
Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes healthcare mandate, Medi-Cal expansion - Varcht
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-gavin-newsom-healthcare-proposal-20190107-story.html
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sigfubar
Be wary of any healthcare mandate: it’s a device by which major health
insurance carriers compel already poor people to sink money into overpriced
plans that cover very little and come with numerous strings attached. Between
high deductibles and mandatory coinsurance these plans are not coverage:
they’re extortion.

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sabujp
it's supposed to be single payer, i.e. govt owned and negotiated rates should
be lower than something like obamacare exchanges

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AnimalMuppet
_Should be._

Obamacare was supposed to "bend the cost curve", too. I haven't seen recent
hard data, but my impression is that it didn't work as advertised.

Note well: I have no opinion on whether _this_ idea will in fact work. I'm
merely pointing out that one should not take politicians' claims on such
matters at face value.

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coolspot
> "California already covers undocumented children until they turn 19, with
> Newsom’s plan increasing the age cut-off to mirror that of the Affordable
> Care Act, which allows young adults to stay on a parent’s health insurance
> plan until turning 26."

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aliston
Why should California tax payers provide health insurance to illegal
immigrants?

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p1necone
Because the alternative is hospitals treating them anyway and sending out
bills that will never get paid - ultimately costing society even more.

Unless you actually think illegal immigrants should just be left to die when
they have medical issues? I sure hope not.

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sonnyblarney
The alternatives are sending them home - or - giving them citizenship.

Suppose you do the later - whoops (!) - as soon as the workers are citizens,
and employers have to pay full benefits, and worry about unions ... then
they'll dump such new citizens and hire _actual_ illegal workers!

Point being: the price of that cheap labour is a function of their illegal
status more than anything.

It's a false dynamic.

Just enforce basic laws. Americans will do many of those jobs for higher
wages, the jobs that can't support higher wages will leave for Mexico and help
them out down there, even in that scenario, surpluses come back to the US as
well.

The real 'long term' answer is just to enforce basic citizenship and
employment laws.

The answer on healthcare is much more complicated, but probably has more to do
with regulating prices etc. than it does expanding medicare/medicaid, which is
actually very inefficient compared to other nations, because prices are so
high.

Single payer, as someone below mentioned, gives the gov the power to negotiate
better deals, but you don't necessarily need single payer for that.

I'm generally against any kind of real socialization because it always ends up
a mess, but in healthcare it seems it's going to be needed to stop the '100
aspirin' problem, among others.

More medicare just means more '$100 aspirin' unless it's combined with some
other, heavier kind of action.

I hope it works out.

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nerdponx
One issue with this approach is that enforcing labor laws is already
difficult.

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losteric
What about offering a reward to unregistered immigrants in exchange for
ratting out their employers? Works for other types of illegal labor... maybe a
slice of the fine and the option of fast-tracked citizenship.

Anyway, policing businesses will _always_ be easier than policing
individuals... smaller numbers, immobile, already registered with the state,
and they have stronger incentives to obey the law.

