Obama Mercy Hospital

[Philly Mike]

Because people wouldn't pay for the entire coverage, just like employees who receive coverage don't. If they did, they'd see a lot more taken out of their paychecks. The government is going to have to foot some of the bill, and if it's any more than they spend now (which would have to be, otherwise there wouldn't have been 350 billion dollars in the spending package for it) on public coverage, taxes will have to be raised to cover the deficit.

Companies more than likely will pay part, as in japan's health care setup. The big difference in the way it is worked now is because of the lack of a profit incentive

I should've been clearer, I guess, about "making" money. I wasn't assuming the government's objective was to make a profit. What I meant was they could print more, come up with more "stimulus" money out of nowhere (or China's pockets again), etc. When the government spends money it doesn't have, inflation will increase dramatically.

So.. the government will have more money because it's paying more out? I'm not understanding that.

Yes, they'll have health insurance that is subsidized by the government. The government will need money to do that. So far, I've seen nothing that shows me this is a sustainable, workable model.

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Okay maybe I didn't explain this part clear enough the first few times I tried.

Here's how things work now.

Hospitals now get a few hundred billion dollars every year to subsidize the services that people end up not paying them for. (bills, ER costs, etc. basically things they bill people for and never get paid)

Now this is a lot of tax payer money that is going to all of these hospitals every year anyway.

So what this plan is intending on doing is taking a big chunk of this money going to the hospitals and putting it towards the health care program. The hospitals will not need the money if almost everyone in the US is covered. The fact that the insurance is more affordable will assure that more people have it, and the ones who can't afford it will get the free plan. This method will create lower bills to people and the hospitals will be getting paid by the insurance companies, and on top of it there may be less ER bills anyway because of the fact that more people covered will create more of an awareness of preventive care.

You asked where the money comes from. It is coming from money that is already being spent on hospitals, but instead of making it so that it is being used after damage is done it can be used more efficiently and also be there to help people because it can be used for preventive care instead of just being used for bills that are driving hospitals into the ground.