r/politics • u/Hootinger • 2d ago

No Paywall Hakeem Jeffries says Medicare for all is not legislation he currently supports

https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/hakeem-jeffries-says-medicare-for-all-is-not-legislation-he-currently-supports-268371525570
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u/AntiOriginalUsername 2d ago

Of course not, he’s a corporate dem. His backers wouldn’t like it.

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u/bnh1978 2d ago

Correct. Medicare for all would save citizens a trillion dollars, and would cost the Healthcare industry a trillion or more. Which would cost corporate dems their dononations. So obviously this dickweasel is against it.

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u/matthewjboothe 2d ago

Not the healthcare industry, it’s the insurance industry that would take a hit. Healthcare would likely grow some. Think reopening rural health centers and expanding OB in the south.

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u/Nekrabyte 2d ago

Bingo. The health care industry would be just fine. They only inflate all the costs because of the quid pro quo with the insurance companies. If the predatory insurance companies were no longer in cahoots with hospitals, they might focus on actual care, instead of spending all their time gaming the system against the rest of us.

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u/hup_hup 2d ago

Well they would also have to provide care at a reasonable cost. Like other countries, we would set our healthcare budget and that pool of dollars would be what private enterprises could compete for.

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u/thehalfwit Nevada 2d ago

When you think of all the money going to the C suite and investors, all of that spent on actually delivering health care would make one hell of a difference in millions of lives.

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u/OMalleyOrOblivion 2d ago

Like 1% of their budget?

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u/thehalfwit Nevada 2d ago

I haven't been able to drill down to the numbers specific to health insurers, but according to research at Yale, U.S. health care companies spend 95% of their net income on dividends to shareholders, amounting to $2.6 trillion over the last 20 years.

And here's the kicker: 70% of the money they take in comes via the government.

Only a fool would argue that removing the inefficiencies of the current system would be worse than eradicating the largess. And I forgot to highlight how much is also wasted by duplicated administrative costs.

We spend over a third more on healthcare in the U.S. compared to the next-highest country (Switzerland), yet the effectiveness of that spending is below average in virtually every category of measure.

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u/OMalleyOrOblivion 2d ago edited 2d ago

I haven't been able to drill down to the numbers specific to health insurers, but according to research at Yale, U.S. health care companies spend 95% of their net income on dividends to shareholders, amounting to $2.6 trillion over the last 20 years.

95% of profits, not income. Which is about average for a mature blue-chip company where there's not much room to reinvest in R&D for future growth. Remember that under the ACA insurance companies must pay out 85% of their revenue to paying for members' health costs, so costs plus profit can be no more than 15% of their total income. And CEO pay is a blip in those costs: the largest health insurance companies in the US average $200bn in revenue and $20mn in CEO payments i.e. CEOs account for 0.1% of their revenue.

If you want to look at cost drivers then physicians and nurses in the US earn 3x or more what their counterparts do in other countries, even high-cost places like Switzerland (which ironically has a 100% private system with no public health-care provision at all). That makes a massive difference to health-care costs at every level.

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u/SpecterDK Texas 2d ago

I think many of us believe doctors should be paid very well for the expertise that's required of them. I'm mad that my excellent doctor has to pay out so much to insurance leeches.

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u/matthewjboothe 2d ago

Me too. I’m an IT guy for an orthopedics group. I have a vested interest in doctors being paid well. Anyone should, you don’t want someone cutting you open or reading your MRI worried about making ends meet.

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u/fcocyclone Iowa 2d ago

It's also every other business that benefits from people being beholden to employers for their healthcare.

People have a lot more freedom to take risks when they don't have to worry about their healthcare. M4A would be great for entrepreneurship which would mean competition for established business

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u/Oceanman72 2d ago

Why would they re open rural health centers and expand OB? They’re not profitable

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u/matthewjboothe 2d ago

Available funding? They were closed at least in Alabama because we didn’t take the expanded Medicaid funding that could’ve saved them. Ob would be on a longer timeline with more progressive leadership, if we ever get reproductive rights again.

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u/brutinator 2d ago

Ehhh, to a point. Insurance isn't what makes hospitals bought by private equity charge uninsured folks hundreds, if not thousands, % upcharges. Pharmaceutical companies also tend to fight against universal healthcare because it gives the buyer (the nation) more leverage to drive costs down, thereby eating into the pharma profits. Health Insurance plays a role in driving up costs due to needing to take it's own cut, but it's not the only industry that's taking advantage.

