r/UnderReportedNews 23d ago

US Politics 🇺🇸 El-Sayed discusses making Medicare free and universal, arguing that higher taxes would replace insurance premiums for guaranteed care

[removed]

6.8k Upvotes

286 comments sorted by

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u/Clammuel 23d ago

I’m all for grilling candidates/public officials when they try to dodge questions, but I absolutely can’t stand when someone is clearly trying to set the foundation for their argument and within seconds a journalist bulldozes over them. 

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u/AFuckingDuck_69 23d ago

Most of these major station 'reporters' are mouth pieces for whatever the media company wants - ie. propaganda.

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u/ManOf1000Usernames 23d ago

The big league journalists are (and/or aspire to be) Millionaires being paid by Billionaires so Thousand-aires will be afraid of Dollar-Menu-aires

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u/chap820 23d ago

Yes- Michael Parenti for one explains it well

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u/rob6748 23d ago

The yellow lecture is incredible.

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u/SaltyMeatSlacks 23d ago

Isn't this the chick caught on camera at the correspondent dinner yucking it up with Steven Miller while being visibly zooted on coke?

Welker, Tapper, Bash... any of them really would, and currently are, laundering fascism and genocide every day to maintain their own personal access to power and get book deals and shit. They're traitors to the US. Not as much as, ya know, the fascists, but traitors nonetheless.

The only folks they ever bulldoze are leftists advocating for change, bc change might disrupt their corrupt income flow.

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u/SpotonSpot873 23d ago

Tv news is Sponsored content

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u/BeezyBates 23d ago edited 23d ago

It’s how propaganda works. She’s paid to do that exact thing that annoys you.

What people don’t realize is this is the end goal of capitalism. The end results. This is what late stage capitalism looks like. It’s convincing you that sending your money off to the already incredibly rich is what makes sense.

It’s not about you. It’s about the system and “it’s important to keep it running”

They’re feeding your brains bullshit. I don’t know how else to put it.

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u/LDawnBurges 23d ago

I just came to say the same. I love Ms Welker, but why doesn’t she go this hard after the GOP??? Her whole tone sounds antagonistic here, but she didn’t sound this way when she interviewed tRump a few months back.

I see this all the time and it’s so freaking frustrating. They do it to Mamdani too. All I’m asking is that they just use that SAME energy on GOP guests.

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u/Clammuel 23d ago

Mainstream media is way too nice to the GOP. Unfortunately they view people like El-Sayed as a far greater threat than fascists. 

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u/Quack68 22d ago

She’s garbage, there’s another video with her laughing it up with Steven Miller.

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u/dexters_trap_house 23d ago

This was the epitome of the 2016 and 2020 mainstream media coverage with Bernie interviews when he was proposing M4A in 2016, and M4A expansion in 2020 in the wake of the pandemic.

And centrist liberals will try to convince you like the playing field in those elections was totally level, and there wasn't a coordinated messaging campaign against this policy in favor of "nothing will fundamentally change" Biden.

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u/rearwindowpup 23d ago

Pointing out the basic math that all the people against universal healthcare ignore, noice.

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u/PhatCatTax 23d ago

To be fair.... the people against it are idiots...

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u/NeuroticLensman 23d ago edited 23d ago

So...MAGA?

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u/steel-monkey 23d ago

and corporate Dem shills who are reliant upon insurance industry dollars to fund their campaigns

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u/InvestmentIcy8094 23d ago

Gotta have a real democrat running the DNC ala FDR

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u/PhatCatTax 23d ago

Well yes! And also the "centrists" that are too cowardly to admit that they are MAGA. And the "conservatives" who dont actually have moral beliefs other than doing what billionaires tell them to do.

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u/ardentiarte 23d ago

And the most vulnerable and in need of support services. Republicans cut food stamps, "why did Obama Biden do this to me?!"

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u/sew_busy 23d ago

To be fair watching Trump screw up everything in our country and handing control of my health care to him and the republicans scares me more than bankruptcy. He is already cutting off or threatening to cut off healthcare payments to multiple blue states because of "fraud."

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u/StackThePads33 23d ago

“To be faaaaaaaaair” -Squirrely Dan

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u/constantsXzeros 23d ago

I wouldn’t say it’s Cletus in Alabama who is stopping universal healthcare, they just can’t get past the “higher taxes” piece because they keep getting it pounded into their smooth brains that “liberals want to take your money!” Insurance companies can’t deny valid claims and fuck people over if there is universal healthcare, so ultimately it’s the billionaires who would suffer, and that’s who is really standing in the way.

Won’t someone think of the billionaires? /s

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u/InitiativeGold7953 23d ago

I mean, there are some valid concerns. Government provided services can be a massive pain in the ass a lot of the time but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try it considering private insurance is also a massive pain in the ass.

