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Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by PhasmaFelis on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @04:49PM (#18720067)
> I think there's merit to investigating public health care. That line stops for me in eliminating private care.

Has anyone proposed that? If not, I'm not sure why you mentioned it.

Anyway, I suppose I can see the benefit to private doctors, but if private emergency response services for individuals are popular, then something is fucked, as your link demonstrates. Not saying they should be banned, but they shouldn't have to exist in a properly-run society.

Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by ams6110 on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @05:28PM (#18720451)
Yes, many people who advocate for "single payer" intend that to mean eliminating any private-pay option.
Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by ncallaway on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @05:32PM (#18720493)
I don't believe that's true.

What serious single payer proposals have been put forward that would eliminate private-pay, private insurance, or private care?

I've never seen one.

In fact, almost all "single payer" health systems that exist in other countries have private care and private insurance options. For example, such options are available in both the UK with the NHS and in Canada.

I've never once spoken with an advocate of single payer who wants to eliminate private pay, private insurance, or private care.

I am also an advocate of single payer, and I wouldn't advocate eliminating any of those things.

Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by conanbatt on Thursday December 20, 2018 @02:47AM (#18723173)
It most definitely means banning private insurance (not private care). Thats why its "single". IT has to, because otherwise it would have to compete on the market as any other plan, and it would fail because all private insurance would dump the expensive patients on to medicare, which will need to either increase prices or increase taxes to survive.

Plus the whole point is to eliminate dealing with the adminsitrative burden of claims and billing. IF you just add another insurance, you just make it worse.

Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by namdnay on Thursday December 20, 2018 @05:54AM (#18723881)
No, the single payer portion doesn't have to compete with other plans. The other plans supplement the single payer insurance. E.g. single payer will cover everything up to a certain amount, and then you can buy a private plan to bring that amount higher, or maybe cover non-essential extras.
Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by conanbatt on Thursday December 20, 2018 @11:30AM (#18726288)
Ofc you can invent an infinite amount of models, and Sanders has not specified which one clearly yet afaik.

In the case that Medicare is expanded and is optional, medicare will have the following fair challenges: it has to compete with other private insurances, which means is has to pay as much, and any administrative cost dissipates, in fact it gets worse, as providers still have to do multiple billing. If it has to charge ,it will also have to turn away patients. It it doesnt charge, everyone will have medicare, and private insurance will not provide services that medicare gives for free or without restriction.

Up to this point, "single payer" has not provided a single cost reduction means.

Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by ncallaway on Wednesday December 26, 2018 @02:59PM (#18764394)
> Sanders has not specified which one clearly yet afaik.

That's absolutely not true.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/180...

Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by conanbatt on Thursday December 27, 2018 @12:24AM (#18767552)
Didn't know this existed, thanks for sharing. (I got my other impression by Sander's fb which I follow).

If I understood this text correctly, this will be:

An optional insurance plan (SEC. 105) An insurance that gets tax benefits (SEC. 701) An insurance that has incredibly perverse utilization incentives (SEC. 202)

I would be quite on board on this plan if it weren't funded with special taxation, and it gave itself no promise of benefit for being the state, not because I think its a good one, but because it will confirm its a terrible one.

Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by pjc50 on Thursday December 20, 2018 @04:00AM (#18723431)
"Single payer" means the state pays through the tax system. It doesn't mean banning private insurance, which coexists happily with the NHS. Whoever told you otherwise has been misleading you.
Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by conanbatt on Thursday December 20, 2018 @11:33AM (#18726310)
There is nothing single about adding a payer to a set of a dozen that already exist.
Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by swish_bob on Thursday December 20, 2018 @05:07AM (#18723702)
This is quite evidently rubbish, as demonstrated by the fact that I live in the UK, receive most of my healthcare for free, on the NHS and also have private medical insurance (provided by my employer).
Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by conanbatt on Thursday December 20, 2018 @11:32AM (#18726299)
The problems the UK has and the US has are completely different. Starting with the fact that the model of providing both a public and a private insurance system in the US will not save a single buck.
Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by ams6110 on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @05:49PM (#18720649)
Bernie Sanders, for one, has advocated for the elimination of private health insurance by essentially putting everyone on Medicare.
Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by fencepost on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @07:19PM (#18721346)
Saying that Sanders is advocating the elimination of private health insurance because he favors Medicare for all is just as inaccurate a saying that anyone who advocates for improving public transit is trying to eliminate all privately owned vehicles.

I'm sure there are plenty of things to dislike about Sanders or anyone else whose political leanings tend toward things like publicly-funded healthcare coverage, it should be possible to come up with a few of them without blatant misrepresentation

Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by ncallaway on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @05:57PM (#18720734)
That's simply false.

Both Medicare for all and Medicare buy in plans wouldn't eliminate private health insurance.

Private health insurance would still exist under both plans as supplemental coverage that people could buy that would cover things that were not covered by medicare.

The markets would be potentially reduced (drastically with medicare for all, moderately with a generally available medicare buy-in), but it's totally false to say they would be eliminated under those plans.

Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills by pjc50 on Wednesday December 19, 2018 @05:32PM (#18720489)
Do they? Are you sure? Who? The UK's single payer system coexsists OK with private care. It's not a necessary part of the process.