Single payer NOW!

and if you were 63 and 60.

It absolutely sucks.

At one dollar over $64,500 for two people you are paying full retail price I believe.
For a Silver level that is well over $1,000 per month.

And what is the deductible for that silver plan that costs over $1,000 per month?

$12,000/$64,500 = 18.6%

That's before you even pay one dollar towards your deductible.

single payer but knew he would not be able to get that through Congress.

This is what he negotiated with the Insurance companies in a decidedly Cheney-like fashion, and he delivered for them.

Ironically, they thought they were getting free money with the mandate, that none of us would actually use it.

What they got with the mandate was everyone, including young, healthy people, obligated to buy health insurance.

For insurance companies, that was TARP like, but with no end date.

and I'm not talking about this particular president or that particular congress...

Virtually EVERY ONE of our peers around the globe has single payer or some other form of nationalized, guaranteed health care. Dozens of less developed and much less wealthy countries has it too.

Our nation is exceptional, that's the truth, but not in the ways many people want to think.

It is pathetic. And every time a politically aware and active person says 'we can't get it through', it just perpetuates this.

I'm not meaning to rant at you personally, please understand that. I'm just fed up with this 'can't do it' conclusion I see everywhere in terms of health care (not to mention education, job security, retirement, and so much else - we are SO FAR BEHIND the rest of the world...)

The president's only achievement of note is in reality a twenty year old Gingrich gift to the insurance lobby. It will be at least fifty years before we can get them out.

blinded by the light, indeed

So I'm right there with you.

Another factor about the ACA is that it disincentives people from making a little more money for fear of going over the 400% of FPL and losing the subsidy.

But I can't afford it unless I make more, so...

wants to extend Medicare to all.

In that way it's different from what Medicare is now.

to a single payer system, a Medicare for all.

I'm now on Medicare and I'm greatly impressed with it. Earlier this evening I was discussing Medicare with another senior, and she was talking about her Blue Cross/Blue Shield policy, and the recent update about it they'd mailed her. She said her rate is going up a bit this year, but she's happy with it, and I told her about my Advantage Plan with Humana. They take the $104.90 that I pay for Part B, and they cover an amazing lot of stuff. I take three meds, all generics, and I get a 90 day supply by mail zero co-pay. I also have a $50/month allowance to buy over the counter stuff like aspirin, bandaids, toothpaste, tooth brushes. I even used it to buy a new digital scale, and next month I'm going to get a heating pad. My friend was rather bemused, and said that she's not getting dental or vision because it would cost a bit more -- I didn't ask and she didn't tell me just how much her additional is --and I pointed out that I have (limited) dental and vision on my plan.

The Advantage Plans are amazing, and I'm genuinely astonished more people don't use them.

But back to the subject at hand. It will take longer than it should, but I am hopeful we will see single payer somewhat sooner than later. Of course, if Bernie Sanders becomes President it will be sooner. Anyone else, including Inevitable Hillary, it will be later, and if any Republican is our next President, much later.

I was angry beyond being rational when single payer was taken off the table at the very beginning of the ACA negotiations. I wasn't yet on Medicare then, and I actually had a job with excellent health care benefits, but I felt totally betrayed by Obama.

If we seniors were organized properly, because most of us get it how great (not perfect, but still great) Medicare is, and if we could pass it on to everyone else, that would be a major accomplishment.

turned out to be correct. Let's face it: That was her baby, and he watered it down dreadfully. I bet it still gives her nightmares. Better than nothing, but not good enough.

Although she wouldn't have really pushed for single payer either, she understood that everyone has to be in the system.

That's where we need to be working right now.

Not any time soon, anyway.

Jan 7th 2021, 62 months from now. However, we still need to be challenging the bluedog wing of the party. We aren't going to win all the seats in one election. I won't vote for my rep as he is s Republican lite and a worthless piece of crap. If someone would challenge him I would be willing to help replace him with a progressive.

high likelihood of that, given the current House majority and the advantages of being an incumbent rep. As the saying goes, everyone hates Congress, but loves his or her rep.