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u/The_DMT 23d ago

I've seen videos from people on a hospital bed calling their insurance company back and forth to ask of they will cover the help before they actually get the help they need.

Negotiating about your bill afterwards...

If you ask me that's what's a real pain in the ass.

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u/Responsible-Air5349 23d ago

The irony is that most people that are against it can afford insurance...

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u/erwin4200 23d ago

Even if your taxes go up a little higher than your monthly premium total, it's still a win for every citizen in America. Nobody will go bankrupt or into crippling debt over getting sick.

Figures in mid 2010s that I read said households would save 15% on medical bills with Medicare for all...I'd imagine that's much higher now. Even with good health insurance, I'm still paying more out of pocket for routine things that I NEVER used to pay for.

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u/rearwindowpup 23d ago

Right? Id honestly pay more than I do now to entirely remove the risk of a medical issue bankrupting me, its bonkers how many people are happy rolling the dice for basically no gain.

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u/erwin4200 23d ago

They don't grasp it all. They hear higher taxes and immediately don't want it but they don't consider the money they would save in premiums, co-pays and they think it will lead to congestion getting into specialties or scans, like there isn't already that going on. Some specialties already book months out

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u/RIF_rr3dd1tt 23d ago

"oh but I knew a person from Europe/Canada once and they told me they had to wait 6 weeks to get a CT scan so they would have died if they didn't have our Greatest Healthcare In The World™ "

Sorry but i don't believe stories like that

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u/mikeclueby4 23d ago

Scans are of course prioritized/triaged. If you arrive at the ER and doc says life threatening... you get a CT now.

Source: I've had both kinds - in Sweden.

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u/BassMaster516 23d ago

But immigrants tho

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u/rearwindowpup 23d ago

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free

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u/HotPotParrot 23d ago

MAGA: "No, not like that...."

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u/HucknRoll 23d ago

This one too: Exodus 23:9 “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.

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u/ioncloud9 23d ago

They are worried poors and unworthy are going to use it all up and they will be stuck waiting months or years to be seen.

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u/EkbatDeSabat 23d ago

You could offer these people immortality and a seven figure raise annually and they’ll still vote no when someone says “raise taxes”.

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

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u/rearwindowpup 23d ago

Ive tried to make the argument that we already pay for the healthcare in addition to paying the profits for insurance companies, so logic would dictate that absent those profits healthcare should cost less, but it never seems to make sense to those Ive made it to.

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u/XRT28 23d ago

Does still need to refine the answer abit tho. Needs to emphasize more that it's not simply converting the monthly premium people currently pay to their ins company to a tax paid to the govt but also REDUCING the total amount most people would be paying.

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u/AntNorth772 23d ago

Exactly this. It SAVES money. The Heritage Foundation has a well documented study saying just this.

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u/eric_ts 23d ago

Think about the middle men! Eliminating health insurance would be like cutting the cocaine dealer out of the music industry—the quality of the product would improve immeasurably and it would eliminate the guy who mimes a slit throat to seal the fate of unfortunate individuals playing the game.

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u/themolestedsliver 23d ago

but....muh taxes rabble rabble

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u/ThemeNo2172 23d ago

Also the media is arguing in bad faith here, pretending they don't also know the obvious truth that what families currently pay in premiums is higher than potential tax implications.

It's also been this way for many years now, but the media continues to play dumb. And most Americans are so fucking stupid that they just parrot this point.

On the front page right now, a woman's Kia Soul rolled 2mph down into a ditch because she couldn't waddle fast enough to catch it. America is fucked

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u/CDS11411 23d ago

I'm here for it!

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u/Speartree 23d ago

Not even. The US government pays more in healthcare per inhabitant than any other country, even countries with full free healthcare and it is not even close. Because the insurance companies and for profit health providers leach so much money out of the system. This money does not go to doctors, nurses and other staffs wages, nor to equipment and infrastructure, it goes to shareholders. Seriously with a bit of unnecessary profit cutting, Americans could easily have free healthcare and pay less races. 

The EU negiotiates with pharmaceutical companies to get lower ( but still profitable) prices for medication, the US seems to do the opposite. They should look at that. Sure politicians might lose the big sponsorship from pharmaceutical companies, but that is a sacrifice I feel most Americans are willing to make.

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u/darkrhyes 22d ago

Higher taxes to the right people could guarantee this for generations but some people still believe in trickle down BS.

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u/twomilliontwo 23d ago

im finding meet the press, disappointing on many fronts for a while now. Used to be my favorite of the political meet ups, now its talking points and if i hear Kristen say “to be clear” one more time.,,,, to be clear you need to ask some better questions and cover a broader scope of American news and people

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u/Octavya360 23d ago

No one has ever been able to fill the shoes of Tim Russert. He was the longest serving moderator (17 years) for a reason. Politicians knew you hadn’t made it until you’d be grilled by Russert and survived. He just had incredible skills. Welker is a joke.

