MEDICARE FOR ALL: THE BILLS & PLANS

Every time I have private insurance I pay a monthly premium and still have to pay the doctor because the $1,500 deductible has not been met. Chiropractors certainly charge much less than medical doctors. My chiropractor told me she has to charge $70 a treatment if you have private insurance because of the costs of submitting it to an insurance company. There is more involved with private insurance than even with government insurance like Medicare and Medicaid, If I pay out of my own pocket directly to the chiropractor, it costs me $40 because she does not have to submit it to an insurance company. When I have Medicaid, I do not have to worry about deductibles or premium costs. I got to be honest. I like government health care much more than private insurance. Some people pay $1,000 premiums per month for health insurance. This is not right to have to pay so much. Most doctors charge between $180 and $200 per visit and our emergency room at the county hospital is $320. Do the math the insurance company is really taking you for a ride there.

Rep. Primila Jayapal (D-WA) came to Minneapolis to explain her House bill for Medicare For All. She was involved with a town hall meeting organized by my Congresswoman, Ilhan Omar. Primila is one of the four Hindu members of Congress. All are members of the House of Representatives. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) is the longest serving Hindu in Congress and is running for President. She has Somoan ancestry rather than Indian ancestry. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) are the other two Hindu members of Congress, besides Rep. Jayapal. They both have Indian ancestry, like Rep. Jaypal, who is an naturalized United States citizen. Primila went to the Mexican border to visit a federal detention center and met refugees who are seeking asylum and is one of the most progressive Democrats in the House.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is one of the authors of the Medicare For All bill in the Senate. Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) are co-sponsors of the his Medicare For All bill in the Senate. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is running for President, has her own plan, which was recently released on her face book page. It is a 30 page plan with much detail and I recommend you view the whole plan on the page. She is the only candidate running for the Presidency who has published such a plan in such depth and detail.

Rep. Jayapal's plan covers more practitioners and services than Bernie Sanders' bill. Her plan covers all American residents with a government plan. All would be on this new plan except those in the VA Medical System and Indian Health Services System. These would exist separately as they do today. This is also true under Sanders' and Warren's plans. Jayapal's plan starts with people under 19 and over 55 first and follows with the rest of the residents after the first year. Her plan covers visits, primary care, medical devices, lab services, maternity care, prescription drugs, vision and dental care. In addition abortion services are covered under her plan, Sanders' plan and Warren's plan. Jayapal's plan covers long term care services and nursing care. Sanders' plan differs in that it does not cover nursing or long-term care services. Jayapal's plan has no co-pays and all doctor care is covered completely with no patient charges. European national plans charge a small amount for services. The Canadian system has private insurance for those services not covered by their single-payer plan.

I live in Minnesota and we have a state senator who has worked on a single-payer plan for a number of years. He is trying to get a waiver, so that he can have permission to implement this system after approval of the Minnesota State Legislature. Senator John Marty has one of the most inclusive single-payer plans because he covers all licensed practitioners, so it would cover more than doctor and chiropractic care. Chiropractors are licensed, but a number of other alternative practitioners are also often licensed such as: acupuncturists, massage therapists, naturopaths and midwives. Holistic MD's and dentists are licensed through the medical and dental boards right now. So prevention would be emphasized in this system. His system has a graduated payment system based on ability to pay, so wealthy people would pay more than middle class or working class individuals.

Senator Bernie Sanders Senate bill and Jayapal's bill do not outline a payment system, but all bills in Congress start without the funding mechanism, which is worked on later in the process. Congress does this later after it is discussed in hearings in more detail. Senator Bernie Sanders has mentioned in the debates that he will fund his system, most likely, by a wealth and corporate tax. He did not go into any more detail about this in the debates.

Senator Elizabeth Warren is the only individual running for the Presidency who has a detailed plan for funding health insurance for a Medicare For All System. Some other members running for the Presidency wanted her to go into depth on the funding mechanism. Never mind they did not go into very depth on how they would fund their system. As a mentioned Senator Sanders gave a general replay that he would fund Medicae of All with a corporate or wealth tax. Elizabeth Warren was held to a higher standard than anyone else, so she delivered a detailed plan on how to fund the system.

She will use existing money from the states to fund Medicare and Medicaid. Employers will contribute a certain average amount per person to the government health care system. Right now employers fund private insurance and set aside money for employees and the employees also pay a premium to fund health insurance. Under her system the employers contribution would be called Employer Medicare Contribution. Self-employed people would be exempt from making making contributions unless they exceed a certain income threshold. Small businesses of 50 or less would be exempt unless they provide health care insurance today for their employees. So the larger businesses of 51 or more employees would contribute to the Employer Medicare Contribution Plan.

The rest of the costs of the plan will be paid for by increases in wealth and corporate taxes. She is eliminating premiums, deductibles, co-pays and out of the pocket costs for individuals. In addition to an increase of wealth and corporate taxes, she is advocating for better enforcement of corporate tax fraud. She will fund enough officers to staff the IRS to clap down on corporate tax fraud. There will be changes on what amount will be deductible for corporations. Corporations will have to pay the same tax rate in foreign countries as they do in the United States. The minimum tax rate for large corporations will be 35%. Wealthy individuals will pay a higher tax rate than in the past. A person, like Bill Gates, will certainly pay more, but they truly should be paying more since they have more disposable income than most other people do and are paying a lower percentage rate than most individuals. With their current deductions they pay 3.2% to 4.3% income tax rate. The rest of the population pays 7.2%. The corporations should be paying at a higher rate to provide more fairness in the system. She proposes a raise in taxes for millionaires and billionaires of 1% to 2% to fund the plan.

All these plans are better than the current system we have today in the United States which is a privatized system. The current system encourages doctors to use the most expensive medical devices and technology which provides the most income for the doctors themselves. They do not want to prevent health problems because that means less income for them. Under a Medicare For All System more people would be going to their doctors and those emergency room visits and big operations would decrease. More money would be saved over all in the system and there would be more of an incentive to use preventive measures more. Nutrition, exercise, herbal medicine and alternative methods would be more encouraged as they are now in Europe where they have national health care systems. Most of them cover a number of the alternative methods and supplements because this saves the system money and were also found to be more effective for many chronic conditions. Less chemo therapy would be used and the burn therapy used in Europe would be used more because it costs way less and does not have negative immune system effects like chemo therapy does. Doctors would be also talking about preventing cancer more by individuals taking more responsibility for their health through avoided triggers, like smoking and chemicals, and a diet which prevents diseases like cancer. It is what people eat and expose themselves to which often determines much of our health outcomes today. Under the European systems alternative medicine is encouraged to cut costs and provide better health. Let us adopt any one of these systems and improve America's health.

JAI SHRI HEALTH! JAI SHRI MA! JAI SHRI PROGRESS!

Radhapriestess