The remedy for health care system is universal Medicare (by a republican)

[proud2BlibKansan]

Jack Bernard is a retired health care executive who worked with Kansas hospitals on planning and cost-containment issues. He now is a Republican county commissioner in Monticello, Ga., an Atlanta suburb.


A physician friend recently said to me “Once every 15 years, health care reform comes around. If we do not succeed this time, we will have to wait another 15 years.”

Unfortunately, he is correct, and that is why it is good for Kansans that Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) was passed and found constitutional. However flawed, it is better than nothing at all, especially for the 350,000 Kansas residents who are uninsured (according to the Kansas Health Institute).

Yes, Obamacare will eventually expand coverage and stop some of the most abusive insurance industry practices. But, was it the “right” prescription for both Kansas and the nation?

Obama won in 2008, advocating hope and change (although the Democrats lost in Kansas, as usual). The health care question was: “What can be done to get us on the correct path to have affordable, high-quality health care for our citizens?” With the public obviously ready for change, Obama and the Democratic majority had the opportunity of a lifetime. But they caved in to various political pressures and the lobbyists from the insurance and medical industries and deserted single payer insurance, their real preference.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/07/01/3683661/as-i-see-it-the-remedy-is-medicare.html#storylink=cpy

[madrchsod]

1. hospitals love medicare because they get paid on time

they also know how much they will be paid .

hospital stock went up after the ruling...

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Yep.

I was thinking I should call my broker tomorrow.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

3. The ruling had nothing to do with Medicare

So I'm not sure how you're correlating the rise in hosptial stock with Medicare.

And doctors continue to drop their participation in Medicare because of the reimbursment rates. That's the thing that no one really wants to talk about under ACA - doctors can decide which plans they'll take and which ones they won't, which could greatly impact quality and timeliness of care.

Yes, ACA is absolutely better than nothing, but I think it's going to turn out to be not nearly as good as we had hoped.

[Ruby the Liberal]

4. Wow - he nailed it.

Universal Medicare is a concept that makes sense technically and fiscally. The U.S. currently has per capita health expenditure costs double that of other developed nations on single-payer systems.

Medicare For All can be paid for through payroll and employer taxes, just like Medicare and Social Security are now. It is affordable because private insurance marketing and administrative costs (30 percent of the premium) are eliminated for employees and the firms employing them. Costs can be controlled through the Independent Payment Advisory Board, an independent panel set up under Obamacare. And, just like those programs, it would find immediate acceptance by the American public after implementation.

For more information on costs and benefits, please go to the website of Physicians for a National Health Program at www.pnhp.org.

Taking the long view, universal Medicare will eventually be implemented in the U.S., because of increasing premium costs and cost shifting if nothing else. But in 15 or 20 years, our health care cost and quality problems will be even worse because of congressional inaction.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Pretty amazing, isn't it?