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I don't think it matters which party has control. The GOP would let private insurers raise your rates or deny you coverage. Under Medicare for All it would be seen as something to deny care for someone because the total cost of their care would outweigh their benefit to society.

I don't think people talking about "Medicare for All" understand how Medicare works: most people also have private insurance. Medicare is not an alternative to medical insurance.

The IRS employees that have been furloughed are the ones who give you a refund. The ones who accept your taxes are still working.

Medicare is administered under the authority of the federal government but, for the most part, separately funded from it via trust funds that are segregated from general revenue. See medicare.gov: "How is Medicare funded?" So is Social Security: see ssa.gov: "Trust Fund FAQs." Not that there haven't been questions about whether the SS funds are really there or separate from the general revenue: it was convenient for the administration to terrify seniors by threatening to stop SS checks back in 2011 due to that year's debt limit debate, even though the money by law should be safely stored in the trusts (see Forbes: "What happened to the $2.6 Trillion Social Security Trust Fund?"). That's the sort of tactic that gets the elderly up in arms and screaming about keeping government out of their Medicare: it really is their Medicare and their Social Security, sourced from trust funds that the rest of the government should not be able to block, drain, or confiscate.

When you hear people saying "Keep the government out of my Medicare," they mean that they don't want Medicare's trust fund status to be breached to fund more imperial misadventures in godforsaken deserts.

Not that it matters much: Medicare and Social Security are fiscally unsustainable and the trusts will drain themselves, period. Social Security was designed for a population whose average lifespan was 63 (hence retirement at 65 -- only half the population would ever receive benefits) and Medicare can't keep up with the absurd rise in health care prices compounded with the longer lives of citizens (the later years are particularly unhealthy, and the elderly not surprisingly take up a huge chunk of overall health care spending). Eventually health care will have to be fully nationalized; you can't fight math, and this business of mandating private insurance isn't going to reduce prices or bloat, just enrich the insurers (insurance is just a casino anyway, and the house rigs the game so that it always makes a profit).

It's been a number of years, but when I was looking at private, non-employer, non-family insurance the cost was only about 50% higher than the Medicare maximum premiums (~$700/month). Copays were roughly the same, at 20%.

I'm not sure where that $700 for Medicare comes from, unless you hadn't worked at least 10 years or unless you had a very high income..

Medicare Part A (hospital coverage) has no premium so long as you've worked 40 quarters of covered employment.

Medicare Part B (optional doctor visit coverage) costs $105/month, but that's adjusted every year, and was probably a lot less "a number of years" ago. That mostly has a 20% deductible, but the deductible can be less if you have Part C coverage.

Medicare Part C (optional HMO- and additional fee-for-service type coverage) and Part D (drug coverage) is sold by private insurance companies, and is all over the map depending on coverage and where you are located. There's an online search that tells you what's available. The least expensive plan in my area that includes drug coverage is $42/month and the most expensive plan is $343/month (today's prices). Copays and deductibles vary with the plan and item, the (cheap) plan that I have documentation for is typically 20%, though there are a number of things that have no copay (hey, kids, free colonoscopies!), and drugs are $0 to 30%, depending on the drug and where you get it.

Medicare is already run by the insurance industry, as is Medicaid in most States.

As for expanding Medicare to cover everyone, have you actually looked at the cost of using Medicare? It's not exactly cheap.
http://www.medicare.gov/your-medicare-costs/costs-at-a-glance/costs-at-glance.html

Nothing about medical care is cheap. But (if you're talking about Medicare Part A, the hospital coverage) it's "free" (if you're covered by enough quarters of employment), it's not covered by the insurance industry. Part B (non-hospital) isn't, either, though it's an extra $105/month. It's an order of magnitude cheaper than the alternative.

Have you looked at the costs of purchasing as an individual (without employer subsidies) comparable insurance without Medicare? If so, feel free to post the costs.

I don't know enough about Medicaid to address that issue.

Medicare is already run by the insurance industry, as is Medicaid in most States.