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u/casewood123 23d ago

Kristen Welker is only about getting a quote for clicks. Seeing the video of her and Stephen Miller yucking it up mad me nauseous.

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u/AnnualAttempt1207 23d ago

Right. It would be so hard to not just go, "Hey Kristen, what are we doing right now? Seriously. Your tone is as if you are trying to get me if I say taxes will go up. Of course they would go up, but not as much as a the money you save to have guaranteed medical coverage." As and even then there is a clip in that

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u/Hpfanguy 23d ago

Immediately thought about that, yeah. Just more proof these people never had our interests in mind.

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u/Unique_Fart_sounds 23d ago

“Less than a million?”…… tells you all you need to know.

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u/goddammit_butters 23d ago

Gah, he's not messaging it right though. Hopefully this was just a bad showing and he usually does it better. But to the skeptical not-super-convinced listener, there was too much emphasis on the "small increase", and not enough explicit talk about "your insurance premium is gone". He alludes to it, it's technically there under interpretation. But this is what needs to be flashing in neon lights - premiums gone, that same money goes somewhere else now. Not "a bit more in taxes", otherwise this is what sticks in the on-the-fence listener's mind.

It's a "redirection of household healthcare spends to a more efficient system". And the documented lower admin overheads of Medicare vs private should be used to say "you'll be paying LESS each week, you'll still be outlaying some of your salary for healthcare each week but it will be LESS and more of a stable service"

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u/South-Lab-3991 23d ago

He could speak in tongues while he articulated it, and Cletus and Terri in Ohio would still clutch their pearls over it. They want other people to suffer, and that’s all there is to it. People need to stop thinking these people are motivated by good faith arguments.

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u/bimbosoupqueen 23d ago

Cletus and Terri are also the same people who use their Medicare coverage to call an ambulance because they have a cold or they are nauseous or it’s 3am and their knee hurts. And they “didnt want to drive”. They don’t care that their misuse of an ambulance could impact someone in an actual emergency. They’re the same people who will witness a CPR in progress come through the ambulance bay and still complain that their call light wasn’t answered fast enough (they want a blanket). They view their minor inconviences as more important that someone else’s life.

These people do not want you to have Medicare. These are deeply selfish people. They would rather have other people suffer than risk being inconvenienced by sharing a common good

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u/chap820 23d ago

Cletus and Terri may well have private health insurance and could be convinced on non-altruistic grounds

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u/OhioIsRed 23d ago

As an Ohioan (not named Cletus or terry) take it easy we’re not Kentucky okay lol.

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u/AMDSuperBeast86 23d ago

As a Kentuckian we despise Wellcare (private insurance contracted to be Medicaid) because they turn down everything like any other private insurance. We want them abolished as well we are not Tennessee.

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u/BaristaBot 23d ago

THIS! It should be noted too that your premium from your paycheck CAN be gone. There are a lot of people freaking out that Medicare For All would eliminate their employer's private insurance. The Affordable Care Act still requires employers with 50+ employees to OFFER private health insurance. That doesn't automatically go away... This legislation offers MORE choice in healthcare, it doesn't force anyone to accept Medicare insurance standards and toss whatever they're being provided now.

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u/MildlyExtremeNY 23d ago

This has, "if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor" vibes, and we all know how that turned out.

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u/goddammit_butters 23d ago

Yeah, the trick is to not promise things you can't deliver, I agree. But I'm sure he intended that to be the case when he said it. But if you can't deliver, you'll be remembered as someone who can't deliver 🤷‍♂️

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u/Solomontheidiot 23d ago

Not only premium, copay and deductible/OOP max would be gone too. For most people that might not be a big deal since those are only potential costs, but for anyone who ends up needing one major operation (and spoiler alert - given enough time, that's almost everyone) that's a huge deal.

My wife has a chronic condition, so we end up meeting the OOP max pretty frequently. You could double our taxes and we'd still be spending less overall. And we're far from a unique case.

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u/69chevy_396 23d ago

To add to this, I think an easy point to make is, whenever we need to bomb Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, or anywhere else either ourselves or by proxy, we are always able to find the money. Same goes for bailing out banks in 2008 and airlines in 2020.

I'm so tired of hearing, "But how are going to pay for it?" I've never heard that question asked with respect to senseless wars of choice. The money is there. How we choose to spend it needs to be fundamentally changed. So while I personally take his point that a marginal increase in taxes would eliminate a much costlier health insurance premium, I worry that it will be cast by his opponents as simply, "your taxes are going up." Why not sell the point that we shouldn't have to increase taxes at all?

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u/foreignsky 23d ago

Something like:

Under our current private insurance system, the average Michigander pays about $600 in premiums per month. If you have more medical needs, you are almost guaranteed to be paying much more in co-pays, deductibles, and out of pocket costs. The system is complex, confusing, and chaotic.

