Why can't universal health care supporters, tell anyone how much it would cost ?

Question

.
You often hear them give reasons why we should have it.

But they can never tell anyone, how much such a system would cost.

Or how it would be funded.

Why is that ?

Answer 1

I have also wondered that.

Answer 2

1st of all the number of 47 million is suspicious. It includes people who were between jobs but got healthcare, people who can afford healthcare but would rather spend their money on BMW leases and others. 2nd universal healthcare is no panacea. 3rd the health care discussion is BS. Nobody wants to discuss the real issues. Healthcare has gotten expensive because of technology. Over 50% of your lifetime healthcare dollars are spent in the last 6 months of your life. Whether you have a government sponsored system like the UK, France or Canada, or a market sponsored one like in the US, health care is rationed. In 1950 there was no chemo therapy, cardio bypass, MRI, CT's, etc. The average person could afford it. The question that should be debated and will never be is when is enough --- enough. No politician will win on the platform Grandma doesn't get chemo and Grandpa doesn't get the bypass. Untill then the lines will get longer in France, the UK and Canada and Health Insurance will get more expensive in the US.

Answer 3

Because they have no idea what it would cost and they have no plan to fund it.

We know this to be true for two reasons: no other government with universal health care guessed right--every one has serious economic problems, rationed health care, and is trying to foist off more onto the private sector.
The second reason is that we DO have government health care in the US. Take your pick: IHS, VA, SCHIP, Medicaid, and Medicare. Not a single one of those is truly solvent, nor is it serving everyone it's supposed to or at the level they claimed it would.

Medicare: doctors leaving--low and slow pay and every year they're threatened with LOWER reimbursement because the system does NOT pay for itself. Medicare premium 1998: $43.80, 2008 it's $96.40--up more than 100% with no corresponding increase in benefits. In fact, some benefits are lower for many because HMO Medicares that offered drug coverage decreased coverage in many cases to conform to the moronic "donut hole" of prescription coverage. All Medicare people are on the hook for 20% of the cost of procedures, etc. SO most have either a medigap policy (they pay ANOTHER premium for that) OR they have something like an HMO instead of traditional Medicare--and that is a form of rationing as well and in many cases, the 20% is the "co-pay" of the HMO patient.

The list goes on.

Free market, however, which we do NOT have in the US handles this better.
Compare the price for an uninsured person getting:

a tummy tuck
and an uncomplicated appendectomy without peritonitis

Only one is affordable: the tummy tuck.

Why? Interference levels and assumptions about insurance coverage cause vast price differences.

BTW, in case you're interested, open the PDF (not talking about the blurb) here and see a way to have an affordable catastrophic health care plan that allows for a physican and follow up and one ER visit a year for reasonable co-pays without increasing taxes or forcing employers to pay for it:
http://www.booklocker.com/books/3068.html

Answer 4

Your present system is one of the least efficient systems in the world. Combined Public/Private costs go $1000 dolllars higher per person than luxembourg, and around $3000 dollars higher than anyone else in the G7(at least in 2004, the last year the OECD has statistics for). In terms of portion of health spending you're also out on a limb at more than 15% of your GDP(nobody else in the industrialized world spemds eleven or more). Even when combining the % public and total spending your government spends the most out of any G7 country, and for this achieves worse scores than any other G7 nation. The truth is if your government were willing to play the game with doctors, insurerers, and phamaraceutical companies that other countries play it would probably save money insuring all it's citizens over insuring some.

Answer 5

the number would be so astronomical that it would scare everyone off, after all the government doens't have any money except what we give them, so they don't want to talk taxes, it scares everyone off the idea. second most of it wouldn't go to fund the care for the poor (in fact there will be so many limitations it would actually make the health care crisis worse for everyone) but into the pockets of the bureacrats that would get to administer it.

if they really care about the people? why not cancel the charter for the federal reserve system, cancel all the debts incurred due to it since it was based on fraud and all contracts based on fraud are null and void.

second by doing that you get rid of big government(big governments only benefit the wealthy) which interferes big time with the true free market and that will in itself improve medical care and decrease cost by creating competition and get rid of monoploies that are constantly being formed. thirdly this would end the wars as wars are instigated by the very bankers and their friends for profit, and not for true national protection. why do you think they want to attack iran which has no wmd but north korea and pakistan israel have? this whole thing has nothing to do with national security. it has to do with power, pure and simple, they don't own the iranians markets, bank or oil or infrastructure and make no money off any interest there.

by ending war the market can prosper, people will have more money (as they wont' be paying an interest on money anymore as fed reserve notes are debt not money) and thus businesses can prosper, people will have more money for their needs and thus you avoid all that overhead costs(government control of welfare and social services) that just boggles the mind and stifles prosperity that is unecessary.

RRRRR

Answer 6

We wouldn't have much of an economy if there wasn't profit made from people getting sick.

Thats ok with you? Would like to supersize that happy meal? Our economy revolves around people getting sick incase you haven't noticed. The costs would be unmeasurable because we would need a complete economic overhaul. Small business would be best economic replacement, which will never be allowed to happen as long as corporations are the power behind the throne.

America is a corporate nation.

Answer 7

Not every proposed plan is the same so there is not a single answer but the number is given for each. For example Hillary's plan would cost the government an additional $110 billion a year or 1% of GDP and would be funded by abolishing most of Bush's tax cuts.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296997,00.html

Answer 8

About $2.3 trillion a year and rising.

btw. Currently the federal government covers a little over half of that amount already with medicare and medicaid. So, your current taxes are already paying a big chunck of that.
I reality, it would cost another $600 billion more than is being spent on private insurance policies to cover everyone in the USA.

Answer 9

Doubt if we'll get a good answer from Republicans or Democrats on the costs of universal healthcare, anymore than any of them or us will get a straight answer on what the costs of NOT having universal healthcare costs (ER visits are so inexpensive to cover for the 43 million without healthcare coverage, aren't they?)

I'm still waiting for a straight answer on how much the Iraq war has cost and how much it will cost until it ends;
-how much it will cost to support the present and future baby boomers social security and medicare (I don't know about you, but I'm not seeing any of it until I'm 68, when I'll first be eligible for it, if there is any to get)
-how much it will cost to provide services for disabled and mentally ill Americans
-how much will it cost to take care of the ever growing physically and mentally disabled Veterans returning from two wars
-how much will it cost to pay unemployment benefits to Americans laid off because of off-shoring
-how much will it cost to cover the mortgages that are defaulting at growing numbers

Let me know when you get some stat's, we'd all like to know.

Answer 10

And I wonder what they're going to do with all the health insurance professionals. All the agents, reps, etc at Blue Cross, Cigna, Aetna, etc.

Are they just going to be hired by the government to keep doing what they're doing under better management? hahahahahahahahahahaha Good one.

Answer 11

Why can`t people who oppose universal health care tell us the human cost of not having it?