Medicare isn’t bad. It’s the original version of what we old folks have, there’s a fee and copays but it covers a lot including hospitals etc, you can go to any doctor, and you can get a supplement plan to cover the copays for a lot less than ordinary health insurance.
“Medicare Advantage” is a ripoff, it’s privatized and has all the limitations (network of doctors, approval /rejection of care bullshit, etc) of an HMO.
Medicaid is for poor people and its main problem is that a lot of doctors won’t take Medicare patients because it pays them so much less for the same work. That sucks.
Please understand when I say that Medicare sucks it is because it is literally my job to deal with CMS regularly. Medicare is a politicized and inefficient bureaucratic nightmare. Both fee-for-service and Advantage. Just go look up how BvsD determinations work and you’ll see why doctors would be reticent to take Medicare patients even if the reimbursement rate wasn’t shit.
It is still better than the current system. But let’s not pretend it’s awesome, it is extremely wasteful and if we got Medicare for All there would need to be some sweeping changes for it to actually improve health outcomes.
What we need is a cross between the two. Medicaid lacks doctors, but it also lacks copay. For all its inconveniences when I was on it it was easier to get care than some employer provided insurances.
Really what we need is a government owned corporation akin to the NHS, except with standards of care directly pinned to the AMA/APA to prevent meddling in politicized healthcare.
Oh well, since we’ve got a bunch of evil assholes we should just talk ourselves down real quick instead of expressing a clear plan that would have a wide range of palatability. Of course it’ll be a fight, but it’s a fight worth having.
Medicare isn’t bad. It’s the original version of what we old folks have, there’s a fee and copays but it covers a lot including hospitals etc, you can go to any doctor, and you can get a supplement plan to cover the copays for a lot less than ordinary health insurance.
“Medicare Advantage” is a ripoff, it’s privatized and has all the limitations (network of doctors, approval /rejection of care bullshit, etc) of an HMO.
Medicaid is for poor people and its main problem is that a lot of doctors won’t take Medicare patients because it pays them so much less for the same work. That sucks.
Please understand when I say that Medicare sucks it is because it is literally my job to deal with CMS regularly. Medicare is a politicized and inefficient bureaucratic nightmare. Both fee-for-service and Advantage. Just go look up how BvsD determinations work and you’ll see why doctors would be reticent to take Medicare patients even if the reimbursement rate wasn’t shit.
It is still better than the current system. But let’s not pretend it’s awesome, it is extremely wasteful and if we got Medicare for All there would need to be some sweeping changes for it to actually improve health outcomes.
What we need is a cross between the two. Medicaid lacks doctors, but it also lacks copay. For all its inconveniences when I was on it it was easier to get care than some employer provided insurances.
Really what we need is a government owned corporation akin to the NHS, except with standards of care directly pinned to the AMA/APA to prevent meddling in politicized healthcare.
I’d vote for that.
You really think that could happen in today’s political sphere? You have voters like these
who elect politicians like this
because they want this
Oh well, since we’ve got a bunch of evil assholes we should just talk ourselves down real quick instead of expressing a clear plan that would have a wide range of palatability. Of course it’ll be a fight, but it’s a fight worth having.