Me in operating room
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Nationalized Healthcare and the Free Market


Nationalized/Universal healthcare will happen. Obama ran on it and he intends to deliver. What’s more, I can see a manner in which the country will flock to it under the current free market insurance system.

First, the federal government will expand Medicaid to cover the unemployed and uninsured. Second, the Congress will pass some law that mandates employers to provide health insurance for not only full-time employees, but part-time employees too.

Oh, by the way, the federal government will also make available a government-sponsored insurance plan to compete with the other available HMO and PPO choices. Of course the government plan will cost you (the employer) 40-50% less than the next most expensive plan. You (the employer) will offer your employees the government plan as per the terms of the new law and they (the employees) will have the option of spending almost twice as much for a different commercial plan. I don’t really expect many employees to avail themselves of the opportunity to spend more money for little perceived increase in services. Soon 80-90% of the country will be on the government plan and physicians and hospitals will effectively have a single payor. Welcome to nationalized/universal healthcare.