Originally Posted by
MumblesBadly
The problem with a Public-option-now-but-Medical-for-all plan private insurance companies would dump their higher risk policyholders, who in turn would load up the federally-funded insurance fund with higher cost policyholders, and the ballooning cost of the public option policies would be used as political ammunition to drive down support for adopting Medicare-for-all. That would be a repeat of what the GOP has already done with Obamacare plans when they gutted the individual mandate penalty, which effectively allows potential lower cost policyholders to not be required to help fund Obamacare policies, which in turn makes them more expensive to those seeking health insurance coverage through such a plan.
But you raise a good point, but it should be rephrased to expose the truth of why many currently prefer their private health insurance: They have been fooled by a well-crafted and executed propaganda campaign by the health insurance industry about how much “choice” they have with private health insurance. David Doel, of The Rational National show, explains using coverage of a series of recent tweets by Wendell Potter, the former PR exec for Cigna.
For once, Mumbles in correct.
The public option is a lot of nonsense for several reasons. It can't exist at the same time as private insurance in the US marketplace. It is based upon the incorrect premise that insurance company profits are the reason healthcare in the US is so expensive. The fact is that insurance profits are only 0.6% of all healthcare expenditures.
Indeed, if a public option exists, one of the side effects will be the high risk patients moving to the public option, thus driving up the cost of the public option and making it unfeasible.
Even if the mandate to not reject patients for preexiting conditions remains in place for private insurance (thus leveling the playing field), there will still be the problem where many doctors simply won't accept the public insurance, as they will get paid less than insurers pay them. And if it's mandated that doctors have to accept the public option, they might de-prioritize those patients. And if they can't de-prioritize those patients, then private insurance will fail, and everyone will be forced onto the public "option".
I don't think Bernie will compromise, anyway. He's no Elizabeth Warren. He has his ideas, whether crazy or not, and he's gonna push them. He's not going to sell out. He really thinks that he can convince the country that Medicare For All is what they need.
Oddly, Bernie has not explained what he will do to address the doctor shortage in the US, which will get several times worse under Medicare For All.
Also, Republicans have done a poor job (thus far at least) educating the public about the crippling wait times in socialized systems for non-emergency tests and specialist visits. 4 months is the wait time in the UK. 4 fucking months. Once Americans learn this, most will abandon the support for such a system.