So....I get a lot of flak when I mention Yang, especially on healthcare. A lot of lefties think he's a "grifter" because he waffled so much on healthcare. So, I decided that I wanted to go back and document his shifts over time, on his website. Obviously all that's available now is the last first before he quit his campaign, but if one goes back under archive.org, we can find a massive shift on his healthcare policy over time.
First, I'm going to go back to February 12, 2019. This is when I first listened to him on Joe Rogan and decided to support his campaign.
At this point, he literally supported single payer healthcare.
Access to quality healthcare is one of the most important factors in overall well being, and yet America is one of the few industrialized nations to not provide healthcare for all of its citizens. Instead, we have a private healthcare system that leaves millions uninsured and bankrupts even some of those who do have health insurance. At the same time, our cost of care is higher than in almost any other industrialized country while providing worse outcomes. The Affordable Care Act was a step in the right direction, providing funds to states to innovate while expanding Medicaid substantially. However, it didn’t address the fundamental issues plaguing our healthcare system:
- Access to medicine isn’t guaranteed to all citizens
- The incentives for healthcare providers don’t align with providing quality, efficient care
This must change.
Either through expanding Medicare to all, or through creating a new healthcare system, we must move in the direction of a single-payer system to ensure that all Americans can receive the healthcare they deserve. Not only will this raise the quality of life for all Americans, but, by increasing access to preventive care, will bring overall healthcare costs down.
With a shift to single-payer, costs can also be controlled directly by setting prices provided for medical services. The best approach is highlighted by the top-ranked Cleveland Clinic. There, doctors are paid a flat salary instead of by a price-for-service model. This shift has led to a hospital where costs are visible and under control. Redundant tests are at a minimum, and physician turnover is much lower than at comparable hospitals.
Doctors also report being more involved with their patients. Since they’re salaried, there’s no need to churn through patient after patient. Instead, they can spend the proper amount of time to ensure that each patient receives their undivided attention and empathy.
Outside of a shift to a single-payer system with salaried doctors, we can look to the Southcentral Foundation for another important shift necessary in the way we treat patients: holistic approaches. At this treatment center for native Alaskans, mental and physical problems are both investigated, and, unsurprisingly, the two are often linked. By referring patients to psychologists during routine physicals, doctors are able to treat, for example, both the symptoms of obesity and the underlying mental health issue that often is related to the issue. The referral also leads people with issues they may otherwise try to bury – sexual abuse, addictions, or domestic violence issues – to bring them up with a doctor so that they can be addressed.
By providing holistic healthcare to all our citizens, we’ll drastically increase the average quality of life, extend life expectancies, and treat issues that often go untreated. We’ll also be able to bring costs under control and outcomes up, as most other industrialized nations have.
And by freeing doctors from being paid a fee for a service, they’ll be free to innovate, coming up with new solutions to problems. Our doctors enter the profession because they want to help people; let’s free them to do just that.
Finally, being tied to an employer so that you don’t lose your healthcare prevents economic mobility. It’s important that people feel free to seek out new opportunities, and our current employee-provided healthcare system prevents that.
Healthcare should be a basic right for all Americans. Right now, if you get sick you have two things to worry about – how to get better and how to pay for it. Too many Americans are making terrible, impossible choices between paying for healthcare and other needs. We need to provide high-quality healthcare to all Americans and a single-payer system is the most efficient way to accomplish that. It will be a massive boost to our economy as people will be able to start businesses and change jobs without fear of losing their health insurance.
(Bolded emphasis mine)
It seems pretty clear he supported single payer. And his war on normal people supported it too. He even quoted it below, and while I won't quote that you get the idea. This was his original position.
But, it seemed like after this massive influx of supporters and the fights started breaking out over medicare for all, he was convinced by some of his supporters who joined from more moderate campaigns like Buttigieg, Harris, or even Warren, that single payer was unfeasible.
