The tax benefits are vis a vis spending the same amount on salary. Essentially the companies are cutting employees’ compensation as they provide less “generous” health care plans. So the fact employer health care plans afte getting worse says nothing about the value of the tax benefits to companies. What would be…

The don’t because due to terrible tax laws, employer provided insurance is a “cheap” way of competing for employees. Cheaper than actually paying higher salaries. So employers would rather keep the current system with its tax benefits than be relived of the complications of providing health care but be forced through…

How are union members not “paying anything” for their health care? It’s fairly uncontroversial economic theory that employer provided health care benefits are a form of compensation. So when unions members get “free” health care they are giving up the $X in salary increases their employer is instead spending to…

Unfortunately it’s a function of the weakness of unions in general in America. The unions feel the need to be able to provide the strongest justification for their existence/why one should join. Being able to say “we can get you the largest possible number of “things” you couldn’t get without us” is seen by unions to…

I’m sorry. You’re right. I forgot about the lollipop the doctor gives you after she does the shot. I know if I didn’t have a deductible or co-pay I’d be going to the doctor constantly for shots just to get that sweet lollipop.

That’s she’s a brave beautiful woman who doesn’t need to listen to those hater WOC from poor Pacific island countries. The other women need to stop being bad transphobes and just accept they'll never win again because Ms Hubbard works so much harder than they ever could. Which is the only reason she could beat them.…

So no female competitors will get even close to a medal ever again. I suppose it’s a “solution”. But I’m still not sure what the problem is that requires reversing decades of progres in encouraging female participation in elite level sports.

This “Europe in ruins” shibboleth can apparently be used to explain away anything Europe has as not possible here. Even though it’s not true.

If it wasn’t for the TVA much of the rural south where these people live would have continued to be practically third world “shitholes” for decades longer than they did. Though I wonder what would have happened if the TVA operated using a similar state/federal model as Medicaid? Maybe Alabama would have refused to…

Good point. People tend to get painful and invasive health care procedures for funsies if they don’t have a co-pay or deductible. Because health care is exactly like any consumer good. Absolutely no difference whatsoever.

Due to both racial and income related health disparities, people in traditionally republican voter demographics tend to live longer than traditionally Democratic voter demographics. I remember seeing or hearing someone claim income and racial health disparities might be the reason why the hoary old trope of “people…

Because as Tracy says, if we can place blame and fault then we can continue believing it won’t happen to us because we would never be as bad as those who were to blame and at fault. It’s basically a psychological protection mechanism.

What does it even mean to “earn” money when that money comes from giving money you already had to someone who through luck and maybe hard work (not that it matters apparently) makes even more money, then owes you a portion of the money they made? Lottery winners “earn” money basically the same way. By choosing the…

The mendacity which seems to be required in order to be a “conservative” is truly mind blowing. Even by the most twisted illogical definition of the phrase, how can the government deciding how much they’ll buy something for be considered a “price control”? The government wouldn’t be telling companies how much they can…

The ability of the truly wealthy to “move or hide their assets around to minimize their exposure” isn’t some immutable property of their assets. As you kind of allude to, it’s a function of purposeful choices our society, and most of the rest of the developed world, has made over the last few decades under the…

So I’m clear about your position, your argument is political/institutional and not operational, right? You aren’t arguing that in a world where any plan could pass congress/be signed on the president’s desk, a multi-payer system is better at lowering health care costs and insuring the most people than a single payer…

Just the first 3 minutes of that race was insane. There were soooo many utes on the grid it looked like there was no way they could all race around the circuit without taking each other out. And that’s exactly what happened. By 2:05 someone gets pushed on to the shoulder during an easy corner just from the sheer…

The “you can’t balance bill patients you see through our program” will be part of the single payer’s “offer”. Or maybe they’ll allow some amount of balance billing? The point is the single payer can enforce whatever stipulations they want for providers who see patients the single payer is paying for. Again, under M4A…

I’m sure I don’t get what it takes to teach students doing rotations, but why do people need to pay the same cost for the last 2 years of med school as the first 2 years when only the first 2 years are actually like classroom school stuff?

It’s weird. Do they actually not understand the time lines are for phasing in once the law has been passed? Or is it a purposeful attempt to muddy the waters and make things look too “impossible” to even be worth trying?