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From: "George Conklin" 
Newsgroups: alt.cancer.support, alt.support.diabetes, fidonet.diabetes,
 misc.health.diabetes, talk.politics.medicine
References: 
Subject: Re: Single Payer Universal Health Care: Medicare Efficient
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Date: Sun, 23 May 2004 12:27:24 GMT
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"Sarah"  wrote in message
news:u8GdnVZNluheri3dRVn-jA@rapidnet.com...
>
> Download and print these trifold brochures to help promote single payer
> Universial Health Care
>
>
http://www.kucinich.us/supporter_resources/otherpdfs/HealthCareBrochurePetit
ion.pdf
>
>
http://www.kucinich.us/supporter_resources/otherpdfs/HealthCareBroch_NoPetit
ion.pdf
>
> Learn More:
> http://www.kucinich.us/issues/universalhealth.php
>
> Health care is currently dominated by insurance firms and HMOs,
institutions
> that are more bureaucratic and costly than Medicare. Right now, private
> companies are charging about 18% for administration, while the cost of
> Medicare administration is only 3%. People are waiting longer for
> appointments. Fewer people are getting a doctor of their choice.
Physicians
> are being given monetary incentives to deny care. Pre-existing illnesses
are
> being used to deny coverage. It's important to understand that insurance
> companies make more money by NOT providing health care. A single-payer
> system can save money by investing in preventive care, as well as by
cutting
> out the insurance companies' profits.
> Insurance companies do not heal or treat anyone. Physicians and health
> practitioners do.
>

   Except that staying away from care may at times be more healthy than more
and more and more medications.

   Physicians posting on TPM constantly declare that Medicare is
inefficient.  They claim that the 3% figure you cite is bogus.


> Non-profit national health insurance will actually decrease total health
> care spending while providing more treatment and services -- through
> reductions in bureaucracy and cost-cutting measures such as bulk
purchasing
> of prescriptions drugs. A study by researchers at Harvard Medical School
and
> Public Citizens found that health care bureaucracy last year cost the
United
> States $399.4 billion. The study estimates that national health insurance
> could save at least $286 billion annually on paperwork, enough to cover
all
> of the uninsured and to provide full prescription drug coverage for
everyone
> in the United States.
>
> How would we pay for it?
> Funding will come primarily from existing government health care spending
> (more than $1 trillion) and a phased-in tax on employers of 7.7% (almost
$1
> trillion). Employers who provide coverage are already paying 8.5%, on
> average. That would raise about $920 billion. In addition to that, there's
> already over a trillion dollars being spent a year in local, state and
> federal dollars for health care. The American people are already paying
for
> universal health care; they're just not getting it.
>
> Privately delivered health care, publicly financed -- has worked well in
> other countries, none of which spend as much per capita on health care as
> the United States. The cost-effectiveness of a single-payer system has
been
> affirmed in many studies, including those conducted by the Congressional
> Budget Office and the General Accounting Office. The GAO has said: "If the
> US were to shift to a system of universal coverage and a single payer, as
in
> Canada, the savings in administrative costs (10% to private insurers)
would
> be more than enough to offset the expense of universal coverage."
>
> Over the years, groups and individuals as diverse as Consumers Union,
labor
> unions, the CEO of General Motors, the editorial boards of the Atlanta
> Journal-Constitution and St. Louis Post Dispatch, and Physicians for a
> National Health Program have endorsed a single-payer approach. In the
> "Physicians Proposal for National Health Care," 7,782 physicians agreed
that
> "proposals that would retain the roles of private insurers -- such as
calls
> for tax-credits, Medicaid/CHIP expansions, and pushing more seniors into
> private HMOs -- are prescriptions for failure."
>
> It is sound economics -- what actuaries call "Spreading the Risk" -- to
> extend Medicare to younger and healthier sectors of our population,
thereby
> putting everyone in one insurance pool. It permanently saves and improves
> Medicare, while eliminating duplicative private and government
> bureaucracies.
>
   The largest fear of organized medicine in the USA is that Medicare for
all Ages becomes law.