But, looking at waybackmachine, it seems some time after this, probably around mid April, Yang switched from being pro single payer to shifting to a public option. The URL titled "single payer healthcare" was replaced by one that said "medicare for all", with the old URL redirecting to a broken link.
Which brings us to the new link, which appeared around April 20th.
Access to quality healthcare is one of the most important factors in overall well being, and yet America is one of the few industrialized nations not to provide healthcare for all of its citizens. Instead, we have a private healthcare system that leaves millions uninsured and bankrupts even some of those who do have health insurance. At the same time, our cost of care is higher than in almost any other industrialized country while providing worse outcomes. The Affordable Care Act was a step in the right direction, providing funds to states to innovate while expanding Medicaid substantially. However, it didn’t address the fundamental issues plaguing our healthcare system:
- Access to medicine isn’t guaranteed to all citizens
- The incentives for healthcare providers don’t align with providing quality, efficient care
This must change.
Either through expanding Medicare to all, or through creating a new healthcare system, we must move in the direction of a public option to ensure that all Americans can receive the healthcare they deserve. Not only will this raise the quality of life for all Americans, but, by increasing access to preventive care, it will bring overall healthcare costs down.
With a shift to significantly more people receiving their care through a public option, costs can also be controlled directly by setting prices provided for medical services. The best approach is highlighted by the top-ranked Cleveland Clinic. There, doctors are paid a flat salary instead of by a price-for-service model. This shift has led to a hospital where costs are visible and under control. Redundant tests are at a minimum, and physician turnover is much lower than at comparable hospitals.
Doctors also report being more involved with their patients. Since they’re salaried, there’s no need to churn through patient after patient. Instead, they can spend the proper amount of time to ensure that each patient receives their undivided attention and empathy.
Outside of a shift to a robust public option, we can look to the Southcentral Foundation for another important shift necessary in the way we treat patients: holistic approaches. At this treatment center for native Alaskans, mental and physical problems are both investigated, and, unsurprisingly, the two are often linked. By referring patients to psychologists during routine physicals, doctors are able to treat, for example, both the symptoms of obesity and the underlying mental health issue that often is related to the issue. The referral also leads people with issues they may otherwise try to bury – sexual abuse, addictions, or domestic violence issues – to bring them up with a doctor so that they can be addressed.
By providing holistic healthcare to all our citizens, we’ll drastically increase the average quality of life, extend life expectancy, and treat issues that often go untreated. We’ll also be able to bring costs under control and outcomes up, as most other industrialized nations have.
Finally, being tied to an employer so that you don’t lose your healthcare prevents economic mobility. It’s important that people feel free to seek out new opportunities, and our current employee-provided healthcare system prevents that.
Healthcare should be a basic right for all Americans. Right now, if you get sick you have two things to worry about – how to get better and how to pay for it. Too many Americans are making terrible, impossible choices between paying for healthcare and other needs. We need to provide high-quality healthcare to all Americans and a public option is the most efficient way to accomplish that. It will be a massive boost to our economy as people will be able to start businesses and change jobs without fear of losing their health insurance.
You can tell it's the same page, but as you notice, all mention of single payer is stripped out of it and replaced with public option, sometimes creating awkward language instead. Yikes.
I remember I was disappointed with this change. Keep in mind in 2020, I was still very much a Bernie Bro. And, a lot of us wanted single payer for a reason. It was the best way to fix the healthcare system, and centrist democrats loved to do weasel words and support more moderate plans that acted as a way to take votes from Bernie. The democrats didn't want to get bernie to win and were doing this "hello fellow kids" sort of thing in trying to sway people away from Bernie Sanders toward potential trap candidates like Buttigieg and Harris, who claimed to be progressive, but were establishment golden children, looking to inherit the party after the boomers and silents are gone, if only they behave.
Yang, I believe meant well, but this got him caught in a crossfire with the Bernie camp, who was out for his blood over this figuratively speaking. And I get it. I was disappointed to, and medicare for all was my #2 priority. I probably would have dropped Yang right then and there if he didn't support my #1 priority of UBI.
