Government Run Care Is Wasteful
Sep 19, 2009 Political
The idea that the government can run anything efficiently is one that I cannot get my hands around and I cannot understand those who believe this to be true. How many government programs have to run out of money and how many have to be funded with tax increases or reduction in benefits before people begin to see that government is not in the business of business and is inefficient?
Social Security will be paying more than it takes in in a few short years (something Bush warned about) and the paper IOUs that the government exchanged for the money it confiscated from the program are worthless. We have NO money to pay out when the bill finally comes due and current recipients will receive no cost of living increase next year. The Democrats have a solution and that is to raise the cap on which people pay Social Security taxes. This would happen without a corresponding increase in benefits that a person would receive in retirement. One would get the same for paying taxes on 130,000 dollars as the guy who paid taxes on 90,000. There is never a corresponding increase in benefits when taxes are increased.
Medicare is broke. It pays out more than it takes in. This, like Social Security, is a huge Ponzi scheme in which the current workers are paying for those who have retired. The only difference between these government programs and what Bernie Madoff ran is that the government’s Ponzi scheme is legal.
Medicare is touted as a success story by those on the left. They claim it runs efficiently and has a 2 or 3% operating cost. This is absolutely incorrect and is extremely misleading. Medicare has a lot of costs that are absorbed in other parts of the federal budget and the methods it uses to calculate administrative costs are based on fuzzy math.
Speaking of scams, the argument that Medicare’s administrative costs are 2% is one of the biggest scams out there.
Public figures for Medicare’s administrative costs count only what it takes to print reimbursement checks. Normal operating costs — rent, management, health insurance, taxes, capital to start a business and new equipment — which private insurers must include in their administrative costs, are counted elsewhere in the federal budget.
Official Medicare administrative costs simply exclude what most companies must include. No administrative cost savings exist in the public plan, and the true costs will never be counted because they’ll be hidden in the federal budget. American Spectator
A frequent argument is that, by removing the profit motive, the federal government, as through Medicare and Medicaid, does a more efficient job insuring health care than do private insurers. Congressional Research Service estimates Medicare’s administrative costs at 2 percent of the total program costs, compared to 12 percent for HMOs, and 10 percent for private insurers. A study by the consulting firm Milliman and Robertson, however, estimates that when factoring in the hidden costs shifted to care providers, and the social costs of collecting taxes for funding, Medicare and Medicaid actually spend 27 cents per dollar more on administration, compared to 16 cents per dollar spent by private insurers. The Evening Times
This program is what Obama wants for America and he claims that it will not add one dime to the deficit. He claims it will be deficit neutral. That is what he says now but what did he say when he was candidate Obama? He said that going to a Medicare like program would cost and additional 90 or 100 BILLION dollars a year. He said that it would cost 15 BILLION dollars to set up certain programs and he said that the idea that this kind of coverage would save money is only a theory. He said the reality was it would COST money.
Then he said that the reason that Medicare reimburses at about 62 cents on the dollar is because politicians use that program as a safety valve when there are budget problems. He said that when money is tight the politicians delay reimbursement or lower the rate and that doctors have to “suck it up.” Gateway Pundit has the video and what he said as a candidate is drastically different from what he is saying now. Please go look at the video and see for yourself that he is lying now about the costs.
It is also important to listen to what he said about how politicians use this program to ease budget problems. If they are tight on money then they delay payments or reduce them and expect doctors to suck it up. If his takeover of the health care system passes there will be plenty of budget shortfalls and that means delayed reimbursements and lower rates with doctors sucking up more of it. And keep this in mind, if they can do this to the doctors to ease budget problems then they can also ration care to accomplish the same thing. Obama would rather you take a pain pill in the first place. If he gets control of your health care then some government bean counter can decide if you should get the treatment you need based on the budget. The savings have to come from somewhere and Obama already said that the government uses Medicare as a safety valve.
The government is not efficient. Do you like the Postal Service? I think it is amazing they can get a letter to anywhere in the US for less than 50 cents but they also run a deficit in the billions of dollars. If they were a private business they would have gone belly up but they are a government entity so they are going nowhere. Article I, Section 8, Clause 7 of the United States Constitution allows Congress to establish the Postal Service and postal roads. This means they are here to stay no matter how poorly they are run.
Do you like the Department of Motor Vehicles? Run by state governments, they are an exercise in inefficiency. How about the Passport Office? Ever go there to get a Passport? IRS, Customs, and just about any other government agency you can name specializes in the run around and expending huge amounts of money.
Hell, The TSA is a government agency and look at how it operates. TSA stand for Thousands Standing Around.
The idea that government run health care will be a good thing is beyond reason. It is not about health and it is not about care. It is all about control over our lives.
Lastly, take notice in the video. Obama mentions single payer health care. That is the ultimate goal.
The government does not belong involved in this and if it succeeds the only thing we will have is a further erosion of our freedom.
I suppose the DNC will now try to rain hell down upon me. Two words for you morons; Bring It.
Related:
Mandatory Health Care is unconstitutional
Medicare efficiency over-hyped
Fannie Med?
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Tags: health care, inefficient, medicare, Obama