How Would ‘Medicare-For-All’ Work? | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC

Johns Hopkins physician Doctor Kavita Patel, who helped draft Obamacare, joins Ali Velshi to take a deeper dive into what some Democratic candidates are proposing for a health care plan – like California Senator Kamala Harris’ “Medicare-for-all” system.
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How Would ‘Medicare-For-All’ Work? | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC

How Would ‘Medicare-For-All’ Work? | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC

60 thoughts on “How Would ‘Medicare-For-All’ Work? | Velshi & Ruhle | MSNBC

  1. Medicare itself has been around for more than 50 years, while “Medicare for All” is polling at 70 percent, with majority support even among Republicans.

    • CJ J so under Medicare for all your wonderful and amazing employee can part of the tax and you can pay part of there tax. However no one need pay an insurance premium or copay. Completely getting rid of for profit insurers and setting costs on drugs…that’s where the savings are found. Check Drug costs in developed countries compared to US. Also healthcare cost per capita in other countries are about half.

    • Thelonious M unfortunately we need to put this for profit medical scam out of business. On the plus side we have a shortage of nurses. Some might train in this field or another worthier part of healthcare.

    • Thelonious M you would make a lot more money in the sickness industry than say if you were an automobile company. So cool right. I can’t believe people are for keeping a for profit healthcare industry.

    • Oppothumbs M so stupid that is the case as there would no longer be for profit insurers sucking up premiums and copays. My $800 m premium would be gone. Pay 50% of that as s tax.

  2. Get rid of the middleman (the insurance co’s) and dedicate the money that companies pay to them to funding a universal coverage at an agreed upon minimum standard. Insurance companies can still exist but only to underwrite coverage for anything beyond the minimum standard provided by universal care (cosmetic stuff, elective surgery, etc.) . I lived in the UK and Japan and was on their respective universal coverage systems. It was great. Good care and I only paid a small co-pay per visit to the doc or hospital. Come on people, are we a developed nation or not? A developed nation takes care of ALL its people, at least to an agreed upon universal standard.

    • Health insurance companies are leeches. They use actuarial tables to override physician advice when they don’t want to pay for expensive procedures.

    • +arjaygee girlfriend works as a medical records technician and coder, confirms that this happens constantly. Administrators or beancounters override the doctor’s advice or declare a procedure or prescription medically unnecessary after the fact so that they can charge the patient out the wazoo. She’s just waiting for the whole rotten system to collapse under its own greed/largess.

    • +Matt Zaharias I worked in healthcare information technology for many years, and know this to be true. I would not shed one tear if the entire private health insurance industry disappeared.

  3. NO deductibles!!!
    NO premiums!!
    No more bankruptcy for unexpected medical expenses because of sudden illness or accident!!
    Im in!!

    • +Dude
      you just so full of misinformation
      “Canada has private hospitals that take cash”
      if youre a non resident…of course
      however all residents are covered (hence the word “universal”)
      so if youre covered leave your wallet at home

    • +Tommy Vuitton i could see my doctor in the time it takes me to drive there
      stop lying
      stop trying to lie to the people that actually enjoy the system

    • +dan mac
      I mentioned Canada as Rand Paul went to one recently and paid cash and cut in front of other Canucks waiting in line .
      You did not address Canucks paying cash in America Hospitals for hips, knees and by passes. you also did not address the survival rate for Cancer being way higher in America than Canada .
      go drink some syrup

  4. Here is something to consider.
    With a healthcare for all system that means health care is available to all regardless of income, working or unemployed will that then mean employees are less in fear over a potential firing.
    The answer is of course obvious and in essence it means the system will not only give health care to all, it will bring less anxiety and more freedom.
    The current situation where the loss of a job means ruin and worse for families where a member is sick, that will simply disappear. I am not saying that getting sick can’t still mean a loss in income, but that is however something very different from being buried in medical costs or worse not being able to get treatment because the funds are lacking.

    • I hope you understand that corporations do not want health care for all. Capitalism runs most smoothly when citizens are poorly educated and also fearful about their jobs. A sense of stability and security leads to a populace that votes for liberal economic policies; a sense of fear, war, etc. tends to make people more conservative and xenophobic and greedy. We always have to follow the money. This may be something 70% of Americans support, but benefiting the people is not in the corporate interest; only benefiting the stockholders.

    • +scrubjay93 Of course it is so. It is also why some politicians are very fond of removing any rights that come with unions. I do not know the numbers in detail, but it seems that in the EU unions are a lot stronger than in the US.
      I know some will say unions are like communism, but they are not.
      Here in Denmark the unions have power enough that they can make even the worst international companies fold and make agreements with the unions on how to follow rules. They’ve done it with McDonald’s, Ryanair(or maybe they just ran away) and others and the result is almost everyone’s jobs are covered by agreements between the unions and the companies and this mean things like:
      37 hour work weeks for full time, some even less hours.
      Extra pay for overtime, working odd hours, weekends, bank holidays…
      5 weeks paid vacation time (many have six).
      + Extra days of for seniors(I think it is over 60 years of age).
      Sick days with pay.
      Sick days for a sick child.
      Companies must ensure employees get training ie. no one is left behind over time.
      After a 3 months trial period, one gets 3 months notice if sacked. This then grows with time, currently I get 7 months notice if sacked.
      Employees must give 1 months notice.
      … bottom line. What ever job you have you are sure of decent pay and fair conditions over all. Nobody needs to work two jobs and this includes McJobs – I think they pay like $2K a month if not more.
      The employers also get things in return. A skilled work force, people are motivated because they like working and so on. The system works – if not our economy would be terrible and it isn’t.

