Comments on: Medicare: A Poor Model for a National Health Care System http://www.healthcarebs.com/2007/03/22/medicare-a-poor-model-for-a-national-health-care-system/ Cleaning the Augean Stables of the Health Care Debate Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:03:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Catron http://www.healthcarebs.com/2007/03/22/medicare-a-poor-model-for-a-national-health-care-system/#comment-42 Catron Tue, 27 Mar 2007 19:32:58 +0000 http://www.healthcarebs.com/2007/03/22/medicare-a-poor-model-for-a-national-health-care-system/#comment-42 Your admin cost figures are off. The actual numbers are 5% for Medicare and 8% for private insurance. And, if we eliminate the competition by implementing some sort of single-payer system, the government admin costs would more than likely go up, much as they have in education. Your admin cost figures are off. The actual numbers are 5% for Medicare and 8% for private insurance. And, if we eliminate the competition by implementing some sort of single-payer system, the government admin costs would more than likely go up, much as they have in education.

]]> By: Joe Kane http://www.healthcarebs.com/2007/03/22/medicare-a-poor-model-for-a-national-health-care-system/#comment-41 Joe Kane Tue, 27 Mar 2007 17:07:59 +0000 http://www.healthcarebs.com/2007/03/22/medicare-a-poor-model-for-a-national-health-care-system/#comment-41 What are you smoking? Come out of your dream world and face reality. Medicare is merely a non-profit insurance while the doctors are a free enterprise system with their fee for service. You and Mr. Cain talk in misleading abstractions. He states that the for profit insurance comapanies look to cost containment and/or quality enhancement. Ha! Their cost containment is to find ways to deny payments to patients (See NY Times front page March 26,2007) And their "enhancement" is directed toward their bottom line, not quality of health. Have youe forgotten the fight over a "Patients Bill of Rights"? Just two companies, Cigna andAetna paid their CEOs $48 million in salaires and bonuses. Think how much haealth carel that could buy for patients You overlook the fact that Medicare's cost ratio for non-medical administration is only 2%, compared to the wasteful HMOs of 20% to 30%. Joe Kane - Long Beach, NY What are you smoking? Come out of your dream world and face reality. Medicare is merely a non-profit insurance while the doctors are a free enterprise system with their fee for service.
You and Mr. Cain talk in misleading abstractions. He states that the for profit insurance comapanies look to cost containment and/or quality enhancement. Ha! Their cost containment is to find ways to deny payments to patients (See NY Times front page March 26,2007) And their “enhancement” is directed toward their bottom line, not quality of health. Have youe forgotten the fight over a “Patients Bill of Rights”?
Just two companies, Cigna andAetna paid their CEOs $48 million in salaires and bonuses. Think how much haealth carel that could buy for patients
You overlook the fact that Medicare’s cost ratio for non-medical administration is only 2%, compared to the wasteful HMOs of 20% to 30%.
Joe Kane - Long Beach, NY

]]> By: Catron http://www.healthcarebs.com/2007/03/22/medicare-a-poor-model-for-a-national-health-care-system/#comment-40 Catron Tue, 27 Mar 2007 00:49:06 +0000 http://www.healthcarebs.com/2007/03/22/medicare-a-poor-model-for-a-national-health-care-system/#comment-40 So, let me get this straight: You believe that this mountain of bureaucratic red tape has been created as a kind of public service? Or is it just the foothills that our masters in D.C. have benevolently piled up for us? Has it ever occurred to you that the "need" for such guidelines, definitions, etc. has been created by the bureaucrats in the first place? So, let me get this straight: You believe that this mountain of bureaucratic red tape has been created as a kind of public service? Or is it just the foothills that our masters in D.C. have benevolently piled up for us?

Has it ever occurred to you that the “need” for such guidelines, definitions, etc. has been created by the bureaucrats in the first place?

]]> By: Todd Schwarz http://www.healthcarebs.com/2007/03/22/medicare-a-poor-model-for-a-national-health-care-system/#comment-39 Todd Schwarz Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:01:48 +0000 http://www.healthcarebs.com/2007/03/22/medicare-a-poor-model-for-a-national-health-care-system/#comment-39 Left unsaid by Mr. Cain and his fan is that those 120,000 pages of regulation include many pages of guidlines, definitions, and licensing standards that, if not developed by Medicare for public consumption, would need to be developed by all commercial health insurers. How many pages would that be? Left unsaid by Mr. Cain and his fan is that those 120,000 pages of regulation include many pages of guidlines, definitions, and licensing standards that, if not developed by Medicare for public consumption, would need to be developed by all commercial health insurers. How many pages would that be?

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