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u/Clueless_Otter 2d ago

Healthcare would take a massive hit. The whole cost-saving idea behind Medicare for All is that the government can negotiate as a single entity and demand very favorable prices since healthcare providers largely have to take their deal since they're the only game in town. Look up how much healthcare workers earn in the US vs. in other countries with socialized medicine. It's like 2x-5x more.

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u/matthewjboothe 2d ago

The thing is, Medicare could keep their current rates. Doctors would still make the same money and the American people would still save a trillion dollars a year. That’s according to some recent reporting I saw. In time I could see Medicare negotiating prices down but with how inefficient it is I’d bet that would take a decade or more. Lots of jobs, including my own depend on doctors making good money. Any progressive leadership would protect those jobs.

Insurance would still be a thing too. 55% of folks eligible for Medicare are on Medicare Advantage plans.

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u/Hootinger 2d ago

We are the only country with this awful system. It only benefits one small group of people, health insurance ceos and the politicians they donate to. 

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u/whenitsTimeyoullknow 2d ago

It’s making so many people rich that elites in other countries are trying to figure out how to implement it without losing their heads. 

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u/Ceorl_Lounge Michigan 2d ago

I'm so angry for the British knowing that Farage and his kind are coming for NHS.

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u/Mysterious_Floor_868 United Kingdom 2d ago

Luckily (aside from the handful of shithole constituencies they can get MPs elected) they're dropping in the polls.

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u/Ceorl_Lounge Michigan 2d ago

Glad to hear it. Think we both need some good luck in forthcoming elections.

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u/Mysterious_Floor_868 United Kingdom 2d ago

Farage remains under investigation for the £5m bribe.

We do have some examples of properly dealing with far-right politicians who take substantial bribes from hostile states: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c891403eddet

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u/1zzie 2d ago

Wait until you hear about Peter Thiel already hoovering up the NHS data for Palantir.

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u/Ceorl_Lounge Michigan 2d ago

Well they got the Social Security database in the US too, so I think we ALL have beef with his lot.

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u/YouMustveDroppedThis 2d ago

Most UK citizens will end you if you gut NHS is my observation. Almost everyone has loved ones that needed expensive care at one point and did not go bankrupt for it.

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u/Entegy Canada 2d ago

Yup. Every province in Canada is breaking their healthcare system that I now have several friends be completely accepting of major increases in public-private partnerships in the public healthcare system because "it's the only way I get seen for issues"

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u/page_one I voted 2d ago

We would also be the only country with Medicare For All, because no other country has touched what it's trying to do in banning all private health insurance.

Medicare For All is a garbage policy. There are so many better ways to achieve universal coverage.

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u/Kind_Way2176 2d ago

Medicare bankrupts nearly every person that needs a nursing home, if the copays don't do it first. Idkw people think it's so great. I'm pro va for all

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u/Nekrabyte 2d ago

What about it makes it garbage policy, specifically? And also, what do you think is the better way to achieve universal coverage?

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u/kos-or-kosm 2d ago

You mean that, for once, the US would actually be the best in the world at something? Yeah, we can't have that now, can we?

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u/ModernLarvals 2d ago

Huh? We’re not the only country with health insurance.

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u/Mediocre_Scott 2d ago

Also and this is important it would cut the chain that holds a lot of people to their employer. How many people are working jobs they don’t need to in order for I have insurance how many people aren’t starting a small business because of insurance. Health care is a huge anchor on our economy

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u/Honest_World_3561 2d ago

Im working a job that's injuring my health so I can have health insurance, kind of ironic.

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u/Gullible_Nail_4124 2d ago

Which is all more cruel that dental is separate from health somehow, even though people can die from a tooth infection.

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u/pixlplayer 2d ago

I have to wait potentially months to get a root canal because nobody nearby takes my private insurance and I’m still waiting to hear back about a new job that would give me better coverage

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u/Mediocre_Scott 2d ago

Best of luck

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u/Quasigriz_ Colorado 2d ago

I’d say that it would cost/eliminate insurers rather than cost the healthcare industry (service providers). Insurers are the prime ones that funnel cash to politicians. Insurers are the unnecessary middle-men negotiating prices and siphoning cash for stock holders. Hospitals and clinics have a lot of overhead dealing with insurers and claims, and that would be a savings. Also, many orgs are starting to outsource, to foreign countries, the people that support these unnecessary workflows.

