Medicare for all!!!

[thundley4]

newtothegame   (1000+ posts)         Mon Aug-09-10 01:18 PM
Original message
What would Medicare-For-All look like?
   
I see these posts maybe once a week renewing the call for Medicare-for-All.

I am now the director of a pediatric cancer organization, but before this, I was head of our hospital foundation. The reason I ask the question about Medicare-for-All is because government payers comprised 75% of our patients. Medicare reimbursed us 51% of our cost to provide care, and Medicaid was even worse. And when I say costs, I don't mean our charges, but our actual COSTS of providing care. And that cost was just to provide current care, not to fund future technology, outreach clinics, etc. Meeting those costs would be just to keep our doors open this year, and the government could barely get halfway there. Commercial payers, greedy bastards that they are, were actually our BEST payers in terms of %, but we had to bilk them and upscale charges even more to them to make up for the ENORMOUS shortfall from government payers.

So my question is, if the government can only pay providers $.51 on the dollar for care now, what the HELL would reimbursement rates be if the government had to reimburse for EVERY patient? I'm all for a single payer system, but the government can't even afford to reimburse providers for the patients it has now...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8908660

It's a small campfire and unlikely to grow since it forces DUmmies to face cold hard reality.

GreenPartyVoter   (1000+ posts)             Mon Aug-09-10 01:25 PM
Response to Original message
1. What about Medi-care for all with buy-ins at progressively higher rates as income levels rise?
   
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jpak   (1000+ posts)           Mon Aug-09-10 01:28 PM
Response to Original message
2. French/Swedish Socialized Medicine Death Panels
   
or so we would be told by Mama Grizzly



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Tony_FLADEM   (1000+ posts)           Mon Aug-09-10 01:28 PM
Response to Original message
3. I think part of the reason government reimbursement is low relative to commercial payers
   
is because Medicare and Medicaid deal with people who have greater health needs than people in private insurance. Many of the people in private insurance system do not require a high amount of health care and private insurers are able to make bigger reimbursements overall.

I don't support single payer, but if you did have single payer, healthy and non-healthy people would be in the same insurance pool and this would help the reimbursement issue.
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dflprincess   (1000+ posts)             Mon Aug-09-10 01:29 PM
Response to Original message
4. I would imagine if we went to a Medicare for all system
   
we would see an increase in the Medicare tax - though by rights the increase would be less than what we're currently paying in premiums as we would be rid of the for profit middle man currently taking such a big chunk of our money. As the pool would now include age groups that tend to be healthier there would be more money in the pool so there might indeed be an increase in reimbursement.

Though, a couple years ago I ran up what was (for me) a fairly large bill. The total billed by the doctors & hospital listed on the EOBs was nearly $13,000. The negotiated price my private insurer paid was about 52% of what was billed - not a whole lot more than Medicare.

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zipplewrath   (1000+ posts)           Mon Aug-09-10 01:29 PM
Response to Original message
5. They would control your costs
   
Many of the costs you would bear would be controlled by the feds, single payer gives them that clout. Of course, they'll control what you charge as well, by controlling what you pay your staff, and what equipment you're allowed to own. You might see your salary approach what teachers make.

A lot of stupidity in a short space of time.

[true_blood]

DUmmies and stupidity go hand in hand!

[JohnnyReb]

DUmmies and stupidity go hand in hand!

Free bandaids and aspirins for all.......and not much else....that's the government healthcare system of the glorious socialist future.

[Tucker]

newtothegame   (1000+ posts)         Mon Aug-09-10 01:18 PM
Original message
What would Medicare-For-All look like?
   
I see these posts maybe once a week renewing the call for Medicare-for-All.

And I have the same question every time I see one. Who's gonna pay for it?

[AllosaursRus]

newtothegame   (1000+ posts)         Mon Aug-09-10 01:18 PM
Original message
What would Medicare-For-All look like?
   
I see these posts maybe once a week renewing the call for Medicare-for-All.

Kinda like Kevorkian, only with the Grim Reaper standin' behind him with a big grin across his skull.

[true_blood]

Free bandaids and aspirins for all.......and not much else....that's the government healthcare system of the glorious socialist future.

 I know! We'll be lucky we get that!

[BlueStateSaint]

I know! We'll be lucky we get that!

Only if you were a conservative or a Republican . . . If a Dem/Lib, you'd get everything.

[Celtic Rose]

How could the government control costs, other than to completely socialize the entire supply chain?   

[AllosaursRus]

How could the government control costs, other than to completely socialize the entire supply chain?   

That's the plan in the long term, I'm sure! Only problem is, half of the doctors are callin' BS and leavin' their practices because of the price fixin' controls. DUmbasses haven't figured out how we get healthcare when there will be only one doctor for a coupla hundred patients!

[Tucker]

I know! We'll be lucky we get that!

If we die, we die.

For a socialist/democrat/liberal, death is the end. For the God fearing christian, death is the beginning.

[JohnnyReb]

If we die, we die.

For a socialist/democrat/liberal, death is the end. For the God fearing christian, death is the beginning.

That's a trip we must all take...sometime...but i'm not done packing yet.

[true_blood]

For a socialist/democrat/liberal, death is the end. For the God fearing christian, death is the beginning.

Very true! Well said!