In a June 11 article in The Washington Post by C. Connolly and K. Yourish, provided courtesy of The Seattle Times, it was pointed out that private insurance services 163 million clients at a value of $815 billion, that is $4,711 per client; where as Medicare services 42 million clients at a value of $442 billion, and that is $10,524 per client. Values as of 2007.
At that time, there were 45.7 million “uninsured.” Accordingly, 8.9 million are children and two thirds (i.e. 30.4 million) had household incomes less that $50,000.
For the federal government to insure the uninsured, using Medicare and incurring deductibles and co-pays, the price would be $601 billion annually, and from $6.0 trillion to $11.7 trillion for 10 years, depending on what growth factor you choose.
For commercial insurance the annual cost, including deductibles and co-pays, would only be $229 billion and from $2.3 trillion to $4.4 trillion.
We could utilize the commercial resources by having the private insurance industry bid for the insurance pools, by state or region, saving $4 to $7 trillion over the next 10 years. Now we can talk about also saving Medicare and Medicaid.
Don’t give it away, give it back, and keep the change.
Fred Gucker
Edmonds
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