It's written to be comprehensive, and to get rid of all duplication.
Medicare for All Senate Version, full text
It's written to be comprehensive, and to get rid of all duplication.
Medicare for All Senate Version, full text
^^^ That. A thousand times that. We can make it what we want it to be. I have no patience with folks who opine that it can't work, it won't work, it's too expensive, my needs are unique, it's socialism, whatever. There are simply too many examples of single payer and nationalized systems providing world class care while being more cost efficient.
How on Earth anybody can look at the Byzantine, Balkanized patchwork quilt of underwriting/funding systems in the USA's HC "system", never mind the ridiculous flaws and lottery-esqe characteristics, and think that our system could possibly be cost efficient is beyond me; and I've seen a lot of stupid shit in my lifetime.
It's a question of what are you optimizing for. If for maximum coverage for those who needs it, start to reducing the age.
If for maximum sustainability while you build, do it the other way around: start by adding 20-30s, then 30-40s, etc. The older you are, the more (on avg) your health costs are. Only population skewing those are babies.
Mark Walberg
Building bike frames for fun since 1973.
What a British cycling acquaintance sent in reply to a recent email wherein I noted how fortunate the UK is to have the NHS, and how much they need to keep the US out of it:
"Yes, the NHS is a godsend. The whole country was doing a weekly hand clap to celebrate it Thursday evenings, and all the car horns were sounding off. Weirdly good feeling, to be honest. Now it looks like the Oxford vaccine is going to be a success and that we should have enough jabs between three vaccines that have been pre-booked to inoculate the whole population but late spring, starting with NHS workers and other key workers in late December. The end may very nearly be in sight."
He also noted that the products of stem cell research, which many of our social/religious conservatives vehemently opposed, were vitally important to someone close to him.
I hate the whole nightly hand clap thing: too much symbolism with too little action. This, after all, came on the heels of the Tories having spent the previous ten years knee-capping the NHS and imposing some seriously odious rules (e.g. foreign, non-EU NHS workers having to pay a fee rendered by the NHS).
Someone (aka the populace of England, Northern Ireland, and Wales) elected Tory MPs (and their allies) into office in the first place, and the ruling coalition led by the Tories was then able to effect the aforementioned knee-capping. And now a few rounds of applause for your troubles, when NHS workers have seen their pay frozen for two years and capped at 1% increase for another five? Victorian morality at its finest: we promise to be dressed in the finest attire while we take your land/resources/pay/etc.
I worked for the NHS in the UK for forty two years until I retired last week and my wife is still a nurse in the NHS. We both caught, and tested positive for, Covid-19 during the first wave. At the time I did not perceive the weekly hand clap to be a political symbolism as a substitute for action nor did I vote for the party currently in government. I still have not forgiven Boris Johnson for his role in the Brexit debate before the vote four years ago.
The NHS has many faults and I have lived with them as both a provider and a consumer but I am still glad that we have the NHS in the UK and dearly hope that it survives in something like its present form as I enter the final decades of my life.
I see your point, but it’s something to see people in country after country applauding professional roles that were largely taken for granted. This may be the small start that leads to a genuine re-evaluation of (and revised compensation for) the roles we care about most. We should start applauding teachers, too.
Dan Fuller, local bicycle enthusiast
Bookmarks