FFS: Is Medicare "Single Payer"?

[Recursion]

There seems to be some question about that now.

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	4 (100%)
	No
	0 (0%)
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[PoliticAverse]

1. No because there are still other payers in addition to Medicare. n/t

[djean111]

2. If ALL health providers accepted Medicare, and Medicare could negotiate drug prices,

have no co-pays or deductibles, then Medicare would be somewhat like what is meant by Single Payer.
Attempting to denigrate Single Payer by saying Medicare is not ideal is kinda specious. If Medicare, on its own, were anything really like Single Payer, people would not need supplemental insurance. I don't think anyone is suggesting that expanding Medicare to everyone is anywhere near pefect, but it is a start, if we get rid of the private insurance mandate and say all providers have to accept it, and we can negotiate drug prices.

But hey! the new shiny "trade" corporate coups are going after that "negotiated drug price" thing. So corporate health care can just sit back, belch, and relax.

[1939]

3. Single Payer

Medicare (which i am on) is a single payer health insurance with a deductible, co-pays, and exceptions (the part D doughnut hole).

Essentially the term "single payer" means that it is an insurance pays for everybody. It just doesn't pay for 100%.

[GusBob]

4. No

There are HMOs, secondary providers, Deductibles and copays

There is also one test that I know of which they require in order to code as a certain type of examination, but they refuse to pay

[MineralMan]

5. Partially. Medicare pays 80%.

Most seniors also purchase a supplemental policy to cover the 20%. There are also Medicare Advantage plans that take over Part B coverage, as well. Most of those are HMOs and are fairly unpopular with most seniors.

I'm on Medicare and have a supplement. My total premiums come to just over $200. Everything is covered, pretty much, except dental and corrective vision stuff.

It's a good deal, to be sure, but not exactly single payer. I have two payers, one of my choice among private insurers.

[geek tragedy]

6. Which part?

Also, are we including the claims processing function that's currently outsourced?

[Rex]

7. Now don't go crying into another thread when people tell you no.

You seem unable to handle being wrong.

[JDPriestly]

9. Yes. Even though you get to choose a private insurance company if you prefer it.

Single-payer refers to the fact that the money is collected from the incomes of everybody like a tax and is paid into a big fund (the single-payer fund) and then people get their insurance. In some countries there is a primary insurance company that is government run. In others people have some choice about which insurance company covers them (especially if they want supplemental insurance that they pay for).

If we have single-payer insurance, in my opinion, we should require all insurance companies to be managed as non-profits and get rid of the big CEO salaries.

We should also have single-payer dental insurance and add some kinds of preventive health care treatments that are not now covered by most insurance companies.

I lived in four countries that had single-payer systems. They were all great. They were all different. We already have insurance companies. Make them shift to non-profits. (Limiting their profits doesn't work; they just hire sneakier accountants.) Put doctors and other medical professionals in charge of the decision-making about patient care, not the accountants. Give nurse practitioners more responsibility and train them even better than they are today in specific areas and tasks.

I love single-payer. Health is the responsibility of each of us. We are each responsible for our own health and for helping others care for their own health.

We have a couple of big health problems in the US that could be ameliorated through education and preventive care:

1) obesity --- we need a lot of education here plus perhaps universal memberships in health clubs, exercise classes and clubs subsidized by the single-payer insurance fund.

We eat a diet that was appropriate back when people walked, did physical labor, rode horses and had less to eat, especially less sugar. That diet is killing us.

2) addictions --- alcoholism, smoking and drug addiction including prescription drug addiction. This is a health problem. Whether someone dies of a heroin overdose, suffers brain damage from cocaine use, or wallows in alcoholism, causing accidents, again damage to the brain, right up to liver failure and delirium tremens (really does happen), we need a single payer system that helps us keep healthy and doesn't view our easily preventable illnesses as profit centers.

At this time, the people who do not have healthcare are often very poor and need it the most.

We need single payer health insurance.

[rocktivity]

10. On the 50th Anniversary Of Medicare, A Call for For Single Payer Health Insurance For All

http://yourHHRSnews.com/?p=14789

Addressing a rally outside the Capitol to mark the 50th anniversary of Medicare, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) today announced that he will introduce legislation to provide Medicare-for-all health insurance. “We need to expand Medicare to cover every man, woman and child as a single-payer national health care program,” he said...

rocktivity

[Rex]

11. +1

Would be nice. We can hope (and protest if need me) that the next POTUS does just that with the help of a Democratically led Congress.

[Lee-Lee]

12. The closest we have to single payer

Is the VA for those who rate high enough in a priority group to get coverage.

So if you have a service connected disability rating of even 10%, you can use it for anything else as well.

Your mandated to use VA facilities and doctors unless they refer you otherwise or you live far enough away (measured by air miles, not how far it is actually driving) to be able to use the new Veterans Choice program.

But, they pay for what they cover. Minimal co-pays for drugs. If you have other insurance they can and will bill it, but if you don't they pay.

[merrily]

13. Medicare for all would be single payer.

[Rex]

15. Boom.

There it is.

[merrily]

16. Nice to see you, Rex!

It's been a while.

[Rex]

17. Hope you are doing well.

The OP is having a meltdown, because single payer and medicare are not the same thing. They might be alike, but are not the same and then the OP pretended we should never want 'medicare for all' and got their ass handed to them in another thread.

[merrily]

18. So far, so good, thank you. You too?

The OP is having a meltdown, because single payer and medicare are not the same thing. They might be alike, but are not the same and then the OP pretended we should never want 'medicare for all' and got their ass handed to them in another thread.

He's fun.

You can't determine truth by a poll, so I guess his objective is to show people disagree about this?

I didn't vote in the poll because either answer is misleading to a degree.

[hobbit709]

14. Not quite, but better than some other options.