To: i-node who wrote (607997 ) 4/18/2011 8:29:44 AM From: Alighieri Read Replies (1) | Respond to It is NOT common -- probably 0.1% or less, and the savings amount to 15% of the otherwise billable fee. In short, it is insignificant in amount. Last but certainly not least, if the medicare program is privatized and doctor fees are normalized to industry customary, the cost of health care for seniors would go through the roof ie: a HUGE shift of cost to then participant seniors would result, since they are the most expensive patients in the demographic spectrum. Moreover, CBO estimates that the total health care costs attributable to Medicare beneficiaries would be considerably higher under the private insurance plans they would purchase under the Ryan plan than under a continuation of traditional Medicare, because private plans have higher administrative expenses and higher payment rates for providers. Since the Ryan proposal would reduce the federal government's contribution for beneficiaries' health care costs even as it caused total costs to increase, beneficiaries' out-of-pocket spending would rise dramatically. cbpp.org
