Not giving someone what they want, isn't "hurting them". Medical decisions are mostly about need, not want. Thered have to be way more information here, to make that determination.

For sure, whenever I had to hang TPN I was always like God dammit Are you sure I can’t just give them an ensure????

@LucasfromGR my thought was more like, wow it's amazing you're even alive, maybe this will get you through a few more days

Uh, lots of people who have Medicare now, get it through a private insurer, like Humana or United or such. But regardless if its a private company, or a govt office somewhere, someone still has to make decisions and pay the bills, and the try to save money by not paying for things that aren't necessary. And it's still insurance... The healthier people pay for the sick people, so that if something bad ever happens, they'll be paid for too.

That doesn't mean Medicare for all wouldn t be a good idea... universal coverage, the same benefit package, and a single payer for Drs, makes a ton of sense. But no one thinks the govt. bureaucracy will make the insurance companies look bad, and no one thinks the legit gripes that people with medicare now have, will magically go away if Medicare gets bigger.

@MarkiusMahamius The simple fact of the matter is currently Medicare doesn't cover everything and it has issues but that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to take the next step in fixing the health care system by eliminating profit and greed currently in the insurance and the healthcare system we have now. We can't do that without some say and we don't have any say other than if you go to another company with a different Health insurance, or by maybe buying the health insurance yourself. The latter is too expensive for most anybody except for the very rich. You could easily lose your job tomorrow and then you don't have health insurance anymore do to the high cost. Watch this video of Amy Vilela who lost her daughter when she didn't have insurance between jobs. [facebook.com]

Problems with any single-payer system we implement as a country can be fixed eventually we as a people just need to get that started in the first place. We know the problems with Medicare, or Medicaid so the next version can be fixed the right way, but we just have to force our politicians to do it, so that means voting in politicians that will do it.

@Vintenar you make some good points, but your original post implies that things like denying coverage, is a private insurance problem. It's a coverage problem. No one will ever get everything that they want. Just pointing out that its not possible. I won't speculate on the motivations of insurance companies, for greed or profits, vs the track record of the govt, to mis manage thjjngs. Just paint me skeptical.

@MarkiusMahamius It is very possible for the government to mismanage things but in that event when they do the people of this country can at times force them to fix it by putting pressure on them to do so. We can also elect people that will potentially try to fix things for us. With insurance companies we have no say and really can't change the policies since the downfall of Unions a crossed the country. If we had Unions we could put pressure on the corporation we work for to give us a better health insurance plan but that is not the case.

Insurance coverage when I first got a job was free for about 2 years with my first company then we got co-pays and 80/20. I wound up getting a better job a few years after that change and the new job paid for all of the insurance, then eventually the same thing happened. Right now I have 70/30 and a thousand dollar co-pay for anything major. This is not a good thing.

I've personally seen people at my work get cancer and my company eventually after going through all the treatments they wound squeezing that lady out of the job. She wound up dying not long after so I'm guessing she didn't get the death benefit they had at the company. I'd be surprised if she had insurance after getting the boot in the ass, and if she did it probably was expensive.

Health care shouldn't be a for-profit system, and companies shouldn't be required to manage to get insurance for the workers. Taking that burden away from them should, in theory, make the companies stronger.

@Vintenar it definitely shouldn't be tied to a job, for sure