"The May 2025 Republican budget proposal, as advanced by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, includes $715 billion in Medicaid savings over a decade as part of an $880 billion savings target. It proposes work requirements, co-pays for beneficiaries above the poverty line, stricter eligibility verification, and limits on state provider taxes. The Congressional Budget Office projects these changes could reduce Medicaid enrollment by 8.7 million and increase the uninsured by 7.6 million by 2034. While not slashing the program outright, these reductions significantly curtail coverage. Moderate Republicans blocked deeper cuts, like per-capita caps or lowering the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, due to political concerns, but the savings still imply substantial eligibility or benefit reductions beyond just addressing “waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Make America Healthy Again
- Thread starter TigerGrowls
- Start date
Will note that is just the starting point. This will not be the final version. Same thing happened under Biden. You start at a more extreme place hoping that when you compromise, you still end up closer to your own goal.
Can we agree that people who do not fall in one of the following categories should be responsible for their own healthcare expenses?
-children
-elderly
-materially mentally handicapped
-materially physically handicapped
-single moms
What excuse does an able-bodied working age person have for not providing for themself? I get a temporary hand up, but perpetual entitlements should not be available to these people.
I have a point of contention with single moms.
This would seemingly encourage single mothers which is not a good thing imo. The nuclear family is very important and should be encouraged at all costs. They can work out who pays in divorce court.
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Able-bodied people on Medicaid would include those working in low-wage jobs (retail, food service, gig economy, for ex), those between jobs, working part-time, care-givers, people with a huge amount of medical debt and those in financial crises.
We depend on the people who work these jobs too so there are good reasons for it. I know you like to imagine a bunch of lazy Americans leeching off the government teet but that's not the case in most instances.
The point is, Republicans have filled hours of media time telling us they wouldn't touch it, but turns out that was just semantics.
Well, I see no one is addressing the Elephant in the room. Namely, RFK and his grandkids swimming in the creek that was contaminated. The sewage police picked him up and we have his arrest on film:
Idk I'm probably in the minority that thinks healthcare is a human right and we should be above forcing people into medical bankruptcy. I just think the good outweighs the bad, especially as it pertains to those gaming the system. The old expression that "Republicans would rather see 100 people starve out of fear that 1 person not need it/deserve it, and Dems would rather feed 100 out of concern that 1 might really need it" continues to ring true in my mind.
Also, with regards to the medical industry, as well as really every other "partisan" issue these days, perfection seems to be the enemy of progress. I just don't ever expect the US to do anything positive wrt changing the medical industry since Americans are incredibly selfish and don't care at all about improving the lives of other citizens.
I understand your position that healthcare is a human right and i don't necessarily disagree with it. I think that is a fair stance.
I don't agree with your analogy though. I think it would be more appropriate if you used 40 out of 100 people as the benchmark. The tax burden is 40% or higher in some places.
At some point the burden becomes too high and people take advantage of your empathy and generosity.
It's not an analogy, it's just a turn of phrase. I just think we, as the most wealthy country in the US, should be able to do more for our most vulnerable citizens. I'm probably a minority in my stance on this board because I also think we should have a single payer healthcare system. I'm aware that many would disagree, and I'm not even saying I think it's the perfect system - I just think it's an improvement over what we have now. I'd be more comfortable paying $1000/month in additional taxes instead of $1000/month to an insurance provider, and not have to worry about coverage being denied, or having to worry about whether my insurance will cover my trip to the hospital, or worrying about whether my medical emergency treatment will be at a facility covered by my provider.
Idk, it's my personal belief that it would be better, but i'm sure someone much more knowledgeable about the whole process will chime in and explain how wrong I am.
I personally like that people would have more power in employment and I would expect wages to grow as a result as well.
I don't think the old analogies/expressions hold weight any more. The whole environment has changed. Social Media (X , Podcasts) and Cable TV plus and maybe even especially, DJT as a political force, has changed everythig. DJT was / is not a "traditional" repub. He's actually closer to a "traditional" democrat, but "democrat" doesn't really fit him either. When he ran in 2016 he was really a 3rd party candidate but in our system a 3rd party has no chance so he had to pick one and take it by force. I find it fascinating how this has all transpired.
I think the current reality is that we now have 3 parties trying to exist within a two party construct. Right now that 3rd party is on the R side of the aisle.
What is interesting to me, is if MAGA split off as a third party (which I agree with you overall), I wonder what the split would be. Because there are a lot of current people voting blue that if MAGA split off would go back red. Know a lot of people that would love to not vote for the candidates Dems have been putting forward but can't in good conscience vote for Trump. So not like you'd end up with 49, 26 and 25 % wise.
I don't really see a 3rd party inside of Rs right now since the whole party seems to march lockstep with everything Trump does. There's a reason he's polling at like 90%+ with Republicans. I think what you have is MAGA (the 35-40% of the voting populace that will never abandon Trump - Growls/Fastball/etc), neocon Dems/Reps who are the swamp/institutional politicians MAGA likes to cry about, and then the AOC/Bernie Libs which is idk 20% of the Dems?
Your Schumer/McConnell/Pelosi/Feinstein/Hawley/Blackburn/etc fall under that neocon dem/rep umbrella, imo.
My solution would be to vigorously pursue the fathers and garnish their wages in order to repay government assistance provided to their offspring and the mother of their offspring. I agree with the issue in theory, but most of these aren't a product of divorce court. It's out-of-wedlock children.
The problem with your model is you aren't sacrificing $1K in premiums for $1K that guarantees universal healthcare. The people who actually pay meaningful amounts of taxes will bear an undue burden of the costs.
Today, I pay roughly the same insurance premium as someone else on my health plan. Generally the same amount as someone covered by other similar employers as well. In your model, payment will be shifted to a model based on % of income. That means I go from paying a fair share (equal) to an unfair share (10X more than others). Not supporting that.
Right, it's not a perfect solution, but I think it's a step in the right direction. This has been a conversation the right has jihaded against since the ACA was passed and they've had 13 years to come up with some viable alternative. I'm completely open to alternatives that will provide coverage to the masses while also lessening the potential for medical bankruptcies, but I've yet to see one.
I think we're kinda in the same zip code. The problem is there is no objective way to define where the hypothetical third party starts and ends becuse it doesn't exist so we're let with conjecture based on multiple variable that don't realy have objective definitions either.
I don't have a lot of mental bandwidth right now to really give your post and this reply justice, but i don't think that "90% republican polling for Trump" somehow signifies that the republican party / voters are 100% MAGA. There just isnt any home for centrists in the D party right now.
I agree that the right hasn’t come up with a good alternative. I’ve posted my thoughts many times, which largely center around improving population health to reduce the overall demand on the health system and resulting cost.
The easiest example is the 41% US obesity rate vs. 17% or so in Europe. Our healthcare is expensive because we eat like shit, our food supply is shit and our lifestyles are shit. That leads to chronic disease, cancer and other health complications.
We need to place more emphasis on individual responsibility for health. Not less via a universal healthcare system. As with many dem ideas, even if the intent is noble, the incentives it creates are counterproductive.
We'll see next election.
Edit: Damn i should be in jail for fermenting a thread hijacking. Sorry to the OP and the others who are actually on topic.
Very true. (will also note there are likely conservatives that wouldn't normally vote MAGA who have due to the horrible blue candidates too)
I am looking forward to the next presidential election. No Trump, Biden, Hillary or Harris. It will be a totally new playing field.
I agree with much of this, but I don't think implementing a universal healthcare system would negatively impact individual responsibility if enforced properly. I don't know what the best answer would be, but I'd bet my annual bonus the US embracing urban sprawl is one of the top 3 drivers of our growing obesity epidemic. It promotes an over-reliance on personal transportation and puts less of a focus on low impact cardio - which i'm pretty sure is one of the best methods for curbing obesity alongside a healthy diet.
There's damn near zero accountability in the current iteration of healthcare that we have.
Unbelievable. RFK Jr says corruption at NIH is the SOLE REASON there isn’t a cure for Alzheimer’s:
“For 20 years, because of utter corruption and fraud, we were directing Alzheimer’s research to one hypothesis, and any other hypothesis was shut down.
We should have the cure for Alzheimer’s today. We don’t have it PURELY because of corruption at NIH. And we are going to have it quickly.”
There is no stopping MAGA but just wait…MAHA is just getting started.
The door to the corruption and hidden cures in the medical industry is just barely cracked open.
The purposeful poisoning of the population for profit in the medical, food and scientific community is going to be a massive red pill.
It has affected everyone and the people are going to be outraged as they learn the truth.
Drip, drip…flood.
RFK Jr. explains that currently there are 8 million people getting Medicaid that are not entitled to Medicaid.
Some of them are signed up for benefits in two different states.
Some of them are illegals. So brazen is this that as soon as the rules were changed Newsom took illegals off Medicaid.
Some of them get Medicaid and Obamacare.
That is what DOGE uncovered. That’s what Medicaid cuts are addressing. That’s what democrats are fighting to the death for.
We need to learn the root causes of chronic disease. Something is making Americans very sick, and our response should not begin and end with developing a pharmaceutical or medical fix. If we can figure out what’s fundamentally wrong and address it, America can have healthy kids again.
RFK Jr Blows Up 💥💥💣💣
For Heavens sake, anyone who thinks we did “Gold-Standard” Medicine in this country, LOOK AT OUR CHILDREN! They’re the sickest in the world!
“Congresswoman DeLauro, you say that you've worked for 20 years on getting food dye out….
Then give me credit! I got it out in 100 days.
Let's work together and do something that we all believe in, which is have healthy kids in our country for God's sake.”
If illegal, are they charging people?
Also, are there Medicaid benefits that pay you money?
I actually agree with cutting out dyes etc. Support this part of his agenda.
Wow!!!
THERE IT IS 🚨 Here’s how Barack Obama is the reason the cost of healthcare has skyrocketed in America
As soon as Barack Obama, funded by the pharmaceutical companies, signed Obamacare health insurance costs “significantly went up”
“Why is health care broken in America? It's a question that everybody asks and everybody thinks that they're like they're mind blown by the how complex health care is. And I tell people it's actually really simple.
You've got the buyers of health care who are these big health insurance plans that people don't understand this, but they actually want the price of health care to go up. They make more money when the price of health care goes up.
And the sellers of health care, which are these big hospital systems, they want the prices to go up.
So you don't need a PhD in economics to figure out if the buyer of something and the seller of something both want the price to go up, the price is going to go up.
So on the health insurance side, that's the one where people don't fully understand it, but there's a law, thanks to Obamacare, that health insurance plans can only make 15% of your premiums as profit. So let's just say Your premium is $1,000. They can make $150.
So how do they grow that premium or that profit? Your premium has to go up, which means the cost of health care actually has to go up.
So the buyer and the seller of health care both want the price to go up.
So that's why we're seeing just extraordinary rises in, in, in health care prices over the last decade especially.”
“Was it always this bad or did Obamacare really make it worse?”
“Oh, I mean, Obamacare definitely juiced it. Obamacare definitely juiced it. So you can see the trend and cost for healthcare once Obamacare was signed, it tweaked up. So it's very, very clear in the graph that the prices right at that point significantly went up.
So it has not always been like this.
This is a past 15 year phenomenon.”
THERE IT IS 🚨 Here’s how Barack Obama is the reason the cost of healthcare has skyrocketed in America
As soon as Barack Obama, funded by the pharmaceutical companies, signed Obamacare health insurance costs “significantly went up”
“Why is health care broken in America? It's a question that everybody asks and everybody thinks that they're like they're mind blown by the how complex health care is. And I tell people it's actually really simple.
You've got the buyers of health care who are these big health insurance plans that people don't understand this, but they actually want the price of health care to go up. They make more money when the price of health care goes up.
And the sellers of health care, which are these big hospital systems, they want the prices to go up.
So you don't need a PhD in economics to figure out if the buyer of something and the seller of something both want the price to go up, the price is going to go up.
So on the health insurance side, that's the one where people don't fully understand it, but there's a law, thanks to Obamacare, that health insurance plans can only make 15% of your premiums as profit. So let's just say Your premium is $1,000. They can make $150.
So how do they grow that premium or that profit? Your premium has to go up, which means the cost of health care actually has to go up.
So the buyer and the seller of health care both want the price to go up.
So that's why we're seeing just extraordinary rises in, in, in health care prices over the last decade especially.”
“Was it always this bad or did Obamacare really make it worse?”
“Oh, I mean, Obamacare definitely juiced it. Obamacare definitely juiced it. So you can see the trend and cost for healthcare once Obamacare was signed, it tweaked up. So it's very, very clear in the graph that the prices right at that point significantly went up.
So it has not always been like this.
This is a past 15 year phenomenon.”
Got the bill for my dermatologist appointment a couple weeks ago.
A 20 minute appointment and the doctor removed a smaller than pea sized skin tag.
Price $893 from the doctor and an additional $326 from the lab.
No one discussed pricing before the procedure. I called and told them to re-calculate because i simply wasn't paying that price. They can file a claim against me if they want, dgaf.
Health insurance is broken. Its a song and dance between the health insurance and the hospitals where they charge outrageous rates with obscure pricing and different prices for different people.
A 20 minute appointment and the doctor removed a smaller than pea sized skin tag.
Price $893 from the doctor and an additional $326 from the lab.
No one discussed pricing before the procedure. I called and told them to re-calculate because i simply wasn't paying that price. They can file a claim against me if they want, dgaf.
Health insurance is broken. Its a song and dance between the health insurance and the hospitals where they charge outrageous rates with obscure pricing and different prices for different people.
No, they need to charge that amount because if they don't then the pharmaceutical companies won't R&D and then we get bad healthcare like those socialist countries.
Am I doing it right?
It's fun when a 10 second google search can refute her main talking points.
Health Care Costs and Affordability | KFF
This Health Policy 101 chapter explores trends in health care costs in the U.S. and the factors that contribute to this spending. It also examines how health care spending varies across the population, the impact of costs on care affordability and individuals' overall financial vulnerability.
www.kff.org
You never thought to ask what the cost would be before they did a medical procedure? You think you didn't sign something agreeing to pay the costs when you checked in?
Get ready for a collections claim.