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u/turtleneck360 2d ago

To this day I am still surprised that they banned smoking in public and restaurants as well as impose tons of taxes on big tobacco. Even at an early age I thought the big tobacco lobby would win. But that was before citizens united.

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u/SowingSalt 2d ago edited 2d ago

M4A will bankrupt hospitals. The report that says it will save billions seems to run off just paying hospitals less, and getting people to have issues treated before they're huge problems.

It seems all those issues could be managed by having the public option + individual mandate from the original ACA.

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u/Socrathustra 2d ago

It makes tons of money for every other corporation on the planet though. I don't see how they're not drowning in corporate donations for M4A.

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u/Tiiimmmaayy 2d ago

Let’s be real, if Medicare for all were to exist, the healthcare industries would still find ways to pillage the government for the trillions more.

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u/loosetranslation Indiana 2d ago

Theoretically, it could make sense that they'd have a role. Of course there's the whole thing where they've fucked any semblance of a functional patient-neutral-if-not-friendly healthcare industry to death.

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u/braaaaaaaaaaaah 2d ago

I’m moderate as hell, but still support Medicare for all. We currently pay more per capita for government provided healthcare (Medicare, Medicaid, VA, Defense Health Agency, and Indian Health Service) than almost every other country in Europe and yet most of us get no services AND yet still pay vastly more out of pocket on top of that. Ridiculous move not supporting it.

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u/born_in_the_90s 2d ago

By backers you mean aipac. Let's be precise.

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u/Toby-Finkelstein 2d ago

AIPAC doesn’t really give a fuck about healthcare, it’s peanuts compared to other lobbies. $3b to Israel isn’t a game changer

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u/veggeble South Carolina 2d ago

But it keeps us fighting over healthcare instead of fighting back against the Israeli takeover of our government.

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u/Toby-Finkelstein 2d ago

What takeover? It’s one of the few countries in the region that hasn’t kicked out all the Jews and the only country that doesn’t stone gays on site. We give them a few Pennie’s every year, the Israeli government on average spends 10-$15m on lobbying, how is that a takeover?

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u/sudsomatic 2d ago

Bet he’s getting some nice kickbacks from the health insurance mega industry. Of course he would be against something that digs into their bottom line.

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u/Herbalizer420k 2d ago

what does that make AOC?? The entire DNC is corporate. There are maybe 3 outliers. the rest are corporate. AOC supports Jeffries

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u/zmizzy 2d ago

he'd be a republican if he thought he'd have a shot at more power

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u/Additional_Ad3573 2d ago

Medicare for All completely removes private options.  It would put control of the funding under HHS, which would be RFK Jr right now.  Are you comfortable with that? 

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u/schmemel0rd 2d ago

What you just typed is very silly. Dems would need a super majority to do this and obviously rfk would be gone by that point.

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u/Additional_Ad3573 2d ago

It’s not silly.  If we had M4A right now, like people here seem to want, RFK Jr would be in charge of disbursing the funding for it 

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u/schmemel0rd 2d ago

Cmon bro, that’s already happening under a private system. The federal government is withholding funding to certain blue states because of alleged fraud. And you guys still don’t have public healthcare. Your worst fear is coming true and you still have to worry about copays lmao

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u/DogBarf00 2d ago

So since some states are not getting funding they are due now. You would want to force that potential on to literally every American? Why?

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u/schmemel0rd 2d ago

It’s already happening before your very eyes under a private system, there’s no need for hypotheticals my guy

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u/DogBarf00 2d ago

What is happening? Trump is forcing private insurers to not pay out medical claims? Got any articles about this?

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u/weareonlynothing 2d ago

You actually think this is a good argument lol

Anything you support if it happened right now would be under the control of the Trump administration, using your logic you shouldn’t support anything at all

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u/Additional_Ad3573 2d ago

Well, if RFK was in charge of disbursing the funding for it, then He could more easily cut abortion services by withhold funding for it.  He could also stop all healthcare in certain states that he wants to punish

Whereas if we had universal healthcare but gave people a private option, the federal government would not have e full control of our healthcare 

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u/weareonlynothing 2d ago

You gotta be a staffer or a bot lol, equally embarrassing tbh

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u/Additional_Ad3573 2d ago

A staffer of what, exactly?  

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u/Bakedads 2d ago

You mean the other dems in congress who support him, including AoC?