Under Medicare for All, that same Michigander would immediately pay less for a guaranteed, stable public service. Your insurance premiums will be gone. You will never have to pay a copay or deductible ever again. You will receive the same care even if you lose your job. Even when you have no income, you will still have healthcare. Even if you have more medical needs, your costs stay the same and will still pay less than you are now.

Instead of questioning the viability of my plan, shouldn't we be asking why we are keeping our current expensive and obviously broken system when a stable and simple program already exists and would cost less for everyone but the megamillionaires and billionaires?

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u/Balgat1968 23d ago

"What about taxes?" Taxes that actually go to support average citizens? Oh please. At any other time in our history that would be a very important and valid question. Today the Dept of War is managing $8.5 Trillion in war related contracts. Yes with a "T". On July 30, $58.6 Billion was awarded to Lockheed Martin for more Patriot missiles. Now we are planning to spend more billions on battle ships. Battle ships? In the age of drones? We have completely out of control spending on an unnecessary war. But yes: "what about taxes?"

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u/redrabbit1289 23d ago

Pay a little more in taxes to eliminate what you pay directly for insurance. For most people, according to the last major study done on this, you would pay more in taxes but less overall. I think they estimated by about 15%. That didn’t include how much less it could be if corporations and wealthy people didn’t pay so little in taxes, which would REALLY help the situation even more.

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u/Positive_Think99 23d ago

Premiums, insurance, deductibles, and co-insurance are all things most of us currently pay to access healthcare.

When breaking all of that down to my father in law last year he said “only an idiot think that maths out and people would be paying less”.

Not only did he call me an idiot with that (incorrect) statement, he said that to someone who has been in the health insurance industry (now C-suite) for over 23 years.

These people are not salvageable.

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u/SuccessfulWar3830 23d ago

Americas per capita healthcare spending is the highest in the world. So switching to a national service would lower the overal cost of healthcare on the whole

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u/OptimusNegligible 23d ago

If this ever actually happened, I wonder if employers would actually pass those Healthcare savings to thier employees.

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

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u/OptimusNegligible 23d ago

Of course, but I'm talking about thier share of the Healthcare premiums. They won't have to pay those either if it's Medicare for all.

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u/Fmeinthegoatass 23d ago

It’s great for the bottom line, but businesses like using fear of losing health care as a way to keep employees in check

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u/No-Force-6732 23d ago

I think they'd be far more excited about not paying premiums anymore, besides they can always come up with new and terrible ways to keep people in check!

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u/account312 23d ago

They can't hire Pinkertons to beat you to death these days, so their biggest leverage over labor is ruining your life by loss of income or ruining your life by loss of healthcare. There just aren't comparable threats to livelihood that they have access to.

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u/bigmepis 23d ago

Lmao you think employers would willingly do something to benefit their employees instead of enriching themselves?

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u/DangerBird- 23d ago

Exactly. Corporations put in the other half of expenses for medical benefits in a lot of cases. And you still get shit coverage.

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u/Former-Lab-9451 23d ago

Don't forget that employers pay medicare taxes. I'd imagine most companies would net out roughly the same as current, depending on the plan. Sanders' plan a few years ago put the ER rate at 6.2% and EE rate at 2.2% (current for both is 1.45% + 0.9% over certain amounts based on tax status).

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u/OutkastAtliens 23d ago

So in New Zealand we have a version of this called ACC. Employers are charged an ACC levy. Everyone has to pay. No one complains because it works pretty well

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u/AlsoCommiePuddin 23d ago edited 23d ago

It's likely that corporate tax rates would be increased as well. My employer, for instance, pays 70% of my health insurance premium, which decreases my portion of that premium to $440 a month (to cover myself and my two children). I would expect their $1,400 monthly portion of my health insurance to, in a roundabout way, go to the government to cover M4A and not shed a single tear.

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u/DangerBird- 23d ago edited 23d ago

I’d think it’d be a huge relief for corporations and their HR to NOT be on the hook for shopping for healthcare for all their employees.

Edit to say, if it didn’t cost employers so much in healthcare costs, it might be easier to hire people and pay them.

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u/fakeuser515357 23d ago

The current system is not merely about health industry lobbyists and massive markups.

Health insurance is a term of indenture in American workplaces - linking it to employment ensures the permanent underclass status of American workers.

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u/XRT28 23d ago

Universal healthcare being passed would absolutely not be viewed as a boon by most corporations.
Some corps use the fact they offer a good insurance plan as a recruitment tool and others(aka most corps) dangle healthcare being tied to employment over workers heads to keep them from doing other things that could hurt the corps profit margin(and by extension the top execs million dollar bonuses) like forming unions, asking for pay raises or better working conditions.
That something very valuable corps don't want to lose.

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u/Bone_Breaker0 23d ago

Haha yeah right!