As for expanding Medicare to cover everyone, have you actually looked at the cost of using Medicare? It's not exactly cheap.
http://www.medicare.gov/your-medicare-costs/costs-at-a-glance/costs-at-glance.html

Nothing about medical care is cheap. But (if you're talking about Medicare Part A, the hospital coverage) it's "free" (if you're covered by enough quarters of employment), it's not covered by the insurance industry. Part B (non-hospital) isn't, either, though it's an extra $105/month. It's an order of magnitude cheaper than the alternative.

Have you looked at the costs of purchasing as an individual (without employer subsidies) comparable insurance without Medicare? If so, feel free to post the costs.

I don't know enough about Medicaid to address that issue.

Medicare is already run by the insurance industry, as is Medicaid in most States.

As for expanding Medicare to cover everyone, have you actually looked at the cost of using Medicare? It's not exactly cheap.
http://www.medicare.gov/your-medicare-costs/costs-at-a-glance/costs-at-glance.html

The docs.
Can I get Medicare if I am under age 65?
If you are under age 65 and disabled, and have been entitled to disability benefits under Social Security or the Railroad Retirement Board for 24 months, you will be automatically entitled to Medicare Part A and Part B beginning the 25th month of disability benefit entitlement. You do not need to do anything to enroll in Medicare. Your Medicare card will be mailed to you about 3 months before your Medicare entitlement date.

What We Mean By Disability
The definition of disability under Social Security is different than other programs. Social Security pays only for total disability. No benefits are payable for partial disability or for short-term disability.

"Disability" under Social Security is based on your inability to work. We consider you disabled under Social Security rules if:
You cannot do work that you did before;
We decide that you cannot adjust to other work because of your medical condition(s); and
Your disability has lasted or is expected to last for at least one year or to result in death.

Question: How does the federal government define "disability"?
The definition of "disability" varies depending on the purpose for which it is being used. Federal and state agencies generally use a definition that is specific to a particular program or service. For example:

For purposes of nondiscrimination laws (e.g., the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Section 188 of the Workforce Investment Act), a person with a disability is generally defined as someone who (1) has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more "major life activities," (2) has a record of such an impairment, or (3) is regarded as having such an impairment.
To be found disabled for purposes of Social Security disability benefits, individuals must have a severe disability (or combination of disabilities) that has lasted, or is expected to last, at least 12 months or result in death, and which prevents working at a "substantial gainful activity" level.
State vocational rehabilitation (VR) offices will find a person with a disability to be eligible for VR services if he or she has a physical or mental impairment that constitutes or results in a "substantial impediment" to employment for the applicant.

Who is eligible for Medicare?

Generally, Medicare is available for people age 65 or older, younger people with disabilities and people with End Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure requiring dialysis or transplant). Medicare has two parts, Part A (Hospital Insurance) and Part B (Medical Insurance). You are eligible for premium-free Part A if you are age 65 or older and you or your spouse worked and paid Medicare taxes for at least 10 years. You can get Part A at age 65 without having to pay premiums if:

You are receiving retirement benefits from Social Security or the Railroad Retirement Board.
You are eligible to receive Social Security or Railroad benefits but you have not yet filed for them.
You or your spouse had Medicare-covered government employment.

While most people do not have to pay a premium for Part A, everyone must pay for Part B if they want it. This monthly premium is deducted from your Social Security, Railroad Retirement, or Civil Service Retirement check. If you do not get any of these payments, Medicare sends you a bill for your Part B premium every 3 months.

The docs.
Can I get Medicare if I am under age 65?
If you are under age 65 and disabled, and have been entitled to disability benefits under Social Security or the Railroad Retirement Board for 24 months, you will be automatically entitled to Medicare Part A and Part B beginning the 25th month of disability benefit entitlement. You do not need to do anything to enroll in Medicare. Your Medicare card will be mailed to you about 3 months before your Medicare entitlement date.

What We Mean By Disability
The definition of disability under Social Security is different than other programs. Social Security pays only for total disability. No benefits are payable for partial disability or for short-term disability.

"Disability" under Social Security is based on your inability to work. We consider you disabled under Social Security rules if:
You cannot do work that you did before;
We decide that you cannot adjust to other work because of your medical condition(s); and
Your disability has lasted or is expected to last for at least one year or to result in death.

