Let’s look at how the two main government run healthcare programs are doing. In 1967 Medicare and Medicaid together cost $4.7 billion. In 2006 they cost $500 billion. That’s a 100 fold increase. If you adjust that for inflation it still works out to a 17 fold increase in only 40 years. That certainly doesn’t seem like a shining example of effective cost control.
So how well are they working? Well Medicaid was designed to provide coverage for the poor. But if it’s working then why do we hear constant complaints of 40 million people who can’t afford health care coverage?
How about Medicaid?
Following are some of the conclusions of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons: (
http://www.aapsonline.org/medicare/medrep.htm )
1. INCREASING FEAR OF PROSECUTION OR GOVERNMENT RETALIATION HAS HAD A NEGATIVE IMPACT ON MEDICARE PATIENTS' ACCESS TO DOCTORS AND THEIR ABILITY TO RECEIVE CERTAIN SERVICES SUCH AS SURGERY:
Almost 25% of doctors refuse to treat new Medicare patients;
20% of those who refuse to accept new Medicare patients, do so because of hassles and/or threats from Medicare carriers;
More than one-third of doctors have trouble finding referral doctors for Medicare patients;
More than one-third of doctors surveyed are restricting services to Medicare patients;
Almost one-fifth of doctors give Medicare patients a lower priority for appointments;
More than 80% of doctors have an increased fear of investigation or prosecution;
More than one-fourth of doctors are restricting services to Medicare patients because of hassles/threats from Medicare.
2. COMPLIANCE WITH MEDICARE REGULATIONS TAKES A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF DOCTORS' TIME AWAY FROM PATIENT CARE
The cost of compliance with regulations is high--
Doctors and their staff spend a full one-fifth (22%) of their time on compliance issues. It costs an average of $14.70 to process a Medicare Claim, vs $11.15 for a private claim -- more than 27% more.What does the future look like?
According to the Treasury Department’s 2006 financial report Medicare is under-funded by $29 trillion over the next 75 years. Yes that’s trillion not billion. (
http://www.fms.treas.gov/fr/06frusg/06frusg.pdf Table 3.)
OMB director Rob Portman put it like this: "The burden on future generations will be overwhelming if we don't face the unsustainable growth in important programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security….” (
http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp202.htm )
Given that sort of dismal performance why would anyone want to put the whole country under a similar system?
