End Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure requiring dialysis or transplant). Medicare has two parts, Part A (Hospital Insurance) and Part B (Medicare Insurance). You are eligible for premium-free Part A if you are age 65 or older and you or your spouse worked and paid Medicare taxes for at least 10 years. You can get Part A at age 65 without having to pay premiums if:

• You are receiving retirement benefits from Social Security or the Railroad Retirement Board.
• You are eligible to receive Social Security or Railroad benefits but you have not yet filed for them.
• You or your spouse had Medicare-covered government employment.

To find out if you are eligible and your expected premium, go the Medicare.gov eligibility tool.

If you (or your spouse) did not pay Medicare taxes while you worked, and you are age 65 or older and a citizen or permanent resident of the United States, you may be able to buy Part A. If you are under age 65, you can get Part A without having to pay premiums if:

• You have been entitled to Social Security or Railroad Retirement Board disability benefits for 24 months. (Note: If you have Lou Gehrig's disease, your Medicare benefits begin the first month you get disability benefits.)
• You are a kidney dialysis or kidney transplant patient.

While most people do not have to pay a premium for Part A, everyone must pay for Part B if they want it. This monthly premium is deducted from your Social Security, Railroad Retirement, or Civil Service Retirement check. If you do not get any of these payments, Medicare sends you a bill for your Part B premium every 3 months.

Over 65, everybody develops a terminal illness that cannot be profitably covered by insurance companies. Medicare needs to cover all of them.

Not only does Medicare cover all over 65, it cannot be turned down, and all are automatically registered by the SSA if they do not go to SSA and register themselves. They just send you a Medicare care in the mail.

By law, Medicare becomes your primary insurer, whether you like it or not.

If you decide to change your family doctor and your newly chosen doctor only accepts 2 new Medicare patients per month, and will not have an opening for three months, you choice is to wait three months to see your chosen doctor, or to see someone else who agrees to accept you immediately as a Medicare patient. If you have other existing fully comprehensive insurance plans, they cannot be used with the newly chosen doctor as Medicare must be the primary insurer. You cannot see your chosen doctor and pay cash. The new doctor cannot accept your cash while you have Medicare.

Medicare payments are so low, many doctors limit the number of Medicare patients they see.

The poor - especially the working poor - cannot afford heath insurance or health care. They should be covered by Medicaid.

Isn't that what Medicaid does now?

Yes, Medicaid does that now, but its definition of poor is too stingy. 31 states have expanded it to cover the working poor. The remaining 19 should do so. And the threshold should be set at a level that really addresses the problem of the uninsured.