Medicare for all might take 5-15 years to really get it going, but FFS, get it going. Get on it. Make it happen and start by caucusing for Bernie. It’s not perfect in Canada. We don’t have dental, prescription coverage is uneven, there’s some gurneys in the halls, sure. But, I just had cataract surgery in both eyes. No bill. I can see clearly that M4A is possible and urgent. Who profits from not having M4A?
We take Medicaid. It was 38% of our billing last year. It is administered in WA state by six different health insurance companies. Some provide better coverage than others as far as who is in-network and who is not; all of them cost exactly the same to the consumer, all of them pay exactly the same to the provider. Under Medicaid you can go see a provider, be told "we aren't covered by Provider X but if you switch to Provider Y not only are we covered but you get a free car seat." And you can switch, at no cost, every month with a couple pages of paperwork. One of the greatest frauds ever perpetrated on the people of the United States is the idea that healthcare is complicated and that a public option is impossible. If we switched to 100% medicaid our revenue would go UP.
1.5 million people on Medicaid in Washington State, out of 7.5 million. $10.9 billion spent, of which $6.5B was federal and $3.5B was state. It was 19% of the state's budget of $54B. Medicaid costs the State of Washington $7200 per person. Healthcare spending in the United States was $11400 per person in 2019.