Quote:
Originally Posted by CoachKandSportsguy
That's why I asked for a point - counterpoint, to see what the argument I might be missing.
The medicare versus private insurers is magnified here in the Villages, with the huge imbalance of medicare as compared to the general population in the bulk of the working population.
However, the significant increase of medical cost is the mandated EMR systems and support. The benefits are huge, but so are the costs, nothing is free. Its the infrastructure costs of the medical costs which has increased substantially in 10 years
Its the local issue here which I piqued my interest
Thanks
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Rather than hurting the poorest with privatization, we need to make Medicare more efficient. We ALSO need to reduce the cost of the practice itself, by reducing the cost of proper medical education in this country. By the time a high school graduate completes his residency and can be a private practitioner, she has spent a minimum of 11 years of education plus residency, up to 15 years, assuming she hasn't chosen a specialty. Then it'd be more, with fellowships.
She will be paying for the privilege the first 8 years, and then paid enough to pay the rent but not enough to make monthly payments on the school loans, for the next few years.
The average cost to attend four years of med school is $238,420.
But in order to attend those four years, you FIRST have to have a 4-year undergrad degree. So add another $100,000 to that, for the undergrad degree.
Unless they come from a wealthy family OR get a scholarship, they'll be owing more than they get paid, for many years once the first loan payment becomes due, which is usually the first year after they graduate from undergraduate studies.
They HAVE to charge an insane amount to recover from this debt. Medicare doesn't even cover the mandatory patient information software they use now, let alone living expenses. So we need to re-configure the education first. Then rework Medicare. They need a more efficient fraud department. Some random guy who ran a health care who is totally not a Florida elected official now, defrauded Medicare and Medicaid by several million dollars, and got away with it - and became an elected official who owns a different health care company now.
That kind of thing needs to stop. There should be regulations that state "if you get caught cheating old people with health care fraud, then you're not allowed to make money with any health-related company/organization ever again, you can't even buy penny stocks in a company that makes hand sanitizer for hospitals."
There needs to be more checks and balances, while at the same time, less red tape in the actual process of serving the patients. Too many people at the top of these health care companies are making too much money, while their customers - the patients - suffer or die due to denial of coverage.
I'd say - remove stock-owned health care from the Medicare system entirely. Outlaw it. Outlaw it in the whole country. Make it such that it no longer exists. It can be a profit-making company, but no "shareholders" should be allowed to decide how it's run. Or, make ALL health care "non-profit." That doesn't mean free. It just means any overage has to go back into the care of patients in the form of direct care, equipment, personnel, facilities, etc.