Discuss: US Healthcare...Medicare for all? ACA? Private? Insurance & Politics

In the United States, there are many things one must consider of when it comes to healthcare insurance and using it.

For example, an individual needs to have health insurance (in most cases); ensure the doctor/provider is in-network (or take the hit for out-of-network); estimate out-of-pocket expenses; and if the insurance is through a job, be cautious about any changes in employment or gaps in coverage.

The complexity, the high cost associated with being sick/injured, and the fact that 27 million people go without health insurance have caused some Democratic hopefuls for 2020 to support universal coverage... "Medicare for all".

The idea of universal public healthcare goes back to before the first World War, according to Howard Markel, professor of the history of medicine at the University of Michigan. After the second World War, fears of communism did away with the project, leaving instead a system founded on employer-provided health insurance. 

Today, government health insurance covers about 112 million Americans (approx. 1/3 of the population) and approximately 157 million Americans get insurance through employment (approximately 1/2 of the country). The rest are either not insured or have bought their own private insurance plans.

"A lot of people are satisfied until they get sick," said Tricia Neuman, senior vice president and director of the program on Medicare policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Problems typically include surprise medical bills, accidentally going out of network without realizing it, rising deductible and copays and out of pocket expenses.

Former president Barack Obama's health care reform law, which passed in 2010, did not fully bridge the gap that exists in healthcare and healthcare costs have continued to climb faster than the US economy 
can keep up. The United States spends 18 percent of its gross domestic product on health, compared to 11 percent on average in other wealthy nations. Additionally, Republican-led efforts to replace the Affordable Care Act have been met with difficulties, as it is quite a challenge to cover everyone, while lowering prices, and sticking to a private health insurance system.

The main advantage of a single-payer system would be that Medicare could negotiate lower rates than those typically agreed between insurers and hospitals, according to economist Colleen Carey, assistant professor of public  policy at Cornell University.

Bernie Sanders proposed a "Medicare for all" platform during the 2016 election, and since then the climate in America has changed to many supporting the idea, including Americans on both sides of the political aisle. More and more say they are open to expanding it to people beginning at age 50 (77 percent, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll), or even to all  (56 percent). But that support begins to fade at the prospect of raising taxes to finance universal coverage. Not to mention the resistance mounted by powerful pharmaceutical companies and health care lobbying groups, which wield considerable influence in Congress.

Even if a Democrat is elected to the White House in 2020, a major health care revolution is anything but certain and an uphill battle.

What do you think of the current healthcare system in the United States? The politics ongoing with the healthcare of millions of Americans at the center?

Do you support a move to universal coverage... "Medicare For All"?

This is a discussion to exchange and share different viewpoints and opinions on the current trends and politics of healthcare in the United States and all discussion shall remain amicable.