Joe Biden's Healthcare plan

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/us/politics/biden-health-care.html

It seems to me that Biden would like to keep the name Obamacare on our healthcare system for some time to come.
This plan increases health coverage to those in the states that would not adopt the Medicaid expansion by allowing the people there to sign up for a new public option to be created.
This public option would be like Medicare and open to anyone, including those who already have insurance from their employer.
It would automatically enroll low income people in the public option or Medicaid when they "interact' with the government. My assumption is that this would be when they applied for food stamps or any kind of public assistance.
It would increase ACA subsidies.
It would force drug companies to negotiate prices with Medicare.
There's also stuff in there about lowering drug prices, and that's extremely important to me, even though I have Medicare and a supplemental prescription drug plan. Some of my prescriptions still cost a good bit, and when you're older, you have a LOT of prescriptions. I probably spend around $300 a month on prescription drugs. People with less income can simply not afford that, they're going without. 


I like it. Some of the papers, like the NY Times and the WAPO are calling it radically left, but it makes sense to me. And it's not Medicare for all, which would be much farther to the left and which most of the other candidates are proposing.
I think Biden has offered up his first, thoughtful  proposal to help straighten out the medical crisis in this country, nd that people who are afraid Medicare for all is Socialism might just accept it. 
It also continues to honor Obama and his contribution to advancing healthcare, and I like that.

What do y'all think?

I think it's shameful that so many people who would qualify for Medicaid under Obamacare can't get it because they're in a state run by a Republican governor.

I never understood why, if the original plan could require health insurance (yes, I know that's been struck down), that it could not require states to accept the Medicaid expansion along with the federal government funds to cover it. It's needless cruelty  for those governors to have rejected the coverage for their citizens, because the feds were giving them the funding for it. 
They should have been required to make the expansion. 

It looks like this would solve that problem, at least.

bigdog wrote:I never understood why, if the original plan could require health insurance (yes, I know that's been struck down), that it could not require states to accept the Medicaid expansion along with the federal government funds to cover it. It's needless cruelty  for those governors to have rejected the coverage for their citizens, because the feds were giving them the funding for it. 
They should have been required to make the expansion. 

My memory is (anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) that federal funds for the Medicaid expansion were only to be provided for a very short time -- maybe a couple of years? -- after which the states would be required to pony up the funds. That's why it was optional.

othershoe1030 wrote:I do not know how Republicans can have the nerve to even mention health care, given they just want to blow it all up and have no plan in sight.

Exactly so.  All these years and no plan whatsoever!  It's ridiculous to the nth.

Every U.S. citizen should have access to quality health care but for the Feds to mandate Medicaid expansion with no guarantee of full funding to states isn't the answer. Some states have smaller tax bases and simply can't afford it without cutting something else. Of course ALL social welfare programs are off limits so what does that leave? Generally education, public services, and infrastructure.

The issue people need to focus on before any expansion is controlling larcenous medical and insurance billing - blatant fraud that cost taxpayers BILLIONS annually. Catch'em and hang 'em high. That will be impossible until tax payers demand medical and insurance lobbyists groups quit stuffing mega money into filthy politicians pockets.

gatorfan wrote:Every U.S. citizen should have access to quality health care but for the Feds to mandate Medicaid expansion with no guarantee of full funding to states isn't the answer. Some states have smaller tax bases and simply can't afford it without cutting something else. Of course ALL social welfare programs are off limits so what does that leave? Generally education, public services, and infrastructure.

Bigdog note: That's the problem in a nutshell. (Thanks, gator.)

gatorfan wrote:The issue people need to focus on before any expansion is controlling larcenous medical and insurance billing - blatant fraud that cost taxpayers BILLIONS annually. Catch'em and hang 'em high. That will be impossible until tax payers demand medical and insurance lobbyists groups quit stuffing mega money into filthy politicians pockets.

There have been strides made in controlling fraud but nearly enough. Personally I'm not sure how lobbyist money fuels this problem (proof?), but fraud remains a huge drain, no question.

The thing is, like so many other societal ills, if we wait for this problem to be cured, nothing else will ever get done.