Joe Paduda writes about the zealots pushing a Medicare-for-all approach at Take Back America. He asks one unanswered question amongst all the cheerleading: can it control costs?
The level of anger and frustration expressed by attendees was palpable, and loud, and high. Unfortunately the level of misinformation and misunderstanding was equally high.For example, no one asked about Medicare’s complete inability to control costs. The core issue in health care in the US is cost; Medicare’s solution to cost is a formula that reduces provider compensation when utilization increases. And it has failed miserably to control costs - when prices are reduced, utilization increases
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I guess the question is really ‘can anyone truly control medical costs’? Certainly private insurance does by denying care, and spending a huge portion of thier revenue on lobbying, management incentives and advertising — seems like a huge opportunity for savings right there.
The real question is, are we going to live in freedom, or sell that freedom for a battle against death that we must lose anyway.