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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Knighty Tin who wrote (119035)	8/9/2009 10:50:17 AM
From: Freedom Fighter	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

KT, >Your solution does not answer problem #1: How do private insurance cos. win the same price concessions from health care providers that Medicare gets? < You have it exactly BACKWARDS. Everyone is NOT making big money at lower fees...at least not an outrageous ROIC, which is the only metric that matters. All you have to do is look at the ROIC for all sorts of medical and medical insurance companies, the risk associated with being in the business etc... and it's easy to see who has outrageous profits and who doesn't, whether those profits are justified because of a unique business position or superior management or not etc... It's no different than evaluating any other industry or business. If Medicare forces price concessions to below a certain point providers MUST pass the cost onto those that are insured privately. Get it? If it costs 100K to do something and medicare forces 75k, they just charge everyone else 125K to keep the margins at levels that justify the existence of the business. I pay more because medicare pays less. The appropriate measurement is not profits (that's for idiots that don't understand business and economics 101 - namely liberals), it's ROIC etc... Yes, I am sure there are exceptions. I am also sure medicare pays outrageous prices for some things, is wildly corrupt in some areas, pays for things it shouldn't even be paying for etc... We are never going to get to the point where everyone has everything because we don't have the resources to do that and everything else we need. But that's a concept that's beyond the reach of liberals whose brain does not function in that area and causes their delusions. The general gist of what I said previously is the correct approach. Very basic care should come out of pocket, required care above that should be covered for everyone, but past a certain point you are on your own. Not everyone can go to one of the best brain surgeons on the planet. We have to try to get more out of every dollar we currently spend, not add more dollars. "The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all of those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics. "--Thomas Sowell