So you don't think the 'single payer' would have any say in how healthcare was run?
On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 7:46 PM, Judah McAuley <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 4:34 PM, Scott Stroz <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Dammit...hit send too fast... > > > > I have worked in several government agencies and the waste and > > bueracracy was pathetic. Sorry, but I can't imagine it would get any > > better if the gov't started running all healthcare. > > First off, under a single payer healthcare plan, the government > wouldn't run healthcare. They would run an insurance plan, just like > BCBS does now, rather than like Kaiser that runs insurance and > provides care. That's a big difference. > > As for reimbursement rates on Medicare, that is a point of contention, > for sure and something that needs to be addressed. Medicare > reimbursement works fine in several places, routine care seems to be > fine. But there are a number of areas where it definitely falls short. > Of course that is true with other insurance plans too, it is by no > means a problem confined to Medicare. > > It brings up one issue that does concern me about a single payer plan > though. If you have one payer that is so much larger than everyone > else you run the risk of having it set terms so low that no one could > survive on the medical side. I've seen that happen with providers and > private insurance, where BCBS and the like try to beat providers into > submission by threatening to take them off the preferred provider list > and making visits to them cost 30% more for patients as a result. Then > the providers have to take a lower payout from BCBS than they want and > have to try to make it up in volume instead and quality of care > decreases. > > In that regard though I'd prefer to have Medicare (or some government > agency) be the 800 lbs gorilla as there are better mechanisms in place > to lobby the government and the government doesn't have a profit > number they have to hit. Medicare has led the way on higher > reimbursements for meeting quality of care metrics, EMR adoption, etc. > > The issue of payment rates for providers in a field where costs are > rising is going to have to be tackled no matter what kind of health > care reform we have. I don't see that a single payer solution is going > to make that issue more difficult to solve, but perhaps you're right. > > Thanks for the input, > Judah > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:296623 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