But, I was left split between the Bernie and Yang camps for the rest of the year, not really sure who I would vote for, and bouncing between the two of them.
The page I'll show you next really sealed the deal for Bernie, but I was willing to accept a public option from Yang, even then. Only Yang though. I didn't trust Buttigieg as far as I could throw him with his medicare for all who want it. Although I may have come around to that one.
Honestly, I did moderate just enough after 2020 where I can now find this stance more acceptable. I mean, let's face it, while I DO still support medicare for all, and endorse a medicare for all plan I wrote based on the Bernie and Warren plans on this blog, I am not entirely sure if, in practice we could do medicare for all and UBI at the same time, and I'm willing to shift to a public option like medicare extra for all or the medicare for America Act if needed. Not the ideal framework, but it might work better with my UBI ambitions.
So, for now, I remained in the Yang camp, even then. But I was kind of looking at Bernie, and liking him too. He didn't support UBI. heck, he came out as hostile to the concept despite being more open to it in 2016. But he seemed better on everything else. Medicare for all, free college, and he supported the green new deal, which I cringe at supporting now over Yang's plan, but hey, I honestly didn't look at the details of climate plans as much as I did more recently, and I really just believed bigger was better and the moderates didn't do enough. I would completely backtrack on this now, but yeah, it was convincing at the time.
Anyway, and then sometime in May he changed the page again:
Access to quality healthcare is one of the most important factors in overall well being, and yet America is one of the few industrialized nations not to provide healthcare for all of its citizens. Instead, we have a private healthcare system that leaves millions uninsured and bankrupts even some of those who do have health insurance. At the same time, our cost of care is higher than in almost any other industrialized country while providing worse outcomes. The Affordable Care Act was a step in the right direction, providing funds to states to innovate while expanding Medicaid substantially. However, it didn’t address the fundamental issues plaguing our healthcare system:
- Access to medicine isn’t guaranteed to all citizens
- The incentives for healthcare providers don’t align with providing quality, efficient care
This must change.
Through a Medicare for All system, we can ensure that all Americans receive the healthcare they deserve. Not only will this raise the quality of life for all Americans, but, by increasing access to preventive care, it will bring overall healthcare costs down.
With a shift to a Medicare for All system, costs can also be controlled directly by setting prices provided for medical services. The best approach is highlighted by the top-ranked Cleveland Clinic. There, doctors are paid a flat salary instead of by a price-for-service model. This shift has led to a hospital where costs are visible and under control. Redundant tests are at a minimum, and physician turnover is much lower than at comparable hospitals.
Doctors also report being more involved with their patients. Since they’re salaried, there’s no need to churn through patient after patient. Instead, they can spend the proper amount of time to ensure that each patient receives their undivided attention and empathy.
Outside of a shift to a Medicare for All system, we can look to the Southcentral Foundation for another important shift necessary in the way we treat patients: holistic approaches. At this treatment center for native Alaskans, mental and physical problems are both investigated, and, unsurprisingly, the two are often linked. By referring patients to psychologists during routine physicals, doctors are able to treat, for example, both the symptoms of obesity and the underlying mental health issue that often is related to the issue. The referral also leads people with issues they may otherwise try to bury – sexual abuse, addictions, or domestic violence issues – to bring them up with a doctor so that they can be addressed.
By providing holistic healthcare to all our citizens, we’ll drastically increase the average quality of life, extend life expectancy, and treat issues that often go untreated. We’ll also be able to bring costs under control and outcomes up, as most other industrialized nations have.
Finally, being tied to an employer so that you don’t lose your healthcare prevents economic mobility. It’s important that people feel free to seek out new opportunities, and our current employee-provided healthcare system prevents that.
Healthcare should be a basic right for all Americans. Right now, if you get sick you have two things to worry about – how to get better and how to pay for it. Too many Americans are making terrible, impossible choices between paying for healthcare and other needs. We need to provide high-quality healthcare to all Americans and a Medicare for All system is the most efficient way to accomplish that. It will be a massive boost to our economy as people will be able to start businesses and change jobs without fear of losing their health insurance.
