03-21-2019, 05:50 AM
1. The main reason we don't have it already was the high marginal tax rates of the 1950s and 1960s.  Companies looked for ways to compensate employees other than salary, and hit on offering health insurance as a benefit. It was not taxed as income, and the company could write it off. If you are self employed, you can't write it off.
2. Some form of it is inevitable IMHO. I don't think it will be the British model, more likely Medicare, perhaps starting with a "buy in" option for folks over 55 or something and then spreading. Medicare is very popular, duh. so once this starts the conclusion is obvious.
3. We have somewhere around 30 million uninsured, some of whom are not US citizens. The rest of us are covered, and paying for it one way or the other, so this $32 trillion figure is simply wrong. I figure roughly $10,000 per person and 20 million people as the differential cost. That's a "mere" $200 billion a year. You'd cover that with FICA taxes, which would go up sharply of course. I'd guess FICA will be "adjusted" for income to make it progressive.
4. The main downside would be cutting private funding for medical advances. No doubt the Democrats would want to fund that with more taxes as well. Government research is IMHO not very useful or efficient.
5. Medicaid would get consolidated into this, I would guess. Â
6. Government already pays about half of health care costs in the US, so we're half way there anyway.
7. "They" could "fix" SS at the same time, raising FICA even more, or lifting the cap. You folks with earned incomes, well, too bad. You folks self employed, well, ouch.
8. When? Huh, I don't know of course, but let's presume some Dem becomes President in 2021. A Democratic House would pass such a bill, but the Senate, probably still Republican, would sit on it. So, the pressure would have to build based on how many billions of Americans die each day due to lack of insurance. (Our life expectancy went DOWN after the PPACA was passed, incidentally.)
9. At some point, government would be likely to get more intrusive into our diets, because they know best. They might ban sugary drinks, or all you can eat places, or something. Price controls would be part of it, almost certainly, a "panel" to decide how much insulin should cost, etc. Â
10. I figure it's coming, by 2030 anyway, just in time for climate change to kill us all (or Nibiru). The 2024 election might be enough to do it.
2. Some form of it is inevitable IMHO. I don't think it will be the British model, more likely Medicare, perhaps starting with a "buy in" option for folks over 55 or something and then spreading. Medicare is very popular, duh. so once this starts the conclusion is obvious.
3. We have somewhere around 30 million uninsured, some of whom are not US citizens. The rest of us are covered, and paying for it one way or the other, so this $32 trillion figure is simply wrong. I figure roughly $10,000 per person and 20 million people as the differential cost. That's a "mere" $200 billion a year. You'd cover that with FICA taxes, which would go up sharply of course. I'd guess FICA will be "adjusted" for income to make it progressive.
4. The main downside would be cutting private funding for medical advances. No doubt the Democrats would want to fund that with more taxes as well. Government research is IMHO not very useful or efficient.
5. Medicaid would get consolidated into this, I would guess. Â
6. Government already pays about half of health care costs in the US, so we're half way there anyway.
7. "They" could "fix" SS at the same time, raising FICA even more, or lifting the cap. You folks with earned incomes, well, too bad. You folks self employed, well, ouch.
8. When? Huh, I don't know of course, but let's presume some Dem becomes President in 2021. A Democratic House would pass such a bill, but the Senate, probably still Republican, would sit on it. So, the pressure would have to build based on how many billions of Americans die each day due to lack of insurance. (Our life expectancy went DOWN after the PPACA was passed, incidentally.)
9. At some point, government would be likely to get more intrusive into our diets, because they know best. They might ban sugary drinks, or all you can eat places, or something. Price controls would be part of it, almost certainly, a "panel" to decide how much insulin should cost, etc. Â
10. I figure it's coming, by 2030 anyway, just in time for climate change to kill us all (or Nibiru). The 2024 election might be enough to do it.