“I dont understand this.
I support one idea, why do I “have to” defend a different idea ?”
As I’ve said before but you never adequately answered (a strong point that you ignored)- you’re advocating for the US Government, who failed miserably at the ACA, to be in charge of a single payer system. You need to explain why you think the same US Government could successfully run something of a much larger magnitude.
“I am advocating paying less for a higher quality system.”
That was former President Obama’s claim with the ACA- the typical family will save $2,500 per year in healthcare- and we all saw that it wasn’t the case. I understand that you’re advocating for that (and I wish it were possible) but you haven’t explained how we’re going to end up paying less (where the money is going to come from) or how the quality is going to go up.
Would you mind explaining how you think it’s going to work?
“By any Benchmark the US pays MORE for healthcare. By most benchmarks we have worse outcomes.”
I’ve said this point before and you haven’t addressed is so I’m going to repeat again- this is mostly due to the irresponsible culture here of people not caring about their health or taking responsibility for their wellbeing.
“Same for healthcare. “Hey it works for me who cares about those it doesnt work for, that is just a necessary evil” (almost a verbatim quote)”
Where’s this coming from? You can’t ask people who are struggling to make their own health care payments (already so overpriced due to the people who refuse to responsibly of their health) to care more about someone else’s health than they care about their own. (Again- I’m referring to those who are fully capable of taking care of themselves but refuse to, not people sick with illnesses that they didn’t bring upon themselves.)
“As I said (20 times?) I don’t think health insurance should be a for profit industry. So while you keep repeating this point over and over. It has absolutely nothing to do with the subject at hand .”
You’ve said that health insurance companies don’t need to be run by high paid CEOs- did you mean to say that for health insurance companies to work they need high paid CEOs but health insurance companies shouldn’t exist at all? You still haven’t explained how a company will survive with a low paid CEO.
“Ok so CEO wont be filthy rich. I’m fine with using that extra $$$ to approve more cancer treatments.”
Then the CEO will resign and become a high paid CEO elsewhere. I agree that they’re greedy but we need them to run our corporations which provide employment to millions of people making a modest salary and provide goods and services to hundreds of millions of people. Go ahead and replace them with well-meaning but low paid CEOs and watch how fast everything will fall apart and make things worse for everyone.
“You say there is no CEO of a healthcare company that gets a reasonable salary. Yes I know, THAT is the problem The problem IS that health insurance IS a for profit venture. Yes Its hard to find a reasonably paid CEO, that is EXACTLY the problem. Have I really not said this ????”
I didn’t write that there isn’t one (I’m not saying that there is, I have no idea one way or the other). I just asked if you could explain how it could work without one. Until a not-for profit system can be designed we need for profit companies which come along with high paid CEOs. I mentioned how practically every single COOP (not for profits that received Billions of Dollars and had low paid CEOs) failed.
“But if you insist as far as I can tell Chiquita Brooks-Lasure the head of CMS (center for medicare and medicaid services) makes $249,723.”
CMS isn’t a private company- it’s a government agency. From the ridiculous dealings I had with them (while working in the ACA) and the sheer incompetence of the people working there all I can say is that a typical company that acted like that would be out of business within a year. The president of the US also makes a mere fraction of what these CEOs make- but again- no company could survive with him at the helm.
“In contrast Cigna CEO David Cordani took home more than $91 million in 2021 thats more than 364 times as much!!! put another way, he made her salary every single day of the year minus his birthday.”
Obviously the shareholders and board which determines his compensation felt that that’s what he’s worth. If you feel that he’s overpaid start a mutual, not-for-profit company that’s owned by the policy holders, become the low paid CEO, pay all claims, charge lower premiums and if you can stay in business you can put them out of business- that’ll show them.
“As I said over a month ago (February 2, 2023 5:35 pm) that is a technicality. If you want to increase taxes on smoking /sugary drinks etc to encourage good behavior. sure I can get on board. You want some sort of mandatory exercise program, I’m a bit squeamish but ok if thats what it takes I’m in”
You may have said that over a month ago but it still doesn’t respond to my strong point that a single payer system CAN NOT work until people start taking more responsibility for their health. Can you please respond to that directly?
“My apologies I missed all of your “strong points”
Do you mind repeating them”
Sure- here’s one of them.
I mentioned a few times that a single payer system will turn into a calamity the size of the public school disaster. Some school systems pay in the $30,000 range per student yet don’t have a single student that is proficient in math ot English. All this while the teachers (some of them who have no business being around children but are protected by the powerful unions) are bringing in huge salaries. After paying for all this in taxes, families that want their kids to get an education are forced to send their kids to private schools at an additional expense.
With a single payer free health care for all, you’re going to have people who don’t take care of their (or their kids’) health, don’t follow doctors directions and end up costing the system billions of Dollars in unnecessary expenses while clogging up doctors’ offices, hospitals and emergency rooms. What’s going to end up happening is that those of us who care about our health and currently have insurance are going to have to pay more in taxes for a single payer system while having to take out private insurance all over again if we want quality health care.
“There were no points in this last post that were strong nor that I didn’t previously reply to”
Uh- there was- the comparison to the public school that I just repeated again. Please explain why it’ll be different
Can you break up the super long posts into shorter ones? Or send more coffee over to Mods HQ?