Monday, April 3, 2017

Mark Weisbrot — Medicaid Saved Obamacare and Single-Payer May Be Back on the Agenda Sooner Than You Think

Some polls have shown majorities in favor of single payer health care. In the last election cycle we also went rather quickly from a widely believed politician-and-media-backed falsehood that Social Security was in serious financial trouble, to even Hillary Clinton saying that benefits needed to be expanded, not cut. That is the direction that the country is going, with Bernie Sanders, despite losing the Democratic presidential primary, being one of the most popular politicians in the country; and Trump in the doghouse with 37 percent approval....
Counterpunch
Medicaid Saved Obamacare and Single-Payer May Be Back on the Agenda Sooner Than You Think
Mark Weisbrot

7 comments:

Matt Franko said...

"About 11 million of the approximately 20 million people who gained health insurance under Obamacare did so under its provision for expansion of Medicaid,"


Hmmmmm where have I heard that before?????

Peter Pan said...

Trump should support this ;)

Matt Franko said...

He probably does in some form...

This article is making my earlier point that ACA without anyone able to pay for insurance off of one of the exchanges is in effect "single payer" as Medicaid (and Medicare) are two current forms of "single payer"...

If you look at the DTS since ACA for FY16, the Marketplace Payments were +40B but Medicare was up big too iirc even more than the Marketplace Payments over same period...

Remember here is Bannon (Trump's "brain"):

"And then the Republicans, it’s all this theoretical Cato Institute, Austrian economics, limited government — which just doesn’t have any depth to it. They’re not living in the real world.”


"Single payer" of whatever form is going to require taking a flat steel shovel to libertarian heads period no getting around it .... Trump is ready and willing to do this if he has to...

Trump is going to get something this year and it will be accretive to leading USD flows ... details still TBD...

Penguin pop said...

I hope he does cause it will be worth it to see libertarian idiots steamrolled. Too much of that BS going around lately. It would be one of his better moves too.

Unknown said...

Another subsidy which is not discussed much in the media is the shifting gse dividends to subsidize insurance premiums for those insurance companies that took part in the Exchanges. This was money that was not authorized by Congress. The Medicaid expansion was.

Quote:
confirmed a 2012 scheme hatched by the Obama administration to funnel hundreds of billions in dividends from Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prop up the failing Obamacare program - by paying subsidies to insurers to remain in the system.
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In fact, House Republicans actually sued the Obama Administration in 2014 over the fact that the subsidies to insurers weren't appropriated by congress and won, which the Obama administration appealed. As Zerohedge and the Atlanta Journal Constitution pointed out last week, the Trump administration has until May 22nd to decide whether or not to pursue the appeal

Noah Way said...

A majority in favor of something is pretty much a guarantee that it won't happen.

Matt Franko said...

Mortgage payments are now effectively taxes...