...

 BK>>  Oh, and the govt runs the most successful part of our health
 BK>>  care system, medicare. At least before the right got their
 BK>>  claws into it.

 BA> Medicare FORCES providers to give care to the elderly for
 BA> whatever reimbursement

 ...

 BA> a horrible situation for the providers - which is why
 BA> increasing numbers of providers are
 BA> quietly dropping out of the Medicare system.

 If providers are dropping out then Medicare is not forcing
 anyone to provide care. All they do is set standards for what
 they will pay, and the provider gets to say yes or no.

 Which is exactly what my insurance company does. Everything you
 listed. Only you can go outside the system, and the insurance
 company would love it if you pay your own way. However, inside
 the system the provider is not allowed to bill the patient for
 the difference, just like Medicare.

 BA> For well over 25 years Medicare has been infamous for
 BA> paying late (if at all), disallowing
 BA> perfectly valid charges and writing itself huge discounts.

 Exactly what my insurance company does. And 25 years goes right
 back to Reagan.

 BA> When providers billed the patients
 BA> for unpaid charges, Medicare got congress to make 'balance
 BA> billing' illegal (so those unpaid charges get factored into
 BA> everybody else's bills and the price of health care goes up
 BA> for everybody))  Medicare was doing that sort of thing back
 BA> in the 1980s.

 As does my insurance company's discounts. And as does the unpaid
 from the uninsured.

 IOW, just about everybody has an unpaid balance that gets
 factored in. So the cost of medical care goes up for everybody
 because nobody is paying the full cost.

 I do believe that needs some analysis, since it doesn't make
 sense that all medical care is underpaid.



BOB KLAHN bob.klahn{at}sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

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