    • +CJ J
      “UnitedHealth announced record-breaking profits in 2015, followed by an even better year this year. In July 2016, UnitedHealth celebrated revenues that quarter totalling $46.5 billion, an increase of $10 billion since the same time last year.”
      .
      you do realize we’re all connected to the interwebs…right?
      where fact checking is but a few keystrokes away?

    • +cabc74 ” sophistication, ” like how you can’t figure out why knife attacks are at an all time high yet can’t stop them? GTFO

    • +Y. Lin sarah palin as well
      though that was from a long time ago
      probably before ‘murica bought alaska from the ruskies
      when she could truly see russia from her front porch

    • MilkCow, nobody waits 3 months for an MRI. Those happen straight away. People may have to wait for *non urgent* operations. But urgent are performed fast.

  5. Kamala Harris just back away from Medicare For All like a typical spineless corporate Democrat. There are no multiple paths to Medicare for All. You do it or you don’t, no political talk.

    If you can’t stand behind what you said in the Town Hall then how are people supposed to believe anything you say.

    • +M A I like bernie and elizabeth along with Kamala and Cortez they seem to be on the right path and a difficult choice to make…. if I was an american I would also vote for Bernie as it’s his idea and I do think he was robbed by hillary in the last election…..if bernie was against trump I am sure trump would not be in power and america would have kept it’s respect….I would like to think that democrats would all support bernie and take this A**hole of a president out

    • +Joe Hampton The attacks on Bernie have started and he hasn’t even announced a run. Corporate controled Democrats are in charge of the Democratic Party currently and they will fight to keep ppl like Bernie, Warren and AOC out of power.
      If Bernie does run I think they will try to cheat him like last time but this time around he has name brand recognition, the only thing he was lacking last time.
      I also believe Americans are more informed this time around and won’t be scared of the word socialism. The only two policies Bernie wants to add to our current social policies are Medicare For All & College Tuition.
      He is NOT talking about government take over of for profit businesses like some uninformed ppl think in America.

    • +M A Gough gave us free education but now it’s gone and we have a hex system which has become a total disaster….education is a right for all and should be free…only self centred people would disagree….unfortunately there are a lot of these me me me people in this world I pray the Dems get back in to unite people for the benefit of each other we all have to live here we should all live a decent life no matter of race or disability

    • +Joe Hampton Agree… Also a better educated population mean a better economy for all.
      Not sure why ppl do not understand that helping regular people in the end helps everyone.

    • @Shemp Howard – VA rates better than private health insurance for one, and 2,
      The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
      General Welfare is in the constitution. Med4all would mean you choose what doctors YOU want not what doctors insurances companies want in your network. For every case in which an infant dies I can name you 45000 more cases in the USA.

    • Shemp Howard Obamacare was a right wing healthcare plan adopted by Obama in an attempt to seem bipartisan. It was meant to MAKE money for insurance companies. We don’t want health insurance we want healthcare. Paid for automatically by fed govt just bring Medicare card to doctor. No bills copays deductibles and no more limited doctor and specialist networks.

    • Original M if u care about black people then I suggest you look at her track record in all of her former jobs, it’s horrific and she does nothing but play race games against her own kind.

    • Debra Swank offering universal healthcare isn’t having universal healthcare.. Neither country has universal health care, in China you have to pay in cash before your treated or operated on. The same for Russia, now u can buy healthcare but universal healthcare isn’t offered in countries with it, it’s taken automatically out of your check.

    • dan mac she’s a fake person, a fake democrat, she goes with whoever will pay her the most, the reason why she wants universal healthcare is because Medicare lobbies for her, she uses black people because she know black people will vote for black people, she doesn’t explain that she’s using them and make’s money off of their misery.

  6. Replay over and over what Velushie just said about his father’s operation and how much it cost. Let that sink in for a moment. The American Health System is rigged to benefit the wealthy at the expense of the poor. Greed alone drives this system. Why is the most modern country in the world so lacking in basic humanity for All of its People. Corporate Greed Driven by Big Pharma. Cheers from Michael. Australia.

    • Not just Big Pharma, also Big Oil, the Military-Surveillance-Security-Industrial Complex, health insurance companies. There was a massive boom in secret surveillance/homeland security infrastructure and employment after 9/11, most of it not reflected in the budget and run rather secretively and out of sight.

