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Health insurance (not Medicaid or Medicare) was a free market before Obamacare. Medical equipment companies have a free market. Prescription companies have a free market. Free markets work in 90% of industries, not healthcare.

The quality of care right now in America actually sucks when you factor in how much we are paying. I disagree that the supply for medical equipment and medicines is going to go down. The supply drop for patient care and waiting times going up is undeniable. Premiums can keep increasing, quality can stay right around mediocre, and all the poor people can stay unhealthy. It won't bother me at all. Forgive me, other young people, and the rest of the world for actually trying to do something about it, instead of making excuses for why it is so messed up.

Hospitals have to meet quality standards to get full reimbursement from the government. That is the incentive to provide quality care. Agreeing on the standardized prices is going to be the hardest part. It's a radical idea to shake up the market like that, a bunch of you old farts can't even wrap your head around it. My opinion is it will do something to curb the out-of-control healthcare costs. Clearly everyone disagrees, and clearly I don't give a !@#$.

Thanks babe.

Jesus, posts like this are a joke. Where has anyone lately said the government should intervene on anything besides healthcare? Healthcare is out of control right now. It's the one thing where the government steps in and costs go down. Taxes and waiting times go up. Is it perfect? No, but it's better than what we are doing right now. Even the orange one himself Trump has said everyone in America should have good health care. He actually made it a campaign promise. That's the problem, no one makes private companies do it. If they did, we would deal with less profit. We need garbage men too rich, I won't judge. You never answered what you do for work.

The joke I was referring to was made earlier by Tasker, where he said people who can't afford a BMW go down the street to buy a jeep. Unrelated I guess. I stand corrected.

Haha we send them to the public one down the road. It's a job, how do you put food on the table for your family?

The demand for equipment and medicines isn't going anywhere, and the supply of those things will be fine. The demand for care will increase waiting times like Ive said before. And yes supply will drop a little bit. If we don't do something premiums will continue to go up and profits will keep soaring because people think what we are doing now is fine. We are the only major advanced nation in the world, who hasn't gone to some form of universal healthcare. Longer waiting times for the poor and average citizens is a downside that a lot of people are willing to take. Rich people can still get private insurance and get in quickly at swanky private facilities. It doesn't bother me if we don't do something to fix it, like I said before, I will be fine. The fire is already blazing right now, gasoline is being thrown on it day by day. Single payer could alleviate a lot of the out of control costs, no matter what you say.

Boo hoo. Companies who make millions of dollars will have to comply and deal with having lower profits. I can't !@#$ing stand how Republicans side with big corporations over the people. Taxes go up and people make less profit off of healthcare. Cry me a river.

So much ignorance around here it's scary. Remember what I was saying the other day about the average IQ in America. I work for a private hospital and have never had an entitlement in my life. You guys need to step it up.

How has supply and demand worked to lower costs over time in healthcare guys? You guys don't want to acknowledge that healthcare costs have been rising for decades and I have a solution. Whether you like it or not. Single payer and the regulated prices that go along with it will help.

Everyone knows I didn't come on here attacking people. I'm all too happy to push back though. Tasker you still don't get it, and that's okay. Supply and demand does not apply to government run healthcare. Do you !@#$ing understand that? How has your market based model worked so far? Really driving the costs down across the board, am I right? Forget about the ACA, it's a pile of trash. Before that, prices and premiums were going through the roof. That is the main reason Obama tried something like the affordable care act. In regards to the poor, do you think people scraping pennies from week to week can afford to go to regular check ups at the doctor and dentist? Hell no. Without helping them, they get old, fat and disease riddled. And then we have to pay for their care when they go to the ER anyways.

I understand your joke, even though surgeries in other countries aren't subpar like you're claiming. I'm more of an Audi guy myself.

