I agree that the US government has shown a remarkable ability to mess things up but we have also been running a huge healthcare system for a while so extending Medicare to everyone would be far simpler than a totally new system.
As to savings on "paper trail" is really a savings on the billing with 5 different insurance companies the doctor needs to handle each one separately and have separate negotiations on cost etc. Also because the government is covering everyone doctors and hospitals spend less time trying to bill people who can’t pay etc. And becomes the government has such close ties with the doctors they don’t need to closely examine every single treatment just a random sample to avoid fraud.
PS: lack of interest in the trial period interesting I am pointing at the Medicare system as the trial period. The government already spends 50% of every healthcare dollar so it's not exactly a new player in the system. Medicare is actually run at lower cost than most private insurance companies. There is even a standard idea of supplemental coverage which private company’s already understand and are used to.
> I agree that the US government has shown a remarkable ability to mess things up but we have also been running a huge healthcare system for a while so extending Medicare to everyone would be far simpler than a totally new system.
Except that the goal isn't "simpler", it's better. My offer lets you do what you want. If you think that extending medicare to federal workers is best, great. (I predict that they'll revolt because I've never run into anyone with experience with both who would give up private for medicare.)
> As to savings on "paper trail" is really a savings on the billing with 5 different insurance companies the doctor needs to handle each one separately
Except that it doesn't actually work that way, and the cost isn't significant. (Big doesn't imply significant.)
> lack of interest in the trial period interesting I am pointing at the Medicare system as the trial period.
And medicare is widely regarded as a disaster. I offer a chance to fix it and single payer advocates run away.
However, if you think that medicare is fine, then my offer lets you extend it to federal workers, the VA, and so on. And we get to observe.
And you get to deliver on the promise of lower costs. Since medicare isn't cheaper (I'll deal with overhead below) and delivers worse care....
Of course, you also have the problem that doctors who have a choice tend to flee medicare. If the private insurers are so hard to deal with, what does that say about govt?
> Medicare is actually run at lower cost than most private insurance companies.
Actually, it isn't. Medicare spends less money on one specific category of "overhead", but it spends far more on others. (Govt's overall spending per covered person is basically the same as the private system's spending. Medicare is actually worse than average for delivery vs cost.)
For example, the credible total medicare fraud estimates range from $150B to $250B/year. (The low number is from AG Holder, who said "more than".)
This is despite the fact that folks who raise disputes with medicare are less likely to win than folks who have disputes with the private system. What a deal - more fraud and more denied coverage.
The total profit of the private system is >$10B/year. And no, adding "executive salaries" doesn't significantly change that number.
The medicare fraud number alone dwarfs the supposed overhead of the private system, and the private system is bigger than medicare.
I'm sure that you've seen the "free medical equipment" ads on TV. That equipment isn't free, it's paid by medicare/medicaid. Care to argue that it's mostly medically necessary?
Free rein lets you fix this, if it can be fixed. However, until you do....
As to savings on "paper trail" is really a savings on the billing with 5 different insurance companies the doctor needs to handle each one separately and have separate negotiations on cost etc. Also because the government is covering everyone doctors and hospitals spend less time trying to bill people who can’t pay etc. And becomes the government has such close ties with the doctors they don’t need to closely examine every single treatment just a random sample to avoid fraud.
PS: lack of interest in the trial period interesting I am pointing at the Medicare system as the trial period. The government already spends 50% of every healthcare dollar so it's not exactly a new player in the system. Medicare is actually run at lower cost than most private insurance companies. There is even a standard idea of supplemental coverage which private company’s already understand and are used to.