Monday, October 21, 2019

Americans Say They Want Fundamental Change To The Healthcare System-- But Do They Really?

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Obamacare Repeal by Nancy Ohanian

If you don't want any fundamental changes to the healthcare system, you have a choice of candidates to choose from. You can stick with Trump and pray he keeps failing to make it much worse. Or you can choose one of the timid corporate Democrats running on timid corporate platforms... Status Quo Joe, being the most prominent and the most inert, but don't forget the two big wet-finger-to-the-wind contenders, Mayo Pete and Kamala Harris. No sense in bringing up the also rans at this point. Only the DNC and TV ad selling networks pretend to take them seriously as presidential candidates. Only Bernie and Elizabeth Warren, the former more so than the latter, are running on absolute fundamental change to the American healthcare system.





What do the voters think? A more appropriate question might be do the voters think? But a just-released SSRS poll for CBS News assumes voters do think about and, presumably, react to, policy questions. Although the results are not easy to interpret, CBS reported that "Most Americans think the nation's health care system needs fundamental changes or to be completely rebuilt, and costs are what concern them most. More than four in 10 are dissatisfied with their health care costs and say affording basic medical care is a hardship. Many have had problems paying medical bills and more than a third say they have gone without medical treatment because of the costs. Overall views of the U.S. health care system have been largely consistent for many years: most want fundamental changes or a completely rebuilt system."



OK, so why are so many voters backing the two worst candidates on fundamentally changing healthcare, Trump and Biden? Most voters, alas, are way too stupid and impervious to easily available facts to understand the ironclad relationship between keeping costs down and ensuring everyone has health care coverage. The voters see that as a choice, rather than as a symbiotic relationship. You can't have one without the other (like love and marriage-- and a horse and carriage).



And now for what really makes no sense"
This may be because Americans are largely satisfied with the quality of their own health care. Seventy-nine percent say they are satisfied, including 42% who say they are very satisfied. Americans have shown a high level of satisfaction with the quality of their health care for a number of years.

But Americans have greater reservations about their health care costs. Just over half of Americans say they are satisfied.



And many-- more than four in ten-- find affording basic medical care a hardship. Lower-income Americans are particularly likely to feel this way:  More than half of those earning less than $50,000 a year describe the affordability of basic medical care for their family as a hardship.

...Generally, most Americans with health insurance say they like the coverage they have.  Nonetheless, some have experienced difficulties with their insurance. Fifty-five percent of Americans with health insurance report receiving medical bills or paperwork that was confusing and almost half have received a medical bill in which their plan paid less than expected. About a third each have had trouble getting a doctor's appointment in a timely manner or have had their plan not cover a particular doctor they wanted to see.



Different types of insurance seem to have different problems. Sixty percent of Americans with private insurance (and 51% of those on Medicare) report confusing paperwork. Half of those with private insurance say they have experienced their plan paying less than they expected for a medical bill. Fewer Americans on Medicaid or those who get their insurance through a public exchange have experienced these problems, though 54% say they have wanted to see a particular doctor only to find that the doctor was not covered by their plan.  
Yesterday, Bernie reminded his supporters that "our opponents, whether it is the Republican establishment, Democratic establishment, Wall Street, insurance companies, drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military industrial complex, the prison industrial complex-- the whole damn 1%-- they're not going to give up their wealth and their power without a fight. The question that we have to answer together is this: are we prepared to stand up to them and transform our country? ... Are you willing to fight to ensure that every American has health care as a human right, even if you have good health care? ... Are you willing to fight for a future for generations of people who have not yet even been born, but are entitled to live on a planet that is habitable? Because if you are willing to do that, if you are willing to love, if you are willing to fight for a government of compassion and justice and decency, if you are willing to stand up to Trump's desire to divide us up, if you are prepared to stand up to the greed and corruption of the corporate elite, if you and millions of others are prepared to do that, there is no doubt in my mind that not only will we win this election, but together we will transform this country."