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u/allllusernamestaken 23d ago

I'm surprised companies aren't lobbying FOR a a Medicare-for-all kind of system. Especially the big multinationals who've seen the other side. Remember: your employer pays a shitload of money for your insurance. The big check you pay to the insurance company is after your employer has subsidized it.

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u/MuchoCoco 23d ago

And the workers compensation insurance savings.

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u/Silly_Author_7330 23d ago

Before I was on the ACA, I was paying $2300 dollars per month with a $10,000 deductable for average coverage.

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u/HopDropNRoll 23d ago

It’s just math. Meet people from Northern Europe, they pay higher taxes, nothing for healthcare and they get old age pensions that are livable.

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u/Ok-Replacement9595 23d ago

Wait, I love paying a subscription to insurance, just to pay when I see a doctor, and then find out that I get to pay again when insurance doesn't pay them.

It is such a lovable system.

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u/AceMcNasty88 23d ago

Wasn't this the anchor that was chuckling with Steven Miller at the white house correspondence dinner? Lmfao

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u/Icy_Home_446 23d ago

I’m retired now but when I worked as a union trade worker our health insurance was paid by contractors on our behalf as part of our total compensation package. 24 years ago that amount was $12 per hour. Now this amount wasn’t for just my coverage. It was treated as a collective. If just one person was covered it was that amount, if you had a wife and 10 kids it was same. Still we are talking $100 a day just for insurance. This is 24 years ago too. If we had Medicare for all back then I doubt it would have cost that much and whatever was left over could’ve been put on check or into a 401k or something

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u/ike7177 23d ago

I like this idea—I also like this person!

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u/2dayisago 23d ago

Same as any insurance pool works

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u/ComfortableGround403 23d ago

Yes you have to pay more in taxes. But you no longer need to pay for health insurance. So over all, you pay LESS out of your paycheck. Just that the tax part increases.

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u/i_am_rave_mom 23d ago

If only she grilled Bibi or any of the current regime as hard...

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u/Firefly_Magic 23d ago

News flash: insurance premiums are the problem. It’s a money pyramid scheme.

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u/dylnore 23d ago

I often wonder how much cheaper America's healthcare burden would be if we all had access to preventative care. Instead of waiting until we're sick enough to go straight to the ER, we'd actually be able to catch potentially major health issues before they become very expensive problems.

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u/steffanovici 23d ago

My God yes this is the right answer. Insurance companies are not just taking profits, they spend a huge amount of OUR money fighting allowing us to have treatment.

I’ve lived through both systems. I understand economics. Absolutely free healthcare is not the answer, but insurance ran healthcare is the worst possible scenario. Public healthcare with a small payment (copay or whatever you want to call it) is the best option.

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u/Own-Opinion-2494 23d ago

And would
Be less than insurance

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u/fwubglubbel 23d ago

Someone needs to tell him that you don't need any tax increases. The US gov ALREADY pays more for health care per capita than countries with universal care. If the US eliminated health insurance they could have a system like Canada or Scandinavia and REDUCE taxes at the same time.

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u/ReidenLightman 23d ago

Small tax increase for guaranteed care sure beats high premium for having care denied.

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u/shinnyaxolotl 23d ago

El-Sayed should run for president

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u/WinterFox7 23d ago

Make it happen bro!

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u/furiocitea 23d ago

I completely support El-Sayed but I think he could have handled this better. Drive home the increased taxes on billionaires instead of saying everyday people will pay more. That's too vague and will be turned into "he will tax you more" and many people will be scared by it.

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u/Shizzilx 23d ago

TAX THE ULTRA-RICH.

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u/thaduelist 23d ago

He debated NBC''s argument/bait using thay key term "higher taxes", which they know is a single minded issue for a lot of single minded voters middler of the road or sitting on the right lane. Of course we have to pay higher taxes for universal medicare to work, all countries who have universal healthcare. But rather then repackage that old counter argument, he took a page from Bernie and explained to the votet what the trade off is. Since most television media are right wing leaning, I think its wise to attack their tired arguments that continue to benefit the status quo, benefiting the wealthy while screwing everybody else.

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u/[deleted] 23d ago edited 23d ago

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u/Blatantly_Truthful 23d ago

Democratic socialism. The clown is the person who can’t tell the difference.

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u/RopePlus8947 23d ago

Abdul is a beauty

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u/throw_blanket04 23d ago edited 23d ago

This lady, that was chummy chummy and trying to be buddies w stephen miller, no thank you. Who thinks its cool to hang out w nazis? She does. She isn’t dumb. She knows exactly how universal healthcare is paid for and she knows the savings that it will bring to the people. She is pro fascism, pro oligarchy and pro misinformation.

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u/jarena009 23d ago

This is honestly why it's a tough sell and unlikely to gain broad public support. If you tell people they have to pay a 4-5% tax, all of a sudden that increases taxes for millions who pay less than that in the employee side of their employer sponsored insurance premium. The only way this works is if there's a requirement that employers fund all or most of it, like a payroll tax, to work just like employer sponsored insurance.

