Apparently a new line of attack against Medicare for All is that the Medicare reimbursement rate is…
Squashed
<p>Apparently a new line of attack against Medicare for All is that the Medicare reimbursement rate is too low to allow hospitals to stay open. A few observations:</p><ol><li>Of this is an actual problem it’s easy enough to just increase the medicare reimbursement rate.</li><li>It’s fun that the Republicans are now attacking Medicare for being too efficient and cost-effective?</li><li>Pay attention when people conflate the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates. Medicaid is administered on a state level and some states do it in dumb ways. If you say “Medicare” and somebody says, “but Medicaid” be aware that they have just switched topics. (Related: a strong argument for Medicare for all is that rich people set better policies for things that affect themselves than for things that only affect poor people.)</li><li>An incredible portion of our medical system is dedicated to an arms race between insurance companies and hospitals. So we could save money by not doing that.</li><li>Generally one should argue either that Medicare for all is too expensive or that it is so inexpensive the hospitals will go out of business. But simultaneosly arguing both is cool too.</li></ol>