That was the point of the public option. Allowing people to buy Medicaid or Medicare plans in order to drive down costs. The health insurers and republicans rebelled against that idea claiming he Health care industry wouldn’t be able to be competitive with govt plans (which was false).
Originally Posted by 1blackman1
I don't know much about the public option. But the system is screwed up and the Affordable Care Act didn't fix it. The government alone, through Medicare, Medicaid, veteran's health care, etc, spent 5.6% of GDP on healthcare in 2019. Total spending on healthcare was 17.7% of GDP. There are a number of developed countries that spend less than 5.6% of GDP (less than what our government expenditures alone are) and that have better healthcare outcomes than we do. In terms of total expenditures, the closest country is Switzerland, and they only spend 12% of GDP.
Life expectancy in the USA is 80.7 years. We're 40th in the world, behind countries like Turkey, Panama, Colombia, Peru and Costa Rica. Now maybe you can attribute part of that to obesity and a mind set that thinks vaccines kill you. But a lot of it is because of a healthcare system that delivers poor outcomes at outrageous costs. The rent seekers, crony capitalists, and monopolists make out like bandits. The politicians and bureaucrats don't give a fuck. The rest of us suffer.
Republicans arent really for competition or open markets.
Originally Posted by 1blackman1
This one is.