Universal Healthcare is as simple as making medical professionals government employees.

I don't know why we make it so complicated in the US. Any state or the federal government could simply nationalize healthcare and have private healthcare employees become public sector employees.

For Maryland we spend a total of about $24B per year in Health Insurance.

Paying every medical employee $60K per year (with pensioned benefits) would const $18B per year.

Maryland GDP is $364B.

We could pay for Maryland Universal health care including Dental Vision Hearing and everything else with a simple 6% payroll tax.

So everyone making under $62,400 would pay less, than they pay in insurance, and even if you pay more you have ZERO deductible and everything is covered.

 

I think the insurance companies would fight this tooth and nail.

 

And? Lol who cares about them.

 

Pay the same for doctors and nurses? I don't think that would fly.

 

Good luck with that.

 

60k is around middle scale for what you'd pay an RN. Doctors are going to need to make more than that, or why would they become doctors? You can become an RN after a 1-2 year program, at a fraction of the cost of becoming a doctor.

But there is one thing that is right. You don't need these things to be private for-profit companies. If you wanted the government to run something like this well, they would need to budget it correctly. That means paying more for higher skilled workers and not trying to cut corners. Successful companies aren't successful by virtue of being for-profit, they are successful because they pay well enough to get the people they need. And you need good people not just to get the work done, but to create the right work culture. Get the right people and run it as a business. Not needing to maximize profits for your owners means you can offer cost savings to the people instead. Private companies manage to have skilled workers making good money AND still make a pretty big profit.

 

Would you take lower but decent pay for a guarantee pension after 25 years on the job? Also 60K is the average so someone would make more and others less.

Hours would also improve no more 2-3 day long shifts.

Agree, the 60K was the average pay I found so some would make more and some less, I was hoping that a guarenteed pension after 25 years and better working hours would insentive people to work for the government even if they make a little less. Also no more administrative bullshit that they deal with now.

 

Who, in his right/her mind, would invest 10 yrs and half a million dollars to study to be a doctor to earn average income and never be able to pay off the student loan?

Medical doctor is a highly respected and highly paid profession for a good reason.

 

We have that already, its called the VA.
Single payer is the way for privite citizens, otherwise they will cry socialism or communism, and we simply won't get anywhere.

Single payer is neither socialism or communism. It's an entity that provides the standards of coverage, that allows the individual to purchase optional insurance to cover other optional or nessessary procedures that arnt covered with standard or emergency care provided by the masses paying into the single payer system.

No other system will be financially viable, or would align with our capitalistic goals. Having the government be in charge of doctors causes massive paranoia.

 

You think VA pays doctors $60K?

"Average US Department of Veterans Affairs Primary Care Physician yearly pay in Florida is approximately $187,254"
https://www.indeed.com/cmp/US-Department-of-Veterans-Affairs/salaries/Primary-Care-Physician/Florida

And that's Primary Care. Others make more.

 

Heh, no I didn't get hung up on the amount they get paid, I was talking about the socially accepted system that's in place.

 

Its not writing a hypothetica bill that does this, that's the hard part. Every progressive legislator has one in his or her pocket which was on a campaign website, that they ran on. The snafus come later.

 

Universal healthcare isn't about how healthcare workers are employed, it is about how healthcare is available to patients. You don't need to have all healthcare workers employed by the state to have universal healthcare and nationalising all healthcare workers doesn't make the system universal.

While staff pay is a major component of the costs, it is far from the only one, especially in healthcare. The obvious question with your plan is; Where would they work? You talk about nationalising the people but not the facilities. You also don't seem to be considering a major element of a healthcare system (especially a nationalised/universal one), which is the administration side. Managing one patient is easy, managing 300 million patients exponentially more effort.

Ironically, I think you focused on what would likely be the least difficult aspect of improving the US healthcare system with the direct clinical and medial staff. As others have mentioned, the real blockers to change are the insurance companies (and the politicians they give money to).

 

I'm not against the concept, but nobody is going to go through that college + med school for 60K a year

 

If your plan ever happened, we would have a lot of unqualified/lazy/insecure people throughout the medical field. And when you called for an appointment, you would be scheduled 12 months down the road. Talk about long lines!!! It may not be perfect, but the best system is competent training, a weeding out of the inferior, a free market and competition..

 

The US is the last country in the West without universal health care.

The last one.

Germany, France, Norway, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Sweden....

In Canada, for example, the average salary of a doctor is about 190 000$/year.

You are Canadian and you are injured in a car accident, you can stay in hospital for 3 months without it costing you a penny.

This is an advanced country.

 

As I said, not against the concept. Do you think what works with the small population of canada would work with the huge population of the USA?

 

This is a concept that is considered to be communism by many Conservatives.

Do you think you can convince some of them?

The US is a richer country than most nations that already have universal health care.

 

Oh yes, this sounds just like when Hugo Chavez said we simply need to nationalize our oil industry. Simple indeed (sarcasm).

 

Then we can all have the same wonderful healthcare the USG provides for our veterans at VA hospitals!

"Meantime, Phoenix VA reels from another inspector general report saying employees remain confused and in conflict over scheduling policies despite more than two years of retraining and reform efforts.

Gibson, the No. 2 in command at VA headquarters, pays his second visit to the Phoenix hospital in a month. He vows to return biweekly until the place is fixed, noting, "This place is under siege.”

Evidence is in the latest OIG report: 38,000 Arizona veterans are backlogged for specialty consults, and 215 died awaiting appointments in the past several years.

It is 917 days since the VA crisis erupted."
THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC, Seven VA hospitals, one enduring mystery: What's really happening?, TWO AND A HALF YEARS AFTER THE VA SCANDAL, THE REPORTER WHO BROKE THE STORY CRISSCROSSES THE COUNTRY ON A QUEST TO FIGURE OUT IF CARE FOR AMERICA'S VETERANS HAS GOTTEN BETTER., By Dennis Wagner, Oct. 23, 2016.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/new...erans-health-care-quest-for-answers/90337096/

 

I don't know enough about the system to preach it to other people. I just know I've heard things. I have a friend who had to go to an emergency room in canada and they only charged him 30 bucks. I've heard some other stories as well. That doesn't make me an expert though. way more research needed for me to jump on the universal healthcare bandwagon

 

We could have an option for younger and healthier citizens which would include emergency service for all, while older and those with health issues could opt for private service. Healthy people under 60 simply do not need many services other than annual exams, and they can be scheduled months un advance.

 

When I was a pre-teen and became sick my mother would take me to the family doctor's office where he would treat me and charge $3. Then insurance companies and the government got involved. Now look at what we have.

 

Worst idea ever.

 

It's considered SOCIALISM by many conservatives and libertarians because nationalizing our HI and HC industries fits the definition of Socialism.

That's why "progressives" (socialists) love it.....but they're "not socialists" and no one knows the definition of socialism but them.

socialism
noun
so·cial·ism ˈsō-shə-ˌli-zəm

1 : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a: a system of society or group living in which there is no private property

b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism