Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumThis is the totality of Bloomberg's health care plan, as presented on his web site.
Last edited Sat Feb 15, 2020, 12:56 PM - Edit history (1)
"Trump broke his promise to protect our health care, repeatedly trying to deny our access to coverage. As president, Mike Bloomberg will protect Americans with expanded coverage and lower costs. Hell build on Obamacare to protect coverage for pre-existing conditions and make prescription drugs more affordable."
Maybe this is really smart. Give opponents absolutely no specifics to attack him on. But to me it sounds dismissive. As if the issue didn't warrant any thinking.
IMPORTANT - Read reply #6 in this thread. It wasn't accessible from the page I found with this summary.
What do you all think?
tia
las
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
stopbush
(24,396 posts)Does one need more detail than that? Pretty stark comparison on its face, no?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
MH1
(17,600 posts)He should add something about protection from bankruptcy due to surprise medical bills (better worded than that of course). Then he would have covered probably the 2 largest sources of fear in our current system.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
MoonlitKnight
(1,584 posts)Its sounds exactly like Trumps (lie) position.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
DanTex
(20,709 posts)He's center-right, basically a pro-choice Mitt Romney who believes in climate change. Which is a million times better than Trump. But people looking for progressive policies aren't going to get them from Bloomberg, and everyone knows that.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
David__77
(23,503 posts)...
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
brooklynite
(94,727 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
DanTex
(20,709 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
brooklynite
(94,727 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
DanTex
(20,709 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
brooklynite
(94,727 posts)Democrats outnumber Republicans 5-1. Nobody gets elected without a majority of Democrats
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Fresh_Start
(11,330 posts)nt
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
DanTex
(20,709 posts)And Bloomberg didn't win any of his elections by a large enough margin to have taken a majority of Dem votes. 2005 possibly, not not the other two, which were close.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
brooklynite
(94,727 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
DanTex
(20,709 posts)The math isn't very hard here...
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
TwilightZone
(25,479 posts)Detailed promises are generally not a good idea in a campaign, Elizabeth Warren's approach notwithstanding.
His stance makes sense because people are already familiar with Obamacare and Congress is ultimately responsible for how it proceeds from here.
Many of the candidates follow a similar pattern. They make promises, but provide few details on the path to get there or how they'll be funded, because such predictions are likely to change dramatically by the final implementation.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
MineralMan
(146,329 posts)in the next four years. Rescuing ACA and expanding its coverage would be a great thing. the candidates calling for M4A have all pretty much admitted that it's not going to get through Congress, anyhow. Maybe a public option is possible, but not M4A.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,432 posts)isn't Trump." It's dangerous, and it's disheartening that people are falling for it. Just because Bloomberg isn't Trump doesn't mean he's better than Trump.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
TwilightZone
(25,479 posts)how they're going to fund their grandiose plans. Or refusing to.
All political candidates make vague promises. It's a smart strategy because nothing ever makes it through Congress unscathed and the end result is often unrecognizable.
What's worse - making detailed promises a candidate has no chance of ever getting passed or making simple assertions that are much easier to implement and therefore evaluate the success of?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
brooklynite
(94,727 posts)Health Coverage
The cost of health care in the U.S. is almost double what it is in other affluent countries, yet we have a lower average life expectancy and higher infant-mortality rates than other advanced nations. Mikes solution builds on the Affordable Care Act to achieve universal health coverage while substantially reducing health care costs and expanding access to health services.
How Mike Will Get It Done:
Health Care
Create a Medicare-like public insurance option
Improve and expand enrollment in Affordable Care Act plans
Allow people to keep their private insurance
Cap health care prices
Lower drug costs
Expand access to dental, hearing, and vision coverage
Create a permanent reinsurance program that reduces customer premiums
Health care in the United States costs too much. It leaves too many people uninsured; eats into workers wages, public budgets, and employers bottom lines; and puts vulnerable families one medical emergency away from financial ruin. Health care costs are also the top financial concern for American families.
President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have done little to help. On the contrary, they have gone after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and made it harder for the vulnerable to get Medicaid coverage.
And while health costs are almost double those of other affluent countries, the U.S. has lower life expectancy and higher infant-mortality rates than other advanced nations.
Mikes plan is politically practical and achievable, working toward universal coverage, lower costs, and improved health for Americans. The key elements of the plan include:
Public option
The first step is to create a Medicare-like public option health insurance that would be administered by the federal government but paid for by customer premiums. In rolling out this option, priority would go to the uninsured, including low-income people who are in states that havent expanded Medicaid under the ACA. A public insurance option would improve consumer choice and increase competition in the private insurance market, pushing down everyones premiums. People of modest means who buy the public option would be eligible for the same subsidies that would apply on the health insurance exchanges.
Build on the Affordable Care Act
The ACA made great strides in helping people who dont get health insurance through an employer afford coverage in the individual market. Mike would reverse the Trump administrations attempts at sabotage: He would expand enrollment efforts, restrict the sale of health plans that dont meet ACA standards, and defend the law against politically motivated lawsuits. He would expand subsidies to cap premiums at 8.5% of a households income. He would create a permanent reinsurance program that, by helping insurers with the largest claims, would reduce customer premiums roughly 10%. Finally, because about a third of Americans choose not to see a dentist regularly because it is too expensive, Mike would expand Medicare to include an optional policy covering dental, hearing, and vision care, and would require all states to cover oral health services for adults in Medicaid.
Build on the Affordable Care Act
The ACA made great strides in helping people who dont get health insurance through an employer afford coverage in the individual market. Mike would reverse the Trump administrations attempts at sabotage: He would expand enrollment efforts, restrict the sale of health plans that dont meet ACA standards, and defend the law against politically motivated lawsuits. He would expand subsidies to cap premiums at 8.5% of a households income. He would create a permanent reinsurance program that, by helping insurers with the largest claims, would reduce customer premiums roughly 10%. Finally, because about a third of Americans choose not to see a dentist regularly because it is too expensive, Mike would expand Medicare to include an optional policy covering dental, hearing, and vision care, and would require all states to cover oral health services for adults in Medicaid.
Cap health care prices and ban surprise medical bills
Expanding insurance coverage is not enough to protect Americans from high medical bills. The U.S. health care market has been unable to restrain costs. And this problem has been compounded by provider consolidation. To bring prices down, Mike would cap out-of-network charges at 200% of Medicare rates. (Medicare does something similar; beneficiaries enrolled in private plans, known as Medicare Advantage plans, have capped prices for out-of-network providers. This cap protects beneficiaries, and, at the same time, gives private insurers greater leverage in negotiating rates with hospitals and clinicians.)
Lower drug costs
Mike would work with Congress to authorize the secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. The government would cap drug prices at 120% of the average in other advanced nations and this cap would apply to consumers with public or private insurance. Mike would ban drug company payments to the people who make decisions at pharmacies so that drug makers compete on the cost and value of their products not on the amount of money they pay to get preferential treatment. Mike would also reform the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit to encourage greater competition, and cap beneficiaries annual out-of-pocket costs at $2,000.
Mikes Record
Mike Bloomberg knows the value of quality health care, and he has a record of success, as Mayor of New York, and as a successful businessman, that make him the right person to take on this challenge.
Mike built a business with more than 19,000 employees, each with great health care and paid leave.
As Mayor of New York, Mike expanded health care for working families and improved care for seniors. The number of New Yorkers without health insurance fell nearly 40 percent between 2001 and 2013 from 1.8M to 1.105M with a 72 percent drop in the number of uninsured children in the period, from 288K to 82K.
New York City was the first local government in the nation to offer help online to uninsured residents. With NYC Health Insurance Link, uninsured small businesses, individuals, and freelancers are now able to search for and compare all different kinds of health plans. The tool provides users with a full range of comprehensive health plans available in the City.
New York City was a pioneer in health care accountability. In 2007, New York Citys Health and Hospital Corporation, which operates the public hospitals and clinics in New York City as a public benefit corporation, began publishing information on infection and death rates for each of its hospitals and for the system as a whole in comparison to state and national averages. It was the first health care system in New York State to do so.
As a mayor, businessman, and philanthropist, Mike has pioneered bold health initiatives that have cleaned the air we breathe, expanded access to prenatal and postnatal care, increased screenings for breast and prostate cancer, dramatically cut teen smoking, and reduced injuries and deaths on roads.
Mikes focus on promoting public health as mayor added 3 years to the life expectancy of New Yorkers.
Added nearly a million New Yorkers, including more than 200,000 children, to public health insurance rolls between 2001 and 2013.
Mikes philanthropic work to reduce tobacco use has helped save 35 million lives across the globe.
Mikes policies helped cut teen smoking in half and cut heart disease by 32% in New York City.
Mike helped reduce childhood obesity in New York City by 5.5% while it went up in the rest of the country.
Drug Prices
Prescription drug prices are high and continue to rise, overwhelming families and straining hospital budgets. Mikes solutions take bold, innovative steps to reduce drug costs.
How Mike Will Get It Done:
Cap out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries
Authorize Medicare to negotiate drug prices
Require Part D plans to promote the most cost-effective drugs
Allow imports of safe drugs from abroad
Eliminate drug company payoffs to pharmacy benefit managers
Change intellectual property law
Drug prices are a top concern for families across the country, and theyre a top concern for Mike. As president, Mike will take an innovative and all-encompassing approach to lower drug prices for the American people.
President Trump promised that he would lower drug prices, yet in the first seven months of 2018, there were nearly 100 price hikes for every price cut. He continues to make promises and cover for them with misleading claims, but the facts are irrefutable: the price of 3,400 drugs was increased at a rate five times higher than inflation during the first six months of 2019.
Mikes Plan
Make Medicare Cheaper for Seniors and Use It to Lower Drug Prices for Everyone
Cap out-of-pocket drug spending for Medicare beneficiaries at $2,000 annually.
Authorize Medicare to negotiate the drug prices from the pharmaceutical industry. Allow commercial insurers to also use the negotiated price to lower drug prices for everyone, including those not on Medicare, and save taxpayers approximately $456 billion over ten years.
Require Medicare Part D health plans to promote the most cost-effective drugs, including generics, reducing premiums and co-pays for Medicare beneficiaries and overall U.S. health care spending.
Allow Imports of Safe Drugs from Abroad and Fix Americas Health Care Competition Problem and
Americans should be allowed to buy medicine from other countries, provided those countries have drug-quality control up to American standards.
Fulfill a promise Donald Trump has made and broken by eliminating drug company payoffs to Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), payments that manipulate drug prices and game the system.
Lower Drug Prices and Boost Research by Changing Patent and Intellectual Property Law
Bring generic drugs to the market faster by limiting brand-name drug makers to one patent that lasts 20 years. Today, brand-name drugs account for 72% of U.S. drug spending despite representing only 10% of all prescriptions. Their prices also rise year after year far faster than inflation. Brand-name drugs are a major contributor to high drug prices for consumers and high overall U.S. spending.
Require drug companies to pay royalties to the National Institutes of Health if they use NIH IP and turn it into a commercial drug product. These revenues can be used to lower drug costs for people on Medicare and to fund additional research.
Mikes Record
As Mayor of New York, Mike championed visionary ideas like allowing New Yorkers to import prescription drugs from Canada and programs like discount prescription drug cards for all New York City residents that helped make New York City a world leader in health care, quality of life and life expectancy.
In 2011, Mike launched the BigAppleRx prescription card, which offers substantial discounts on prescription drugs to New Yorkers. In its first six months, BigAppleRx saved New Yorkers more than $1.5 million, or a 47% discount on prescriptions for the average user. The card is still available to all New Yorkers regardless of age, income, citizenship or health insurance status, as Mike originally implemented it.
Mike has a record of supporting Americans who want to buy prescription drugs from Canada. In 2003, he urged the Food and Drug Administration to allow New Yorkers to purchase prescription drugs from Canada, saying, If the Canadians can produce drugs that the FDA says are effective and safe and well-labeled, then I would like to see New Yorkers being able to benefit
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
LAS14
(13,783 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
brooklynite
(94,727 posts)Select the HEALTH COVERAGE or DRUG PRICES tab.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
MarcA
(2,195 posts)if a moscow mitch is still charge of the Senate?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
MoonlitKnight
(1,584 posts)It sets up the public option to fail. It sets up ACA to fail.
Its all about the risk pools and administrative overhead. This is why Republicans took away the key piece of the Jenga puzzle that is the ACA, the individual mandate. Nixons plan was a corporate mandate. We have known for decades how to do this. And when the Republicans wanted to do something that would keep private insurance it was in the freaking 1970s.
We knew then that it would not work. It took over 30 years before we capitulated and went with the Republican plan in the form of the ACA. Yes its better but it does not work to control costs.
Healthcare has been studied and now tested and we know what needs to be done. Its worse than climate change denial. Miami and New York arent underwater yet. With healthcare we have seen the equivalent and yet people still deny reality.
We can keep whistling past the graveyard and wasting trillions of dollars and millions of lives. Or we can wake the F up and start fighting for what needs to be done. And that means fighting the corruption that continues to make otherwise intelligent people do what is in the best interest of our country.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)-- to, well we looked a bit deeper and it's going to cost 5.2 T annually. And, she expects us to believe the middle-class won't have to pay anything for it.
Neither Warren or Sanders can win a General Election running on that junk. People aren't going take a plan crammed down their throats that they haven't seen, can't try, etc.
MFA likely makes the best sense long-term, but if people don't believe it or trust it, we'll be sitting here in 2024 with whatever trump and GOPers have prescribed.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Politicub
(12,165 posts)The ten essential health benefits, ban of lifetime spending caps, and the end of pre-existing condition prohibitions are all an amuse bouche. The subsidies are also helpful for people below a certain income threshold because they cap premiums as a percentage of income.
The law has been extremely resilient in resisting its dismantling. It has been weakened but the most important pieces are still in place.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
left-of-center2012
(34,195 posts)Bloomberg attacks Trump,
while the other Democratic candidates and their supporters attack
other Democratic candidates and their supporters.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Kaleva
(36,343 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Kaleva
(36,343 posts)"Health care in the United States costs too much. It leaves too many people uninsured; eats into workers wages, public budgets, and employers bottom lines; and puts vulnerable families one medical emergency away from financial ruin. Health care costs are also the top financial concern for American families.
President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have done little to help. On the contrary, they have gone after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and made it harder for the vulnerable to get Medicaid coverage.
And while health costs are almost double those of other affluent countries, the U.S. has lower life expectancy and higher infant-mortality rates than other advanced nations.
Mikes plan is politically practical and achievable, working toward universal coverage, lower costs, and improved health for Americans. The key elements of the plan include:
Public option
The first step is to create a Medicare-like public option health insurance that would be administered by the federal government but paid for by customer premiums. In rolling out this option, priority would go to the uninsured, including low-income people who are in states that havent expanded Medicaid under the ACA. A public insurance option would improve consumer choice and increase competition in the private insurance market, pushing down everyones premiums. People of modest means who buy the public option would be eligible for the same subsidies that would apply on the health insurance exchanges.