Question: How does the federal government define "disability"?
The definition of "disability" varies depending on the purpose for which it is being used. Federal and state agencies generally use a definition that is specific to a particular program or service. For example:

For purposes of nondiscrimination laws (e.g., the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Section 188 of the Workforce Investment Act), a person with a disability is generally defined as someone who (1) has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more "major life activities," (2) has a record of such an impairment, or (3) is regarded as having such an impairment.
To be found disabled for purposes of Social Security disability benefits, individuals must have a severe disability (or combination of disabilities) that has lasted, or is expected to last, at least 12 months or result in death, and which prevents working at a "substantial gainful activity" level.
State vocational rehabilitation (VR) offices will find a person with a disability to be eligible for VR services if he or she has a physical or mental impairment that constitutes or results in a "substantial impediment" to employment for the applicant.

Who is eligible for Medicare?

Generally, Medicare is available for people age 65 or older, younger people with disabilities and people with End Stage Renal Disease (permanent kidney failure requiring dialysis or transplant). Medicare has two parts, Part A (Hospital Insurance) and Part B (Medical Insurance). You are eligible for premium-free Part A if you are age 65 or older and you or your spouse worked and paid Medicare taxes for at least 10 years. You can get Part A at age 65 without having to pay premiums if:

You are receiving retirement benefits from Social Security or the Railroad Retirement Board.
You are eligible to receive Social Security or Railroad benefits but you have not yet filed for them.
You or your spouse had Medicare-covered government employment.

While most people do not have to pay a premium for Part A, everyone must pay for Part B if they want it. This monthly premium is deducted from your Social Security, Railroad Retirement, or Civil Service Retirement check. If you do not get any of these payments, Medicare sends you a bill for your Part B premium every 3 months.

Follow up -- from the horse's mouth

Medicare only pays if your 65 or older and is a supplimental insurance program. This will help you calculate the out of pocket costscalc info Medicaid has a limit specific to the level of disability and is dependant on the state you live in and your "countable resources". The medicaid process is:

1) loose everything until you no longer own more than $2,000 in assets.
2) file.
3) wait 6 months.
4) receive a maximum of $20,000 in total medical, foodstamps, transportation (bus ticket), and living expenses (nursing home) per year.
5) show that you are actively looking for a job.

I does appear that medicaid is in the business of seniors now.
https://questions.medicare.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/2038/~/what-is-the-difference-between-medicare-and-medicaid%3F
Last i had to deal with either, medicaid shove you onto medicare when you turned into a senior.

As for privatizing Social Security, look at what happened to Lehman Brothers.

and? Just because they went under doesn't mean their customers lost anything. But even if they did, it's no different then Carter cutting social security payouts (set cost of living allowance increases below the rate of inflation having a negative benefit payment effect) in the middle of largest and fastest bought of inflation i have seen in my lifetime.

There is a reason why the inflation index does not include the cost of fuel or food- even when its long term.

Also the same people who are wanting to privatize are also want to deregulate.

Deregulate what? There are a lot of things that need to be deregulated. Deregulated does not mean no regulations, it means getting rid of the unproductive regulations. Sometimes that happens without problems, sometimes it does not. More problems are created by regulation BTW. If you do not believe me, just take a look at health care in the US and HMOs. Congress invented HMOs in 1968 in an attempt to control social security spending and has kept a heavy hand at regulating them ever since. But the democrat gem now is claimed to be the root of all evil in health care and reason to why they need to change everything in all their wisdom once again.

Even now there are people in congress who want to remove the regulations that were put in place after the crash

Regulation does not automagically mean better. Without you specifically mentioning what regulation you are referring to, I can only guess. But Bad regulation is more often then not, worse then no regulation. Do not confuse removing bad regulation with problems of no regulation.

And even with regulations in place, they still have to be enforced look as Madoff and Enron, regulations were in place but either never enforced or enforced after it was too late.

Enron and Madoff could not have been caught sooner. There is rumor that people complained to the SEC over Madoff but documented checks turned up nothing. You know why? Because they falsified their documentation and set out on a path of purposely defrauding people. Your statement has the tone of which you would like to stop a drunk driver from crashing into a family of 5 because the cops should have somehow stopped them sooner because there is regulation against being drunk in public and operating a motor vehicle while drunk. But here is the problem, if the drunk, or the next Madoff, or whomever, hide their illegal activity, you cannot do anything until such time that lie is exposed.

