Single Payer Week

Single payer, Medicare for all, universal health care, what do these things really mean?
In the upcoming week I will be posting an entry a day to explain the concept and what it means for Americans and business, and I look forward to comments and questions.
Starting off lets break down some of the words above.

Medicare For All

The idea here is that we already have a federal health care system for the elderly. Signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat) in 1965 as an amendment to the Social Security Act (Created by Franklin Roosevelt (D)). He also signed Medicaid into law at the same for the disabled. President Truman was actually issued the first Medicare card as part of the ceremony.

It was created because private health insurance was virtually unavailable to those over 65.  Health insurance companies make their profits by charging the healthy and avoiding paying the sick as much as they can. So if they can exclude people based on preexisting conditions or being to old they will in order to increase profits. The reason this has so much traction is it already exists and has a proven track record of low administration costs and overhead so its more efficient per medical dollar than any other system in the USA. The idea here is instead of creating a new thing we just expand it.

Universal Health Care

This is a less specific idea that seems to have less traction but the goal is the same. Create a new agency or process to provide funding for health care. Possibly funded by SSI, possibly another tax.

Single Payer

Really it all boils down to this. The idea is that instead of paying for insurance through your health insurance and its maze of deductibles, co-pays, and caps you use a government issued medical card and its covered by the government. See posts later in the week for plans on how its paid for.

It is important to note that this is not a take over of private medical care, anymore than Medicare or Medicaid uses government doctors instead of private doctors. It wont even completely abolish medical insurance, though they will have stiff competition and be used to cover specialized care such as elective surgery.