In some ways, it felt like he got more aggressive again. Surely, when people think Medicare for All, they think single payer, right? but that's kind of the confusing part. At this point, Yang doesn't mentioned single payer, and he doesn't mention a public option. He is extremely ambiguous on what he means. Hmm. And of course, this is setting off all of the Bernie Bros' alarms. Does he really mean medicare for all, as in single payer, when he says medicare for all? Does he mean a public option?
Within yang circles, it was implied he meant a public option. But only for pragmatic purposes. You see, Yang really did believe in single payer. In his book, he called for single payer and removing the employer based healthcare system from the equation. So it seemed clear by that context he did support medicare for all. But does it mean medicare for all for now, or later? That's the question. Bernie envisioned a sweeping shift away from medicare for all toward a public option, whereas Yang seemed to be leaning more toward a public option to get us to single payer more gradually.
Again, I could compromise here, the dude was for UBI after all. But this is where he starts getting unclear.
This remained on his site until December, when he basically suicided his campaign in my eyes. After being on the ropes between Bernie and Yang for almost a year, this was the last straw. What did he say that was so bad this time? Well, let's read.
We are having the wrong conversation on healthcare.
Instead of addressing the underlying problems driving unaffordability and access, we Democrats are spending all our time arguing over who is the most zealous in wanting to cover Americans. Over who has wanted to do so longer. Over who cares more about the health of Americans.
We talk about how we’re going to pay for it, but the reality is we’re already paying for it. We pay for it when we can’t switch jobs. We pay for it when new jobs are temp or gig jobs that don’t provide healthcare. We pay for it when all of our prices are higher. We pay for it when healthcare costs drive us into bankruptcy.
To be clear, I support the spirit of Medicare for All, and have since the first day of this campaign. I do believe that swiftly reformatting 18% of our economy and eliminating private insurance for millions of Americans is not a realistic strategy, so we need to provide a new way forward on healthcare for all Americans.
As Democrats, we all believe in healthcare as a human right. We all want to make sure there is universal affordable coverage. We know we have a broken healthcare system where Americans spend more money on healthcare to worse results. But, we are spending too much time fighting over the differences between Medicare for All, “Medicare for All Who Want It,” and ACA expansion when we should be focusing on the biggest problems that are driving up costs and taking lives.
We need to be laser focused on how to bring the costs of coverage down by solving the root problems plaguing the American healthcare system.
That means controlling the cost of prescription drugs. That means investing in innovative technology to cut waste and boost access. That means changing the incentive structure for providers. That means shifting our focus on more stages of care. That means revamping what comprehensive care means in the 21st century to include crucial aspects of wellbeing. That means taking on the powerful lobbyists in D.C.
Diagnosing and addressing these underlying problems is the first and most important step in ensuring everyone has access to healthcare, because we cannot extend quality coverage to everyone without real strategies on how to avoid the toxic incentives of our current system. We can’t afford to mess this up.
Fundamentally, we need to have a more productive conversation about healthcare in America. It’s time to take a step back from enrollment mechanisms and creative accounting to focus on lowering costs and improving quality.
My full plan for a New Way Forward for Healthcare in America is a statement on the critical failings of our system and viable paths to solve them. We cannot find the answers to one of the most serious problems in modern American history unless we are asking the right questions. It’s time we start asking the right questions.
The bolded and underlined part is my emphasis, the regular bold is his.
I'm sorry, but this is where he went to complete crap for me.
Uh, the enrollment mechanisms are a HUGE FREAKING PART of the healthcare system.
The ACA is a failure on this front. While it promised universal coverage, the devil is really in the details, isn't it? ACA established an insurance mandate in which anyone making more than 138% of the poverty line was mandated to enroll in healthcare or face a fine. While the fine was removed later due to a SCOTUS ruling, it essentially tried to force people to buy insurance.
And the insurance you were to buy was a joke. We're talking like $400 a month or even more for a bottom tier plan with a massive deductible whenever you go to use it. Affordable healthcare my butt.
