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Post by Doug on Jan 28, 2015 7:51:39 GMT -5
Not ever going to happen. If private and government have a connection some will rip off the government (people's money).
Just like if you give government the power to help or hurt people making money then the government will be bought.
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Post by brucemacneill on Jan 28, 2015 7:53:06 GMT -5
Each year, drop the 'eligible for Medicare' age by three years. Give the process a ten-year transition period. The goal would be to eventually get to single payer without throwing 30% of the economy (which means real people with jobs they depend on) into shock and disruption. The writing would be on the wall, but it would be a slow writing with some time to adjust and re-position. There is no reason to work out the bugs on a whole new from scratch complex and expensive bureaucracy when Medicare can be expanded slowly but surely over a ten or fifteen year period. Excellent idea, tho I'd propose that it be done a little more slowly, but only if you could keep special interests from eviscerating it. My pay gets deducted about $600/month for healthcare, and my employer matches that, so make that 1200 (that also covers one remaining dependent, but it's salary-based so that doesn't matter). And then my wife, who is also a full time worker, and because of that is necessarily independent of me (tax/employment rules here), pays a little less, since she doesn't make as much as I do. And there is some co-pay if something happens. But costs/payments are universally controlled in what I think is a universal-medicare kind of way. So yes, it's expensive, but no, I'm not whining and complaining. It works (tho the aging population here will be a huge strain in coming years, they're making changes (adding death panels, if you will!)). *** I'll be hospitalized for maybe four days, starting on Feb 3rd. Cubital tunnel syndrome (ulnar nerve entrapment), and they're going to take some bone off my elbow and re-route the nerve. Maybe I'll post what out-of-pocket costs are, etc. OK, it looks like you actually pay more monthly than we do. Between the 2 of you about $2000/mo whereas when it was the 2 of us under a group plan we paid $760/mo for a decent plan, $15 to see the primary care Dr., $35 to see a specialist and $15 per prescription co-pays at the time but that was 2 years ago now. Is your higher premiums how Japan pays for the population that doesn't have your level of income? Are you covering the unemployed and retired for instance with your payments?
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Post by dickt on Jan 28, 2015 9:54:49 GMT -5
Medicare is not a gift. I paid for 30 years before turning 65 and in 2014 I paid $1600 Medicare payroll tax. And I pay $146 for part B coverage.
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