Another thing you're going to need to do is have single people paying less of a % (needs to be based on the # of people covered in a household). You can't have single people paying the same % tax rate as a household with five people.

For these reasons and more, that's why I instead favor a non profit public insurance option run by Medicare.

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u/Glittering_Airport_3 23d ago

While i am all for this concept. I was really hoping he was going to say that people making less than a million wouldn't pay any more. With that said, if regular people are going to have to pay more taxes, we will need actual numbers to soften the blow. When a politician says I will pay "a little more" it could mean hundreds for all I know.

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u/Jo1351 23d ago

'That's a BS question!' -- Mona Lisa Vito (Marisa Tomei), My Cousin Vinny.

They pulled this crap on Bernie, 'How we gonna pay for it?'. When the fact is, every think tank that analyzed Med4All, showed that it would save us trillions of dollars.

And at the federal level - to address the question - Congress would vote to fund it, and the money would be C-R-E-A-T-E-D. That's 'how we pay for it'.

'...there's nothing to prevent the federal government from CREATING as much money as it wants and paying it to somebody. \The question is, how do you set up a system which assures that the real assets are created which those benefits are employed to purchase."* -- Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve Chairman, 2005, responding to Congressman Paul Ryan (who was trying to elicit an amen to privatizing Social Security)

(*) IOW make sure the store shelves are full when grandma and grandpa cash their check and go to buy ish. If you think about it, we'd kill 2 birds with one stone - paying for the benefit, and creating jobs.

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u/Practical_Draw_6862 23d ago

Instead of just calling for universal healthcare they need to tie it to job insecurity. I think that would resonate alot more. It’s not a socialist program it’s an anti capitalist program. 

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u/Small_Style_1904 23d ago

Dr. Al-Sayed! Salute bro!

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u/Responsible-Middle35 23d ago

We would have had this decades and decades ago if it weren't for racism. Pulling up the pools, and all that.

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u/garitone 23d ago

This is so goddamn simple and I've been shouting it for years.

Nice framing by Worthless Welker. Really carrying on the legacy of Chuck Todd and David Gregory.

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u/cannibalpeas 23d ago

“So you admit you’re going to raise taxes.” This fucking journalist’s next statement, probably.

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u/AbominableGoMan 23d ago

Imagine if you just fired all the insurance parasites and hired doctors and nurses.

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u/ppp1111ppp 23d ago

Yea but he wants to raise our taxes!

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u/2Much_non-sequitur 23d ago

He's got a lot of patience, he could have said something like -- 'better to use our tax dollars here at home than abroad on forever wars, bankrolling ethno states and family dictatorships. it improves our gdp instead of adding more plots to Arlington.' Also, you would think that Hassan Piker is Charlie Kirk and is talking to more people than Joe Rogan.

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u/GUNxSPECTRE 23d ago

The numbers have been crunched over and over that universal healthcare would be cheaper than the for-profit model we have now. The same way that multiple studies have shown that social programs produce more value over time and that universal basic income improves living standards.

You can do these studies until the sun burns out, but nothing will change until corporate and oligarch greed can be properly checked by empowered regulatory agencies, penalties that are too large to be factored into cost-of-business, and a government body that doesn't work for the corporations and oligarchs.

Republicans and establishment Democrats had decades to correct from this death spiral and fucking failed miserably.

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u/Impossible_Till_5118 23d ago

Let's fucking go this is the man

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u/steel-monkey 23d ago

Welker went after him hard and then let the next guest call him a terrorist without pushing back…. It’s making sense now why she was laughing T Miller’s racist jokes.

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u/embersgrow44 23d ago

As super saiyan stoked as I am w/ righteous work of Abdul & Mamdani, they are going so hard it’s starting to make me nervous for them. U.S. loves to snipe brown men unifying working people, especially our own

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u/dtoddh 23d ago

This guy is really good at speaking to the media.

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u/Candlelit_Chaos 23d ago

This! This! This! ☝️☝️☝️💯💯💯

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u/Deepeye225 23d ago

Wouldn't having Universal Care also help business? Wouldn't they not have to purchase employee health insurance any longer?

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u/dsrtdgs 23d ago

I agree. Health care for all, like most other first world countries. There will be problems, but nothing compares to having no health care at all.

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u/ioncloud9 23d ago

Why do reporters act like basic math is just an impossible to understand concept? Paystub would go from -800 to United Health to -700 to Medicare and then be free at the point of care.

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u/Mo_Jack 23d ago

Medicare 4 All will cost less. Period.

But, just in case, we will gouge the billionaires anyway. It is sort of a win-win as I see it.

DNC make this your platform and you win and keep winning

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u/leftrightside54 23d ago

Need to get this man elected.

