Nearly 60% of US small business owners support Medicare for All

[Johan]

Faced with soaring costs of private insurance, poll shows 58% of small business owners support Medicare for All



“Medicare for All is the only solution to our healthcare cost crisis that will offer relief to workers and small businesses alike.”

A survey released this week by the Commonwealth Fund found that, faced with soaring costs under the for-profit status quo, 58 percent of U.S. small business owners support replacing America’s dysfunctional healthcare system with Medicare for All.

Progressives celebrated the finding as evidence that a key argument in favor of Medicare for All—that the plan would reduce costs for small employers as well as millions of workers—is resonating.

As the Commonwealth Fund pointed out in an overview of its survey, small businesses lack the advantages of large corporations when it comes to negotiating with the private insurance industry.
“Small-business owners are often left with little recourse and few options when a health insurance carrier hikes costs,” the organization noted.
According to the new poll, 61 percent of small business owners believe the pharmaceutical industry is “very responsible” for soaring healthcare costs, and 60 percent feel the same about the insurance industry.

The Business for Medicare for All coalition said on Twitter that the Commonwealth survey “confirms what we already know: Medicare for All is the only solution to our healthcare cost crisis that will offer relief to workers and small businesses alike.”
In an op-ed for The Nation in March, investor and entrepreneur Joe Sanberg argued a Medicare for All system would “reduce the cost of hiring workers, and lower costs for employers by taking them out of the business of buying and providing health coverage.”
“It turns out that Medicare for All is the right thing to do for people, and the smart thing to do for our economy,” wrote Sanberg. “The seven in 10 Americans who support Medicare For All understand that. Now, it’s time for our representatives to listen and act.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/fa...all-business-owners-support-medicare-for-all/

 

[ChuckFaze]

They have blinders on. Whether foolishly or on purpose, they're not looking at the entire picture. They're not looking at the higher taxes that it would require. I bet they don't SUPPORT THAT. So they think the Medicare for all is just going to rain out of the sky?

 

[ChuckFaze]

And it's not like the Democrats are hiding that detail either. They've mentioned it outright. But, those who think it is a great idea are just focusing on the smoke and mirrors supposed FREE aspect of it. They're not looking at just exactly where the fuck all that money would come from.

That is right DOWN there with the $1,000.00 per month per person handout that Asian Democrat Presidential candidate (Yang?) is tossing out there. I guess contrary to what we thought, money DOES grow on trees.

 

[xfire]

 

[Ace Boobtoucher]

60% of the businesses they cherry picked.

 

[Supafly]

It is 20% versus 5% cost

Anybody can do that math.

 

[smithus]

Just keep insurance companies out of it, like some of the Europeans do

 

[xfire]

Take the enrollment of the largest health insurance company currently in business and those numbers pale in comparison to enrolling every American in Medicare-for-All. No one's suggesting it be, "free", but it would be exponentially cheaper than, "private insurance", with better service, and better outcomes. For-profit healthcare is immoral.

 

[Johan]

60% of the businesses they cherry picked.

Prove it

What can be asserted without evidence can be denied withouty evidence

 

[Straight Shooter]

Do people not know that $ is taken from their paycheck to fund Medicare and Social Security??

 

[Rey C.]

60% of the businesses they cherry picked.

Well, maybe not. I mean, I can see why that might be a legit stat. The most expensive employee benefit that small (and large) employers provide is health insurance. It's even more expensive for small businesses because they can't negotiate for better coverage and lower premiums like large businesses can. This would take ALL of that expense away. It would totally wipe that benefit and the responsibility off their books. If it blows up or doesn't work, their little HR departments (usually consisting of the secretary or the owner's wife) don't have to hear the complaints - not their problem anymore. The small business that I'm working with now picks up about 75% of the premium costs. Comes out to be about $800/month, or roughly $10 grand a year for singles with no kids for a basic 80/20 policy. $10K in benefits savings per employee might sound good to this guy. Course, there's always a catch.

As a small business owner in this scenario, all you really have to care about is whether your taxes might increase by more than what you're paying for employer provided insurance now. To me, that's the open question. I'm not a benefits, insurance, Medicare or tax expert by any stretch. Didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. But just looking at the government website and seeing that we (the taxpayers) had gross Medicare expenditures of $711 billion in FY2018, while taking in premiums and collections of $122 billion, for a net Medicare expenditure of $589 billion... that represents a deficit. This for a system that collects from people who aren't even covered by Medicare yet. So if that system is running a deficit, this totally new system probably will too. Either a deficit or the taxes/fees/premiums required to make it revenue neutral will have to be quite a bit higher than what I've heard so far. I guess it's possible that our critters in Congress will suddenly grow brains and figure out ways to address the costs within the healthcare industry, and get the expenditures down that way. But we're not through the looking glass with Alice yet, so I don't see that happening.

So all that to say, I don't know whether this will work or whether it will be a disaster. Probably good or bad, depending on your circumstances. I do think that it'll be a helluva lot more expensive than what partisans are projecting though. But just like how I felt about the ACA initially, I feel like if Republicans and Democrats would work together (for once in our lifetime), we actually could come up with something better than what we have now... just because what we have now is so damn bad and it's getting worse. I'm in a pretty good place financially and the prospect of having to buy private insurance (on my own) is more than I want to deal with - and that's why I haven't retired early. People with families, who are already up against it, are probably just one medical emergency away from being bankrupt, or at least deep in medical debt. I know people like that too. My feeling is that a mix of public and private solutions would be best. There has to be something that can rein in healthcare providers that charge $20 for an aspirin, ambulance chasing lawyers, insurance companies that gouge people while their CEOs fly around in private jets... AND members of Congress who sell us out to all of these groups by selling their votes to lobbyists for "campaign donations (I would call them bribes, but that might not be politically correct these days).