General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Bernie Sanders talks universal Medicare, and 1.1 million people click to watch him [View all]Sophia4
(3,515 posts)I have posted the numbers on what is paid in other countries as well as their outcomes.
I am unable to provide the numbers on what it would cost here, but if you read the charts and articles I link to in my posts on this thread, you will probably agree with me that it would be cheaper and we would have better outcomes than we currently have.
I think our system would ultimately be much more diverse and varied in terms of insurers and providers than the systems in smaller countries than ours.
And I think the change toward a more efficient, more inexpensive, more inclusive single payer system will be gradual.
We should now demand more information about the cost and pricing of our current system.
We should demand fairer pricing and government negotiation with regard to pharmaceuticals for example. We should demand a lot more transparency with regard to the cost of our medications as well as their real efficacy in terms of treatment.
The opioid epidemic should be a warning to us that we need this transparency.
And we need to put doctors much more in charge of the medical treatment of patients and, within the system we have now, which we cannot immediately change, we should demand far more transparency about insurance company profits and management and all aspects of health insurance companies. How many requests for care are really rejected per year. How do they bill for our care. There are many questions we should ask and that should be answered as we consider healthcare and switching to single payer.
The average American knows almost nothing really about how healthcare costs are figured and covered.
In Europe, how healthcare costs are determined and everything to do with healthcare costs is a matter of public discussion. That is helpful to patients as they think about their healthcare. When the cost of co-pays goes up, the newspapers used to report it in Europe. Here it is not a major item although it may be reported way down on the page of the newspaper.
There are a lot of hidden costs in our lousy system of paying for healthcare.