Are you prepared for the absolute crazy heading our way in 2020? Because it’s coming, as any glimmer of hope that Democrats might pretending to appeal to mainstream voters is quickly evaporating as Democrats race to emulate the factions of their party that hate Democracy and the free-enterprise system as they embrace full-on socialism:
On Monday, in a townhall organized by CNN, Kamala Harris endorsed a Medicare-for-All plan that would “eliminate”—her word—private insurance. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, employer-provided health insurance covers “approximately 152 million nonelderly people in total.” A poll last year by America’s Health Insurance Plan (AHIP) found that 71 percent of Americans were satisfied with their employer’s plan. Most Americans have health insurance, and most Americans are pretty happy with their insurance. Too bad: Kamala Harris says it’s time to “move on.”
Harris’s rival, Elizabeth Warren, has endorsed a tax of 2 percent on assets above $50 million and 3 percent on assets above $1 billion. Now, Warren would like to raise taxes on incomes, capital gains, dividends, and corporations, too. That’s just for starters. A wealth tax of the sort she has proposed—a government claw-back of property in order to make real a subjective standard of equality—would be unique in American history. It might even be unconstitutional. But hey, why worry about that when you can indulge in some light court packing?
And…
AOC’s (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) complaint is with the “system” that “allows” Gates and Buffet—and Schultz and Bezos and George Lucas and Mark Zuckerberg and the rest—”to exist.” Presumably, then, Gates and Buffet are safe, existentially speaking. But the “system” of relatively free enterprise that allowed them to grow rich—and finance or innovate remarkable advances in technology and productivity that have benefited the world—should be altered drastically. Hence AOC’s call for a 70-percent marginal tax rate—backed by the same genius from Berkeley who designed Warren’s expropriation of wealth—to help pay for the “Green New Deal” that will give us “a 100% greenhouse gas neutral power generation system, decarbonizing industry and agriculture and more.”
And…
Finally, as the week came to a close, the Democrats went beyond their support for partial-birth abortion to defend—the very fact that I have to write the following words saddens me to no end—post-birth abortion. This practice has been known throughout history as infanticide, and it flourished widely in the ancient world before being condemned in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
Eliminating private insurance, capping achievement, 70% tax rates, and baby killing (and that’s not a euphemism). Those are the kind of issues that Democrats intend to run on in 2020. Have we dropped into an alternate universe, where the Soviet Union conquered the world in the 1950’s?
Good lord. With the Democrat Party candidates running on those kind of crazy hard left issues, I’m not sure that South Dakota Democrats can find someone that far left to run for US Senate in South Dakota next year.
(Well, maybe I can think of one, but he hasn’t fared very well to date.)
My son’s father-in-Law also thinks billionaires should not be allowed to exist. Since he lives only 30 miles from the home of the Patriots, I asked that they delay Robert Kraft’s execution until after the Super Bowl. And he suggested Robert Kraft can go into exile in South Dakota.
I am okay with that
People who have good health insurance through their employer are genrally happy with it. Did they ask the people who can’t get coverage through their employer? I don’t know where the idea of employer health coverage came from but it automatically rules out people who work for small companies that don’t offer coverage. Why do I need a good job to get good insurance? It makes no sense. It’s an extra kick in the gut because someone with a low paying job is already at a disadvantage when their medical bills, or even deductibles, arrive at their door.
Typical. Change the subject. You libs are crazy.
You should read the article first.
SD is in a major crisis when it comes to health insurance…………how many providers do we have in SD? Obama Care is not working.
People who think “Medicare for all” is a good idea invariably believe it is free.
No, it’s not. Part A is “free” if you have paid in advance every month for over ten years. If you have paid in advance for 7.5-10 years, the monthly premium is $240/month. And if you have paid in advance for less than 7.5 years, the premium is $437/month.
That’s just for Part A.
Part B costs between $135.50-$460.50/month. Most people pay the $135.50.
