St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Sadly, many people in the health care debate are ignoring simple ecomonics and common sense in favor of talking points of the right wing and insurance industry coalition. The fact of the matter is that neither the current government system, Medicare, or the 1500 for profit insurance companies provide health care, all they do is negotiate rates with health providers and pay bills. So what we, as a country, are trying to determine is not who manages or provides heath care but who negotiates with health care providers and pays our medical bills. From an economic perspective, the current for profit system is foolish, all we need to do is look at how much overhead the insurance companies are taking from each health care dollar. The insurance companies charge 30% Medicare 3% . Would you rather get 70% or 97% for your health care dollar. Considering that all they basically do is pay bills, the government system is vastly superior. Why? The government guy running Medicare is paid approximately $150,000.00 and thousands of insurance executives are making millions for essentially the same function, i. e., paying your medical bills. Medicare also does not make a profit, pay thousands of lobbyists, pay millions for advertising, pay millions to politicians to protect their obscene salaries, pay commissions or pay for executive perks such as planes, cars, vacations, etc.
The simple solution make everyone eligible for Medicare at birth not 65. Yes a single payer system is the most cost effective way to pay our medical bills. Despite the right wing noise, we are really not arguing who decides what type of heath care is provided or who your doctor is just who pays the bills. Actuallly, the goal of the Medicare system is just to pay the bills whereas frequently, the goal of the insurance companies is to not pay the bill to increase their profit.
The big losers under my system are insurance company executives, lobbyists and politicians. The big winners are health care providers who will get more money and we the people who will get the same health care without a ravenous beast consuming 30% of our health care dollars. Oh, how do I pay for it, simple increase the Medicare tax to 3.45% from the current 1.45%. This looks like a negative but consider no more health insurance premiums for employees or employers who can under my system afford to give you a raise.
Probably the greatest irony of the health care debate is that the group most opposed to health care reform is seniors because they do not want anyone fooling with their government run health care.
Larry Bowman
St. Louis County
Thanks for another stupid lesson. You might want to learn economics yourself before putting this theory on someone else. Please inform us of an efficient government program this is still fiscally sound. Do you want to start with Social Security or would you rather go to the Post Office, where one has NO money in it and the other is going bankrupt. How about Medicare? Does it matter to you that many doctors will NOT accept Medicare because of all the payment issues and other major problems?
Private Enterprise always does better than government. If you like communism I am sure Cuba is looking for a few good loons. Obviously, you have never written a payroll or run a business. Oh, if the government screws up then they raise taxes. Business cannot do that.
So, try another subject. You failed in your assessment of this one!
Larry - Nice diatribe.
But the results of the elections today in VA, NJ, NY are sending the socialists in Washington a clear message. We are already sick of your big spending and big governent ways. ALL Republican winners so far, many of them leading by over 20 points. The only race that’s even close is the Corzine vs. Christie, but Christie is leading by 53 to 43 percent right now with 36% reporting.
I think this sends a crystal clear message to the Blue Dog Democrats in Congress - do not support this 2000 page piece of socialist shit healthcare bill or many of you will face the same losses in 2011 and 2012.
Sorry Obama - America just isn’t ready for modern day Maoism.
Dave,
Don’t bother, they don’t get it. It’s single payer or bust for these folks. Nevermind obliterating 1/6 of the economy, nevermind puting the system on notice with a “trigger” threat, nevermind interstae commerce, nevermind real tort reform. They are gonna get a form of PO and are still whanking. BTW, just a hunch, it’s a matter of time before someone weighs in on killing Tricare because they aren’t entitled to it without serving in the military, again, just a hunch.
Larry Bowman:
“Probably the greatest irony of the health care debate is that the group most opposed to health care reform is seniors because they do not want anyone fooling with their government run health care.”
This senior would have loved to keep government out of his healthcare but a Democratic President and Democratic Congress didn’t give me that option. They forced all working people and their employers to contribute to their Ponzi scheme for 40 or more years, unable to make a single claim and now you blame the victims because they worked their way to the top of the list.
That’s not irony, it’s criminal and all of the Democratic crooks should have been prosecuted. And by the way, you are disgustingly simple.
Medicare’s liabilities: “According to the trustees, Medicare’s unfunded liability is $74 trillion…”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120373015283387491.html
Yap, a few percent of pain yields freebees for all yields a debt-overloaded nation, doomed to die; killing off the old first, I presume - unless they’ve got 74×10^12 in pocket change we haven’t looted yet.
Larry Bowman: From an economic perspective, the current for profit system is foolish, all we need to do is look at how much overhead the insurance companies are taking from each health care dollar.
Yep.
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/business/03insure.html?_r=2
Senate Pressing Insurers on the Amount of Premiums They Spend on Care
November 2, 2009
The health insurance industry likes to cite figures showing that 87 cents of every dollar in premiums is spent on medical claims.
But a new Senate analysis suggests that for-profit insurance companies are spending much less than that, especially for policies sold to individuals and small businesses. Instead, as little as 66 cents of each dollar paid in premiums goes toward doctor and hospital bills, while the rest covers administrative expenses, marketing and company profits, according to the analysis.
I remember the good days when health insurance wasn’t for profit. Things were affordable and sick people got their care. It’s all about money today and people are trying to claim we are better off than we were before.
Lisa - What’s your point? Are you trying to tell us the Govt will not have any costs? Are you trying to tell us 100% of the premium will go to medical claims? Everything is FREE? Most reasonable people believe if the Govt. got ahold of this we would be lucky to get 40%.
socoboy,
My point is that the government would have much less overhead than the private insurance companies. And 100% of Americans would be covered. And every American could go to any doctor or hospital he chooses. And no one would be rejected for a pre-existing condition. And no one would have their policy canceled when they got sick.
~~~ Single Payer — The Fiscally RESPONSIBLE Choice ~~~
– Single Payer - SAVES $4 Trillion
– Public Option - COSTS $1 Trillion
All of the budget numbers for healthcare are 10 year numbers. Single payer saves more than $4 trillion.
$400 billion * 10 = $4 trillion
Physicians for a National Health Program
http://pnhp.org/
This is because private insurance bureaucracy and paperwork consume one-third (31 percent) of every health care dollar. Streamlining payment through a single nonprofit payer would save more than $400 billion per year, enough to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans.