• boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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    2 days ago

    Medicare sets its own prices, at least in the specialties I’ve interfaced with. Doesn’t matter who the provider is. The whole thing saves money because there’s no more need for 3 separate national healthcare systems (Medicare, Medicaid, VA) and a ton of bureaucracy can be reduced, especially on the eligibility check front. Whether or not medicare pricing is profitable for the entities providing healthcare or not is their problem, not Medicare’s, but they’ll get to lay off a bunch of billing employees themselves, because there’s so much work with prior auths, benefit verification, etc that’s no longer necessary, so they should be able to reduce their own costs too (which they’ll kinda have to if they can only ever charge medicare rates and not private rates).

    Right now, the US federal government spends more on health care as a % of GDP than many nations with single-payer healthcare. And then you add people’s out of pocket spending, private insurance premiums, etc to it… It’s ridiculous. Oh and I forgot state gov spending! They spend some money on Medicaid. Medicare for all isn’t the absolute most perfect possible solution, sure, but it’s going to save a ton of money.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      there’s no more need for 3 separate national healthcare systems (Medicare, Medicaid, VA)

      We don’t need doctors and nurses as long as we have claim approvers!

      You gonna tell us how we don’t need the USPS because we have FedEx and UPS next?

      Why the fuck can’t you see a better solution would be nationalizing the rest of the healthcare providers rather than privatizing the single largest healthcare provider in the country?

      Why is everyone set on maintaining a for profit healthcare system?

      Seriously, why do you think for profit healthcare is a good idea?

      Or do you not know what that actually means like the last account didn’t know what privatization means?

      • boonhet@sopuli.xyz
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        21 hours ago

        We don’t need doctors and nurses as long as we have claim approvers!

        But that would actually allow to reduce the amount of claim approvers.

        Why the fuck can’t you see a better solution would be nationalizing the rest of the healthcare providers

        It’s a better solution, but much harder to achieve, particularly in such a large country. How do you forcibly nationalize hundreds of thousands of healthcare providers at once? Keep in mind, most of them aren’t Kaiser Permanente sized. Tons of businesses are one or two doctors, their nurses and front desk, if they even have a front desk employee.

        Medicare for all could easily be a start, it does not preclude building a bigger nationally-owned network of providers.

        Imagine this: All the VA hospitals remain government owned exactly as they are now, but everyone gets access to them, not just veterans. But since there aren’t enough for everyone, you can alternatively go to a private provider if they’ve signed a medicare contract, and to you the cost is the same - and to the government, the cost is decided by a regulatory body, NOT the private healthcare provider. If the private provider doesn’t agree to that pricing, they lose access to the medicare network and get fewer patients. Some doctors at the top of their specialty will refuse, because people will be willing to pay extra to see them, but most providers would prefer having the ability to treat literally everyone without having to worry about billing issues.

        The government can then build more nationalized hospitals, particularly in areas where there aren’t enough private providers that choose to partner up with medicare.

        Even most (all?) countries that have nationalized healthcare, allow for private providers, and many allow private providers to provide services to the national health insurance system if they agree to the terms. Medicare for all could be a stepping stone towards a similar system, where the share of nationalized providers can grow over time.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          21 hours ago

          , particularly in such a large country

          That’s almost 100 year old propaganda…

          Nationalization is easier the larger a country is, not harder.

          How do you forcibly nationalize hundreds of thousands of healthcare providers at once?

          The same way the federal does anything, slowly and step by step. I also think you’re saying “provider” like employee and not corporation.

          Like, all the employees already work for a provider, you don’t bring them over one by one, you bring the entire organization over. They still work at the same place, with the same people and the same equipment.

          There’s just noote ceo or board eating up profits.

          I didn’t read your whole comment tho, because anything you’ve built off that misunderstanding, is useless.