Then there are the variable prices for Part C. Part C can cost anywhere from nothing to over $200/month, but the average is $28/month.
Part D has an average monthly premium of $33.19.
All of these prices will probably have to go up if Medicare is expanded to people who are young enough to have babies.
When people realize they will have to pay for it, they might decide they would be better off but a lot more say “what’s the point?”
I don’t think that’s the case at all. Of course you need to pay for it.
I would much rather my taxes go to healthcare than our ridiculous defense budget but I know Americans have a hard on for flexing our military power.
I believe the idea of employer paid health insurance dates back to WWII. In those days, the federal government had controls on how much a person could be paid. It was an effort to fight inflation. So companies started to offer major medical health insurance to attract employees. I believe the federal government fought this, but wound up losing.
Today we do not have health insurance. Insurance has morphed into health coverage. Back in the day, you had a deductible and hoped you would not meet it, but if you did you paid $20 for every $100. Insurance is supposed to be just that. Now people go to the doctor for a head cold because office visits have a $10 copay.
Huh? Did you read the quoted text? The very first paragraph talks about health insurance. Or just jump to insults, that works too.
So, your “solution” is to eliminate all private health insurance?
Genius. . .
It’s pretty much eliminated. Corporate health care is not working which is called Obama Care.
I can’t fathom why the dems are moving hard left with an honest, kind President like Donald Trump extending olive branches across the aisle with such regularity.
What is the Republican plan? McCain voted for Obama Care out of spite. Putting his hatred of Trump over country. Nice.
I am a conservative and a small businessman. The self-employed have to some how pay for their insurance themselves. Health insurance paid for by the employer was originally a socialist idea to control the masses and drive up health care costs, and it certainly has done so. It is also a huge reason why employees constantly move from a small employer who can’t afford to pay for health ins. to a big one who can. This drives people off the farm, closes small family businesses, and dries up small towns. In the meantime, hospitals keep getting larger and keep adding on and remodeling while the private businesses can’t afford it. I’m not in favor of socialized one-payer medicine but we almost have it now. I’m in favor of the free market. Get the government and big business out of healthcare. It’s our only hope for survival. Buying health insurance should be no different and no more complicated than buy home insurance or car insurance. .
Your politicians are bought off and that is why we don’t have fee markets or ethical medicare or possibly medicare for all. Nobody is to blame but the people who vote for lobbyists instead of statesmen. It’s time to start blaming the voters who elect these scoundrels.
Medicare for all would work along with the free market if our politicians weren’t bought off by the pharma and medical industrial complex.
And we finally get to the root cause. Politicians don’t work for us.
No they don’t generally speaking. Hows that debt looking?
and neither do big pharma and the medical complex, they work for their own power and own pocketbook
Exactly. So I don’t understand how putting all the power in their hands will make healthcare better. They’ll just collude to raise prices on everything.
Right, like they’ve already done ! When was the last time you saw an ad that gave the cost of a medical procedure? When Sanford got his name on the healthcare giant by pumping in 10’s of millions of $$s, wouldn’t you think that would help them keep prices down ? Didn’t happen – they keep going up ! A simple office visit is now $180.00 at our local clinic.
Blame the people who vote for the politicians that work for the special interests. All you have to do is look where their money is coming from and how they vote. It’s on you…..the voter. Government is a reflection of the people. Time to own up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekz1uTgTVVI Please listen and than you can start with the name calling.
And the politicians take their money and vote for their bills.
How do you think they get their stuff passed? The politicians pass the legislation pharma and the medical complex write for them.
Medicare for All would eliminate private health insurance..
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., offered a full-throated endorsement of a “Medicare for all” healthcare plan and called for the elimination of all private health insurance in the U.S.
“We need to have Medicare for all,” Harris, a 2020 Democratic presidential contender, said in response to a question on whether she would cut private insurers out of the American healthcare system at a CNN town hall in Iowa Monday night.
