So this is when Obama swoops in and says the public option will be Medicare

and we will slowly add people to it until all are insured.

it will be paid for by a surcharge on the wealthy and by Part A and Part B premiums by new enrollees.

and that this is a cost effective way to provide people health care (most cost effective is a VA model, but I digress...)

and that he is doing this because people are worried about Medicare, "and now you don't have to worry because the younger generation will come to care about this program as much as you do."

the ironic thing is that *this* idea is fantasy and the Baucus Bill is the how health reform is shaping up in reality. :banghead:

Let me know if I miss it.

If I recall what I read, they started system they have now in a remote part of Saskatchewan and it was such a success that everyone eventually wanted it.

If someone has seen something that corroborates or contradicts that, I would appreciate the input.

houses of the legislature twice. We thought if people saw how well it works, it would spread across the country, but our Governor has vetoed it twice.

But, hey, if they did, that might really happen

and saying everyone will get Medicare and the insurance industry will pay for it.

Medicare will be broke within 8-9 years.

Why would he suggest extending this if it is not allegedly going to exist in the near future?

Is this a scare tactic or what?

I remember reading on the medicare.gov website last year that the reason that they were not increasing the monthly premiums for last year was because Medicare is running a surplus and there was no need to increase the monthly contribution for it.

Confused? Yep.

:kick:

so will Medicare see an influx of enrollees.

In Social Security there has been a huge build up for the boomers, remembers the 80's, which currently has over 2 Trillion in the Trust Fund and holds US Treasury bills.

If you want to ensure Medicare then you enroll everyone in the program instead of leaving the healthiest, most profitable people in private insurance, which this "public option" plan essentially does.

Saving from Medicare efficiencies will pay help fund the public option???

Not when the number of folks on Medicare goes from 46 million to 79 million over the next two decades.

if they open up Medicare to all, how many people will actually enroll in it? It would be based on a person's income (the amount paid out for the policy every month) and could be as much as a couple of hundred dollars in some cases.

How many people, especially younger people will actually enroll in a plan that costs as much of a couple of hundred dollars a month?

I know when I was in my 20s and even my indestructible 30s, I would not have opted to pay out as much as $2500.00 a year for Medicare.

I leave this question open to anyone that cares to discuss it.

I wish I knew what the plan is. :shrug:

would pay a tax, how they would fund a Medicare "option" I'm not sure.

Just as they are talking about mandated insurance now, the best way is to mandate that everyone pays into the national health system.

The big difference is that we are not using tax dollars to subsidize for profit companies.

There is a Medicare for All bill, only about 30 pages, that people can read.

As far as I know there is no incremental Medicare option bill.


http://conyers.house.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Issues.Home&Issue_id=063b74a4-19b9-b4b1-126b-f67f60e05f8c
http://www.pnhp.org/facts/singlepayer_faq.php

Proposed Funding For USNHC Program

· Maintain current federal and state funding for existing health care programs
· Establish employer/employee payroll tax of 4.75% (includes present 1.45% Medicare tax)
· Establish a 5% health tax on the top 5% of income earners, 10% tax on top 1% of wage earners
· ¼ of 1% stock transaction tax
· Close corporate tax loopholes
· Repeal the Bush tax cuts for the highest income earners

A couple hundred dollars a month is cheap compared to what I can by on the open market. I'd sign up immediately.

would not want medicare. I really don't know enough about it. Is it because the coverage is not good?

I can tell you this; if I could get medicare coverage for the entire family at a lesser rate than I pay now for private insurance, I would. My insurance doesn't cover crap, and I pay a fortune every month. I can't imagine that a medicare program for all would have less coverage or cost as much as the private insurance I have now.

Young people will always find any money paid out to medical insurance uncomfortable. (Most of them) want to spend their money on fun stuff, understandably.

only make mine a pony.

I think we could lower the Medicaid age to 55 tomorrow, to 45 the year after, and impose a 2% tax increase on everyone earning over 250,000 tomorrow, over 200,000 the next year.

Sooner or later we will cover 0-25 and 45 and above, the rest, well there's still private health insurance which must cover all conditions, and all illnesses or be out of business as an illegal gambling scheme.