mykidslovedogs
Full time employment: Posting here.
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2006
- Messages
- 860
Well, now, you've introduced an interesting though, supply and demand. Why is our health care cost continuing to rise well above inflation, and above people's abilities to pay? Because demand increases while supply stays the same or even deceases. IMO, there's several factors for this: an aging population, increased stress, increases in treatment options (ironically -- there was no MRI waiting list before there were MRIs), and a limited supply of physicians. We can't control many of these factors, but we can take steps to increase the supply of hospitals, equipment, and physicians. Since the private sector doesn't seem able to do this, there will be increasing pressure for the public sector to do it.
How many hospitals could be built with the money saved from reducing admin overhead from 30% (the private HMO number) to 3-5% (the Medicare number)?
Let me explain why we have a lack of supply of primary care physicians in our country. It's not because the private sector isn't cutting the mustard. It's BECAUSE the Medicare/Medicaid systems don't pay them enough, so they don't choose those kind of careers. Instead, they go for the specialist careers where they can make a lot more MONEY! Combine that with an aging population and rediculously expensive malpractice insurance and overhead costs of equipment, staff, etc...and what do you get? (a SHORTAGE of PCPs created by the PUBLIC health system).
To answer your second question. The administrative costs of Medicare/Medicaid are kept in check because the gov't caps the amount of money going towards service...try getting timely and efficient service from a Medicare Administrative representative. Additionally, the time/costs that Doctors and practioners incur filing paperwork, etc...are not included in the published numbers. Yes, the numbers may be lower than in the private sector, but not as much as they are made out to be. No-one is including the time/cost that brokers like me spend helping people figure out which Medicare Part D plan to buy. Sometimes, I'll spend hours sifting through all of the plan choices for my clients, filing the application, and following up on it...all for a measly $5/mo commission. (I guarantee you my time is worth more than that!) Right now, I offer assistance with Medicare Part D as a value added benefit to my clients, but, if it keeps going the way it's going, I may have to send people off on their own to do the research...
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