Saving the US Gov $300 BILLION/year with “Medicare For All”

.
TRUE CONSERVATISM REQUIRES THE ENACTMENT OF
SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE (e.g., MEDICARE FOR ALL)!!!

Our focus-book confirmed what we already knew --

A. The percentage of American Gross Domestic Product (“GDP”) spent on healthcare “is more than twice the average of developed countries”!!!

B. The U.N.’s World Health Organization ranks “the health system performance” of the U.S. as only 37th in the world -- which means that since there are only 35 members of the OECD, American healthcare is outranked BY AT LEAST TWO THIRD-WORLD COUNTRIES!!!”

*****
None of the ideas being discussed currently in Congress would significantly impact this sad state of affairs.

Which is no surprise because YOU CAN BE CERTAIN that the $500 million/year spent by lobbyists for the healthcare industry (which is about FOUR TIMES the amount spent on lobbying by the next-most-active industry -- oil & gas) is aimed at perpetuating and expanding the outrageous practices described in our focus book.

And trying to fight those practices WITHOUT a SINGLE PAYER healthcare system (e.g., Medicare for All) will CONTINUE to be the equivalent of fighting a raging forest fire with a squirt gun.

After all, why should the enactment of any new laws be expected to have any effect in the light of all of the existing anti-trust laws and patent-law requirements that have been ignored for decades???

*****
WHY TRUE CONSERVATISM REQUIRES ENACTMENT OF “MEDICARE FOR ALL”

[For more detail than follows below, please read the Suggested Discussion Outline posted in this section, followed by “Saving the US Gov $300 BILLION/year with ‘Medicare For All’” which is also posted in this section.]

But in short --

What all 34 of the world’s other industrialized countries (which have better healthcare at half the cost) have in common is a SINGLE PAYER healthcare system that does NOT tolerate the waste/illegalities described in our focus book.

So that if those costs can be cut in half to bring them in line with the rest of the civilized world, quality U.S. healthcare could be provided 100%-free at NO ADDITIONAL GOVERNMENTAL COST.

(1) The Suggested Discussion Outline recorded that the 2015 U.S. Census documented that 55.7% of the American population has employment-based insurance. Since the cost of such insurance is deductible to the employer and non-taxable to the employee, then a good estimate of the cost of this insurance to the U.S. government would be the 35% corporate income tax rate * 55.7% of the population = 19.50% of the economy’s total current healthcare costs.

(2) The Suggested Discussion Outline recorded that the 2015 U.S. Census also documented the following percentages of the American population receive healthcare from --

19.6% - Medicaid
16.3% - Medicare
4.7% - Military including the V.A.
*****
40.6% – Sub-Total
19.5% - Percentage of economy’s total healthcare costs financed by reduced employer taxes
*****
60.1% - Total of economy’s total healthcare costs currently financed by the U.S. government
*****

Accordingly, it is respectfully suggested that a SINGLE PAYER healthcare system (e.g. Medicare for All) should cut American healthcare costs in half -- bringing them in line with the rest of the civilized world!!!

And since the U.S. Government already pays 60.1% of all U.S. healthcare costs, a SINGLE PAYER healthcare system should produce a 10.1% overall savings (60.1% - 50%).

And since our author trumpeted in almost every chapter that American healthcare costs exceed $3 TRILLION, a 10.1% overall savings should produce a U.S. Governmental spending REDUCTION of $303 BILLION/year.

SO IF TRUE CONSERVATISM MEANS REDUCING THE SIZE AND COST OF GOVERNMENT, WHY ISN’T IT OBVIOUS TO OUR POLS THAT TRUE CONSERVATISM REQUIRES THE ENACTMENT OF “MEDICARE FOR ALL”???
Post Reply
Pat
Site Admin
Posts: 170
Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:11 pm

Saving the US Gov $300 BILLION/year with “Medicare For All”

Post by Pat »

.
---------------------------- Original Message -----------------------------
Subject: Your Cryptic Recommendation of “Medicare For All”
From: Pat
Date: Thu, July 13, 2017 10:07 am MDT
To: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Attachment:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear John,

Your Suggested Discussion Outline ended with a Section VII listing five models -- Private Non-Governmental Insurance, Governmental Insurance (Medicare, Medicaid), and Governmental Ownership (Military Healthcare for Active-Duty Personnel and Dependents, and the V.A.).

Section VII then concluded with the cryptic comment that you “respectfully suggest” that the best model would be “Medicare for All” financed by a gasoline tax (if wealthy Americans are unwilling to “love their neighbors as themselves” and permit financing by a progressive income tax).

Since you were unable to attend the meeting last evening, it was not possible to ask you for your reasoning in that venue.

Could you do so now?

Regards,

Pat


---------------------------- Original Message -----------------------------
Subject: The Reasoning Behind My Recommendation of “Medicare For All”
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Date: Sat, July 15, 2017 4:36 pm EDT
To: Pat
Attachment:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Pat,

Thank you very much for your query.


********************
My Meeting Attendance Record

Thank you for NOT mentioning that my 100% attendance record for 11.5 years came to an end last Wednesday.

[One of our regulars, after wishing a speedy recovery from my case of flu, attempted to joke that it would require another 5.2 years of perfect attendance to achieve 99.51% attendance that would round back up to 100%.]

Yes, over the years I have had considerable control over my schedule and in many cases could arrange a “touch and go” in Utah on my way between NYC and the West Coast or, in several cases, a “touch and go” in Utah on my way between NYC and The Far East.

HOWEVER, there is a reason why the joke unintentionally hit a VERY RAW NERVE!!!

