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0 pointslotsofpulp3y ago0 comments

What you are talking about is taxpayer funded healthcare, with the large collective entity being the government.

Seeing as how that is not politically possibly, middlemen with sub 5% profit margins was the compromise. Obviously not the best situation, but still better than before.

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sudosysgen3y ago

5% profit isn't the whole story here - If you can't increase profit, increase revenue. These middlemen have a lot of power and an incentive to use it in making the system less efficient.

lotsofpulpOP3y ago

All businesses would like to increase profit and revenue, but they cannot just will it. There are at least 7 major publicly traded competing managed care organizations (MCOs, aka health insurance comapanies) plus Kaiser Permanente among many others.

Is there any evidence that these companies are concluding to increase revenue by making the system less efficient?

Low profit margins plus multitude of competitors generally means there is not much juice left to squeeze.

LordDragonfang3y ago

Correct, that was what I was alluding to. There's lots of good reasons to move to such a system, and no good reasons to keep our current system.

>Seeing as how that is not politically possibly

Basically every other liberal democracy has taxpayer funded healthcare, and even many US states have successful programs. It's extraordinarily silly to call that impossible, or to call what we have now a "compromise" rather than a clear case of corporate welfare being put before the welfare of the citizens.

lotsofpulpOP3y ago

There literally was a compromise in 2009 during the passage of ACA that nixed the “public option” (taxpayer funded) healthcare in order to win the votes of necessary Senators to pass the bill.

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletter-art...

Seeing as how Republicans have zero interest in taxpayer funded healthcare, and they have held enough Senate seats to stymie any Democrat led effort for the past 20 years and probably next 20, I do not see why it is “silly” to call it politically impossible.

nebula88043y ago

Seems like Texas will go blue as the population changes. They almost elected one in 2018. They may also flip North Carolina and Pennsylvania to permanent blue as well.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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sudosysgen3y ago

5% profit isn't the whole story here - If you can't increase profit, increase revenue. These middlemen have a lot of power and an incentive to use it in making the system less efficient.

lotsofpulpOP3y ago

Is there any evidence that these companies are concluding to increase revenue by making the system less efficient?

Low profit margins plus multitude of competitors generally means there is not much juice left to squeeze.

LordDragonfang3y ago

Correct, that was what I was alluding to. There's lots of good reasons to move to such a system, and no good reasons to keep our current system.

>Seeing as how that is not politically possibly

lotsofpulpOP3y ago

There literally was a compromise in 2009 during the passage of ACA that nixed the “public option” (taxpayer funded) healthcare in order to win the votes of necessary Senators to pass the bill.

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletter-art...

nebula88043y ago

Seems like Texas will go blue as the population changes. They almost elected one in 2018. They may also flip North Carolina and Pennsylvania to permanent blue as well.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse