Nevada’s Medicaid-For-All
Nevada’s legislature recently passed a bill that would allow everyone in Nevada to buy into Medicaid (health care for low-income Americans). This solution is something we have been suggesting on our site for a while (in one form or another).
Everyone wants to create a Medicare-for-All system, but the reality is Medicaid costs much less on average. So why not make a Medicaid public option the first step toward universal healthcare?
Giving people an option to buy into Medicaid means more funding for Medicaid and more coverage for citizens.
Remember, your state can do this too with a 1332 waiver!
Our goal here is only to draw your attention to this excellent idea so you can voice your support.
The bill is currently sitting with Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican. His office did not respond to a VOX inquiry about whether he would sign the bill or veto it.
In other words, get out there and tell Gov. Brian Sandoval to sign that bill ASAP!
Read VOX’s Nevada’s legislature just passed a radical plan to let anybody sign up for Medicaid by Sarah Kliff for more insight into what Medicaid-for-All could mean for Nevada if it passes!
Author: Thomas DeMichele
Thomas DeMichele is the head writer and founder of ObamaCareFacts.com, FactsOnMedicare.com, and other websites. He has been in the health insurance and healthcare information field since 2012. ObamaCareFacts.com is a...
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E Lim
Universal health care and allowing people to have health care access is a great thing for our country and the people living in it. I understand that one of the benefit for state government to consider Medicaid for all is because it cost a lot less than Medicare. It cost less because it reimburse much less as compared to other commercial and Medicare plan.
Unfortunately, I think a lot of people are looking for the “low cost” but doesn’t see the impact it has. It costs doctors and nurses hundreds of thousands of dollars for training. We all have debt to pay. By adopting Medicaid for all and allowing reimbursement to drop for our services… how are we suppose to pay our debt? How are we suppose to pay for the overhead cost of running an office? The misconception is that people relate “hospital” and “doctors” as one entity but don’t understand that the majority of the medical bill payment, doesn’t even go to the doctor. It goes to the administration of the hospital. We order exams and tests that sometimes may be unnecessary but in fear of malpractice lawsuits.
I have been on both ends of the spectrum. I have seen my reimbursement cut by insurance company paying me 0.70 on the dollar because they can. I have also spent $15,000 undergraduate, $25,000 graduate, and close to $200,000 on medical school tuition. When I finished my training, I was close to $250,000 in debt, and I was already 30 years old. On the other hand, my niece was sick and had to stay in the NICU. Her medical bill was close to 1.5 million dollars. There needs to be a balance and I don’t think that adopting a plan that would cause significant decrease in physician reimbursement is going to help. If a physician can’t support his/her office and will have to close down, where would they go? To another state that would offer better compensation. Then who is available to support the sick population?
I think the main issue that health care cost has increased significantly over the years is simply due to extremely poor medical malpractice reforms and also private commercial insurance and hospitals greed. 99% of my colleagues became physicians because we wanted to help. It was never about the money, unfortunately, we still need to pay our debt. we still need to make up for all the time spent on training, need to be able to put food on the table… honestly, how much is a life worth? The answer is priceless.
In all fairness, I hope everything goes well if the bill is to be passed in Nevada. I’m a gynecology oncologist and there are a lot of demand for my specialty throughout the country, including the state of Nevada. I am definitely avoiding Nevada now.
ObamaCareFacts.comThe Author
You are right to bring that up. Part of why Medicaid costs less on average is how reimbursements work. There is a whole conversation here on non-payments and reimbursements for Medicare and Medicaid that should be discussed.
I would say that expanding Medicaid should be paired with cost controls. One cost control should be assuring not only the consumer side, but the provider side. If Medicaid payments aren’t high enough, then the legislature should account for this too.
Then as you say malpractice reforms and other factors should be addressed too. All great points.
I would hope Nevada will factor all this in. We have to be able to expand healthcare (especially via an opt-in) without breaking the underlying system.
One thing to consider is that increasing coverage decreases non-payments emergency care and keeps beds full and thus makes staffing easier to figure out. So it isn’t all negatives, from what I understand from talking to other providers and hospital workers.
Sowhat
Nationalize the whole Medical Care Industry. Get rid of the status quo. Get rid of the profiteers in Medical Care and ALL of the related industries. I’m sure that will not do away with all of the corruption but, the current system has failed miserably because, after all, the whole system is designed as a means of wealth distribution, as is capitalism in general. I don’t begrudge people making a profit because that is all that I have become accustomed to in my six decades.
But, morality aside (even though I would like to claim the immorality of the whole system), Instead of having the taxpayer pay for ever-increasing profits that supply the wealthy with increased wealth through the stock market, if nationalized, everyone could obtain affordable Healthcare.
This, of course, won’t happen because the whole economic system of the United States has be designed to steal for the poor and average, less-wealthy to enrich the more-wealthy (few at the top) and we have all been brainwashed to believe that the current system is the only viable system.