The third and fourth sections of http://www.ReadingLiberally-SaltLake.org contain zillions of court documents and other materials that record how 21 national and California elected-governmental officials (starting with President Obama) and 43 news-media superstars (starting with Gwen Ifill and Chris Matthews) all refused repeated requests over three years to “shine a light” on my lawsuits against the world’s 15 largest financial institutions to pay the $84 billion that they owed me and that had long-since been pledged in legally-binding fashion to provide 10 million inner-city children with tutoring and mentoring as they progressed from third grade through high school, with a guarantee of college tuition.

Even though EACH OF THEM knew that any one of them RAISING A SINGLE FINGER TO HELP would have permitted those 10 million inner-city children to have escaped “a fate worse than death”!!!

The relationship to the attendance joke???

All of the California judges (both federal and state) were so obviously hostile that they constantly violated their own procedural rules which they knew they could do with impunity.

And it was just as obvious that they were hoping that I would miss a last-minute hearing so that they could dismiss the lawsuits.

[Yes, under ordinary circumstances a postponement request will be honored, but NOT by judges who “are on the warpath” against inner-city children!!!]

One of their last-minute hearings conflicted with one of our Reading Liberally meetings during that 2009-2011 litigation.

And all of our RSVP’s for that meeting ALL PROUDLY SUPPORTED THE INNER-CITY CHILDREN by telling me to attend the hearing and they would arrange for another date on which they could all attend our meeting!!!

I’m sorry to have garbaged you with TMI, but the attendance joke demonstrates that the wound will NEVER HEAL and the joke, however unintentionally, knocked off a 6-year scab!!!

Enough already on that!!!


********************
Suggested CBO Estimate for “Medicare For All”

The Suggested Discussion Outline had begun with “The Disgrace That Is The American Healthcare System --

A. The percentage of American Gross Domestic Product (“GDP”) spent on healthcare “is more than twice the average of developed countries” – p. 2 of our focus book.

B. The U.N.’s World Health Organization ranks “the health system performance” of the U.S. as only 37th in the world (p. 247 of our focus book) – which means that since there are only 35 members of the OECD, American healthcare is outranked BY AT LEAST TWO THIRD-WORLD COUNTRIES!!!”


*****
None of the ideas being discussed currently in Congress would significantly impact this sad state of affairs.

Which is no surprise because YOU CAN BE CERTAIN that the $500 million/year spent by lobbyists for the healthcare industry (which is about FOUR TIMES the amount spent on lobbying by the next-most-active industry -- oil & gas) is aimed at perpetuating and expanding the outrageous practices described in our focus book.

And trying to fight those practices WITHOUT a SINGLE PAYER healthcare system (e.g., Medicare for All) will CONTINUE to be the equivalent of fighting a raging forest fire with a squirt gun.

After all, why should the enactment of any new laws be expected to have any effect in the light of all of the existing anti-trust laws and patent-law requirements that have been ignored for decades???


*****
Why The CBO Should Conclude “Medicare For All” Produces NO INCREMENTAL COST!!!

A SINGLE PAYER healthcare system (e.g., Medicare for All) appears to be the ONLY WAY to bring American healthcare costs into line with other industrial nations – which, as noted above, our author documents spend about half as much on healthcare as the wasteful/illegal practices that permeate the U.S. healthcare industry.

After all, what do the other 34 of the world’s industrialized countries (the OECD has 35 members) have in common???

All 34 civilized countries have a SINGLE PAYER healthcare system that does NOT tolerate the waste/illegalities described in our focus book -- WHICH IS WHY THEY ALL HAVE SUPERIOR HEALTHCARE AT HALF THE COST!!!

So the CBO question should be whether the U.S. Government already pays 50% of U.S. healthcare costs.

So that if those costs can be cut in half to bring them in line with the rest of the civilized world, quality U.S. healthcare could be provided 100%-free at NO ADDITIONAL GOVERNMENTAL COST.

(1) The Suggested Discussion Outline recorded that the 2015 U.S. Census documented that 55.7% of the American population has employment-based insurance. Since the cost of such insurance is deductible to the employer and non-taxable to the employee, then a good estimate of the cost of this insurance to the U.S. government would be the 35% corporate income tax rate * 55.7% of the population = 19.50% of the economy’s total current healthcare costs.

(2) The Suggested Discussion Outline recorded that the 2015 U.S. Census also documented the following percentages of the American population receive healthcare from --

19.6% - Medicaid
16.3% - Medicare
4.7% - Military including the V.A.
*****
40.6% – Sub-Total
19.5% - Percentage of economy’s total healthcare costs financed by reduced employer taxes
*****
60.1% - Total of economy’s total healthcare costs currently financed by the U.S. government
*****

Accordingly, it is respectfully suggested that a SINGLE PAYER healthcare system (e.g. Medicare for All) should cut American healthcare costs in half -- bringing them in line with the rest of the civilized world!!!

And since the U.S. Government already pays 60.1% of all U.S. healthcare costs, a SINGLE PAYER healthcare system should produce a 10.1% overall savings (60.1% - 50%).

And since our author trumpeted in almost every chapter that American healthcare costs exceed $3 TRillion, a 10.1% overall savings should produce a U.S. Governmental spending REDUCTION of $303 BILLION/year.

NB: Since the CBO always produces 10-year results, this is a 10-year U.S. Gov. spending REDUCTION of $3.03 TRILLION!!!


********************
Thank you again for your query.

If you have any questions or comments, I’m sure since you are NOT shy that you will let me know.

Your friend,

John K.

Post Reply

Return to “Suggested Discussion Outline - An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back by Elisabeth Rosenthal – For July 12”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest