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Alegre's Corner
We're not finished folks - not by a long shot!

Six in Ten Americans Want Access to Medicare

by: masslib

Thu Feb 26, 2009 at 11:15:49 AM EST


Obama has a huge opportunity to solidify his legacy early on as one of America's great Presidents.  Only in times of turmoil do Presidents get to achieve great things, and here we are in one of those times.  Public opinion on health reform continues to shift, and the winds argue for universal access to Medicare.  According to a late January poll by consumerwatchdog.org:

Deep public dissatisfaction with the current health insurance system is evident in a new poll showing that 64% of Americans support expanding Medicare as a choice for anyone who wants an option to the private insurance market. The poll numbers illustrate unease with rising premiums, diminishing benefits and loss of health coverage when a job disappears.
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"Americans overwhelmingly believe that they should not have to wait until they are 65 years old or become disabled to have access to Medicare," said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog. "This poll shows that Americans in the midst of financial crisis are willing to pay for access to Medicare because of their insecurity about losing their health coverage and the high price of private health insurance."

 

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masslib :: Six in Ten Americans Want Access to Medicare

The poll also finds a clear majority choose Medicare for All over our current private for-profit system, and Americans view public health coverage more positively than private insurance:

* Government Providers Are Viewed More Favorably Than Private Insurers. Both federal Medicaid (44% favorable, 15% unfavorable) and Medicare (41% favorable, 20% unfavorable) are held in higher esteem than insurance companies (29% favorable, 38% unfavorable) or HMO's (36% favorable, 32% unfavorable).

* The Tide Appears to Be Shifting in Favor of National Health Insurance. When given a choice of the current health care system or one "like Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayers," voters chose the latter. A solid majority (59%) say they would prefer a national health insurance program that covers everyone over the current system of private insurance offered to most through their employer.

 

Obama should seize this opportunity now while the iron is hot.  Under President Clinton, health care reform was not seriously debated until we had began coming out of the recession, and as a result, the debate lost momentum as Americans felt more economically secure.

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Six in Ten Americans Want Access to Medicare | 17 comments
the people have consistently favored this approach.... (0.00 / 0)
...and hillary proposed it in her health care plan a year and a half ago.

3) A Choice of a Public Plan Option: In addition to the array of private insurance choices offered, the Health Choices Menu will also provide Americans with a choice of a public plan option, which could be modeled on the traditional Medicare program, but would cover the same benefits as guaranteed in private plan options in the Health Choices Menu without creating a new bureaucracy. The alternative will compete on a level playing field with traditional private insurance plans. It will provide a more affordable option, in part through greater administrative savings. It will not be funded through the Medicare trust fund.

since the moneyed interests in control of the for-profit health, insurance, and drug cartel will fight single-payer systems as if their lives depended on it, hillary proposed an indirect route to single payer.  let public, non-profit plans compete with the private, for-profit plans for a few years. we know who'll with that fight eventually - the system with the lower administrative overhead and no shareholders to pay off. as the for-profit schemes wither, it'll leave public systems, which can be consolidated into single payer.

obama has people to pay off, and he doesn't have the political courage to go for the ultimate prize directly.  which is a damn shame.

Barack Obama's election proves that any male can grow up to be president, provided he's willing to use misogyny as a campaign strategy.

Hillary works behind the scenes (0.00 / 0)
for things she deeply cares about. The "back door" was there for anyone willing to see it, but not flaunted as an insult to the insurers. This, IMO, is the only way to achieve UHC, to allow insurance companies their hubris that that they can compete with a public option. As long as its done in the open view of the market, insurance companies will assume that only other, incompetent players will be forced under.

This was one of the discussions I had over and over when I'd chat with Obama people at events. Once you explained it, it was obvious.

[ Parent ]
I think that was true when Hillary was running in the primary (0.00 / 0)
but not true anymore.  I think if politicians listened to the voters, instead of the insurers, the could pass full Medicare for All now.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights
[ Parent ]
And, actually, I'd say the begining of the primary. (0.00 / 0)
I think it was a mistake for Hillary not be more direct about Medicare access for All.  i think it would have been a winning issue for her.  

Medicare for All is Civil Rights
[ Parent ]
I think you're right n/t (0.00 / 0)

[ Parent ]
Yes, but more and more people want it now. (0.00 / 0)
The economy is making it more popular.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights
[ Parent ]
again, china (0.00 / 0)
China is focusing on building a forward infrastructure, with the cash they've piled up (and now the dollar is rising), and on free education, they are turning out record numbers of engineers, physicians, nurses, research scientists, they're attending to their human infrastructure.

And, yes, universal health care.  The Chinese, who are I think smarter than we are, realize that to get their own population to buy crap and make jobs for their kids and neighbors they need to feel safe about their future needs - health care, mainly, that's what they save for.

There is no reason to avoid bringing us single payer, at least for the most of us who want it. Then, let the private sector compete, and if they don't make gargantuan profits anymore, let them sell their private hospitals to non-profits.  

Hillary - alternative energy

medicare for all: (0.00 / 0)

I thought Obama's budget includes huge cuts to Medicare funding.  All the while he's talking about implementing a universal health care plan.

Does this make sense?

The cuts would be in hospital reimbursements (0.00 / 0)
when they discharge too early, and then readmit over and over again, it's good policy, and in Medicare Advantage, which is a subsidy to private insurers put in place under Bush.  It would not be any sort of benefit cut to recipients.  He does want to raise premiums under Medicare for wealthy Americans, which I don't think is very good policy.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights
[ Parent ]
MA (0.00 / 0)

What is Medicare Advantage?  Seniors who have a plan with one of these companies would be affected, wouldn't they?
[ Parent ]
Well, I thought they would just be shifted back (0.00 / 0)
to Medicare but now I'm hearing something silly about "competitive bidding", so we will see..the program needs elimination.  Medicare Advantage is where private insurers purchase Medicare recipient benefits and then are supposed to provide cheaper insurance and drug prices, but they don't.  It's a scam.  Medicare recipients no longer in Med Advan will just go back to Medicare as it should be.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights
[ Parent ]
just heard on NHPR (0.00 / 0)

that Dartmouth Hitchcock is having serious financial problems -- due to money lost from its investments.  same with many other hospitals and colleges too.

We have to get health care and higher education out of the stock market and out of Lazy Fair economics.  Make them public nonprofits; in otherwords, nationalize.

I'm the spouse of a retired war vet x3 (0.00 / 0)
2 tours in VN and one in Bush the First's Gulf War.  We have free medical for life. I am fortunate for my spouse survived.

What's so hard making this blanket coverage available to all?

Nothing. (0.00 / 0)


Medicare for All is Civil Rights
[ Parent ]
Opt-in to Medicare....will I be able to afford it? (0.00 / 0)
if it's not purely a national health system?  I can't really afford the catastrophic policy I have now which pays for NOTHING and yet raises my rates yearly.  I don't want to opt into the same old thing that was just being called medicare-for-all. . .
Medicare isn't catastrophic insurance. It's comprehensive insurance. (0.00 / 0)
At administrative costs of 2% vs. as much as 50% for private for-profit insurance, it's hard to see how it won't be affordable.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights
[ Parent ]
sure would be good (0.00 / 0)

for this country to return to comprehensive insurance.  deductibles rule the day now, and everyone will forego a doctor's visit even if they need it in the name of frugality. deductibles are the biggest block to preventative medicine.
[ Parent ]
Six in Ten Americans Want Access to Medicare | 17 comments
"Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. When you stumble, keep faith. When you?re knocked down, get right back up. And NEVER listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on."
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