8 Comments
Jul 14, 2020Liked by Paul Blest

Biden never will, and it's going to be awesome to see Buttigieg on The View explaining how employer-sponsored health insurance simply needs a stimulus directly to insurance companies to be able to keep covering furloughed and temporarily laid-off employees. Same as it ever was.

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Jul 14, 2020Liked by Paul Blest

Hi Paul, Ryan here. We're friends through music, definitely been on the same email list before, have 26 mutual Facebook friends, etc, haha. I'm about 85% sure we've met at Fest and such before, want to say at like Timeshares or Signals Midwest or something, but I would never rely on my Fest memory (it was indoors, and it was hot). Never actually read your writing before or visited Splinter, but thought I'd toss some money towards this blog after reading the about page. Good luck with the endeavor!

Healthcare is so bizarre in this country. I've had probably 5-7 different private plans over the past 15 years, mostly through employers, but have also purchased in the market place before, which was a generally awful experience of paying more for less coverage. Nothing has consumed more of my disposable income over the years than healthcare, no doubt, even on what you'd consider a good plan. I do have a couple chronic health issues and I think this year will be the first year I don't hit my out of pocket max in the past 4-5 years, which even on my best plan would be at least $6500 out of pocket per year. In practical terms, including medications, copays, and premiums the number is probably closer to $10k.

Really, I feel fortunate though. I work in IT and can generally land the types of jobs where I can afford those bills. It's definitely not lost on me that $10k/year in medical expenses is more than most people can probably afford, and I know that even being able to afford those costs still serves as a significant stressor in life.

I had some contract work supporting Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), particularly the innovation center that was created as part of the ACA. I didn't stay long. I've worked at a variety of organizations: big investment firm, humanitarian aid/international development nonprofit, environmental advocacy nonprofit, workforce development nonprofit, and with campuses for senior living communities. Nothing was as daunting to me as the CMS stuff. Gimme a natural disaster any day. The level of complexity in this health care system is a fucking nightmare. I hope I never have to sit in a meeting and listen to people try and describe health care models ever again. Not because they aren't highly intelligent people, but because you can't just innovate your way out of a system where the incentives, leverage, and basic understanding of human behavior are so out of whack. The smartest minds in the room can't fix this.

Anyway, the point of this comment is actually that I think a good place to advocate for single payer is with the people that actually administer Medicare and Medicaid. There was a lot of skepticism around that type of solution. Why wouldn't there be though really? If you are having trouble administering something to start and the proposal is an enormous expansion of what you're doing, it seems a pretty rational thought to me. If single payer is ever implemented it will be first through overwhelming public acceptance, not political acceptance. Be well!

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My employer has already announced another round of layoffs are coming so I checked the ACA plans to see what I can expect to pay. The absolute cheapest plans are starting at $300/month and offer no coverage till the deductible which is over $8,000.

I sincerely hope Buttigieg is crushed to death by a giant whiteboard in the near future.

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