Replying to a message of JIM WELLER to BOB ACKLEY:

 >> Looks like Medicare's dirty little secret is finally getting
 >> out. Providers have quietly been dropping out of the
 >> Medicare system for years - more rapidly and in greater
 >> numbers in recent months. You want to get providers back
 >> into the Medicare system?  Simply require that Medicare pay
 >> the bills, as presented, in full and within 30 days of
 >> presentation.

 >> Then figure out how to get the American people to accept a
 >> fifty percent or more hike in their income taxes.

 JW> How do you reconcile these two statements?

The first has nothing to do with the second, it refers only to the current
problem Medicare is having WRT providers dropping out of the system.

The second is what's going to happen when that obomination passes
the congress and is signed.  It has nothing to do with Medicare.

Note, BTW, that Medicare and Social Security are both actuarial train
wrecks waiting to happen.  Neither can survive much longer without
tapping general tax revenue because neither the Social Security taxes
("contributions") nor Medicare taxes
("Contributions/premiums") come
close to providing the funds required.  Note also that the vaunted "Social
Security Trust Fund," which contains 3/4 century of overpayments into
the system, contains no cash - it is full of US government IOUs as the 
money was long ago taken out and spent by the congress.  The US taxpayer
is on the hook to replace all that money.

 JW> BTW taxes would have to go up but certainly not 50%. We
 JW> actually cover 100% of the population for less money per
 JW> person/per tax payer than you do covering just 85%

Don't bet the ranch on that.  In this country the vast majority of the money
spent on various "social" programs goes to administrative expenses.  The
US could *give* every single "poor" person in the country $40,000
cash (that's
$160,000 for a family of four) and spend less money on them than it does now.

 JW> U.S. health care by the numbers    
 JW> National Post
 JW> Friday, Aug. 14, 2009

 JW> "Despite spending more per capita, the U.S. does not deliver
 JW> better medical care than many other countries."

 JW> 21.8 Percent of total government expenditure alotted to
 JW> health in the United States vs 17.8 Percent of total
 JW> government expenditure alotted to health in Canada

Note that there's no Constitutional justification for the US government
to spend a *dime* on health (or on any other 'social' programs, including
"Social Security").

 JW> 15.2 Percent of gross domestic product spent on health care
 JW> in the United States vs 9.8 Percent of gross domestic
 JW> product spent on health care in Canada

 JW> 6,347 Dollars spent per capita on health in the United
 JW> States vs 3,460 Dollars spent per capita on health in
 JW> Canada

 JW> 44 Percent of health care expenditure in the United States
 JW> that is public vs 70 Percent of health care expenditure in
 JW> Canada that is public

 JW> 60 Percent of personal bankruptcies caused by health-care
 JW> costs, according to the American Journal of Medicine vs 0
 JW> in Canada.

 JW> 47 million Number of uninsured people or 15.8 Percentage of
 JW> Americans without health insurance

 JW> 26 Number of physicians per 10,000 people in the United
 JW> States vs 19 Number of physicians per 10,000 people in
 JW> Canada

This would be a meaningful statistic if it referred only to primary
care physicians.

 JW> 59.7 Percentage of U.S. coverage provided through an
 JW> employer 9.1 Percentage of coverage purchased individually
 JW> 12.9 Percentage of coverage that was government-funded
 JW> through Medicaid 13.6 Percentage of coverage that was
 JW> government-funded through Medicare

Health care and other 'fringe' benefits to employees are holdovers from
WW II.  Because of wage and price controls, employers could not offer
more money to employees to attract or keep them so they started giving
the employees 'fringe benefits' that were not subject to government wage
and price controls.

 JW> 37 Ranking in terms of overall health-system performance
 JW> among WHO member states, United States vs 30 Ranking in
 JW> terms of overall health-system performance among WHO member
 JW> states, Canada (Yeah, we have room for improvement too.)

 JW> Sources: Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services, World
 JW> Health Organization, Organization for Economic Co-Operation
 JW> and Development, Centers for Disease Control, Canadian
 JW> Institute for Health Information, U.S. Census Bureau

Anybody can juggle statistics to support whatever position they hold,
this is especially true for organizations that have agendas - such as any

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