I just don't understand why it is so hard for some people to grasp this idea. Increased compliance costs? The government will set prices for everything, prescriptions, equipment and procedures. Hospitals will then be reimbursed for those set prices. In addition to that, they will get less reimbursement back if they don't meet certain quality standards. I understand you might think that will increase compliance costs, but currently reimbursement is a cluster !@#$. There are hundreds of people in finance departments hounding down reimbursements from over 100 different payers (insurance companies). It is a major headache for all hospitals. Big pharma, medical equipment companies, insurance companies, doctors, surgeons, hospitals and everyone associated with healthcare, control what they can charge to maximize their profits. The government finally started cracking down on what hospitals can charge in relation to getting reimbursed from the government, and they have to meet certain quality standards to get full reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid. That is only a small part of the issue. Remember when Mylan jacked the price of an EpiPen up hundreds of dollars for each one? But the same product was being sold in Canada and Europe for less than $50 each? That is just a small example of the robbery that is going on in this country. The executives of these companies make millions a year, and give themselves millions in bonuses. They set the prices, and the rest of the world has realized that isn't fair or sustainable. Regulations that squeeze out small businesses are not cool in my book. But regulating and standardizing the prices and costs in healthcare is the only way to get prices down.

I love this. It seemed so petty to me how Rex would have new captains every week, often times to take a jab at their old teams. Micah Hyde already establishing himself as a leader is huge imo. That has to have an improvement on the communication and secondary.

I'm intrigued by him too, hopefully he shows improvement at TE this year.

Collapsing? So prescription and medical companies will stop selling their goods? Hospitals will stop paying their employees? I love how people think some social ideas are so extreme, but then over exaggerate to the point it is laughable. If people could pay 5% or 10% more in taxes, but never had to make an insurance premium payment again for them or their families, would it be worth it?

If a 29 year old, who just got interested in politics and real issues, knew more about them than all of you old internet mainstays, I would feel way worse for you than I already do.

Having one insurance provider, the government,where the costs and prices are regulated, will not decrease access when even the poorest people can afford to go to a doctor or clinic to get basic care. Maybe if the poorest and unhealhiest people had actually gone to the doctor regularly, starting when they were a kid, they wouldn't be so fat and unhealthy now. Do you think it's a coincidence the poorest and dumbest people are the fattest and most unhealthy? Spare me the lecture on supply and demand. I'm claiming single payer will happen, and it will regulate costs and bring them down. Hopefully, you aren't too fat and old to see it happen, it should be in the next 20 years.

The point is, even conservatives are coming around to the idea. I'm honestly starting to take it as a compliment that I think differently than a lot of the people on this site.

A mandate means people have to do something. Universal care is something that's offered, not required, but you knew that. Doctors at the time when the constitution was written were fingering girls to completion to treat real medical issues. People died from minor infections and there weren't any real medicines invented yet. Maybe they didn't look at healthcare like we do today? Taxes buddy, our taxes should cover healthcare and education in this country. Not wars and rebuilding the countries we just destroyed. The health insurance companies can disintegrate into thin air for all I care. They are a big factor why healthcare is so ridiculous in this country. Here's a hint, maybe we should actually let some of these millionaire executives lose their companies. People will need to find new jobs but that happens every day in America. Education and healthcare are my two biggest gripes in this country. We could do a lot better in those areas, and they aren't going to fix themselves on their own. Call me a socialist all you want, I don't give a rats ass.

Haha okay. Krauthammer is a conservative who I respect greatly. A lot more than anyone on here to say the least. He said the US might be ready for government run care, and don't rule out Trump being smart enough to realize repealing Obamacare and implementing single payer could be a big win for him.

How is this article? Good enough for you? http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/krauthammer-us-may-be-ready-for-government-run-universal-healthcare/article/2618997 Do you think because there's universal healthcare, citizens can't go to other countries to get it, if that's what they want? I brought up medical tourism because it illustrates the fact that some Americans realize our healthcare is BS, so they go elsewhere to get cheaper, comparable care.

The Krauthammer said don't rule out Trump being smart enough to realize that repealing Obamacare and implementing single payer could potentially be a big win for him. I'm not a fan of some of the stuff on Fox, but Krauthammer is the man! http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/krauthammer-us-may-be-ready-for-government-run-universal-healthcare/article/2618997

Come on man is that all you have? Read the article. We spend more than anyone, and aren't even close to being in the top when it comes to efficiency and quality. 50,000-90,000 people die in the US from human-error medical mistakes each year. Feel better about our system now? Google medical tourism to see how popular it is. People literally travel to other countries to get cheaper surgeries that are just as satisfactory. But to answer your question no, I get hooked up at the hospital I work at. I love this country and buy American whenever I can.