Build on the Affordable Care Act
The ACA made great strides in helping people who dont get health insurance through an employer afford coverage in the individual market. Mike would reverse the Trump administrations attempts at sabotage: He would expand enrollment efforts, restrict the sale of health plans that dont meet ACA standards, and defend the law against politically motivated lawsuits. He would expand subsidies to cap premiums at 8.5% of a households income. He would create a permanent reinsurance program that, by helping insurers with the largest claims, would reduce customer premiums roughly 10%. Finally, because about a third of Americans choose not to see a dentist regularly because it is too expensive, Mike would expand Medicare to include an optional policy covering dental, hearing, and vision care, and would require all states to cover oral health services for adults in Medicaid.
Cap health care prices and ban surprise medical bills
Expanding insurance coverage is not enough to protect Americans from high medical bills. The U.S. health care market has been unable to restrain costs. And this problem has been compounded by provider consolidation. To bring prices down, Mike would cap out-of-network charges at 200% of Medicare rates. (Medicare does something similar; beneficiaries enrolled in private plans, known as Medicare Advantage plans, have capped prices for out-of-network providers. This cap protects beneficiaries, and, at the same time, gives private insurers greater leverage in negotiating rates with hospitals and clinicians.)
Lower drug costs
Mike would work with Congress to authorize the secretary of Health and Human Services to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. The government would cap drug prices at 120% of the average in other advanced nations and this cap would apply to consumers with public or private insurance. Mike would ban drug company payments to the people who make decisions at pharmacies so that drug makers compete on the cost and value of their products not on the amount of money they pay to get preferential treatment. Mike would also reform the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit to encourage greater competition, and cap beneficiaries annual out-of-pocket costs at $2,000.
Taken together, these changes would lower health care costs, insure millions more Americans, and promote competition and efficiency in the health care market.
Learn more about Mikes plan for lowering drug prices."
https://www.mikebloomberg.com/policies/health-coverage-plan
"Mikes Plan
Make Medicare Cheaper for Seniors and Use It to Lower Drug Prices for Everyone
Cap out-of-pocket drug spending for Medicare beneficiaries at $2,000 annually.
Authorize Medicare to negotiate the drug prices from the pharmaceutical industry. Allow commercial insurers to also use the negotiated price to lower drug prices for everyone, including those not on Medicare, and save taxpayers approximately $456 billion over ten years.
Require Medicare Part D health plans to promote the most cost-effective drugs, including generics, reducing premiums and co-pays for Medicare beneficiaries and overall U.S. health care spending.
Allow Imports of Safe Drugs from Abroad and Fix Americas Health Care Competition Problem and
Americans should be allowed to buy medicine from other countries, provided those countries have drug-quality control up to American standards.
Fulfill a promise Donald Trump has made and broken by eliminating drug company payoffs to Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), payments that manipulate drug prices and game the system.
Lower Drug Prices and Boost Research by Changing Patent and Intellectual Property Law
Bring generic drugs to the market faster by limiting brand-name drug makers to one patent that lasts 20 years. Today, brand-name drugs account for 72% of U.S. drug spending despite representing only 10% of all prescriptions. Their prices also rise year after year far faster than inflation. Brand-name drugs are a major contributor to high drug prices for consumers and high overall U.S. spending.
Require drug companies to pay royalties to the National Institutes of Health if they use NIH IP and turn it into a commercial drug product. These revenues can be used to lower drug costs for people on Medicare and to fund add"
https://www.mikebloomberg.com/policies/drug-prices
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
LAS14
(13,783 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
RandySF
(59,225 posts)No matter who he/she is.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Especially when you read Post #6.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
OnDoutside
(19,970 posts)Them scaring people about the loss of preexisting conditions.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
MOMFUDSKI
(5,639 posts)the ex Health Ins mucky muck who was in on the whole ins shenanigans said recently that halfway is bullshit. Must totally eliminate their part in our healthcare and go full MFA. I agree but also realize this is a very important election and beating trump is the ONLY THING THAT MATTERS this go round. So if Mike and his money can do the trick so be it. These are desperate times.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided