Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Don Hurst who wrote (12218)	12/10/2009 8:56:12 AM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 42652

Thanks. But don't most just provide prescription benefits and a yearly cap on medical costs? And if so, why not add that to Medicare and increase the cost to cover and eliminate the need for these MA plans. Seems that Medicare is a much more cost effective way to do this. If private insurance cos want to provide vision and dental OK. The most common bennies in these plans are vision and health club memberships. Paid for by the tax payer. Only 20% sign up for them but the cost is $Billions per year. My guess is most goes to the bottom line of insurance companies.

To: Don Hurst who wrote (12218)	12/10/2009 10:21:53 AM
From: i-node	1 Recommendation Respond to of 42652

But don't most just provide prescription benefits and a yearly cap on medical costs? And if so, why not add that to Medicare and increase the cost to cover and eliminate the need for these MA plans. Seems that Medicare is a much more cost effective way to do this. Most importantly, MA is more cost effective than straight medicare for the country. These private insurance companies have much lower administrative costs per patient than Medicare does, in spite of what you may have heard (Medicare runs 30-35% higher on a per patient basis that private insurance). MA plans give patients flexibility you cannot conceivably get from straight Medicare. This what people like about it. They have a plan that covers dr/hosp visits with a fixed copayment and as you indicated, there is no cap through Medicare. For a lot of people, this is a big deal. A lot of people just prefer not dealing with the government. Medicare is one of the most bloated inefficient operations in existence. A train wreck; and people don't want to deal with it and depend on it. If you add all these features to straight medicare you end up with something far more costly than MA. MA operations are far better in areas such as claims processing and fraud prevention. In short, it is private versus public, and private is always going to function better and more cost effectively than a bloated government program.