Friday, September 25, 2009

Public vs. Private Payer

I left most of the following in a comment over at Cannonfire but think it is worth repeating here. My comments were basically in reaction to another comment comparing the terrible government agencies with the wonderful private sector entities.

I live in NC and the DMV functions quite nicely, thank you. Both Medicare and the VA function reasonably well. I have seen no compelling evidence that extending medical benefits to all will create a huge new class of bureaucrats. That is an assumption.

Blue Cross charges NC $10 for every claim filed. The previous administrator, EDS, charged 50 cents. Is there a disconnect there? And no, I don't know why we switched, but suspect if you follow the money you would know. So given the outrageous overhead noted from the private sector, how could it be any worse? Will the public employees of this new health care hullabaloo be compensated in the tens of millions like the private sector employees?

No way in Hell, so you already have savings in place.

It doesn't matter if it is tax or a copay, it still comes out of your pocket.


Frankly, most people would be better off with a modest tax increase rather than being nickeled and dimed to death for basic health services. (How much are going to have to pay for a flu shot? My copay will be $30 so I'm told.) Younger folks will complain that they don't consume health services so they should have to pay. Well, don't get injured or don't get pregnant, because if you do, you will discover that a broken appendage is extremely expensive and even with a good delivery and a healthy child, your costs will at least in the neighborhood of $5k. Do you have that laying around in petty cash?

I'd like to see a study on all this that I could really believe, as opposed to people pulling numbers from Dirty Harry's opinion.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When government gets control over the people's money the first in line for the money is not the people, it is the politicians, bureaucrats and special interests groups. Moreover, since government has the power to put you in jail if you don't tow the line and do what they say, you are out of luck when it comes to getting that surgery that will save your life when some Union boss decides higher wages and higher pensions are more important than that surgery you need to save your life.

Bob Harrison said...

Union bosses? I don't get the logic, especially if I'm a union member, which I'm not. I'd trust any of the people on your list to be more interested in my welfare than someone whose self-interest, profit, depends on denying my claims for that mythical operation.