Medicare For All?

• April 25, 2007

I just about tossed my cookies when I saw this headline over a Ted Kennedy op/ed:

I think Teddy K. just drove off another bridge. Here’s a key excerpt from the load of drivel he’s penned:

I believe that the best plan for the nation is to build on a program that all Americans know and respect by creating Medicare for All. Medicare administrative costs are low. Patient satisfaction is high. Patients can choose their doctors and hospitals. And all Americans will be free from the fear of medical expenses and able to seek the best possible care when illness strikes.

He can’t be serious.
This year alone Medicare is expected to cost this country some $540 billion, a figure President Bush is “trimming”, according to the media, by dampening it’s growth from a projected 8.1% to 7.7% annually. Meaning that we’ll still spend more than $540 billion on Medicaid next year and the year after that, just not as much more as previously projected.
Medicaid is also a gigantic expense for taxpayers, costing about $330 billion in 2005 alone, an amount that also, historically, grows at about a 7 – 8% yearly clip.
Together, Medicaid and Medicare represent a portion of our nation’s spending as a percentage of the GDP that is becoming enormous. It is projected to actually outpace the growth in Social Security spending we’re all so worried about:

What this means is that while Teddy’s promises on health care may sound enticing, the truth is that it would be an expansion of already burdensome health entitlements that would cause our government to grow even larger, representing an increasing burden on taxpayers with absolutely no end to the growth in sight.
And who has ever heard of anyone being happy to be on Medicare?
I think Teddy needs to return to earth from the Cutty Sark galaxy.

Tags: Cultural Marxism, Domestic Issues, Nanny State, Politics, The Loony Left

http://Array docdave

You all can blast medicare all you waant but for people like me who are unable to get additional insurance due to pre-existing health problems (kidneys, heart) medicare is the life preserver keeping me from drowning financially in health care costs. I think that before health care can be totally privatixed there has to be a way to insure high risk people like me without bankrupting them. Currently medicare provides that solution.
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

Plenty of Canucks come down here to Grand Forks to get medical service.
docdave

robert, we really don’t disagree. I would welcome private insurance if I could get it and it was affordable. However I think that there are many people in my age group (over 70) that are in the same predicament.
http://www.willisms.com/ Zsa Zsa

Ronald…”former Congressman” are the key words! Get it?
http://SayAnythingBlog.com The_Whistler_ofnd

You all can blast medicare all you waant but for people like me who are unable to get additional insurance due to pre-existing health problems (kidneys, heart) medicare is the life preserver keeping me from drowning financially in health care costs.

Umm, DaveDoc if I remember right you’re what we call “old and retired.” That’s what medicare is for.

But that system would be bankrupt if not for the private system subsidizing the medicare. (For example, medicare hasn’t been paying the full costs of services that the industry provides.)

A larger problem with the health care industry is that third party payers don’t work. That goes whether the government or a insurance company pays the bills.

What we need is a way to insure large expenses but have an incentive for consumers to act like consumers.

Since we’re so far down this road it’s going to be tough to fix.

What should the health care financing look like and how do we get there. That’s the question. I’ve done my part.

(Hey no offense over the old and retired thing, ok)
Ronald Walter

He ran a stop sign while driving drunk and was eligible for sentence of ten years in prison. Since he was a congressman, he received special treatment. Any other schmuck in the universe wouldn’t have been treated so kindly.

Canadians that are waiting too long to receive medical care in Canada used to travel to the United States to receive their care.

It became too expensive.

Medical care has become a standing joke in the US these days, along with ‘Republicans.’

Where do those Canadians go now? Answer: India

They receive better care there.
Ronald Walter

Fairness isn’t the forte here, now is it?

Don’t forget about the former Congressman Bill Janklow of South Dakota too. He can drive drunk, kill a motorcyclist, and receive a hundred days of probation.

If the US gov can spend 500 billion dollars to kill people in Iraq, it can spend 540 billion dollars to keep people healthy too.

Don’t be an infophobe.
http://www.willisms.com/ Zsa Zsa

Where do those Canadians go for health care? Houston. There are people from all over the world recieving health care in Houston Texas. Check out the waiting rooms IF you don’t believe me?
robert108

DD: Exactly. I repeat, those who are truly in need should get taxpayer-funded help. What I also said was that the infection of taxpayer money in the healthcare industry at large has vastly increased costs of the legitimate Medicare sector, as well. We would all get more for our money if the major portion of the healthcare industry functioned under market forces. We would all benefit from that.
Michael K.

Doesn’t anyone here understand economics?

Has anyone else discovered this related post: http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/now_you_can_add_get_that_wart_checked_out_to_your_list_of_things_to_do_at_w/

The problem with heathcare costs is that no one pays their own bill. If people paid their own bill for healthcare, the “invisible hand” of the market would result in affordable healthcare for everyone. (At least what they were willing to pay). This happens right now for people who decide not to purchase health insurance b/c the risk is lower than the reward of the savings. “40 million uninsured” Duh, by choice, they are uninsured.

BTW: What was the cost of laser vision correction services when it first became available? How much does it cost now? How convenient is it? What do you think the cost and convenience would be like if insurance “covered” it?
robert108

Michael K: You are not the first one to advocate market forces in the healthcare industry. In order to do that, the stranglehold of the AMA on the supply side of healthcare has to be removed. No matter what you do on the demand/price side, the AMA regulations on medical school quotas and the regulations on the ability of nurses to provide appropriate care will continue to produce their intended shortage of care providers.
The cure for the deficiencies of socialism is not more socialism.
Ronald Walter

Houston is in Texas, not the United States.
robert108

DD: The use of taxpayer money to help people who are really in need is not a matter of dispute here. It is the heavy-handed manipulation of an entire industry with taxpayer funds that is the issue. We can keep the former, and should dump the latter. BTW, returning the majority of the healthcare industry to a market system would also improve Medicare, mostly by reducing the burden on the taxpayer.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Houston is in Texas, not the United States.

Gotta love how lefties will aspire to any delusion when confronted with inconvenient truths.

And I really don’t see what Janklow has to do with all this.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

Spot-on, Michael.
http://sayanythingblog.com robport

We spend money on the military to keep this country secure and free. Our society doesn’t exist without the military standing watch. By the way, that $540 billion figure for Medicare is for one year. We’ve been in Iraq multiple years, so the figures aren’t comparable.

Within our borders, each citizen should be responsible for taking care of himself/herself.

But even if you’re the sort that thinks nationalized health care is a good idea, you surely can’t think that Medicare is the right way to do it. I mean, c’mon. It’s inefficient, so expensive that it’s getting close to dragging this country under as is, and it’s terrible for users to deal with. So much red tape that it’s almost worth just staying sick than to try and get coverage.

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