When pressed by CNN’s Jake Tapper on if those people who enjoy their insurance could keep it, Harris said that it was time to “eliminate” all private health insurance.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/kamala-harris-calls-for-elimination-of-private-health-insurance?fbclid=IwAR3BDF6WOPN5jtuncNpxOa_9HR4CMTdXx0vwvMahJesRcPkHX1z8RZV5doE
They biggest problem of all with single payer health insurance is that if that one insurer doesn’t want to cover what you need, you have no options.
It is my understanding that Medicare is going to deny cancer screenings for anybody over 75. (I have already received one denial of coverage letter for advanced screening for breast cancer and I am not that old yet.)
One variable I have seen often is that insurance companies have different lists of drugs they are willing to cover. If you are shopping for insurance coverage you can check to see if a plan you are considering covers what you take. This is why I did not sign up for Part D, it will not cover a drug I take. There is no point in signing up for Part D in my case. When I worked for Smithfield foods their company plan didn’t cover “injectables.” This was really annoying for people needing insulin, biologicals, and immunizations.
With single payer, such arbitrary policies will leave people with no other option than to pay cash.
well, medicare is slowly being taken over by the medical industrial complex.
What about those of us who have reached an advanced age and the govt health panel decide that our lives aren’t worth the cost of the medicine keeping us alive? Will they keep us comfortable and let us die? Or as the libs think, maybe there is an unending pool of money from “somewhere” from which to fund all this “free”stuff? Most of these libs that want free everything are rich themselves and would be able to go outside the free system and get what they need, or maybe they could fund others’ free stuff. I haven’t heard any of them propose that yet!
Yeah, I’d be all for funding other peoples stuff. It’s what we do with roads, infrastructure, schools, social security, etc etc.
Anonymous at 10:53 No, we do not fund everybody’s other stuff like infrastructure. We don’t have pavement on the road we live on. Would we like it? Of course. But nobody wants to pay for it. The township board or county commission (I don’t know which) recently decided, without consulting us or the woman who lives on it, to stop winter maintainence on the road leading west, it’s drifted in and will not be reopened until spring. The widow who lives there is not happy. Meanwhile, the residents of our neighborhood are using their own equipment to clear some of the drifts. It cost us over $200 to have a tree removed after it fell across the road, over the years thousands of dollars have been spent clearing the ditches, because maintaining the public right of way is the property owners’ responsibility.
Do we have sewer lines? Nope. We have a septic tank. Water lines? Nope. We have a well. It was drilled at our expense and we have had to purchase the pumps. The schools? The schoolhouse was closed decades ago, the abandoned structure was finally torn down recently. Nobody wanted to pay for that either. The neighborhood children have to go to school elsewhere.
You have quite a fantasy going if you believe everybody is getting all the infrastructure they want. It’s rationed, there isn’t enough money to pay for everybody else’s stuff. And there isn’t enough money to pay for everybody else’s medical care, either. Under single payer, some people will be denied care.
that’s why we need medicare for all because it does get paid for by the people. Cut out waste, fraud and abuse. If people that are happy with their non-government plans such as obama care let them keep it. Vote out the politicians that won’t put the people’s interest first.
Sen. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic nominee for New York’s 14th Congressional District seat, are pointing to a study they say shows “Medicare-for-all” would save Americans money. But the author says their comments “appear to reflect a misunderstanding of my study.”
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are referring to a working paper, “The Costs of a National Single-Payer Healthcare System,” published by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
“To argue that we can get to that level of savings by getting rid of the health insurance middleman is inconsistent with my study,” Blahous said. “To lend credibility to the $2 trillion savings number specifically, one would have to argue that we can make those 40 percent cuts to providers at the same time as increasing demand by about 11 percent, without triggering disruptions of access to care that lawmakers and the public find unacceptable.”
