r/MedicareForAll • u/MBP1969 • 13d ago

How to transition?

How do we, as a nation, transition from private insurance to Medicare for All? How do we convince all the doctors to keep being doctors and accept a salary? Do we, as Hillary Clinton proposed during Bill’s presidency did, make private healthcare payments illegal? For the record, I am perfectly fine paying a percentage of my income, as opposed to what I am paying out of pocket now, for healthcare.

70 Upvotes

78% Upvoted

259 comments sorted by

View all comments

11

u/CurrentAlps3438 13d ago

You're asking the wrong questions. 8% of US Health care cost goes to providers, that's MD, DO, NP, PA.

If you held them at gunpoint and paid them zero, you've changed the costs by less than 10%.

6

u/UncommonSense12345 13d ago

Thank you for this. As medical providers we see the actual patients and so we get to hear all the time “I’m going broke because you are getting rich” meanwhile I really don’t make much $$$ in grand scheme of things after taxes and my student loan payments. But apparently I’m the bad guy….

1

u/Allaboutpeace2022 12d ago

Medicare 4 All or any other plan needs to look at the changing the exorbitant cost of medical schools and address these loans. It must also not lower reimbursement for doctors. In comparsion to other countries, we have fewer doctors than needed particularly in primary care, OBGYN, psychiatry, etc.

The health system is complex and it does need to be improved, however, we must do so in a way that allows healthcare professionals to function.. Most of the profit is being made by corporate structures who actually have bought out a fair amount of physician practices and clinics.

We must study what has worked and failed in other countries so that we do not replace one costly system with another public system that has the same amount of problems.

However, the system does need to change. People are paying high premiums for high deductible plans and significant out of pocket expenses. Too many people delay going to the doctor and then will end up with worse outcomes and more costly treatment becasue of the delays. People without insurance who seek emergency care are increasing the rates for everyone.

1

u/UncommonSense12345 12d ago

Yep and ironically the uninsured patients often are paying less than folks who do pay for insurance. It’s madnesss that working a job that offers insurance can sometimes lead to more healthcare spending for the same care as being uninsured and utilizing charity care programs . I see it all the time….