I've not had Medicare, but know it is fraught with issues. So is the VA. I've also been under American health care through a job, been uninsured, and now am covered under Norway's health care system.

And I wouldn't trade my current system. I'd rather have medicare than nothing, and know that the issues it has can be fixed. Just because something has problems doesn't mean that it isn't better than nothing and doesn't mean that it isn't a good starting point.

It might not be so bad being a doctor if we fixed some supply issues: For example, making sure doctors (and everyone else) doesn't have tons of student debt. We can do things about how expensive malpractice insurance is: My dentist here in Norway would like to live in the US, but won't because of the malpractice suits. We can do things to simplify the office work, such as standardising payment scales and coding. We can make good use of nurse practitioners, especially for children who generally have run-of-the-mill infections THese things make it cheaper to be a doctor and cheaper to run an office.

You'd think we might need to fire a lot of people... but not really. Single payer health care means we can do things differently because our resources are pooled. Norway, at least where I live, will send a home nurse to your house for free up to 6 times a day. Even if you are in a cabin in the mountains or living on a little island. This is all because overall, this is cheaper than a nursing home... which costs 80% of your retirement, no matter how much you make.

There is also a private system, which mostly gives bells and whistles. You might get into a non-urgent MRI sooner and so on.

Medical school debt isn't a major factor (speaking as an MD with medical school debt who doesn't even practice). Great to get rid of it, but I don't think it will impact care either way. A better target would be letting student's start medical school earlier instead of after undergrad, and letting them pre-specialize into surgery and primary care. As is even family physician's have to go to medical school for four years and _then_ specialize in primary care. I think that's absurd. They should merge primary care into medical school and churn out primary care physicians by default, who could then optionally specialize.

Also my wife is a Dentist. She works 4 days a week and does extremely well. If malpractice and costs were an issue for Dentist's in the US, they would work more. I know a lot of dentists but not a single one that works 5 days a week. And of course no residency required. Its got to be the best career choice in the US today.

As for firing people... I agree probably not. But most Hospitals _do_ run on a tight margin (like 5% or less), and the majority of their costs are staff.

But overall, if you've experienced the system at all, you know how utterly wasteful and unorganized it is. Its difficult to fathom a system with more waste, which is especially ironic since there's so many smart people running around. I think single payer, whatever the flaws, would absolutely be a major change in the right direction.

Most people in the country disagree. And you politicians know this, which is why no politician would ever suggest removing Medicare.

No one smart uses Medicare, instead they use Medicare advantage, which is private health insurance funded by the government.

This is the part people don't understand when they promote Medicare for all - it's a really really bad plan, that people don't use unless they have no choice.

This should be the death nail in these proposals, except the people proposing it typically don't even realize the difference.

Medicare for all is a horrible idea.

Government funded private health insurance for all is a good idea.

I'm on MediCal, California's version of Medicare. Just want to say thanks for mentioning that. I had never heard of it before. I'm a young person who is also unemployed, and an orphan. Medi-Cal has been kafka-esque in how terrible it is. I relate it to therapists and doctors at the quality of school counselors and nurses, it's third rate care and it's practically made me lose all hope in getting treatment for chronic abdominal pain I've had for over a year and a half. I've been churning through doctors because they are so unprofessional to be flat out useless. One doctor straight up told me "so what do you want me to do about it?", And that's only one incident among many of the bad experiences I've had with it.

So to add on to what you've said, yes medicare is nightmarish. Hopefully this offers me a new chance to live a life.

It's late and I just realized MediCal is medicaid, not medicare. These program names are so confusing. Going to let out a large sigh and get some sleep.