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To: studdog who wrote (98782)	6/22/2009 1:23:07 PM
From: Hawkmoon	2 Recommendations Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 116555

They pay 10% of GDP for healthcare and in general have equal or better outcomes. We pay 17 % of GDP for a system that enriches the insurance companies at the expense of you, me and the companies you work for. Well, my father recently died in the hospital of complications completely unrelated to the actual surgery he underwent. The official cause of death was due to a sepsis infection and renal failure. But what actually caused his downturn after a successful surgery was some leaking chest tube drainage container (pleur-vac) and a stupid ICU doctor who ignored the nurse's concerns about his increasing Subcutaneous Emphysema (air under the skin) that puffed him up like a balloon and left him temporarily blinded, unable to move, and susceptible to the eventual pneumonia that required him to be sedated for 3 weeks. So who do I see about legal action due to what I perceive is negligence on the part of the ICU doctor, and the faulty pleural-vac if the government is in charge? Can't sue the government (normally). And btw, for anyone who has a relative/friend undergoing a lung resection.. DO NOT IGNORE any leaking of air into the chest cavity. It puts pressure on the diaphragm, the lung, and leaves the patient susceptible to pneumonia. If you see their skin puff up or it feels like "rice crispies", DEMAND that the on-call physician contact the thoracic surgeon immediately. My father was never the same after this happened an it denied him any opportunity for a recovery and I don't want it to happen to anyone else. Medicare spent over $300K for my father's surgery and it was ruined by a leaking drainage container probably valued at $30-40 dollars. teleflexmedical.com Hawk

To: studdog who wrote (98782)	6/22/2009 6:05:46 PM
From: skinowski	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116555

The notion that Medicare administrative costs are 2-3% does not appear to be correct. Those numbers may be true if one only considers the costs of running the operation at the very top - issuing money to private insurance companies that are the actual "carriers" of Medicare. There are many more costs down the road. This study estimates the total costs at 26.9%: CAHI’s 1994 Study. In 1994, the Council for Affordable Health Insurance (CAHI) published “Rhetoric vs. Reality: Comparing Public and Private Health Care Costs,” authored by Mark Litow, a consulting actuary with Milliman & Robertson (now Milliman, Inc.), and CAHI’s Technical Committee (now the Research and Policy Committee). The study found that when all of the hidden costs and certain related unfunded liabilities were included, Medicare and Medicaid administrative costs with the related unfunded liabilities were significantly higher (26.9 percent) than the private sector (16.2 percent). cahi.org Medicare HMO's usually retain a percentage of funding which in the 20% plus range. There are more costs that remain hidden - like, the costs of billing Medicare (and Medigaps) by physicians. No one even tries to calculate the costs of obtaining various bullshit "pre-approvals" and "pre-certifications" for HMO Medicare programs. It is puzzling that it's so difficult to find out the real costs of the Medicare system. Perhaps, we should develop a better understanding of this subject before we expand Medicare to many more millions of people.