How is Medicare so Efficient?

[Damocles]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSqAyjaCQQk&NR=1

It begins after about 3 minutes, before that is a story on Waterboarding and the missing CIA Tapes.

Basically, fraud runs rampant because they do not do manual checks and cross-checks that are routinely run in private health insurance companies...

If you don't need the manpower to do your checks, you can run it with efficient overhead, but you get robbed blind to the tune of 60 Billion per year.

This was the example of "good government" presented to me earlier by some people on this site.

Anyway, give it a watch. Imagine how many health care companies will get rich of of "nationalizing" our health care, especially if it is run without checks on expenditures and automatically billed and paid as it is now...

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Insurance companies have overhead of 20%-30%. If you are saying that, to be efficient in fighting fraud, Medicare needs to have that amount of overhead, then fighting the fraud isn't even worth it. Besides, the fraud money goes back into the economy. The overhead is just pure waste.

[Damocles]

Insurance companies have overhead of 20%-30%. If you are saying that, to be efficient in fighting fraud, Medicare needs to have that amount of overhead, then fighting the fraud isn't even worth it. Besides, the fraud money goes back into the economy. The overhead is just pure waste.

The fraud money is simply paying the overhead cost to the dishonest. Hidden costs don't make it cheaper, just hidden...

[FUCK THE POLICE]

The fraud money is simply paying the overhead cost to the dishonest. Hidden costs don't make it cheaper, just hidden...

Then why don't any insurance companies do that? Doesn't seem like it would make a difference.

[Damocles]

Then why don't any insurance companies do that? Doesn't seem like it would make a difference.

Because the fraud is more costly, insurance companies don't have the ability to ignore the loss, they choose to go in the direction that saves them more money and actually work to fight the fraud.

[evince]

I have a solution to your deliema.

We dont short fund our universal coverage in a way that they have too few employees working to do the double checks like the corps do currently.

It will still be cheaper because we wont be seeking a profit on top of paying for the required employees.

In the current system you pay the people doing the checks just as surely as you would under a universal system.

[Damocles]

I have a solution to your deliema.

We dont short fund our universal coverage in a way that they have too few employees working to do the double checks like the corps do currently.

It will still be cheaper because we wont be seeking a profit on top of paying for the required employees.

In the current system you pay the people doing the checks just as surely as you would under a universal system.

Which cuts into the "amazing efficiency" reported by those who advocate it. It doesn't become cheaper, the overhead then matches the private corps that were doing it before.

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Prove it, Damo.

[FUCK THE POLICE]

I can hardly imagine hiring a little extra staff costing 80 billion, and I can hardly imagine 80 billion matching the overhead of the extremely wasteful private insurance companies, but I'll give you the benefit of a doubt you don't deserve.

[evince]

Which cuts into the "amazing efficiency" reported by those who advocate it. It doesn't become cheaper, the overhead then matches the private corps that were doing it before.

Not when you dont have profit as your main goal.

When you set up any system you will have someone trying to make it work for their personal pocketbook. This is the main reason to try and take the complete control of healthcare out of the hands of those whos only reason is profit and not health.

[Bonestorm]

I'd just like to know how we are defining "efficient." Maybe private insurers are better at rooting out fraud and not paying for unnecessary treatments, but the flip side of that coin is that they are probably also better at denying claims for necessary treatments and cutting off coverage to insureds.

[Damocles]

I can hardly imagine hiring a little extra staff costing 80 billion, and I can hardly imagine 80 billion matching the overhead of the extremely wasteful private insurance companies, but I'll give you the benefit of a doubt you don't deserve.

I said it was more expensive, you dink. I said that they had no incentive to curb it as people crow about their massive "efficiency" which is true. They are efficient to the point of being designed for criminals to take advantage of.

[Damocles]

I'd just like to know how we are defining "efficient." Maybe private insurers are better at rooting out fraud and not paying for unnecessary treatments, but the flip side of that coin is that they are probably also better at denying claims for necessary treatments and cutting off coverage to insureds.

So did you watch the story, or did you pop in to just spout off without educating yourself first?

[Damocles]

Not when you dont have profit as your main goal.

When you set up any system you will have someone trying to make it work for their personal pocketbook. This is the main reason to try and take the complete control of healthcare out of the hands of those whos only reason is profit and not health.

LOL. And you think that government will never reject services to save money? Really?

[evince]

Only if republicans refuse to fully fund the program so they can say it cant possibly work.