    • +scrubjay93 it’s all stuff that relies on inelastic demand. There’s no substitute for oil that normal people have easy access to, there’s no substitute for healthcare and medical services (in other words, you can’t pray away your broken arm in church or just let it heal on its own because they are cheaper alternatives, you MUST receive medical care).

      This means they can just crank the price up without suffering a loss in demand. If Starbucks Coffee suddenly quadrupled in price, a lot more people would buy Tully’s. There’s no equivalent/substitute in healthcare provision here in the US because the corporations decide pricing and access and they all sit on each other’s corporate boards and know each personally, socially, or professionally. And then drop millions and millions and millions of dollars on politicians to get them to vote with their financial and business interests over the health and life/death interests of the general population.

  7. Last time I had to go to the ER I refused to give my name due to lack of insurance. I received 10-20 thousand dollars worth of care and they couldn’t bill me. We NEED medicare for all!

  8. look at it this way
    as long as the american empire
    doesn’t completely unravel in the next 20 years
    (and it might)
    you have the opportunity to create
    what might be the best healthcare system ever…
    you can draw upon the experience and avoid the pitfalls
    of those that have gone before

  9. Wiping out the insurance industry…. —- gee, call me crazy but there are pretty rich insurance companies thriving in Canada without them owning health care. Obviously introducing UHC into Canada back in the late 60’s did not “wipe out” insurance companies. It won’t in the USA either. They’ll adapt. They will still make bank on all the other types of insurance in existence, plus in offering supplemental health insurance to all those who want it. (in Canada it’s known as ‘Blue Cross’)

    “How would (Universal Health Care) work? — Gee I don’t know, ask a Canadian. Ask a German. Ask a Swede or Norwegian. Ask… well you get the idea. Ask virtually anyone who isn’t a USA American. My doctor doesn’t charge me for appointments. If I need a referral to a specialist and see that specialist, again, no charge. If I need some type of special treatment plan or surgery and have that treatment, again no charge. Long hospital stay? No charge. Visit to Emergency? No charge.
    Walk-in Clinic visit? No charge.
    NO
    CHARGE.

    “We’ll get killed on taxes” — Gee I don’t know, I’m a Canadian and I’ve never felt “killed” by taxes. Ever. Not even once. Not only that but I’ve compared Canadian tax rates with that of my friend and relatives who are American (of which I have many) and they’re really not that different at all.

    “It’s socialist crap, It’ll turn us all into commies” — The idiocy runs deep in you young Jedi. Look, are your police and fire departments and highway and roadway systems turning you “commie”? They’re all civically funded, or did you forget that? When was the last time you had to call the cops for something, and after they’re done with the call they handed you a bill? Oh that’s right, never.

    “I’ll have to wait for stuff” — oh boo hoo. In Canada the system is prioritized based on need, not what you can afford. If your need is dire you get that procedure right away. If it’s not all that critical your treatment or test or procedure can still happen in a timely fashion. I’ve had two spinal surgeries and many scans, tests, x-rays, and doctor/specialist visits leading up to those surgeries, plus many follow-ups afterward, over the past 5 years. I don’t recall the wait times for any of it being all that long. It can be that way in the US as well if only you Americans would get over your fear and irrational wrong thinking about it.

    • +m3talh3ad123 I suggest you should try to study one private insurance company in Canada call Blue Cross,
      They are doing well in the business. so check it out by yourself instead of listen to someone, you will get your answer.

    • ​+Paul Lee that’s a bit of a catch 22, considering that Blue Cross is actually an American based company that’s one of the biggest healthcare companies for the states. Literally 5% of their income comes from Canada. The Canadian sector is run by a bunch of non profit organizations, meaning that they aren’t flourishing because they literally can’t flourish.

    • +m3talh3ad123
      thee private dude, is for the add on’s
      thee flowers in your room
      your single occupancy room
      thee cut rate on meds buying you that scooter with the 350 4 bbl 5 speed
      thee add on’s
      its not a competition
      .
      PS still waiting for “that one”
      been five hours

  10. It’s kinda comical. “Medicare-for-all” has been working very well all over the developed world for decades now. And yet……..only in America will you still find cranks who argue against it.

    We have socialized education. Anyone want to privatize it all?
    We have socialized law enforcement? Want to privatize that?
    We have socialized Armed Forces. You’re kidding, right?

    But socialized healthcare? No Sir, the sky will fall and we’ll all die in misery and poverty.

    People are stupid.

  11. Ask all of the countries who consistently rank way ahead of us in the World Healthcare Rankings every year. This is not that hard people. I want the same healthcaer that my representatives paid with my tax dollars have.

  12. According to Wikipedia
    View 15+ more
    Austria
    Austria
    Belarus
    Belarus
    Croatia
    Croatia
    Czech Republic
    Czech Republic
    Denmark
    Denmark
    Finland
    Finland
    France
    France
    Countries with universal health care include Austria, Belarus, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.
    List of countries with universal health care – Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_universal_health_care
    Are these countries ruined???

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