Similar to the above Yale analysis, a recent publication from the Congressional Budget Office found that 4 out of 5 options considered would lower total national expenditure on healthcare (see Exhibit 1-1 on page 13)
None of this should be surprising given that the US’s current inefficient, non-universal healthcare system costs close to twice as much per capita as most other developed countries that do guarantee healthcare to all citizens (without forcing patients to risk bankruptcy in exchange for care).
I'm on Medicaid and live in one of the 38 states that expanded coverage in the last few years. I'm moving to one of the other 12 states that chose not to expand coverage. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for healthcare. The federal gov. is throwing tens of billions at these last holdouts as an incentive to expand coverage. There is no longer a financial excuse these states have for denying these services. We'll see if the incentives work. In most of these states the GOP has a total lock on power. Here's an interactive map that shows where each state is on expansion.
I had an appendectomy 4 years ago, and pre-surgery I demanded that I not have the operation until my insurance was called and confirmed that they would cover it. “Yes honey will do!” the nurses kept saying. Well guess what? My insurance didn’t cover it. Thank God it was a cheap/routine surgery at $134,000. But it was still a shock to get that bill for 134 GRAND out of pocket that I had to cover. “Oh my God, I absolutely cannot pay this” I thought, so I didn’t. I let the years go by and I receive letters and endless phone calls from collections, and guess what? That $134,000 surgery is now 800 bucks.
It turns out that they just billed me whatever amount they thought I could get on a payment plan for. They billed me $134,000 because they thought “he can afford to pay us $300/mo until he dies of old age.” When I didn’t pay it, they decided to drop the bill by$133,200 just cuz I guess 🤷♂️
Oh, and I also demanded that I get the price before the surgery so that I could shop around/know what I’m getting into... y’know, like every other purchase made in society? Nope, they never did that despite me asking over and over and over and then telling me they’d do it.
They basically told me whatever I wanted to hear to just get me knocked out and under the knife. And god bless these nurses/doctors because they saved my life and they’re dedicated professionals who deserve to be paid well for what they do... but goddamn this healthcare system structure. It’s totally absurd to suggest that I can just blindly get a bill for $134,000 and be expected to pay it. I’m a working, lower class bartender ffs.
ILikeScience3131 on April 11st, 2021 at 11:55 UTC »
The evidence is overwhelming that single-payer healthcare in the US would result in better healthcare coverage while saving money overall.
Taking into account both the costs of coverage expansion and the savings that would be achieved through the Medicare for All Act, we calculate that a single-payer, universal health-care system is likely to lead to a 13% savings in national health-care expenditure, equivalent to more than US$450 billion annually (based on the value of the US$ in 2017).33019-3/fulltext)
Similar to the above Yale analysis, a recent publication from the Congressional Budget Office found that 4 out of 5 options considered would lower total national expenditure on healthcare (see Exhibit 1-1 on page 13)
None of this should be surprising given that the US’s current inefficient, non-universal healthcare system costs close to twice as much per capita as most other developed countries that do guarantee healthcare to all citizens (without forcing patients to risk bankruptcy in exchange for care).
Gladys_Kravitz_ on April 11st, 2021 at 14:08 UTC »
I'm on Medicaid and live in one of the 38 states that expanded coverage in the last few years. I'm moving to one of the other 12 states that chose not to expand coverage. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for healthcare. The federal gov. is throwing tens of billions at these last holdouts as an incentive to expand coverage. There is no longer a financial excuse these states have for denying these services. We'll see if the incentives work. In most of these states the GOP has a total lock on power. Here's an interactive map that shows where each state is on expansion.
Smokahontas1864 on April 11st, 2021 at 17:18 UTC »
I had an appendectomy 4 years ago, and pre-surgery I demanded that I not have the operation until my insurance was called and confirmed that they would cover it. “Yes honey will do!” the nurses kept saying. Well guess what? My insurance didn’t cover it. Thank God it was a cheap/routine surgery at $134,000. But it was still a shock to get that bill for 134 GRAND out of pocket that I had to cover. “Oh my God, I absolutely cannot pay this” I thought, so I didn’t. I let the years go by and I receive letters and endless phone calls from collections, and guess what? That $134,000 surgery is now 800 bucks.
It turns out that they just billed me whatever amount they thought I could get on a payment plan for. They billed me $134,000 because they thought “he can afford to pay us $300/mo until he dies of old age.” When I didn’t pay it, they decided to drop the bill by$133,200 just cuz I guess 🤷♂️
Oh, and I also demanded that I get the price before the surgery so that I could shop around/know what I’m getting into... y’know, like every other purchase made in society? Nope, they never did that despite me asking over and over and over and then telling me they’d do it.
They basically told me whatever I wanted to hear to just get me knocked out and under the knife. And god bless these nurses/doctors because they saved my life and they’re dedicated professionals who deserve to be paid well for what they do... but goddamn this healthcare system structure. It’s totally absurd to suggest that I can just blindly get a bill for $134,000 and be expected to pay it. I’m a working, lower class bartender ffs.