UPDATE: Pramila Jayapal

After reading the polling today, Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), author of the House version of the Medicare-for-All bill, sent me this note: "This poll reaffirms what we already know: The vast majority of Americans know that the for-profit health care system needs fundamental structural changes, not nibbles around the edges. Health care costs are a huge crisis for Americans, and that’s why any proposal that just aims to increase accessibility or coverage without addressing the high costs of a system driven by profits simply won’t succeed in giving Americans the health care everyone deserves. Most Americans do not like their private for-profit insurance companies that limit their choices with ‘out-of-network’ doctors and hospitals and keep raising costs to pad their own pockets. Americans do, however, like their doctors, which is why support for Medicare 4 All rises when you explain that it would allow Americans the freedom and choice to go to any provider of their choice-- without any co-pays, premiums or deductibles. Medicare for All is the bold solution that tackles the fundamental systemic change necessary to provide comprehensive, quality, affordable care to everyone-- not just the wealthiest few."


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6 Comments:

At 9:57 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Anyone who is really for UHC should make the point that un-tethering coverage from employers is a HUGE change and the reason the "One Percent"ers don't want it is obvious: a LESS dependent workforce is a threat to their power. Anyone (read: ALL mainstream/establishment Dems, Republicans, Libertarians) opposed to UHC is opposed to the majority of the American workforce achieving a little bit of freedom.

 
At 1:47 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

what it says is americans know they can't afford to maintain their own health, even with insurance. My "insurance" just stopped coverage of my primary Rx that keeps me alive, which it's covered for the past 15 years. Used to be a $100 copay every 3 months. Now it's going to cost me $500 PER FUCKING MONTH.

an aside: when phrma can quintuple the price for a very mature drug after 15 years, well, the system is fucked. costs should drop precipitously after the patent term is over.

what it also proves is that americans are dumber than shit.

it proves pretty much nothing else.

and, btw, neither needed any more proof.

 
At 2:04 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My pharmacy co-pays have also become exorbitant. I had to refuse a refill on one that I need because the cost had gone up 600% just this year. Being on a fixed income, there is no way in hell I will be able to afford that when all of the other drugs I take do the same - and I take generics.

I plan on dying on the steps of a government building with a letter in my pocket explaining how my fate came to be. I'll also send it out over the Internet to my elected officials and in emails to friends. It will be my last great act of defiance to Big Pharma and to corporatism in general.

 
At 7:12 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"what it also proves is that americans are dumber than shit..."

You say this over and over, but you NEVER present an alternative to anything, beyond "DON'T VOTE FOR DEMOCRAPS!" Not to be rude, but has it ever popped into your head that YOU might be the dummy here? What exactly do you want/expect? Mass strikes? Die-ins on the steps of the Capital (as the other poster here suggests)? How will these things come to be, considering how atomized and disaffected Americans are? Jesus H. Christ. You're smug, dumb and tiresome as fuck. Surely even YOU re-read some of the shit you post and think to yourself "Why do even bother?" Regarding die-ins: why not be a real leader and get the ball rolling? I don't even believe your little drug story. I suspect you're quite comfortable, despite the occasional feint at playing a prole here on the internet.

 
At 11:58 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

You only prove that you are as ignorant as you are clueless, 7:12. No wonder you are such a Party remora. Anyone who believes the Party leaders might as well be a MAGAt.

 
At 6:15 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The ONLY alternative that may some day yield positive change is for voters to stop voting for democraps.

my Rx went from $20 copay to $100 copay during the sanctified reign of the great and beneficent obamanation. The reason was obamneycare and obamanation's vow to phrma that he would not impede their death march to extract every single nickel from every single captive consumer.

if/when ANY democrap wins in 2020 and if the senate and house both get democrap majorities... you think anything changes? you're a moron if you do.

since pleas on this site for Nazis to WTFU and stop voting for Nazis have no audience, I say that the left must find a different party ...
IF YOU ACTUALLY WANT POSITIVE CHANGE.

If you're fine with being ratfucked... by all means, bend over and let the democraps have at it again.

just because I'm not in the majority does NOT mean I'm wrong.

If this were 1633 you would be the one threatening Galileo with imprisonment for his unpopular and minority idea of heliocentrism, wouldn't you? He was correct too, ya know...

 

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