Hopefully, that exposure occurs before anyone is seriously hurt, and often it does, but sometimes it doesn't. When someone sets out to deceive and lie to people, you generally do not know until its too late and there is really no way or little way to know until someone has been harmed.

But this still has little to do with the privatization plans i have seen.

The availability of subsidized hearing aids varies from one state to the next, whether you're talking private insurance, or Medicare/aid. Medicare doesn't cover hearing aids, or regular hearing exams. Most insurance plans cover $1500, at best.

Too many people need hearing aids to spread the cost over a risk pool, so the user is usually covering most of the cost. The major cost center seems to be distribution and sales, with retail about an 800% markup from wholesale. So, I suspect there's a lot of cost that could be wrung out under a more efficient business model.

As an aside, contrary to the whining in on-line forums, Medicare doesn't just pony up whatever a vendor bills for, but what they consider a "fair rate". Hence, health care suppliers stereotypically moan about Medicare "underpayment". Medicare as a whole isn't expensive because the program is spendthrift, it is expensive because they can't ditch customers... except in a wholesale manner via budget cuts.

One? You're joking.

How about the Rural Electrification Administration, without which much of the US would still be in the nineteenth century because electrical utilities companies weren't expanding beyond cities? Or the federal prison system? The government runs that. There's also the Eisenhower Interstate System, which believe it or not was created by the government and not some "Eisenhower Interstate Corporation."

If you care more about healthcare specifically, Medicare is the reason our elderly and disabled have medical coverage, particularly useful to the elderly if their personal savings were invested in Enron or MCI or one of the many companies that were walloped over the past few years (particularly in 2008). Medicare is a great example because it provides healthcare coverage more cheaply than private insurance companies do. So does the VA system, which covers our veterans. They do excellent cost control according to the CBO.

Or was the point of your comment that it "has worked as planned?" That's a tall order. Name some private company initiatives that have worked as planned. Most don't. I've worked for private companies most of my adult life and I see the same waste and errors people complain about in government.

Canada = single-payer. Canada != UK. UK != single-payer. UK = national health care. Big difference.

And to answer your question, it works right here in the good ol' U-S-of-A. Just ask someone on medicare if they want it taken away. But wait! Claire McCaskill beat you to it. "Get your government hands off my Medicare," indeed.

and the federal government decides to reimburse a gun with no demonstrated (or even conceivable) health benefit. ... Given the amount spent by the public sector on health care in the US, they could have universal health care - this is the sort of decision which leads to the health care mess that exists there.

Actually, from what I can tell from the released information, despite what the summary says the federal government has made no such decision -- people need to chill out. Someone else may know more than this, but I believe the FDA classification is required for them to market their device to patient populations.

This document has information on the "Durable Medical Equipment" classification they're applying for (and haven't received yet):

http://www.medicare.gov/Publications/Pubs/pdf/11045.pdf

If that classification is given, in order to get a device order hypothetically covered by Medicare you'd still need to get a Certificate of Medical Necessity filled out by a doctor and approved by Medicare. That seems unlikely in general, although I guess one could imagine scenarios (e.g. living in high-crime areas) where that may be permitted.

Maybe you sat down to help grandma sign up for the new Medicare Prescription Drug plan this year? If you and gramps ended up staring at a HTTP 500 response code, you weren't alone. The Medicare website, a mishmash of Microsoft ASP and ASP.NET pages, has been overwhelmed by activity, and, from most reports, is suffering from frequent outages.

I don't know how many saw the site last year (helping a relative enroll in Medicare D, maybe), but it damn near impossible! I can't even imagine someone who is not internet-literate following all everything, the way that it was originally designed (and subsequently changed). But, maybe that was the whole idea.

In America you can be seen quickly as long as you're willing to pay. Fine if you can afford it or if your employer gives you health insurance, but if not you're screwed.

O RLY

Exactly.

See also: medicare drug plan