However, we still need to be challenging the bluedog wing of the party.

costs enough so that they can be successful at that venture. Our system needs radical restructuring.

I can only imagine how the propaganda machine would go in to overdrive about how single payer has been an abominable failure AND CAN NOT WORK in the U.S. if a state or two adopts single payer, the obscene for-profit medical costs in this nation are not addressed, and the state's single payer plan is a financial catastrophe. I almost think that they have devised this scenario purposefully to play out in just that way. Setting up single payer for failure in the U.S. when a single state or two tries to do the right thing, but fails since our medical costs are so ridiculously overpriced.

We absolutely need to fight for single payer, and I believe we can do it if we radically reform who we nominate for Democratic elections (i.e. true FDR-Democrats must win the primaries). But, we need to be careful and not fall in to traps that I feel may have been purposefully set. We need to be very smart about this. And, we'll have to reform many parts of our healthcare system. Hospitals, Insurance markets, Medical Technology, Medical Education, Expected Salaries, etc...

We can do this.

smaller than a larger state or the US as a whole.

My favorite system, that of France, is not a true single payer system but a dual tiered system with a government healthcare base and private insurance that about 85% of the country layers on top of it.

It happens to be continually rated either the best or close to the best system in the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_France

--where private insurance comes in for those whose incomes aren't low enough for government subsidies.

Vermont figured it out just fine, but Shumlin shot it down.

It's a godsend for low wage workers but otherwise..

prior to ACA?

but it should have gotten cheaper.

A lot of us were skating with high deductibles, so that's a matter of risk but it was cheaper if you didn't need doctors.

like asthma, cancer, or anything else they deemed too expensive. IF you could get any insurance at all.

Their whole method of controlling costs before was kicking you out as soon as you needed significant care.

rather than getting a better deal.

Many people fall into categories where their payment is 600+ a month for an individual, that's half a rent payment and it kicks in if your AGI is over 45000 approx. do the math to see how unfair that is for the budget.

who were being barred from getting insurance.

The maximum payment after subsidies is 9% of income. For someone with the income you stated, there would be a subsidy. I don't know where you're getting your math.

After that you pay full fare. The Silver level in Los Angeles is 650 a month plus a 2k deductible.

That is a lot of money for someone making 40 something grand a year.


2015 Federal Poverty Guidelines

Federally facilitated marketplaces will use the 2015 guidelines to determine eligibility for Medicaid and CHIP.

Household Size 1





$47,080
- See more at: http://familiesusa.org/product/federal-poverty-guidelines#sthash.dbDlms7t.dpuf

Medicare has a 3% overhead and for profit insur co.s have a 20% overhead.

……is an enraging travesty in a "Democracy". If the people want health care for all, they should have it.

Same for education.

Nothing is ever ever ever going to get done with a Congress full of radical right wing nuts.

all at one time?

The GOP has trigger-issues it reliably trots out at the midterms: God, Gays, Guns.

Dems who stay home because they think this is all beneath them get the kind of government the rest of us do not deserve.

People in the US think we have a Parliamentary form of government. No. We don't. We have 3 branches, one of which makes the actual laws. The President cannot do it all himself. The one we currently have said "WE can" about a million times, and everybody pointed at him after he was elected and said "HE can, and we don't have to do anything else but watch. And stay home at the midterms."

Personally, I will stay home on election day when pigs fly.

happens again.

I can't imagine staying home on any day when I can vote.

The ACA was a start but there is more work to be done. Single-Payer is (hopefully!) the future.

On the Issues: http://ballotpedia.org/2016_presidential_candidates_on_healthcare

Clinton: Opposes single-payer.
Sanders: Supports single-payer.
O'Malley: Can't find a firm position on his national stance, though he did work to successfully implement an 'all-payer' system for hospitals in Maryland. (Source)

There's more depth in the Ballotpedia breakdown for anyone's perusal.

