Gregg put up an interesting link to The Dynamist regarding inefficiencies in the Medicare system. Gregg’s conclusion is that before we can fix the private system trains, the public system has to run on time.
But saying “Fix Medicare First” is odd reasoning, like saying that I cannot put out a fire in the garage while the house is burning. Medicare is attached at the hip to the larger care system, merely reimbursing doctors and hospitals and abiding by decisions made in the private sector. It is therefore subject to every inefficiency wrought by our health care system (except for the excessive overhead of private insurers). Every cost control feature, every protocol, every guideline for use of resources that we could build into the private structure will benefit Medicare.
The same expense doom and gloom forecasts that are applied to Medicare apply to the private sector as well. It’s not just Medicare’s problem – the program, like all large programs, has inherent managerial challenges, but is efficient given its subordination to private sector decisions. Future costs will eventually overwhelm our entire health care system. Eventually we will be able to cure almost everything, but at what cost?
My mother just underwent expensive treatment for non-malignant skin cancer tumors. She’s 92. A friend of ours was seriously considering knee replacement for her 90 year old mother – the doctor approved the procedure (!), so Medicare would have paid.
We’re not being realistic and are avoiding hard decisions. How do we establish protocol for these hard decisions? That’s what leaders are for. Unfortunately … all we have are Democrats and Republicans who are financed by wealthy individuals and corporations. Any guidelines and protocols would be written by these financiers, and so would be skewed to favor them.
Fix campaign finance first.
Piece of Mindful 