The report similarly uses assumptions in the Sanders bill about savings on administrative costs and on the cost of prescription drugs. Blahous describes these assumptions as “aggressive” and his report includes arguments that suggest they are unlikely.
https://www.factcheck.org/2018/08/the-cost-of-medicare-for-all/
We can afford it if we model it after the other socialized medicine countries. Without the enormous cost of insurance, their health costs per person are half of ours. And even then, not all Americans get health care. We can take the money businesses are currently paying for health care for their employees and provide better service. Our industries are at a disadvantage compared to our socialized medicine competitors. Health care in this country costs nearly $10,000 per person, or $5.00 per hour. That is a $5.00 per hour cost that competitors in other countries don’t have. We have to get health care out of the private sector.
right on anonymous.
Transitioning to a fully government-run system would require eliminating private health insurance for nearly 180 million Americans. Although public satisfaction with the health care system writ large is often fairly low, polls consistently find that a majority of people like their own health insurance plans and doctors, and they recoil from plans that would cause them to lose their existing coverage arrangements.
Recent surveys find that Medicare for All is only popular until people are told that it would eliminate private health insurance.
Without the market incentives to provide high quality care, patients find their quality of care reduced. In countries with universal health care, patients generally see long wait times or even have to wait months to be seen at all. Governments focus on providing “essential” health care neglect to cover rare diseases or elective procedures.
The United Kingdom’s National Health Service, or NHS, is an example of this type of system. However, both doctors and patients have less choice in the range of treatments and procedures that are available to them.
Other nations with government-dominated healthcare systems offer a preview of the fiscal woes and substandard care that results from “universal” health care.
Despite the massive taxes Canadians remit to finance universal care, they still must pay out of pocket for some services. Nearly a quarter of chronically ill respondents said that they had skipped their medications or neglected to fill a prescription because it was too expensive.
In Italy, the UK, Spain and France, cuts of varying depths have been introduced. In France, where the health system is usually seen as the best, the budget is exceeded by billions of euros every year: the head of the association of French pharmacies says the system cannot survive more than six years without deep reform. In the UK, the new director of the Care Quality Commission that oversees standards, said after his appointment earlier this year that “the system is on the brink of collapse.”
The American health system is far from perfect. But it’s wrong to think that government can fix it. The socialized systems found up North or across the Atlantic are proof. We need more market forces in our medical sector — not more government controls.
Propaganda BS. William……Drop you so called free medicare and buy your policy from the 2 corporate choices in SD. Remember you have nobody to blame but yourselves. That’s is what the voters continue to vote for, statu-quo.
You still don’t get it. Despite Medicare (which isn’t FREE) & service-connected eligibility for VA Healthcare, I still pay for a private healthcare plan cover expenses and prescriptions either not covered by Medicare or VA and to have choices in the provider and services..
TANSTAAFL (There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch)
Where did I say it was free William?
They can keep their plans if they are happy with them?? Where have we heard that before, and how did that work out????
Just goes to show Obama care which was written by the medical and pharmaceutical industrial complex was a sham or scam.
The people of SD voted for the initiative to choose your own Dr.
Are talking about the Insurance companies that have denied pre-existing and only cover certain things.
Quit making excuses you vote these idiots in. Start putting the blame were it belongs…..ON YOU
In 2014 in Vermont, then-Gov. Peter Shumlin — a long-time single-payer advocate — gave up on a single-payer plan after he learned it would cost $4.3 billion annually. That amount was equivalent to 88 percent of the entire state budget. He reluctantly concluded that the proposed funding mechanism for single-payer — a 12.5 percent state payroll tax and a sliding-scale individual tax of up to 9.5 percent of income “might hurt our economy.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sallypipes/2018/07/09/choking-on-the-cost-of-medicare-for-all/#3023f7fe56f3
No need to create a new mechanism because it is already in place…….now the politicians need to do their job by getting rid of the abuse, fraud and waste.
Not enough money for over utilization that comes from these plans. Its why the exchanges are failing Tara. The model that would best reflect a national program is the VA which is terribly run and doesn’t focus on care and patients but bureaucracy and job retention. No incentive to be efficient and productive. I believe you have waded into waters that are far beyond what you think. Hope is not a plan.
