Kucinich calls $400 a month per person, progress he can support

That's how much he said Medicare is estimated to cost, although I've never seen that low of an estimate. Anyway, he was just going on and on about how terrific this would be for people. Does he not understand this would mean $800 a month for couples? Who can pay for that out of pocket?

Ideology is replacing common sense and we're all going to be in serious trouble because of it.

If we could get his vote back, that would be an accomplishment.

slow on the uptake?

That would help moderate the costs across a variety of people. Medicare for 55 and over would be completely different, consequently unaffordable as this figure from Kucinich shows. I can't believe he thinks this is a good idea.

Of course 55+ will cost more, but its run more effeciently compared to private insurance. So the total cost of Health care will drop.
And once this in place... the amount of funding for subsidies should be much easier to increase later.

The per capita costs might drop, but the overall cost will inevitably be larger.

You are not thinking of all the uninsured that are admitted via emergency room and hospital writes it off and we all share the cost.

I just heard Dennis Kucinich say it so I think it has a little more clout than I have.

Screw That!

Add 400... carry the three... subtract the remainder... hit cosine...

That's, like, $1200 a month for menage a troises!

$1 440 000 000 000.00

The GDP of the USA is $14.2 trillion..

http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:USA&q=what+is+the+gdp+of+the+usa

So approximately ten percent of the GDP would be spent in insurance premiums.

It looks like health care is actually about 15% of GDP right now..

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/runaway-health-care-costs-were-1/

Edited because typing with a dog on the lap and another on the chest is a PITA.. :)

Should be a real eye-opener for a lot of people, how much money is actually spent.

The vast majority of people don't consume anywhere near $4800 worth of health care per year.

Maybe seeing these numbers will spur people to take a more realistic approach to how much the country really needs to spend vs. how much it is spending.

If this makes people stand up and pay attention to the gouging that goes on with the anything-goes end-of-life care (something like 50% of all expenses go to people who are terminal to begin with), I'm all for opening that debate.

I was aware that a large portion of medical expenses are in end-of-life situations, I didn't realize it was as high as half though.. :wow:

If not, it's even less.

For premiums, I have no idea..

Which is why it's hard to have this conversation without knowing more about the conditions.

As stated above, it's naturally going to be higher due to the health of those enrolled.

nt

income or paycheck. I think if we make those, who earn more than two million a year, pay a larger part of the tax bill for over that two million, like he was talking about, it would work. Also, $800 a month for a couple is less than what many are paying now with high deductibles. Medicare's deductible is $100 per year or $200 for a couple. There's a lot to hammer out so that it doesn't become another candy store for the insurance companies, like I'm definitely against anything that gets turned over to them like the Medicare Advantage programs that are no better than our present HMO style insurance. I hope that this is written in the bill. No Medicare Advantage programs allowed.

No subsidy, none, zero, zip. Full premium only.

Turn your hearing aid up before you start dictating to DU what you supposedly heard on TV.

www.twitter.com

It seems like the figure is in the ballpark, especially considering that the Medicare crowd is likely to be higher than average consumers of health care.

Most figures I've seen quoted are around $600 a month per person. Exactly because these are the highest consumers of health care and those over 55 as well. This is what this program is going to cost individuals and people better get a clue.

Or it was back when I had a house. :(

And as I pointed out in another post, costs vary wildly from are to area.

In Detroit you can buy a house for ten grand or even less.

Which is why people sure as hell can't pay that for an insurance premium.

As do average incomes..

My brother owns a small business and had to drop his catastrophic insurance when his income fell by two thirds and his premium went over $800 a month for two people.

Someone has to pay for any goods or services and some people don't have a clue that health care costs real money.

The last time I had health insurance I was paying cobra around $350/month for dental and medical. There were still copays and a deductible but all preventive care was covered 100%.

I see no point in paying $400 if there are still large copays because then I would have insurance but wouldn't be able to afford prescriptions. Right now I get prescriptions but no insurance.

I pay far less than $400 per month for my health insurance now.

$400 is a LOT of money for ONE PERSON to have to pay for Health Insurance.

This is NUTS!

I'd like $400 a month.

less than this, too.

Congress doesn't have a clue if they believe people can pay that much.

One of those economists (Klein I think, but he could have been quoting someone else) specifically addressed this aspect of it but didn't have any solid conclusions about what *would* happen, rather what would be necessary to happen for this to make sense.

The question seems to be whether subsidies will be available for the Medicare premiums in the same way they would have been available for a so-called public option. I haven't been able to do much reading today, so perhaps this has been revealed since then. However, as of yesterday, no one really knew one way or the other how this would be handled.

:shrug:

Not for everyone anyway... I think some will be subsidized depending on income... and Medicare would be one of the options on the exchange.

But I hope so because people will not be able to afford this.

Just curious, you know, before we end up with a 100+ post thread about nothing.

Besides, I don't post bullshit.

:eyes:

If it wasn't for that horse, I never would've finished college!

So everybody else on DU can post a story from television - but I can't????

College? Seriously?? Always stuns me when such stupidity comes from college graduates. Keep that to yourself so you stop giving education a bad name.

But you know what helps? Not being intentionally as cryptic as possible. This is as substantial an OP as "CALL CONGRESS RIGHT FUCKING NOW." Pay $400 for Medicare? To whom? We write a check to the government every month? In the form of payroll taxes? What about dependents?

See what I'm saying? We've got people all over this thread going "ZOMG I CAN'T AFFORD THAT!!!11" when your OP gives the absolute least about of information you could mange.

My point is that DU is not your personal twitter account, so maybe you should've included a bit more information if you were actually attempting to have a discussion by starting an OP.

I'll just leave the college comment alone. Obviously yours gave you an A in Being Obtuse 101.

fuck you.

Anybody who can afford a $400 premium for one person, already has the kind of job that provides an insurance benefit anyway. The people who don't have coverage are not going to be able to afford that, none of them.

Vrrrrrooooooooooooooom!

Everybody keeps getting lost in the minutia of all the different plan ideas without recognizing that ALL of them will be too expensive without subsidies. Even Dennis. We've got to get the conversation around to the subsidies.

I'd be willing to pay ~$150 for a family of 4 per month.

It just drives me crazy how flippantly they throw these numbers around. A lot of people are clearly out of touch with how the $15 hr and under class lives.

I pay twice that now for a $5000 deductible and 50% of the next $10,000. That would be absofuckinlutely wondiferous!

Seems like a good deal to me.

coverage for my wife and I for medical (through United Health Care) and preventative Dental (through Aetna) (no more coverage for fillings, crowns, etc) is 320.00 per month - total - for the two of us. So that is my particular benchmark.