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

To: Murrey Walker who wrote (34876)	3/5/2014 1:42:08 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

I know (at least from our conversations, I think you do) you fiercely defend the "system" in DC. I defend when what is at issue is defensible or simply misunderstood. Much of the criticism is ignorant and/or biased. I don't defend against legitimate criticism and I think I know better than most of those who criticize where the bones are buried. There is a lot to criticize that doesn't get any attention at all. But, the above quote is indicative of what we, as a country run into with the "gubment". I have two things to say about this, one from each side. If you set up a fee for service system you invite skimming and even fraud. Doesn't matter if the government is the payer or not. It's a bad idea from a budgetary perspective to let individuals decide when and how much they should be paid. OTOH, it's dumb to spend more to collect a debt than the amount of the debt. D'oh. The "gubment" used to do that. They may be doing it again. But I remember the Al Gore "reinvent government" initiative as I was very involved in its implementation in my agency. One of the points was to stop auditing or requiring a ton of documentation for small transactions. It used to be that you needed a purchase order with several signatures to make a small purchase at Staples, for heaven's sake. They stopped that and issued credit cards. I doubt that to investigate the difference between one wart on a finger and multiple genital warts, while varying dramatically, would be worth the cost. Not to mention the cost of taking action against the doctor. People get outraged by the abuse but forget that oversight is expensive. The only thing that makes sense, if you're stuck in a dumb system like this, is to go after patterns of abuse, which are cost effective to tackle.