r/FluentInFinance • u/The-Lucky-Investor • 13d ago

“Medicare for All” would save the U.S $5.1 Trillion over 10 years Discussion/ Debate

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/11/30/easy-pay-something-costs-less-new-study-shows-medicare-all-would-save-us-51-trillion
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u/YYC-Fiend 13d ago

What about the share holders? WON’T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK ABOUT THE SHAREHOLDERS?

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u/abrandis 13d ago edited 12d ago

Exactly, everyone looks at the healthcare crisis from the perspective of the patients.

Lol , the US healthcare is built around the private equity groups , insurance industry, big hospital systems , big pharma ,labs and diagnostics imaging, medical devices ....every part is making fat profits,when you look at it from their perspective and it all makes sense. This system is working perfectly...for them...

Meanwhile 33+ other developed countries with way smaller economies can somehow offer universal healthcare. (Of course they're not perfect, but none would trade theirs for ours) .go figure...

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u/Big-Leadership1001 13d ago

The providers aren't even considered. They're more like cattle for the Beef industry - necessary but only because they don't have a product to sell without them. Healthcare is all about executive salaries at the very top and theyeven made it illegal for doctors to own a hospital so they wouldn't have to worry about providers becoming executives!

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u/JDHPH 13d ago

This always seemed so anti-competitive to me. A trained physician should be able to start up their private practice/clinic to compete for patients. Just like any other business model, serving its customer base through transparent competition.

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u/ElChuloPicante 13d ago

They can do that. What they can’t do is stand up a service to which they refer their own patients. It’s to prevent things like routing patients to higher-cost, lower-quality, or harder-to-access goods and services. We don’t want doctors submitting prescriptions exclusively to a pharmacy they own, for example.

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u/Leftieswillrule 13d ago

Tied-house laws like they have for alcohol?

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u/ElChuloPicante 13d ago

Not a bad comparison, actually, although it also helps keep the providers from defrauding payers in this case. “Hey, me, will you please perform this completely unnecessary and exorbitantly expensive procedure?” “Sure thing, me, I’d be happy to!”

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u/babybambam 13d ago

There are already laws in place about this. It's also not that they can't, it's that they can't refer you without also notifying you that they have a financial interest.

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u/AllTheyEatIsLettuce 13d ago

Cool. Do insurance sellers next. They "refer" their customers to the "networks" they alone create out of corralled and gatekept health care vendors, to the pharmacy they own and operate, that's stocked by the "PBM" they own and operate. Even they know vertical integration is the only way to ensure their survival.

But you, you just need more better retail point of sale payment processing product initialisms that run on nothing more than tax avoidance/deferment and the intentional defunding of Social Security and Medicare. No worries, though. The insurance seller owns the "benefits solution" that operates that payment processing product as well as the "bank" that's holding your funds.

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u/fiduciary420 12d ago

Americans genuinely don’t hate the rich people nearly enough for their own good.