http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/39 ... r-medicare



We should call the Koch brothers the T-Mobile brothers, because they're in the self-own business.

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Does Bernie even realize that Medicare only covers 80% of the costs so the actual cost would be $40 trillion when you add in that additional 20% that has to be covered?

Leave it to socialists to not even understand the actual costs of the program they want to implement

Let's not even mention the fact every other government program ends up plagued with extensive cost overruns and inefficiencies. Our public school system should sound the alarm bells for that one where we outspend nearly the entire OECD only for our test scores to lag developing countries.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

We could send every kid in America to college.

Instead we fund the Department of Education.

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Nah, you gotta take the L on this one, Ogie. You posted this study's findings last week acting like the number was astronomical, turns out we'd be SAVING money.

We were told we cannot live without the Department of Education (as well as many other departments).

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Elections have consequences.

That astronomical number was for what Medicare would pay, which is 80% of the cost. If Sanders is going to use overall healthcare spending to try to spin this as a savings, then you need to add the 20% that would be out of pocket to the study's number as that is the true cost. Heck, that's assuming government is efficient and doesn't have any fraud, which we know won't be the case.

Let's not even mention the fact that the quality of services provided generally falls when you move it from the private sector to the public sector.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Thankfully we have Repbulicans now controlled every facet of government. We should see dramatic cut backs on govt any day now.

Nah, that small government talk is just empty campaign rhetoric. Republicans love a big, bloated government, just so long as it's slightly smaller than the one the Democrats want to propose. Leaders of both parties can go drink Jim Jones branded sports drink for all I care.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Damn you.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

That is a valid point. I haven't seen numbers on how the remaining 20% of the costs compare to the total costs paid in premiums, co-pays and deductibles, all of which would be eliminated if the Sanders proposal passed.

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I don't believe this is the case. AFAICT Sanders' plan eliminates out of pocket co-pays in contrast to current Medicare and the Mercatus study accounts for this in projecting their scary federal spending numbers. The end result is still a plan with large savings compared to what we currently spend on healthcare, and that's even without getting into the likelihood of things like greater administrative savings than the study projects.

I'm not against some sort of universal medical protection... in fact, I'm in favor of it, though I think I would prefer catastrophic coverage rather than full coverage. But there is no way it is somehow cheaper. We are going to have everyone in America with medical coverage run by the government. There is no way that saves money. It's impossible.

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The only way you can believe it will be cheaper is that you have to admit the entire medical economic structure is artificial and a house of cards. Then you have to price fix it back to reality.

The reality is that the lobbyists of all the concerned parties like hospitals, doctors, all the admins and finally the lawyers would not go back to some lower non artificial level of economic life that is based on given the general population medical care.

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Elections have consequences.

Yep, you are right about this, Zeph. Good stuff.

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Yes, we should do this.


Fuck 'em. What do they deserve?

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Sounds like a good way to end up with a bunch of D students as doctors.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Great points.

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Fale agrees.

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We need Big Pharma lobbyists to ensure well-educated doctors?

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You need incentive for people to become doctors, despite what fairy tale world you live in.

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Do you think most people become doctors for money?

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No...they have a massive god complex.

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I don't think they dedicate ten years to med school and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their education to become Senior Nurses.

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I assume you negotiate with terrorists.

I mean, I dont think lowering the average pay of a doctor by 1-2% is going to have a massive effect on people going in to the field, right?

I don't think Curious Hair is proposing cutting it in half or anything

I would never negotiate with Democrats.

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I think the majority dedicate years and money on their education because they genuinely want to heal and fix people.

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Doctors should be paid very well. But there's plenty of headroom to be paid a little less but still very well. Maybe we should have a system similar to France, where doctors make a little less but aren't gouged on med school tuition and left with years of crushing debt to pay. I dunno, don't wanna get called Croissant Curious Hair for that.

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This is economics. We want the best and the brightest to become doctors. It's nice to say "fuck doctors", but once reality sets in, you'll realize you don't want Bert from the local watering hole performing your triple bypass surgery. We can act like money and economics shouldn't factor into these things, but they do.

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I think deep down...you do.

Maybe the strawman you just built can do my knee replacement in ten years.

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