StoneBlue.com

I remember this post from Sep 29, 1993 17:54 UTC that was cross-posted comp.dcom.isdn.

Jason Rosenberg                       Computer Science Department
ja··.@cs.··a.edu                      University of California
{uunet,rutgers,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!jason  Los Angeles, CA  90024

What's Happening

MedicareForAll

Data For Progress poll finds 65% of voters support a MedicareForAll Single Payer system. That includes 78% of Democrats, 71% of independents, and 49% of Republicans. https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2025/11/medicare-for-all-is-popular-even-when-put-up-against-attacks

• Single payer MedicareForAll saves more than 68000 lives per year.
• One preventable death every ten minutes.
• Drastically reduces private property taxes.
• Lowers the cost of auto insurance.
• Creates jobs. Healthcare should not be tied to employment.
• Provides the choice of any doctor or hospital
• Covers the whole body including vision and dental

Improving the prognosis of health care in the USA

Although health care expenditure per capita is higher in the USA than in any other country, more than 37 million Americans do not have health insurance, and 41 million more have inadequate access to care. Efforts are ongoing to repeal the Affordable Care Act which would exacerbate health-care inequities. By contrast, a universal system, such as that proposed in the Medicare for All Act, has the potential to transform the availability and efficiency of American health-care services. Taking into account both the costs of coverage expansion and the savings that would be achieved through the Medicare for All Act, we calculate that a single-payer, universal health-care system is likely to lead to a 13% savings in national health-care expenditure, equivalent to more than US$450 billion annually (based on the value of the US$ in 2017). The entire system could be funded with less financial outlay than is incurred by employers and households paying for health-care premiums combined with existing government allocations. This shift to single-payer health care would provide the greatest relief to lower-income households. Furthermore, we estimate that ensuring health-care access for all Americans would save more than 68 000 lives and 1·73 million life-years every year compared with the status quo. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)33019-3/abstract

Health Insurance Coverage in Texas

Texas has the highest uninsured health coverage rate in the US, with over 16% (around 5 million people) lacking health insurance, significantly higher than the national average, due to factors like not expanding Medicaid and economic barriers. This means about one in five Texans are uninsured impacting access to care and leading to worse health outcomes.

Trump Supports Universal Healthcare

Social Security

They are saying social security benefits will be reduced starting in 2035 when the trust fund reserves are expected to be exhausted, leading to a situation where taxes will only cover about 75% of scheduled benefits. Changes to benefits and revenue sources will likely be necessary to address this shortfall.

One solution is to increase the payroll tax by scrapping the cap.

Remove the income tax on social security that Ronald Reagan added in 1983 which took effect in 1984. Ronald Reagan signed the 1983 Amendments to the Social Security Act, which allowed for a portion of Social Security benefits to be subject to federal income tax starting in 1984. This marked the first time Social Security benefits were taxed.

Additionally in 1993 as part of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act Bill Clinton enacted legislation that increased the portion of Social Security benefits subject to taxation to 85% for higher income beneficiaries.