Since I was first
diagnosed with cancer last year, my
Medicare supplemental policy insurance
has been billed just over $307,000 for
the physician care, tests,
biopsies, scans and treatments I’ve
received. Because Medicare and the insurance company have been able to negotiate
lower costs with the providers, they have paid only a portion of that amount,
and my total out-of-pocket expenses are capped at $6700 per year. It’s still a
hefty amount which threatens to destroy whatever meager savings we have managed
to accumulate, but I am extremely grateful to have the coverage and wish all Americans could have the
security of knowing they can get affordable care, should they face a similar
diagnosis or a catastrophic accident requiring extensive care. Which is why the
idea of universal coverage as Bernie Sanders proposes appeals to me a great
deal. I like a lot of Bernie Sanders
plans in theory. But I have a lot of
questions on how some of these plans would actually be implemented and question
his and his campaign managers’ grasp of financial matters, I find myself asking, "How?" to
most of what Sanders says he is going to do. "How do you plan to convince
Congress to increase taxes on the rich, increase wages, create jobs, extend
Medicare to all as well as guarantee a free college education, etc.?" How
much does Sen. Sanders actually know about how Medicare works? Does he realize
how much those of us receiving Medicare have paid into it, how much our monthly premium deducted form our Social Security
checks for Part B coverage is? Does he know that we have a pretty hefty out of
pocket expense and that while it does provide many preventative services, Medicare
does not cover most dental or eye care services, and does not cover hearing
aids? What about the current Medicare
portion of the FICA payroll tax paid by
both employers and employees to cover Medicare premiums? Now the Medicare tax is 1.45% for
those earning under $200,000. Those earning
more than that amount also pay an additional 0.9% Medicare surtax.
Will
that be increased or will the tax be
scrapped and rolled into an all inclusive payroll tax for universal healthcare?
What about the unemployed? How will their
tax be covered? Medicare is truly a wonderful thing as is the idea of universal healthcare is a goal we should
strive for. I believe the Affordable Care
Act is a first step in the right direction toward achieving that goal, but when
I look at the Republican congressional
opposition to it, the number of efforts to overturn the law and the many Republican governors who have refused to
expand Medicaid so that their constituents are eligible , I wonder just
how realistic many of Sanders sweeping
proposals and promises are as opposed to Secretary Clinton’s more pragmatic approach
and her determination to support down ticket Democratic candidates at state
levels. Because it is as the
state and local level that a lot of legislative change and political leverage is needed
A question about
Bernie Sanders’ free college for all
plan. According to the summary on his
site, Sanders’ plan states that total
tuition at public colleges and universities amounts to about $70 billion per
year. Of that cost, under the Sanders plan the federal government would be responsible for 67% of the cost while the states would be
required to pick up the remaining 33% . But according to data from the Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities, states have been cutting funding for K-12 programs since the 2008 recession
and most states have not restored those earlier levels. In fact, in about half the states reporting,
less general aid per student is
being provided now than in 2008, and In
three states, including Alabama, funding
cuts are 15% or more.
The cuts also affect higher education. While state funding
for higher education has been rising slightly in the last couple of years, there is still a large
reliance on student tuition to fund higher education. US News reports that, “ Overall, half of states now receive more
financial support from tuition dollars than from state or local funding. And
the reliance on tuition revenue varies widely between states, from a low of
15.1 percent in Wyoming to a high of 84.5 percent in Vermont.”
Sanders’ plan calls for
financing the federal
funding by Imposing a Robin Hood
Tax on Wall Street, a Wall Street speculation fee on investment houses, hedge
funds, and other speculators of 0.5% on stock trades (50 cents for every $100
worth of stock), a 0.1% fee on bonds, and a 0.005%fee on derivatives. He
estimates that this fee will raise the necessary money with some left over, but nowhere in the plan does he address the problem of where the already
cash-strapped states are going to come up with their share, nor of what
happens if there is another
recession or a drop in speculation, stock trades, etc.
Sen. Sanders said, “I promise at the end of my first term we
won't have more people in jail than in any other country. .But according to the
Bureau
of Justice Statistics, of the 2.2
million Americans in prison at the end of 2013, only 215,000 inmates, less than
10% were in federal prisons. The rest were in state and local facilities. Even
if he freed every prisoner in federal prisons, we would still have 2
million people in prison.
I worry, with so many
Sanders supporters vowing that they
will not support Clinton if
Sanders loses the nomination, that all
the enthusiasm for the “revolution” that Senator Sanders is calling for will die down and that his followers will drop out rather than continue
to work on passing progressive legislation and in getting progressives elected
to local and state offices.
So, yes, I have a lot of
misgivings about Senator Sanders’ proposals, and policies and the way he has used the Democratic Party he has scorned as being part of the establishment responsible for our current inequities and problems to further his own
candidacy without supporting other
progressives within the party. Both
candidates have flaws, all politicians do, and no politician is going to be able to please 100 percent
of his or her constituency all of the time. What I wonder about is, do Sanders and his supporters realize that bankers and the
1% are also part of the fabric of this
country with rights and interests.
Their interests shouldn’t outweigh the interests of middle class and
poor Americans as they have in the past and do now, but in order to institute
reforms and rein in the influence of money in politics, compromises will have to be negotiated. In order to accommodate the interests
of a diverse populace and best serve the needs of the country as a whole, adversaries with different ideologies will have to work together. Given that Sanders has castigated and alienated the banking industry and the rich to a large degree, I’m not sure Sanders is the best candidate to effect those changes, reforms and compromises.
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