Wait, private companies spend 17 times more on administrative costs
than Medicare.
What are private insurance companies spending on that Medicare is not.
Does Medicare spend hundreds of millions of dollars on
television advertisements like private insurance Dr Collins?
>> Here's the moment Representative Katie Porter absolutely crushed private health
insurance companies for their added fees and costs.
I love it, keep watching.
>> No.
>> Does Medicare spend millions of dollars on stock buybacks to shareholders?
>> No.
>> Does Medicare spend money on marketing private insurance likes to put its name on
stadiums and PGA tournaments?
Is there a Medicare arena?
>> No.
>> Does Medicare spend $23 million dollars on
executive pay like private insurance companies, do?
>> No.
>> There isn't a lot of good news.
But anytime Katie Porter gets to grill anyone on anything,
it's typically exciting because she comes with the fact she comes with the receipts.
And in this context, she specifically carrying out what we need to hear in
Congress in regard to Medicare for all.
And how it would actually save not only Americans, but
the US government quite a bit of money.
It would be a far better system than the system that we currently have that
relies mostly on private health insurance companies.
Now, this was during a recent hearing that took place in the House of course.
And the whole point is to do this hearing on Medicare for
all the House Progressive Caucus wants to revive these discussions.
And these debates, which I think is a good thing to do,
even though let's keep it real under this current administration,
it's highly unlikely that we would get Medicare for all.
But it's important to I'd like to say keep momentum going, but
momentum has died down a little bit.
So trying to revive this I think is a good move.
Now Katie Porter came with the receipts like I said, and
she specifically wanted to draw this distinction between the costly,
wasteful nature of private insurance versus Medicare or Medicare system.
And how it actually saves a lot of money.
Let's watch.
>> Dr Collins what percentage of revenue do
private insurance companies spend on administrative costs?
>> Between about 17 to 18% of expanding and private insurance plan.
>> So if I pay my insurance company, $100,
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 $17 go to administrative costs.
What about Medicare?
What do they spend on administrative costs?
>> That range is about 3-5%.
>> About 3-5 right here.
And if we look at just building costs, just building and
insurance costs Medicare is that 1%.
We know how much it costs to run a high quality health
insurance program $1 out of $100.
Research shows that Medicare spends 1.1% on administrative costs,
we spend $4 trillion $200 billion dollars on
administrative costs with Medicare for all.
>> Now before I get into some facts, figures, numbers and
obviously applauding Katie Porter for always doing a good job in these hearings.
I just want to note that there was a hearing on Medicare for all in the house
and any progressive who was touting the necessity of force the vote,
who somehow failed to do any coverage on this story is super suss.
Very suspect because this is something that deserves attention.
Yes the likelihood of this hearing resulting directly to Medicare for
all and like the passage of it is unlikely, but it doesn't matter right.
The whole point of force the vote was its spectacle.
Let's do spectacle and
everyone will all of a sudden we'll get everything we want through spectacle.
Yeah, okay, we know that that's not really the reality of the situation.
But again, this is an important hearing.
Crickets, I haven't seen any of the force the vote.
Progressives talk about this hearing at all.
Now with that said, I want to talk about what the reality is add a little more meat
to the argument that Katie Porter made there because her point is exactly right.
The system that we have in place right now is not cost effective.
It's incredibly wasteful.
The majority of the money that we see used by these private health insurance
companies goes toward things like marketing, putting their names on arenas.
I love the fact that she brought that up, but let's get into some other research.
So there was obviously Kaiser Family Foundation does a lot of
really great work on Medicare for all they've been pushing for it.
And they do so by presenting the data that people should know about.
For instance in 2020 the United States spent 19%,
of its GDP on health consumption and every year it goes up.
For instance, in 2019 it was 17% whereas the next highest comparable country.
The United Kingdom, which actually has a much better healthcare system
than us devoted just 13% of its GDP to health spending up from 10% in 2019.
Now of course 2020 was the year the pandemic began.
So you're gonna see an increase in spending on
health care as a result of that.
But it doesn't matter what year we're talking about.
The US always spends a higher portion of its GDP on its health
care system compared to other OECD countries that tend to
by the way have far better systems that cover more people.
And ensure that people are able to get the treatment.
And the care that they need including incredibly important preventative care
that prevents people from getting so sick that by the time they go to a doctor,
by the time they go to an emergency room.
Whatever illness they're dealing with has unfortunately progressed to
a point where they're going to need costly treatments and medical attention?
Now, with that said obviously what Katie Porter and other progressives are touting
here, Medicare for all would be a far better system.
And there's a reason why that system tends to be far more popular with voters.
So we've talked about the polling,
there are many polls showing that a single payer healthcare system.
Medicare for all would do really well with the electorate.
Let me give you one of the more recent ones.
We have polls dating back to 2018 and even earlier than that.
But this one's from Pew Research in 2020 September of 2020 63% of US adults
say the government has the responsibility to provide health care coverage for all.
And that was actually up slightly from the 59 in 2019.
So I'm guessing experiencing a pandemic and
seeing how faulty our healthcare system is,
made more Americans realize the necessity of something like Medicare for all.
Roughly a 3rd, 37% say it's not the responsibility of the federal
government according to the Pew Research Center survey.
Now there are republicans of course who have been brainwashed into thinking
that a single payer healthcare system is terrible.
They've heard made up horror stories about Canada.
They've heard made up horror stories about the UK,
even though Americans travel to Canada just to get affordable prescription drugs.
Okay, but what about something simple like a public option?
Right, I would want Medicare for all but a public option pulls even better.
So 68% of voters support a public health insurance option,
including 80% of Democrats and even 56% of republicans.
And by the way, public option is what joe biden purported to be in favor of,
but then did nothing about it.
A public option is is what mainstream corporate
democrats claimed they were going to essentially progress
the Affordable Care Act to accomplishing, right?
No, we don't need Medicare for all the Affordable Care Act is just the foundation
of this healthcare system of our dreams.
And eventually, the democrats are going to fight tooth and
nail to provide a public option for those who want it.
What did they do anything on that front at all?
No, of course, nothing zero.
Now there are wonderful progressives who are fighting for the right things,
they're doing their best.
Unfortunately, there aren't enough of them in Congress and as we know,
our system of legalized bribery continues.
And it continues to crush efforts to pass a single payer healthcare system,
both on a federal level.
But also on a state level in states like California that continuously get touted
as progressive blue states when in reality corporate democrats tend to rule the game.
And there's a price to pay,
notably the 30 million Americans who continue to be uninsured.
The 30 million Americans who are still struggling with our broken
healthcare system even in the middle of a global pandemic.
And remember Joe Biden during the pandemic can single handedly
unilaterally expand Medicare to cover every single uninsured American.
But he refuses to do it.
My guess is he realizes much like other corporate democrats that if
more Americans see just how well a system like that would work,
they would maybe get a little more aggressive in demanding it.
But the proof is in the polls, the proof is in the data,
the numbers, the arguments that you hear Katie Porter and
other progressives make during this hearing on Medicare for all.
But it is interesting to see how evidence doesn't really matter.
The will of the American voters doesn't really matter and
things will continue to move in that direction unless we
do something to change the way our government functions.
Unless we do something with the virus that continues to corrupt our politicians to
work against the will of the voters.