{"id":2910,"date":"2017-06-27T22:38:40","date_gmt":"2017-06-28T02:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=2910"},"modified":"2017-06-28T06:37:57","modified_gmt":"2017-06-28T10:37:57","slug":"warren-buffett-says-single-payer-is-the-way-to-bring-down-health-care-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=2910","title":{"rendered":"Warren Buffett Says Single Payer Is the Way to Bring Down Health Care Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Warren Buffett, the world\u2019s second richest man, told Judy Woodruff of the PBS NewsHour that single payer is the way to bring down health care costs.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S6irBmOnQEc\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre we now at the point where the country does need to think about some sort of single-payer system in some form or another?\u201d Woodruff asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith my limited knowledge, I think that probably is the best system, because it is a system \u2014 we are such a rich country,\u201d Buffett said. \u201cIn a sense, we can afford to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut in almost every field of American business, it pays to bring down costs. There\u2019s an awful lot of people involved in the medical \u2014 the whole \u2014 just the way the ecosystem works, that there is no incentive to bring down costs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And it sounds like you\u2019re saying, with a single-payer system, it would be easier to figure out a way to get those costs down, Woodruff asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt would be more effective, I think,\u201d Buffett said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHealth care in 1960 was 5 percent of GDP. And there\u2019s only 100 cents in the dollar,\u201d Buffett said. \u201cSo, it\u2019s gone from 5 cents \u2014 5 percent to 17 percent. And it keeps going up. Corporate taxes have gone down from 4 percent to 2 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, corporate taxes are way less of a factor in American competitiveness than \u2014 I\u2019m talking about overall business \u2014 than medical costs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you have a firm idea in your mind of what ought to be done about Obamacare?\u201d Woodruff asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that\u2019s way outside of my circle of competence,\u201d Buffett said. \u201cBut I would say this. You can\u2019t have that 5 go to 17 and move on to 20 and 22 or 24 percent, because there are only 100 cents in a dollar. And health care is gobbling up well over $3 trillion a year. It\u2019s just about the same as federal \u2014 the federal budget is getting up there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.singlepayeraction.org\/2017\/06\/27\/billionaire-warren-buffett-says-single-payer-is-the-way-to-bring-down-health-care-costs\/\">Via Single Payer Action Newswire.<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Warren Buffett, the world\u2019s second richest man, told Judy Woodruff of the PBS NewsHour that single payer is the way to bring down health care costs. \u201cAre we now at the point where the country does need to think about &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=2910\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2910"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2912,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2910\/revisions\/2912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}