I find the overall Medicare debate fascinating....this morning on FOX Noise a senior was interviewed about her town hall question to Russ Feingold of Wisconsin. She was talking about Medicare Part D, the prescription plan and its donut hole.

The fascinating part to me is Seniors say Don't touch our Healthcare.. a single payer government run health plan. They oppose Healthcare reform because of the cost but Medicare Part D was not paid for by Congress or President that passed it and they donut hole fixed, which would cost billions more. And they complain about the rates going up but no Medicare COLA this year.

Its fascinating.....

Can you believe it I really was watching FOX Noise this morning.

A couuple of things. First of all, Medicare is not a single payor system. There is is a great deal of competition when you consider the Medicrae Advantage plans.
I have no faith that the government can put in place single payor. Look how long it took them to put in place HIPAA! This legislation was passed in 1995 and it is not fully implemented today. There is really no single data set as the legislation mandated, as NY Medicaid is not on board today. One part of that legislation (thanks Sen. Kennedy) was that every insurance company had a single identification number. Seems easy to implement, right? How many years did that one take?

Kudos to all of you who are participating in this forum concerning the health bill.

I have found it very enlightning and helpful for me to understand !

Thanks to all and keep it going !