It’s time for a #MedicareForAll thread! We have an atrocious system that is far and away the most expensive in the world with some of the worst outcomes, middle of the road wait times. We can do better. #kssen #ksleg #M4A 1/
Current #healthcare:
1.Burdens businesses
2. Too expensive and economically wasteful
3. Has worse outcomes than other nations
4. Limits individual Freedoms
#M4A #kssen
2/
1.Burdens businesses
2. Too expensive and economically wasteful
3. Has worse outcomes than other nations
4. Limits individual Freedoms
#M4A #kssen
2/
#healthcare expenditures are a drag on business. Healthcare costs have outpaced the growth of the economy & businesses pay more. Reducing our healthcare expenditures & ending employer-provided plans will allow American businesses to be more competitive internationally. 3/
Employer-provided health plans benefit corporations with larger employee pools and thus better rates. We get the best rates when we have the largest pool of insured--the population of the United States! 4/
According to the OECD of 35 developed peer countries we have the most expensive care by far. The average total per capital spending is $4,003, while for the US it is $9,892 (2016) 5/ 
Why is US healthcare so expensive? Main factors: insurers and providers spend immense $$ on administrative costs just to bill, collect, and negotiate prices with multiple payers. Immense administrative costs and profit payouts + lack of negotiated pharmaceutical prices. 6/
The administrative costs average 80k-100k PER PROVIDER. This is billing, collections, & dealing with insurance. CEOs have testified in congress this is arbitrary--they save money by rejecting claims they haven't even reviewed. 7/
Insurance co.s spend 15-20% on admin (after 20% cap was instituted by the ACA). UnitedHealth Group alone paid out $17Billion in profits in 2018. Healthcare lobbies spent $567million in 2018 (opensecrets.org) and spend $30billion a year on marketing(Reuters Jan 2019) 8/
The savings alone from cutting out the majority of all the billing/collections/staff to find out what is and isn't covered, budget modelling for how to redistribute the lowpay/nopay patients onto the high paying patients--- it is immense. 9/
It is not uncommon for hospital to have more administrative staff from billing, collections, & dealing with insurance companies than actual providers. It takes a paid off politician or a true fundamentalist in the church of free markets to believe that is an efficient system 10/
Friendly reminder- WE ALREADY PAY FOR EVERYONE'S HEALTHCARE just in an incredibly inefficient and unequal way-they go to the ER & their costs are redistributed onto insurance holders. This causes rates to go up, which causes more to lose coverage & hosp. closures in poor areas11/
Of similar countries (OECD) we have horrible maternal mortality rates & infant mortality rates compared to our peer countries. If you control for income you see there is an immense and widening gap in these outcomes for wealthy & poor. 12/
If you like markets- M4A provides more choice & freedom. With insurance no longer tied to employers, this puts less pressure on employers and new businesses to pay for healthcare and contract with insurance companies, with small biz w/small employee pools suffer most. /13
Everyone will be covered at any hospital and clinic in the country without in-network/out-of-network considerations- this will increase competition for clients by offering quality care, not based on which insurance can get which deals with which providers. /14
Research is already publicly funded- the vast majority of major innovations like biopharmaceuticals are publicly funded and near publicly funded research schools that train the researchers--but profits are privatized, other countries get meds we paid to develop for 1/2 price. /15
Might add more to this #MedicareforAll thread later--but I gotta go eat and I am posting it since it has been deleted several times before when working in bursts.
