I love Digby!

In my country...

...Where is her thinking wrong?  This is a beautiful post that lays out exactly what is wrong with the thinking of the political right.   The good old days can be talked about as being so perfect, but only while wearing rose colored glasses.  Fully 1/3 of seniors lived in poverty before Medicare - this has gone down the memory hole with some many other things.  Is this what we as a country want to go back to?

Medicare is needed and must be kept as an important program in our country.  Does it have financial issues? Yes, it does.  The answer to these issues do not lay in how to reduce the coverage of the Medicare program, but rather in the health care delivery system it seeks to insure against.  We first need a single payer system like Canada, and then move to total national health care like the UK.  This will be the only way to adequately attempt to control the cost of healthcare.

Wow, I didn't know that!

Well, I actually knew some of this, but now have many more details about why things work they way they do.  Click here and take the 15 - 20 minutes needed to read this whoel article. No politics here, just factual info that will help to make you a more informed consumer. 

An update on the Unaffordable System

Here are some macro numbers to add some weight to the premise of my previous post about the United States' healthcare problem being more about the system for how it is delivered and paid for.  If you only look at the charts and don't read the actual article, remember that the figures for total governament spending in places like England and Canada covers ALL the citizens whereas in the US governament spending only covers Medicare, Medicaid, and VA.

Follow the link and check out the story and figures.

The Unaffordable System

The country can no longer afford to pay for retired persons’ healthcare insurance. 

This is what we are being told.  The GOP’s budget that was passed in the House looks to change the system of Medicare.  It changes it in that it eliminates it.  Today, the government collects taxes (think of these as premiums) and then acts as the single insurance company to pay for all claims for services doctors and hospitals provide to retired persons.  There is an agreement between the government and the public about what services will be covered.  There is an agreement between the government and the providers about how much will be paid for each service.

The problem is that the cost of medical care is going up faster than the premiums that must pay for it.  

The GOP’s plan to solve this problem is to turn the insurance responsibility over to private companies, provide a subsidy to them for part of the premiums, and cap the level of the subsidy to rise only with the overall level of inflation.

Now, there are two big problems with this approach.  1) The inflation on medical care is rising far faster than the overall inflation rate.  2) Whereas today the government puts nearly ever premium dollar towards paying claims, private insurers will have far greater overhead – today this overhead averages about 30%.  This means that 30 cents of every 1 dollar will not pay for actual care, but instead pay for marketing, profit, and other non-care related items.

The GOP plan does nothing to control the cost of medical care for seniors.  It only controls the government’s cost by shifting the additional expenses to seniors who will pay it in ever rising premiums to private insurers.

The real solution to the high cost of medical care is to change the system by which medical care is delivered, not the system by which it is paid for.  Our country must change the way in which private enterprise operates in the delivery of medical services. 

You see, we get to decide the way the medical system is organized and operates in the US.  When the system does not operate in a way that servers the citizens of our country, it is our responsible and right to change it.  Nowhere is it required that we allow 30% of every dollar to go to profits, marketing, and other overhead in the private sector when it is not in the best interests of our entire population.  The answer to the affordability of medical care for seniors, and everyone else, is not to make each person pay more, it is to change the rules of the game, and the way the game is played to remove unneeded costs.

You see, the unaffordable system is not Medicare, it is the healthcare delivery system itself.  There is no place for profit in it and it should be removed.

GOP endorses Obamacare for America's Seniors!

  For all those who want to see the repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)- by you AKA Obamacare, do you realize that this is exactly what the GOP budget bill just passed in the House yesterday calls for for America's senior citizens. Do you realize that when you retire, you won't be part of a company's group healthcare insurance plan. Do you realize that Medicare, the single-payer (the Federal Gov't) plan that all retired Americans use as health insurance is eliminated under the GOP House budget passed yesterday. It calls for retired people to get a coupon (a subsidy) to buy individual insurance in the private maket - this is exactly what the PPACA does for working age people not covered by an employer group health insurance plan.
　
How can you be against Obamacare and support the House GOP budget plan?

GOP healthcare death panel

When Sarah Palin and leading Republicans like Senator Chuck Grassley pointed to a section in the Affordable Care Act and falsely claimed it authorized death panels that would “pull the plug on Grandma”, the mainstream press reported on it repeatedly.  Now that the GOP is actually pushing a plan that truly cuts the level and amount of care senior citizens get, how will the press report it? 

  We have a problem in this country about the cost of healthcare.  A part of the solution is to institute a single-payer system.  Call you elected leaders and tell them to push for it.

When is a mandate a mandate?

  Mike Pence, GOP Congressman of Indiana’s 6^th district, feels his party has a mandate on federal budget cuts. Recently he said the following.   “I think if liberals in the Senate are unwilling to embrace even this modest step toward fiscal discipline in Washington, D.C., then I say shut it down. You know, look, I think the American people sent this historic new majority to Congress to see the change in this direction."

  So the mandate of the people to get healthcare reform taken care of, a mandate shown through giving control of the Congress, the Senate (including a super majority of 60), and White House to the Democrats is not viewed by the GOP as a mandate.  However, in Mike Pence’s mind, putting the GOP in control of just one House of Congress in the last election is a mandate on budget cuts.  Not only does he believe this is a mandate, but he believes that his party that is in control of just the House gets to call the shots with no need to negotiate. 

  The Democrats put in total control on a platform to reform healthcare is not a mandate.  The GOP put into control of just the House of Representatives is a mandate.   Mike Pence logic.