For those who are poorer, you had the medicaid expansion, but that was left up to the states. And a lot of red states rejected the idea. And some that eventually accepted it did so passive aggressively and implemented it in the worst way possible. Including PA, who implemented it under Tom Corbett when he was still governor.
Ya know, to get on medicaid, you have to fill out a 22 page form? We don't give people specific forms to fill out for certain programs, we just give everyone one form regardless of what they apply to and insist they fill it out. Most information required is extraneous and unnecessary. And that is a huge barrier for me personally getting healthcare.
If we had medicare for all, there would be no forms, I would be enrolled as a citizen, and that's that. And I would pay nothing for healthcare except taxes. Single payer solves all enrollment mechanism issues. AND it does bring costs down. Bernie's plan would cut what the average household pays for healthcare by half or more. Even a public option like medicare extra would put it on a sliding scale based on income, with me getting free if i basically qualify for medicaid type levels of income, and paying based on my income for higher levels of income, being capped essentially at the worst evils under our current system everyone has to deal with if I make like 4-6x the poverty line.
And these programs would make the government have much greater leverage over the system to bring prices down. The monopsony effect would do that. Would wreck the excess bargaining power our current stystem has in extorting people for profit.
Oh and even freaking BIDEN'S public option from his campaign was progressive enough to have AUTOMATIC ENROLLMENT if you interact with the government another way. Any time I recertify student loans for IBR, filling out a 2 page form that takes literally 2 minutes, BOOM, i would be auto enrolled based on my income.
Like really, how badly do you have to screw up to alienate me so hard that BIDEN'S plan looks good? By the way, Biden didn't even fight for his public option to my knowledge. It's a joke. Like, really. I'm kind of, sort of almost to the point that if Biden accomplished everything on his platform, I would at least kinda sorta not hate him, between a public option on healthcare, and free community college, and the child tax credit and the build back better ideas, I mean, he doesn't go as far as I want on any of these except for BBB, but at least he has some half measures there.
Ugh.
But back to Yang. Yang makes Biden look GOOD here. This is what Yang's grand healthcare plan turned into.
Okay, these are band aid fixes. This is the most weaksauce healthcare plan I saw on the democratic side. It literally reminds me of that one plan Trump wrote that I analyzed that one time. It's TERRIBLE.As President, I will...
- Control the cost of life-saving prescription drugs, through negotiating drug prices, using international reference pricing, forced licensing, public manufacturing facilities, and importation.
- Invest in technologies to finally make health services function efficiently and reduce waste by utilizing modernized services like telehealth and assistive technology, supported by measures such as multi-state licensing laws.
- Change the incentive structure by offering flexibility to providers, prioritizing patients over paperwork, and increasing the supply of practitioners.
- Shift our focus and educating ourselves in preventative care and end-of-life care options.
- Ensure crucial aspects of wellbeing, including mental health, care for people with disabilities, HIV/AIDs detection and treatment, reproductive health, maternal care, dental, and vision are addressed and integrated into comprehensive care for the 21st century.
- Diminish the influence of lobbyists and special interests in the healthcare industry that makes it nearly impossible to draft and pass meaningful healthcare reform.
Well, there's a couple reasons, honestly.
First of all, I was gonna go back and go over Yang's platform and think about what we lost with his newest bout of enlightened centrism. Yang actually had a lot of good ideas in his 2020 platform, but not all of them can be covered easily, and given he had several positions over time, I wanted to document them.
But in doing so, he loses the plot. The fact is, he lost my support when he did this, and between this and my climate change hysteria, I went all in with Bernie after this. I did later learn in Forward he did still support medicare for all, but if you notice, he never did make it a part of forward. Again, dude can't support anything controversial because he's so afraid of losing people.
Like, seriously. I love the dude to death ideologically, but MAN I wish he had the courage to actually be controversial and stick to his guns on stuff like say, Bernie would.
No comments:
Post a Comment