Medicare vs. insurers

[FUCK THE POLICE]

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/200...rsus-insurers/

Medicare versus insurers

I notice from comments that a fair number of readers think that Medicare has had runaway costs. What you need to ask is, runaway compared to what?

Here’s the raw fact, from the National Health Expenditure data: since 1970 Medicare costs per beneficiary have risen at an annual rate of 8.8% — but insurance premiums have risen at an annual rate of 9.9%. The rise in Medicare costs is just part of the overall rise in health care spending. And in fact Medicare spending has lagged private spending: if insurance premiums had risen “only” as much as Medicare spending, they’d be 1/3 lower than they are.

We don’t have a Medicare problem — we have a health care problem.

[Cancel 2018. 3]

you've thought krugman wrong in the past....maybe he is wrong now

or are you still having sexual fantasies looking at porn and seeing krugman?

[Whomever]

Good post WM. As usual Yurt cannot comprehend and goes of an a Krugman hate phase.

[Taichiliberal]

Good post WM. As usual Yurt cannot comprehend and goes of an a Krugman hate phase.

I concur!

[Cancel 2018. 3]

Good post WM. As usual Yurt cannot comprehend and goes of an a Krugman hate phase.

how is my post a hate post? everything i posted was true of watermark....

so i guess you hate watermark

[Don Quixote]

since i have been on medicare (full disability) since 2003 i have had little to complain about except the hole in the doughnut (i hit it each year around march and pass through about july)

people wonder about government run health care and forget that federal employees have one of the best health care programs available

medicare is relatively cheap for its beneficiaries (if you do not count paying in for decades) but we still have to pay for it and the amount goes up each year

what i do not understand is why the government does not combine its own drug system, military, VA and medicare to form a drug buying superpower - probably lobbying

[uscitizen]

since i have been on medicare (full disability) since 2003 i have had little to complain about except the hole in the doughnut (i hit it each year around march and pass through about july)

people wonder about government run health care and forget that federal employees have one of the best health care programs available

medicare is relatively cheap for its beneficiaries (if you do not count paying in for decades) but we still have to pay for it and the amount goes up each year

what i do not understand is why the government does not combine its own drug system, military, VA and medicare to form a drug buying superpower - probably lobbying

Yep lobbying interests for the drug company. And over 100 mill in campaign contributions.

[Cancel 2018. 3]

since i have been on medicare (full disability) since 2003 i have had little to complain about except the hole in the doughnut (i hit it each year around march and pass through about july)

people wonder about government run health care and forget that federal employees have one of the best health care programs available

medicare is relatively cheap for its beneficiaries (if you do not count paying in for decades) but we still have to pay for it and the amount goes up each year

what i do not understand is why the government does not combine its own drug system, military, VA and medicare to form a drug buying superpower - probably lobbying

^lol^

yeah....why count that

and yes, the drug lobby is very powerful and IMO, often too greedy...while i understand it costs money to develop new drugs...it is beyond me that you need to make BILLIONS when people out there are dying or in serious shape because your effing drug is too expensive....

in fact, some of these drug companies cut deals with foreign countries in order to sell their drugs there....because they know they can bilk the US customer

[FUCK THE POLICE]

They spend more money on advertising than research.

About twice as much.

[Cancel 2018. 3]

They spend more money on advertising than research.

About twice as much.

now that is interesting...how much to you think it costs to get a new drug to market? and if it is high, do you think it is then fair for them to charge a lot of money for it to recup their costs?

[Whomever]

now that is interesting...how much to you think it costs to get a new drug to market? and if it is high, do you think it is then fair for them to charge a lot of money for it to recup their costs?

Not fair to charge us more than they do other countries.