The Eye Popping Cost of Medicare for all

No, that empirical fact of mine.

 

Giggles again.
You have no facts

 

Based upon the comments it seems that very few people actually know a lot about the Medicare plan. The important things to know is that the Medicare plan is standard across the country and people have to pay a monthly charge of $135 to get it. The fee is usually deducted from the Social Security check. Medicare is concerned with providing services that will save your life so it doesn't cover other things. If you want that coverage you have to get a Medicare Advantage plan or a Supplemental plan, which is different. Not all medical providers will accept a straight Medicare patient. In most cases if you have a Medicare Advantage plan you may have to go providers in its network or pay extra to see out of network providers. The Supplemental plans are standardized with different levels of coverage that will pay the difference in the bill that the Medicare won't pick up. You use them with your Medicare plan and their cost depends on your age and other factors. You can buy riders to provide extra payment coverage.

The good thing about a Supplemental plan is that it will cover the cost of hospitals, nursing homes, home health care, and the remainder of Medicare approved amounts. Medicare Advantage plans vary in coverage for those things and, depending on the specific plan, you could get stuck with a hefty bill depending on your particular circumstances.

Some Medicare Advantage plans don't have a monthly fee, which is great if you are in excellent health and expect to remain that way for the year. If you get one of those you had better save up some money because if you have a serious condition pop up, you will need a ton of cash.

The best way to understand the issue is to go to the Medicare.gov website and check out the various plans for your zip code. You can get some plans with drug plans, stand alone drug plans, and see the various supplemental plans. You have to call the vendors to enroll in the supplement plans, in most cases, because they are insurance companies and not part of the Medicare system. The important thing to remember is that just because a plan is expensive it doesn't mean that it is the best choice for your specific circumstance. And vice versa. It takes time to evaluate the plans but if you check it out you can have a better idea of what a Medicare for All system might look like. Such a system won't cover everything and it won't pay for everything.

 

We spend 3 trillion a year on medical now. And the price is going up. So 34 trillion over ten years is almost exactly what we are paying anyway.

Learn how to look up the basics before getting carried away with crackpot claims.

 

I just checked and we are paying 3.4 trillion per year now. So that is 34 trillion over 10 years.
https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statis...endData/NationalHealthAccountsHistorical.html

 

Your health industry companies must be very prosperous.

 

1/3 of that, $1 trillion a year, can be traced directly back to sugar consumption. If we taxed sugar for its consequential costs of health care, it would be a tax of $20 a pound! And that's exactly what I think we should do. We could pay for over half the cost of all health care just by taxing high-risk choices according to their related health care costs. It is a pay as you go, pay as you choose, health insurance plan.

What happens in a big way is that Americans pay for the development costs of new technologies that benefit everyone. We are always paying for the next generation of technology and drugs in the cost of our health care. Very unfair!!!

 

I read somewhere that R&D is a minor part of the costs. Wrong?
Ps. Sugar is indeed white poison.

 

I worked with high tech medical equipment for years. R&D is a HUGE part of the cost. I remember relatively simple 7400 series circuit boards used for early CAT scanners, that costs $50K - $100K. I could have made one for $100 if I could gotten their code. But that information was highly proprietary. So the cost of R&D is buried in the parts costs, for one.

 

They are. And their CEOs are the highest paid.

The highest pay packages go to CEOs at healthcare companies. For the third time in four years, chief executives in the healthcare field led the S&P 500 in terms of total compensation. The typical CEO in the industry made $16.1 million last year, which means half earned more than that, and half made less.

https://www.modernhealthcare.com/finance/healthcare-ceos-again-lead-way-pay

 

The real point here is that the entire basis for this thread is based in ignorance.

We are paying exactly what Warren't plan would cost, right now!

 

Are they bloated costs or are they competitive?

 

They all take very high markups on replacements parts to offset development costs. I've had to play that game myself with products I developed. It is the reality of development. You have to recover those costs somewhere. And developing things like a FMRI is tremendously expensive.

Once you buy something like a GE MRI unit, you must buy GE parts. They are all proprietary and super expensive.

 

Considering the fact that the US's current healthcare expenses is around $50 trillion over the next 10 years, $34 trillion over a span of 10 years isn't so expensive

 

Oh I doubt that. I'm not going to have a government worker that hates conservatives and republicans in charge of my health care.

SAVAGE: Elizabeth Warren Disappointed After DNA Test Shows Zero Trace Of Presidential Material.

 

You must be one of those posters who needs to be asked questions several times before you respond, if you respond.

What other audits of the Pentagon have been conducted to your knowledge? Who performed it, and when?

 

I used to think as you do -- and then we had the 'Great Recession' of 2007 - 2009. Where did the money come from to "rescue" those that were considered "too-big-to-fail"? THE FEDERAL RESERVE simply pulled it out of thin air! That's how it is done!

And, as far as the horrendous cost of providing free healthcare for everybody in the country (including all the illegal aliens who invade us every single, stinking day) -- what makes any of us think that anybody cares about what it would cost?!

We have turned into a society that doesn't care how much government programs cost because fewer than half of the population even pays income taxes in the first place! Somebody else is always going to be stuck with the costs, so, the welfare-sucking, happy masses of freeloaders could not possibly care LESS who is paying for anything.

Hint: whether any of us likes it or not, 'socialized-medicine' is coming, fast, and it is going to cost trillions -- AND NOBODY WILL CARE! What is American going to be like, from one end to the other in about another ten years? Take a good, hard, focused look at San Antonio, Texas today. Do you like what you see...?

 

I saw your question. I exposed the false premise contained within it. What you posted was not an audit. If you ask me a question that doesn't have a false premise, I might be able to answer it.

For example, how often does the Pentagon undergo an audit? The answer? Every single DOD contract is audited. On top of that, every annual budget is publicly available, and dozens of legal actions happen every year to enforce the requirements of those budgets.

 

Semantics and dodges are your style sir. I am now informed.

 

Then why does it have administrative costs that are higher, per capital, than private plans?

 

Because old people have more claims that need to be processed.

 

I answered your question about the last time an audit of Pentagon spending was conducted directly.

Every single DOD contract is audited. On top of that, every annual budget is publicly available, and dozens of legal actions happen every year to enforce the requirements of those budgets.

 

It doesn’t

 

Are Americans as smart as the Australians, Danes, Swiss, Brits, Israelis etc?

 

Administrative costs for the many, many insurance providers as well as HMOs, PPOs etc add about 30% on overhead costs.. None of it is standardized.