Fact 1
Medicare costs per beneficiary have risen by 8.8% pa since 1970. Ridiculous. I agree.
But health insurance premiums have risen 9.9% over the same period.
So if private insurance had managed its costs as carefully as Medicare, they'd be a third lower.
http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/NationalHealthExpendData/downloads/tables.pdf
Okay - we agree that the rate of increase of Medicare costs will have to be lowered.
We don't agree that the way to lower them is to adopt the model in which costs increase at a higher rate.
Indeed, if we want to lower the rate of increase of healthcare costs in the economy as a whole, maybe we should adopt the system which controls costs more effectively.
By the way, wavydog, the difficulty is, the stats almost always line up like this. To the point at which it is excruciating to watch the private market folks try to defend their system.
I began my research presuming, for instance, that the private system would surely be more efficient or that at least it must have better outcomes if it was more expensive. I was shocked by the facts into taking a different position.
But you have to let yourself believe what is under your nose. It is hard to do that if the dogma is already there.
Only let that go and you will discover a whole new world. One that is called reality.
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