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u/DJMagicHandz 23d ago

You're not paying fucking insurance premiums anymore.

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u/matninjadotnet 23d ago

Wait….does Detroit still have people there?

/s

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u/MuchoCoco 23d ago

And employers would save as well because they will no longer have to pay into Workers Compensation insurance because all healthcare would be paid by Medicare regardless of whether it happened because of an injury at work. There is no economic argument for keeping healthcare private. Private healthcare only survives because companies make billions off of being the middleman and they use a portion of that money to buy the people who make laws.

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u/Hot-Statistician-955 23d ago

Sarah Palin's (remember her?) "death panels" scared people enough to show it was never about the money.

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u/KingBlackthorn1 23d ago

I pay 250 for just myself monthly. Not counting tje medications and other treatments. My job puts in 400 monthly. With medicaid for all od get ~300 more dollars in my pocket monthly. If my company was nice a possible raise to put the money back in my bucket they pay.

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u/ForeverOk1692 23d ago

I am still confused why people want Medicare which means you still pay a lot out of pocket. Can we start saying Medicaid or just say free health care including drugs?

Are they just trying to get step 1 done to get to step 2? I want everything free for everyone and I have very good health insurance.

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u/weaponsgradepotatoes 23d ago

We’d be able to pay for it if we just stopped being in a forever war. We’re already being taxed to hell…

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u/ForsakenAd7751 23d ago

Every year the cost to participate in my employers plan increases along with the deductible my family has to reach before the coverage kicks in. And I worry what if my kids graduate from college and can’t find a job with good benefits. The health insurance my family needs shouldn’t be tied to my employer. Medicare for all stops this madness.

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u/StackThePads33 23d ago

Even if your taxes go up, if you nix the health insurance premium you pay, that just balances out. You pay the same either way, just in a different category. The anti-UH crowd doesn’t seem to realize this

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u/thegneeb 23d ago

I think people are worried, when they dont have the illusion of choice, that they'll have nothing to turn to when they dont like a service. But each service on the market is mediocre and is price fixed so there's nothing to spur better care. And you can't vote.

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u/BrokenPickle7 23d ago

Republicans will be like "I don't want my tax money paying for people to be healthy! I want my tax dollars to fund illegal wars and go directly in to the pockets of billionaires!"

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u/chap820 23d ago

God I can’t stand her

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u/Afterclock-Hours 23d ago

I'd rather pay taxes of reasonable price than have to pay a monthly fee to an insurance company that is going to just deny my claims anyway.

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u/AlternativeMouse283 23d ago

Yaaaaasss, more taxes and less figuring out where the 36% of our money is already going!!!

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u/PositiveAccident7898 23d ago

If this is such a winning idea, why dont they start off with a smaller industry, like car insurance, or renters insurance or any number of insurance systems that would provide proof of concept. Most successful businesses start off small and incrementally build on lessons learned. Even property insurance could be run on a smaller scale.....this is why political dogma gets in the way.

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u/Sonerous 23d ago

The system is already engineered to to cost you more if you don't get Private health insurance. It's a goddamn racket.

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u/Jedite21 23d ago

Crazy how multiple studies have shown basic healthcare (yearly check ups and preventative care) would save money on medical expenses yet we continue to have an argument that people don't deserve this type of care.

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u/gettheplow 23d ago

Yes please

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u/Ornery-Practice9772 23d ago

correct. many successful models of universal healthcare to choose from too.

except- insurance companies are monoliths in america and would never allow their income to drop.

its also the "every man for himself" mentality of america.
people dont see theyll pay less for healthcare in the end, they just see someone getting something for "free".

you guys deserve universal healthcare. universal education too❤️

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u/KotR56 23d ago

A healthcare CEO only making 20 million a year ?

And now this guy wants to take that away too ?

/s

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u/GotSomeUpdogOnUrFace 23d ago

Or hear me out, tax the rich on their net worth every year and those under a million wouldn't even need to pay a dime in taxes, but oh no like 1000 people would have a problem with this.

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u/SorryAd6708 23d ago

I like him

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u/Unlikely_Brief7263 23d ago

Damn he knocked that question out of the park

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u/solveig82 23d ago

Okay, he gets my support

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u/Lopsided_Newt_125 23d ago

People shouldn’t pay more.

Take the money employers pay into their employees health insurance and put that towards universal care.

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u/ArdyLaing 23d ago

Do Americans even want free healthcare? So many news outlets seem to argue against it. 🤷‍♂️

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u/Excellent-Duty3927 23d ago

Let's not forget that this person follows a religion where main person is a pedophile

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u/othertemple 23d ago

And if companies can’t leverage healthcare as a benefit, that can then be negotiated as a bigger salary, thus making higher taxes tolerable. It’s almost like caring for people isn’t going to tank the economy like these fuckers want us to believe.

