First, you should be aware that the US signed a treaty in 1995 the WTO GATS, that seems to agressively block single payer in all nations that signed it. That treaty applies to us and we should be discussing it, instead its being hidden.
Since then thats been our position, but we lie about it to ou own people.
you might even say we are waging an unholy war with dishonesty and coercive trade deals against health unless it can be used to extort peoples money. We're also fighting against free public education. Its sick.
Electing Sanders would not be enough if TiSA, TPP, TTIP passes before then. As South Africa learned, sinply having a revolution did not discharge their WTO obligations. Something similar happened in Slovakia when a President won on a platform of single payer but was stopped by the appearance of an ISDS suit under a bilateral investment treaty they signed with Holland and a Dutch insurer Achmea, a Clinton donor. Read those two cases on italaw.com
1. How would doctors, hospitals, pharmaceuticals be compensated and who determines their level of compensation?
I suspect that they would do what they do now with medicare, send them the bil and it would get paid. Since everybody in the country, rich and poor would be in the system, and getting the same level of care, Americans would have tomake wiser choices when voting.
2. What procedures would be covered?
Since the single payer would be the only payer (thats the only way it works) all medically necessary procedures that were done in teh US would be covered, like they are in Canada, they all would be covered and there would just be them, there would not be any other system for payment besides the single payer. People would not be socked with bills when they got sick so when they got sick they would not delay going to the doctor hoping they would get better unless they were not really that sick and knew it. People would never be in the position where they could not afford to see a doctor. people would not have to impoverished before they got free medical care, all medical care would be free.
Would every procedure currently covered by existing health insurance companies be covered by Single Payer?
Yes, and doctors would have the final say on their patients treatment, not insurers. They could speak freely with patients about their health, no gag clauses. There would be no separate waiting rooms and imaging would be free, not cost so much that doctors could not get an MRI for a patient when that same MRI only cost 99 in Japan.
3. What happens if doctors don't take Single Payer patients only those with private insurance?
Retired doctors would not be practicing medicine. There would not be "private insurance". That is ESSENTIAL to single payer working. That is an issue that agreat many paid confusers are trying to confuse us on. Single payer means just that one payer. Otherwise it cannot be free and a punishment system has to only give those who do not pay a monthly bill inferior care or no care. That breaks everything. One of the most important aspects of single payer is its simplicity. Also, the WTO GATS only allows completely noncommercial services to escape its dictates. Only service sectors excludes from mandatory privatization and onerous provisions completely noncommercial services that existed before its signing, See http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National_Office_Pubs/putting_health_first.pdf
Most importantly, you cannot pick and choose parts of single payer its all or nothing. More specifically "Public Option" was a bait and switch scheme invented by health insurance companies to use to pass Obamacare which is basically a tactic to delay the country and prevent discussion of single payer, and then provide a crisis at exactly the right moment, but the most important thing to remember is that all of single payer has to rmemain together, and if you ditch any of those requirements you wont save any money, itwill fail which is what the insurance companies and politicians want so dont expect them to tell you the truth. Also, the wealthy being far more influential than the poor are needed in order to prevent a slide into bad quality health care. The entire country have to be users of the system to insure its integrity. People cannot be given a way to buy better care because then the quality for those who dont pay will rapidly decine. the dirty secret politicns dont tell us is that the world economy is changing and the era of the job as we know it is ending. Nobody knows what the workplace in a few decades will look at except that it likely will contain far fewer people. So, the trade deals which try to eliminate public health care and education are insanity.
>What does that mean for people who currently have relationships with these doctors but can no longer see them? They will be able to go to any doctor who is licensed. Everybody in, nobody out.
5. If people opt out of being in Single Payer and are willing to pay for private health insurance, are they exempt from the payroll tax?
There is no tax connected to medical care in Single Payer, you are born into the world, and you get care from birth until your death. Hospitals dont have any place to put money so they dont ask for it.
If they're not, why not? Because money and healthcare DONT MIX.
4. What about funding sources? What if the payroll tax is inadequate to compensate the doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies?
That question doesnt make sense in the SINGLE payer context, you are talking aboyt something that is NOT SINGLE PAYER.
5. What about reproductive health care for women? Included as is all other medical care.
Will Single Payer pay for contraceptives? Yes, of course, it will cover all medically effective drugs that are approved for use.
Will abortions be covered? Everything has to be covered if it is done, its covered.
To answer your inevitable questions about Hillary's health care plan, she's stated that she will maintain the ACA which addresses these issues above.
The ACA is based on a pack of lies. #1 lie is the reason we are forced into it - which has nothing to do with health - See the first link above
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