Can you give me the definition of libs? Thank you.
Tara, “Medicare for all” is unsustainable.
You may know somebody who is on it, who tells you it’s paying for everything. Ask to see his EOBs and you will find out he’s lying.
Medicare doesn’t pay for much of anything. It’s paying only 10% of my physical therapy. When my husband went to Brookings Hospital long enough to be revived and transported to Sioux Falls, the bill was $2200. Only $800 of that was paid.
The unpaid balances are cost-shifted to other patients. If everybody is on Medicare, there will be no “other patients” to pick up the tab. The practice of Medicare paying, on average, about 30% of the charges billed and telling the providers to “eat it” will not last long. The providers will have two options: close their doors or go into private, REALLY private, practice, for cash-only customers. The only people who will get medical care will be the people able to pay cash.
Given that scenario, pressure will be brought to bear on government to increase the reimbursement rate.
We are already seeing this pressure in the nursing home “crisis.” The nursing homes are full of people on Title XIX. Private pay customers have more attractive options, thanks to the state’s nursing home bed moratorium first enacted in 1988. The purpose was to spur the development of alternative programs like home health care and assisted living. It worked. It has been an unqualified success. The assisted living facilities are gorgeous and have all the amenities of cruise ships. The home health care options are attractive for obvious reasons. People with money took those options leaving only the Title XIX residents behind in run-down, outdated facilities that nobody wants to live in.
So now the operators of the out-dated run-down facilities say they need more money or they will close. And they are going to get that money even if it means cutting funds to education.
The same thing will happen with medical providers. They won’t be able to stay open if they have to depend on Medicare reimbursement rates. So they will demand, and receive, additional funding. Medicare will end up costing way more than anybody currently imagines.
So when you say cost shifting, what is actually happening is Medicare pays what it does and shifts the costs to other patients. And most of those other patients have health insurance, right? So what is happening is the health insurance companies are actually paying for the part Medicare did not pay, right?
How do you think they get their stuff passed? The politicians pass the legislation pharma and the medical complex write for them. Figure it out.
Insurance rates have skyrocketed because now physical therapists and chiropractors can now collect insurance. Also, alcoholism and drug addiction is considered a disease that insurance now covers. Anything that I missed?
Mammograms are mandated. Pregnancy coverage is required, even for people past baby making age. You can make an argument for any of the types of doctors, conditions or tests to be covered by insurance. Each of those things raises the costs. If you believe private insurance should decide, then some of those things will not be covered. Which one/ones would you be willing to see dropped?
How did all the hospitals stay open before we had insurance and medicare? Wasn’t it charitable giving, community effort, direct pay. Bring back the Nuns to run the hospitals.
It would work if the medical and pharmaceutical corporations modeled after the Mayos.
The “Mayo Model” really has nothing to do with a “universal healthcare” model.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/08/a-mayo-model-the-collaborative-future-of-medicine/261504/
It appears from that article that the Mayo Clinic is about collaboration instead of competition. They are healers and helpers for other Drs. and hospitals.
You must have missed the part about consolidation as a result of “Obamacare,” which has pretty much eliminated the competition of private practices.
William, it’s a corporate run health system, and Congress are their little B*tch*s. And, the people are a reflection of them. They don’t want to fix it because their doners might get upset and cut their allowance.
Tara – You are about to stroke out. Let someone else have a chance to chime in about, 80% of the posts on here are YOU. Calm down, now I know why you are for Medicare for all, you will need it after your medical emergency this afternoon. Just a little light hearted humor, no ill will meant
I think everyone is passionate about this topic as its important. We can look at all the studies and this and that all day long but, lets look at real world to determine if One Payer is the way to go. The best example is our VA system, its broke, its not treating our veterans,and folks are dying left and right and they don’t need to. Lets take the Post Office, not same industry I know, but, they are broke, slow inefficient, and there is no incentive to make it better by the folks that live there. No matter you political viewpoints everyone can agree that government sucks and is ripe for corruption so lets stop letting them play in so many areas of our lives. Nothing good every really comes of it, it all sounds good but, in the end always fails.