We need to get people to support more progressive candidates and not these blue dog pieces of shit.

candidate in our primaries.

Specifically I point out Tammy Duckworth and Maggie Hassan as examples THIS go round. From what I've learned of both, neither would be open to single payer.

We get blocked before the general election, and in the Senate every block against us that is held by a Democrat (we have 2 in my state via Warner and Kaine) makes single payer that much more unlikely.

We'll need to massively organize to take on the Establishment that is fighting against our dreams for this country.

I hope that Bernie's campaign wakes us up to what we need to do. And, if primary challengers are required of our elected Democrats then so be it. Actual lives are at stake (as well as more financially secure and happy lives). No one should face dealing with bankruptcy because they got sick and are fighting for their lives. That's disgraceful.

Everyone that fights to prevent a more humane health care system is a special, special person.

Schrader Oregon 5th CD

You might as well be waiting on the Republican congress to pass green energy initiatives or pro-women bills.

With 50 special ops and a speech and he can wipe out ISIL and end his 14 year war in the Middle East. Or is it a war on reason, I'm just so confused, lol. Have a good night Steve!

If you want to buy a $100 TV but have $40, you are not getting the TV.

Single, no dependents, ~$50 K income (more than 400% of poverty level, so no subsidy). Non-smoker. Minnesota (Twin Cities metro area). Age over 60.

Definitely true what some poster said that this is mostly being paid for by the middle class.

Still I figure it is a lot better than the absolute shit that people in the private individual marketplace had before the ACA, where there was virtually no regulation and it was impossible to compare policies and they were full of gimmicks and loopholes. Even without pre-existing conditions. And if you got seriously ill, you were on your own next year.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=758167

Just make up a number and go for it! And the huge exec. profits have to keep coming, so just keep upping the premiums.

Example of their fantasyland that can bankrupt you: I did 12 rounds of chemo that is conventional and the drugs have been used for 20 yrs. Nothing new and the admin. was an IV drip after routine blood work. Drip was for 2 hr. or so at doc office, then I took it home in a porta pack attached to a port in my chest and this pumped in the drugs for 2 days.

For this IV drip, each round of chemo was charged at---get this---$40K per round for the provider charge and $23K for the allowed charge.

I found an NIH site stating my exact chemo actually cost $3600/round for admin + chemo drugs.

Interestingly, my out-of-pocket charge was---ta da---$3600! But thanks to O-care, I didn't have to pay that much. Thank you, Democrats! At least I didn't have no insurance due to my "pre-existing condition."

My theory is that the insurance cos. charge whatever fantasy numbers they feel like, and then when they negotiate with states and the feds, they don't get that amount. So that's a tax write off for a "loss."

Quite the smartasses, these criminals. They should be in jail, IMO.

but consider the alternative (i.e. if it ultimately failed to pass). How many people are able to afford insurance that weren't able to before? How many people are insured now as opposed to before? And nobody is saying that this is the ideal endpoint but, um, nobody has been able to do anything more about it since the House went solidly Tea Party Republican in the 2010 election and then the Senate was conquered in 2014. We were actually pretty damned lucky that we got all that we got with the ACA. I cannot imagine SP standing a chance. Obama and other Democrats probably knew that right from the start, so why would they waste time that they couldn't afford to waste with a clearly losing proposition? In this country, it seems like progress is made incrementally and in "fits and starts". Almost nothing happens virtually wholesale without massive progressive majorities in Congress that pretty much haven't been seen since the mid-late 1960's at least. Single Payer *should* be a no-brainer and I think almost everybody here agrees it would be MUCH better than what we have now but if they can't get it enacted in Vermont (of all places) in 2015, just imagine how DOA it would have been in Congress in 2009-2010. I agree with your concerns and support for SP. It's just that progress happens frustratingly slow in this country. We need to get a solid progressive majority in Congress along with a progressive-minded President to get things like this done, which will take some time. I'm all in favor of doing what we can to make that happen- so that all of our lives will be better!