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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated
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To: LindyBill who wrote (194527)1/28/2007 6:21:32 PM
From: skinowski  Read Replies (1) of 794015
 
Yes, I hear a lot of positive things about Kaiser. And why not - Canada and Britain and others with a nationalized health care system seem to like them too.

In NY, Medicare HMO's are a bunch of clowns hassling for business, each trying to the mislead the public that they are better than the rest. They are not: They each play with the same exact amount of federal funding per beneficiary. Another thing they all have in common, is they they all retain about 20 to 25% of the federal funding as their costs and profits. The balance is spent on patient care. Imo, that's a disturbingly high overhead cost. The Feds do it all for about 5% total.

Real health care costs, as I mentioned previously, are not the Dr's fees. Unless those other issues are addressed, costs will remain high. Healthy older people are not "expensive" -- it is after they become ill that cost problems arise.

Historically, about 5 - 6% of health care dollar goes to the "primary care" physician. Capitation fees are based on those historic levels. Indeed, a $35 - 50 capitation per patient per month - at the present $700+ funding level - adds up to about the same thing. If at some point all Docs become salaried (of which capitation is a form), the general level of Dr's pay will probably remain fairly close to today's levels.

There is certainly a lot to be said in favor of a one payer system. It will not be pretty, but it will work. The biggest objection is that the government would get - almost overnight - another trillion+ dollars to distribute. That's a lot of power.

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