It's Simple: Medicare for All

The Washington Post ^ | September 13, 2009 | George S. McGovern

[GoldStandard]

For many years, a handful of American political leaders -- including the late senator Ted Kennedy and now President Obama -- have been trying to gain passage of comprehensive health care for all Americans. As far back as President Harry S. Truman, they have urged Congress to act on this national need. In a presentation before a joint session of Congress last week, Obama offered his view of the best way forward.

But what seems missing in the current battle is a single proposal that everyone can understand and that does not lend itself to demagoguery. If we want comprehensive health care for all our citizens, we can achieve it with a single sentence: Congress hereby extends Medicare to all Americans.

Those of us over 65 have been enjoying this program for years. I go to the doctor or hospital of my choice, and my taxes pay all the bills. It's wonderful. But I would have appreciated it even more if my wife and children and I had had such health-care coverage when we were younger. I want every American, from birth to death, to get the kind of health care I now receive. Removing the payments now going to the insurance corporations would considerably offset the tax increase necessary to cover all Americans.

[Publius6961]

It's Simple-Minded: Medicare for All

There.
Fixed it.

Sure, I paid the Medicare tax from its inception to the present and now every parasite from coast to coast is entitled to the benefits?

Good luck with that.
Keep with the trillions$ in additional taxes. At least we can see where the enemy is...

[Don Corleone]

Actually this idiocy began with Teddy Roosevelt.

[expatpat]

Certainly a simple solution. Of course, Medicare is already broke and collapsing under the cost and such an extension would make its financial collapse bigger and more rapid.

So the whole suggestion is nonsense. If it ever happened, the death panels for the elderly would be even more stringent.

[Arthur McGowan]

Poverty is because they never print enough money for the poor, just for the rich.

[Frantzie]

George McGovern bought a bed and breakfast I think in Maine. His B&B lost money and he eventually had to declare bankruptcy. Stratford Inn. I went to search the web for the story and it turned up on FR! LOL!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2110381/posts

[Frantzie]

The point was McGovern never ran anything except a B&B and it was a HUGE failure.

[cricket]

What part of fewer Doctors; fewer services; fewer hospitals; fewer pharmaceuticals. . .and so what part of rationing and waiting; and 'end of line' MO. . .don't these people get?

Oh yes; happy with Medicare. . .because 'private' still rules; without it; we are doomed. You think there is a shortage of Doctors now? There are many soon to be Doctors; working the 'hospital wings' who are watching; and who are ready to bolt; should Government option, rule the day. No Doctors. . .fewer health care outlets/facilities; there IS a domino effect.

Would say; someone needs to inform Obama; but then, we know; healthCARE has NEVER been the issue! So, why bother. Meantime; just celebrate Joe Wilson's call out in Congress a few days ago. . .for it's truth.

[listenhillary]

The figures I have seen is from 50 to 80 billion dollars a year in fraud.

If he can wave the Barack magic wand and identify this fraud, do it immediately as we could use the money right now. Also some people need to go to jail right now.

If he could do this, I would be impressed. He can’t because it is bull feces.

The 500 billion figure came from their calculations on how to pay for deathcare. They wouldn’t be spending 500 billion on Medicare and instead that money would be now called deathcare. No matter how fast you move the shells and what you call them, it’s still a shell game.

[listenhillary]

20 cents on the dollar seems low. I thought I had heard that payments to doctors were about two thirds of what is being billed.

[ottbmare]

20 cents on the dollar seems low. I thought I had heard that payments to doctors were about two thirds of what is being billed.

But Medicare does not permit providers to bill what they think is appropriate; they will only pay for certain procedures performed for certain conditions or disease states. So if, for instance, your doctor believes you need some tests and orders labwork not among Medicare's approved procedures, there is no compensation for that at all. If the coding is not correct the charge will bounce back for correction, and the corrections will take so long that the charge is finally disallowed as past time. In any case the doctors and hospitals have to maintain staff who are very knowledgeable about CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) coding and billing procedures, and the staff costs money. These costs have to be eaten by the doctor or hospital. So when taken all together these expenditures, delays, and disavowals cost providers so much their profits are reduced to nothing.