Second presidential debate will be virtual, commission says

[Peebo]

Universal Healthcare and Catholic Social Teaching - Relevant Radio

 

[Ridgerunner]

Again, what is meant by universal healthcare? Does it mean access to a PCP for everything, including a cold? Does it mean everyone with a cancer diagnosis gets sent to M.D. Anderson? The American approach to healthcare is “do everything”. But that’s not true everywhere.

What is to be provided, to whom and who pays? And is it to be free to those who could afford their own healthcare, or only to those who cannot?

The great majority of healthcare dollars for any one person are spent in the last year or two of life. Very few others spend anywhere near $10,000.00. Is there going to be a cutoff for age or condition? It isn’t unusual to spend a million dollars for some conditions, usually without extending life.

 

[PaulinVA]

RR, I really don’t know.

I think the American way is to focus on coverage and not care. So many people just can’t afford care even if they have coverage. Should the government provide coverage/care? Well, I don’t think big government does anything especially well.

This issue is part of the income gap that we’re seeing. Almost half of Americans don’t pay taxes, because they don’t make enough.. I’m sure they’d love to make enough to be taxpayers, whether in retirement or in the working years.

So, there is more than one issue to solve here.

 

[pnewton]

Again, what is meant by universal healthcare?

A good start would be that it means something, and is not meaningless. I think if we could just start there we would make a big statement about basic human dignity.

I wonder if the debate will go on if Trump withdraws? Would unilateral refusal mean Biden gets solo time? I do think having observers with each candidate would be a reasonable request.

 

[Dovekin]

Is there going to be a cutoff for age or condition?

A cutoff is known as euthanasia. Hopefully it will not be part of any healthcare plan in any country.

I easily spend more than $10,000 every year, on a condition I have had for over 50 years. (Costs are higher now than hey once were, but care is better) Without insurance I would be considerably poorer now than I would have been otherwise.

That is the problem with insurance. Nobody has enough money to afford some relatively common conditions. Do we euthanize those individuals by denying care to them? Or do we collectively cover those conditions and hope that together we can afford them? Are we too poor or too sick to have universal healthcare?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I wonder if the debate will go on if Trump withdraws? Would unilateral refusal mean Biden gets solo time?

If Trump withdraws, the Dem media will give Biden all the time he wants for free.

I easily spend more than $10,000 every year,

Without insurance I would be considerably poorer

So, how much poorer should I be in order to pay for your healthcare? How much should you contribute to your own?

Are we too poor or too sick to have universal healthcare?

I don’t see how this country would have the resources to pay total healthcare for everybody in the country. The estimates for “medicare for all” exceed the defense budget and then some. So, what are we going to eliminate besides that?

 

[Dovekin]

The estimates for “medicare for all” exceed the defense budget and then some. So, what are we going to eliminate besides that?

That is the question, faced by people with medical problems all the time. “What can I eliminate so I do not die?” People die from rationing medicine like insulin because it is expensive. Am I too poor or too sick to live?

On a national level it becomes more of a problem. Who are we going to eliminate? If “death panels” are unacceptable, then the question becomes “what are we going to eliminate?”

I have a hard enough time deciding those questions on a personal level, so I cannot answer them for you. Should you keep all “your” money while I die from rationing insulin? I sincerely do not know. What do you think is better for our country?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I think the very first step is to determine what the cost would really be. I think we’re a long way from knowing that. There are a lot of interests to contend with when it comes to healthcare, beginning with the universities’ “rationing doctors” and the nation as a whole doing nothing at all about it, or even thinking about it. Far and away most PCP care could be handled by NPs. Plenty of it is right now, but it’s billed far higher than what the NP gets paid.

I’m not particularly impressed with the French system, though it’s probably better than ours in some ways. But the government pays for medical education and expands or contracts the numbers in medical schools based on the perceived need for doctors.

In France, about 2/3 of medical care is government. You pay up front, then bill the government, which reimburses you about 80 percent for most things. It pays directly for hospital care. About 1/3 of the system (the better third) is private.

 

[Cathoholic]

RidgeRunner to Mikein VA . . .

I honestly don’t remember. But it did turn out to be true, didn’t it?

Responding to this . . . .

Weren’t you the same guy with the wild conspiracy theory four years ago that the DNC chair was feeding Clinton the questions before debates? (I’d put a smiley face here if I knew how).

.

I can’t speak for Mikein VA, but I am pretty sure he agrees with you on that
and it was a rhetorical question to highlight the fact that . . .
. . . . YES Hillary (or her subordinates) was debate cheating in 2016 (at least clearly in the primaries - so “WHY wouldn’t they do this in the generals too?”) by being fed the debate questions beforehand by CNN*.

*Then-CNN’s Donna Brazile if I recall correctly.