100 years ago you didn’t need a license to cut someones hair, get married, fish, hunt, build a home, buy land, etc. Now you do and all that stuff has shown us is now that costs more money is not adding any REAL value and just adds more shit for us to fight about. In summation, government should be the LAST answer to a problem, not even a Top 50 for most problems
100 years ago, Tara couldn’t even vote! Didn’t have no pesky regulations stopping my great-grandpappy from dumping trainloads of toxic chemicals into the creek. Didn’t have no dang rules against 8 year olds working shoeless in a weaving factory. Didn’t have no rules about who should or shouldn’t throttle my Netflix streams. Didn’t have no gubmint tellin’ us to wear seatbelts or not to drive drunk. Hey, WE lived – them other morons didn’t. Who cares? I got mine!
So here’s to private police, private fire departments, private armies, private roads, private sewers, no regulations, no taxes, no government – MAD MAX!!!1 Woot!
Ike – You have missed the point entirely. Govt has its role but, it should be limited. Too many want to govt to solve every problem and sometimes they go in search of a problem that doesn’t need solving. As you can clearly see the Govt is ineffective and inefficient at many things. The point on the items I brought up, they all require some sort of stupid ass fee or cost and it adds minimal value.
You can tell Govt HealthCare system sucks by looking at the VA. If we can’t take care of our soldiers we can’t take care of anyone. Our awesome Democrat politicians gave us ObumerCare but, yet THEY opted out of it. That alone should tell you what a piece of junk that was going to be.
Another thing, how do you know Tara is a female, did you just assume her gender! Shame!!!, you should be forced to apologize, lose your job, and be publicly scored (sarc).:). Sorry that is the Democrat playbook and I had to break it out
And who was the deciding vote to keep Obumer Care Chris? I was fortunate to become very good friends with Mike Myers and was his campaign manager when he ran for governor in 2014. He would have cleaned up the health care debacle in SD. Might want to check out his resume. https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2017/04/28/mike-myers-colorful-sd-politician-dies/101026998/
Ike,
I have no idea what world you live in but I know nobody who doesn’t support universal suffrage, child labor laws, or drunk driving laws. Universal Suffrage was more strongly supported GOP states than Democrat ones. Teddy Roosevelt was the national leader of child labor laws. The EPA, Clean Air Act, National Environmental Policy etc. were created by President Nixon.
You seem to be off kilter. Are you ok?
100 years ago, Tara couldn’t even vote! Didn’t have no pesky regulations stopping my great-grandpappy from dumping trainloads of toxic chemicals into the creek. Didn’t have no dang rules against 8 year olds working shoeless in a weaving factory. Didn’t have no rules about who should or shouldn’t throttle my Netflix streams. Didn’t have no gubmint tellin’ us to wear seatbelts or not to drive drunk. Hey, WE lived – them other morons didn’t. Who cares? I got mine!
So here’s to private police, private fire departments, private armies, private roads, private sewers, no regulations, no taxes, no government – MAD MAX!!!1 Woot!
Sorry for the post of Ike’s words at the bottom. It is easier for me to paste and copy when responding on a small screen. I usually delete before posting.
Uh, well, when people say stupid stuff like:
“…government should be the LAST answer to a problem”
I tend to disagree. Without government, we’ve got no society. This whole ‘government can’t do anything right’ baloney is just that – baloney. If there’s a problem with how the government does things, then isn’t it incumbent on the voters to fix it? I think that’s what we’re all trying to do here – we only differ on how to go about it. But just stop with the whole ‘government is broken’ crap. Next time you drop a deuce, leave the phone in the kitchen and reflect on the great things the government does for you: roads, schools, police and fire protection, protection from enemies outside our borders, aid to disaster victims, help for homebuyers, a decent education, all while not choking do death on hazardous waste for the most part.