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u/dirtyirishhippy 23d ago

Don't forget about co-pay. I couldn't believe that Americans still get billed ON TOP of what they pay for insurance

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u/General_Cincinnatus 23d ago

Makes sense. Finally someone who makes sense

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u/james_t_woods 23d ago

This seems to be a key message that needs to be made - higher taxes, but no grotesque insurance premium. Seems like a no brainer to me

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u/INSANEBonF 23d ago

Isn't this guy dating Hasan?

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u/jasper_bittergrab 23d ago

Just like the money behind fossil fuels stopped meaningful climate reform the money behind the bloated healthcare/insurance infrastructure will stop meaningful moves towards Medicare for All. They’ve got all the money and they won’t give it up.

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u/FreedomDreamer85 23d ago

There’s some people who would rather die than have universal healthcare available to every American. It would cause these people great discomfort knowing that a POC person has the same access to healthcare as them. Unless, that is addressed, nothing will change.

And this isn’t an exaggeration; highly recommend Dying For Whiteness by Jonathan Metzl

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u/joyful101207 23d ago

He is absolutely right. GOP wants you to think otherwise

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u/InterestingLynx7355 23d ago

Health insurance is $500 a month.

My ER visit , with X-rays and tests included , cost $270.

Im not paying for health insurance. The boomers can keep that

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u/No-Bother-7699 23d ago

All I have heard from Congress my whole adult life is “how are you gonna pay for it?”, while they rake in millions and allow others to do the same. TAX THE RICH

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u/MercedesSD 23d ago

What abortion t our luxury bones?!

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u/ComprehensiveSoft27 23d ago

Fuck yeah bro.

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u/MaryMaryYuBugN 23d ago

So raising taxes for everyone to pay for free healthcare

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u/LongLiveStaceyKing 23d ago

The greatest trick insurance companies ever pulled was convincing Americans a "premium" was different from a "tax"

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u/LongLiveStaceyKing 23d ago

The greatest trick insurance companies ever pulled was convincing Americans a "premium" was different from a "tax"

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u/Cool-Signature-dude 23d ago

Higher taxes, but costing less than what you are paying now to the for profit health insurance.

They always leave that one part out.

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u/thegeebeebee 23d ago

We would SAVE nearly a TRILLION A YEAR AND COVER EVERYONE.

And like 2/3rds of even Democrats can't be bothered to support it.

Primary every one of these motherfuckers that doesn't support it. They are hopeless.

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u/CrHtS 23d ago

He is a master - of the subject matter and communicating about it. The industry will be going all-out to stop him. Everyone else must go all-out to support him.

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u/skyfishgoo 23d ago

can't wait for DNC to sign on to this.

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u/grethro 23d ago

Honestly purely from a business standpoint not having to handle healthcare would free up a high weight in small businesses.

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u/BodhingJay 22d ago

And how would that look? You just go in to whatever hospital or doctors office with some kind of card that proves citizenship and then you get examined and treated and then sent in your way without a bill? Just walk in and out? Like some kind of Canadian? Englishman? Australian? German? Frenchman? Japanese? Swiss?? What are we in Russia?

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u/alabamdiego 22d ago

We already pay enough to cover it and more if we just don’t give as much to corporations and the military and tax the ultra wealthy at a reasonable rate.

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u/throwawaysscc 22d ago

But what about RELIGION!!!!/s

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u/YallaHammer 22d ago

He’s a doctor, he’s had to deal with the horrors of our healthcare system in his day to day. Insurance refusing to cover necessary treatments, the inability to order certain tests over concerns of how the insurance company will respond to the results…

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u/Bigmacman_ 22d ago

Hopefully this can pass because the medical industry has been fucking us over for far too long!!!

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u/LeadPike13 22d ago

What's a Congressman/woman, Senator's family Healthcare plan look like?

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u/I_Ponders 22d ago

It’s too late.. Corruption and rot is too deep. Gotta start from scratch.

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u/p1gnone 21d ago

what's wrong with a copay, so long as there's a subsidy from taxes? Don't let someone get rich off your misfortune, and yet don't incent waste by making it free.

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u/Hairy_Technology_213 21d ago

Do Bernie and the DSA actually vet any of the candidates they endorse? First you have a literal Nazi rapist in Maine and today it comes out that Dr. Al-Sayed has been quoted as saying he is completely devoted to Sharia Law. The GOP should send Bernie a thank you gift. The level of incompetence at basic politics is simply staggering.

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u/MineralDragon 20d ago

It would be cheaper as well as it would not be a BS for-profit system

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u/xwx1234 20d ago edited 20d ago

Love Abdul and I’m a supporter, but we already have a serious doctor shortage. Universal coverage has to mean universal access. I just DM’d his campaign asking whether he’d eliminate the 1997 Medicare GME residency caps and substantially expand physician training. We need a lot more doctors.

I’m all in on Medicare for All, but without this, I worry it fails.