Dr. Roger Stark’s June 27 guest commentary opposing a government-sponsored health plan skewed some information to raise unnecessary fears.
He said Medicare took over health insurance for the elderly from private insurers as if this was a sinister intent. But insurers were only too happy to get rid of that most expensive population. When I turned 65, my insurance company automatically canceled my full coverage and switched me to a policy secondary to Medicare.
Dr. Stark’s figures about the cost of the “unfunded liability” for Medicare are deceptive. If the country went to a government-funded plan, it would mostly be a pay-as-you-go one just as we now pay monthly premiums to private insurers.
Certainly a government plan would be subject to bureaucratic decisions, but private insurers now make policy decisions about what they will cover and for how much. In other words, they ration. Canada’s sometimes long waits for service are because they spend 50 percent less per person than we now spend. However, they can go to any doctor or hospital, so they have plenty of choice, which Dr. Stark seemed to believe wouldn’t be available in a government-sponsored plan.
The important point for all of us is that we must control costs. Many other affluent, industrialized countries (United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, etc.) have found ways to do so. One thing we can do is to vastly simplify the 30 percent of our health costs that go to administration. These administrative costs are found in what doctors and hospitals pay to bill the more than 1,200 “competitive” insurers. Frenetic competition isn’t always the wonderful thing that free market supporters declare it to be.
Sonja Larson
Mill Creek
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