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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (3253)	12/15/2007 4:43:59 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Dr. Relman has been studying and writing about this subject for over two decades. His "conclusion from all of this study is that most of the current problems of the U. S. system - and they are numerous - result from the growing encroachment of private for-profit ownership and competitive markets on a sector of our economy that properly belongs in the public domain. " In case you miss the point. I didn't miss that point. It's just that the bulk of the discussion in the piece was about non-profits being cheaper than profits, which is a truism, not an argument. Of course a product offered without profit will cost less. If he wants to make health care more affordable by eliminating profits, he should just say so straight out and then tell us why that's in our overall best interests long term. I wonder if his study included an analysis of how that would affect the economy. And I'd also like to hear why it's a good idea to take the profit out of health care and not out of other product or service sectors. Obviously, lowering profits lowers product costs. You can lower the profit by fiat or via competition. I'd like to hear, too, his discussion about those alternatives.

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (3253)	12/15/2007 6:35:08 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42652

The Medicare system has administrative costs of less than 3 percent No it doesn't. Medicare and the Myth of Lower Admin Costs healthcarebs.com Medicare's Hidden Costs cahi.org The Cost to Administer Medicare Versus the Cost to Administer Private Health Plans--The Difference Isn't Anything Close to 25% healthpolicyandmarket.blogspot.com "...And finally, Medicare doesn’t actually process and pay claims for all of its beneficiaries. It contracts with health plans around the country to do much of this for them. That’s not in their administrative number, either — and it is, needless to say, in the private health plan number..." letstalkhealthcare.org