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California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

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Re: California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

#301

Post by beej71 »

cobrabyte wrote: post #84
ren_engineer wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

when has California's government recently shown any capability to successfully implement big projects or spend tax payer money efficiently? How is the high speed train project coming along?

This is my thought, as well. When your private insurance company stinks, you find a new insurer. When you're forced to pay the government for health insurance, you're stuck without options. Health insurance isn't one of the services that I trust the government to be able to run well. They don't have a particularly great track record where efficiency, customer service, and speed are concerned.

I have the best insurance available in my area, and it stinks. What are my options?

Re: California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

#302

Post by sneak »

onphonenow wrote: post #154
sneak wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most european countries have fewer poor people by percentage than the USA. Single payer "works" in europe in the sense that you still end up having to pay out of pocket if you want not-crap (private) care.

Not true really. Germany has had pretty good success. Wait times even on the public side are reasonable. But govt is actually not very involved in providing care - they are more of a market administrator. 100+ nonprofits compete for patients in various ways. And everyone has to have coverage. Also, coverage is rationed more in these systems, they would never approve these the $20,000 per bill with limited evidence ty…

The average quality of healthcare in Germany versus the US is crap, as someone who lives in both places. It's cheaper but you get what you pay for.

Re: California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

#303

Post by beeboop »

parkingrift wrote: post #229
Maxion wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you believe single-payer is a bad idea? The model works very well in most European countries.

Not OP, but I'll answer. Switching to a single-payer will be too costly for any political party to tolerate. The US spends $3.8T on health care per year. That's $11,500 for every single person in the United States. In order to fund (raise taxes) to a single-payer system that number will need to drop dramatically. We'll have to cut out middlemen, reduce bureaucracy, negotiate domestically, etc. That $11.5k needs to dr…

How much of the $3.8T is profits that don't need to exist? Why should public medicine be for-profit when public education isn't? Why does no one complain that the military doesn't turn a profit yet also costs nearly a trillion a year?

Presumably the entire industry isn't going to magically become less complicated when a single payer option begins. There will still be a need for many of those roles, but they will be employed by the state instead of private companies siphoning profit.

I have not seen, and I am not sure it would be possible to generate, evidence in the number of jobs that would be lost (or created) by a single payer system.

Re: California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

#304

Post by bradlys »

mike00632 wrote: post #281
jamestimmins wrote: post #14

As a taxpayer I don't actually have a problem with this. However, as a California resident who has seen this state's inability to think through regulations effectively or solve housing problems, I'm incredibly skeptical of California's ability to implement single payer healthcare effectively. I would likely leave the state because I assume California would fail to deliver, and taxes would get raised for nothing.

Medical, the state's public option for lower income people is amazing, so I think your skepticism is misplaced

Is it? My partner was on it. Pretty shitty compared to the insurance she has now. Many providers just didn’t take med-i-cal and it was difficult to get a lot of things done.

Re: California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

#305

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

HideousKojima wrote: post #254
onphonenow wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got access to employer numbers. Grandfathered plans are an absolutely screaming deal. You can do an HSA plan with a $2000 deductible and low OOP max, fully fund the HSA ($7,200) and come out way ahead at modest cost. This let's you do things like vision / dental / chiro / accu / whatever day to day stuff on the HSA, then keep costs controlled (after 2K) for a major issue. If you don't end up using the HSA you ca…

>I like obamacare, but something happened as part of obamacare that has CLEARLY driven up costs. Is it the lack of limits (ie, $10M in coverage during last weeks of life?) Is it some sort of other mandate? That's an easy one, Obamacare mandated that insurance companies couldn't charge more than X times as much for their most expensive plans vs. their cheapest plans, The people pushing it were either tremendously igno…

Can't it be both? I'd certainly expect both things to happen, rather than one or the other.

Re: California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

#307

Post by SSilver2k2 »

sneak wrote: post #144
SSilver2k2 wrote: post #33

If this passes I will be the first to move to California. I am happy to pay high taxes if it means it will better my lives and the lives of others.

You don't need to move to contribute to charity that helps others.

Charity helps specific people. Taxes help everyone. I always vote to increase my property taxes. Libraries, Schools, Emergency Services all get better with that increased revenue.

Re: California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

#308

Post by SSilver2k2 »

txsoftwaredev wrote: post #102
SSilver2k2 wrote: post #33

If this passes I will be the first to move to California. I am happy to pay high taxes if it means it will better my lives and the lives of others.

If you are looking to offload some money I'll take it! It would better my life.

After looking at your comment history I don't think money would better your life. Travel would.

Re: California Considers Doubling Its Taxes

#310

Post by HideousKojima »

rrrrrrrrrrrryan wrote: post #305
HideousKojima wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I like obamacare, but something happened as part of obamacare that has CLEARLY driven up costs. Is it the lack of limits (ie, $10M in coverage during last weeks of life?) Is it some sort of other mandate? That's an easy one, Obamacare mandated that insurance companies couldn't charge more than X times as much for their most expensive plans vs. their cheapest plans, The people pushing it were either tremendously igno…

Can't it be both? I'd certainly expect both things to happen, rather than one or the other.

When you've just had the government mandate that everyone in the country has to buy at least the lowest tier of your product, why would you take any losses at the top when people are forced to pay just about any price at the bottom?
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