Hearing the Falconer #16 ~ 24-March-2019 ~ Is Bernie's Medicare For All Too Extreme?

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world....
from The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats, 1919

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

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24-March-2019: Is Bernie's Medicare for all scheme too extreme?
Explaining Medicare for All
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Bad idea from the left.

Bernie's Medicare for all proposal would cover virtually all medical expenses and consumers would pay nothing. This is too extreme.

On the other hand we cannot leave consumers with no help at all paying for medical care. That would be too extreme on the other side.

I think a more moderate proposal would be to expect consumers to pay their own insurance premiums or medical bills up to something like 10-20% of their annual income. For expenses above the amount paid for by consumers and insurance companies the government should kick in an amount equal to something like 20-30% of the expected annual GDP each year. Once all limits are reached consumers would be on their own, but, sadly, there are always limits to what we can do, both as individuals and as societies.

We should also keep private health care facilities such as hospitals and insurance companies while requiring them to follow appropriate regulations. This is the good and moderate solution. Public ownership of these companies would be too extreme one way, while having no rules and regulations would be too extreme the other way.

By the way, I would also like the government to offer strong incentives for insurance companies and healthcare companies to both increase the quality and decrease the costs of their services. This could be done with either tax breaks or even cash bounties for great innovative ideas.

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The "Hearing the Falconer" Library

Books for Indpendent Thinkers

Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today

The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It

Unapologetically Moderate: My Search for the Rational Center in American Politics

The Deliberate Moderate: Influencing From the Middle

Eisenhower: The White House Years

The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison

Lincoln

Reflections of a Radical Moderate

Washington: A Life

The Reluctant Republican: My Fight for the Moderate Majority

Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party