Quote of the Day
“The payment system doesn’t finance the kind of resources we need to take care of the 20 percent of Medicare patients who use 80 percent of resources.”
— Dr. J. Fred Ralston Jr., president of the 129,000-member American College of Physicians
I think the problem is that it does finance the care of the most expensive 20%, but it does so in a very inefficient way.
I agree with Bruce.
I also agree. This is not a very good quote. Not sure why you used it. The problem is that we are spending too much on the 20%.
I think what Dr. Ralston meant was that we are not going to have the personnel to meet the needs of the baby boomer elderly population.
Welcome to the beginning of the campaign to normalize euthanasia.
The whole point of “insurance” is to finance the very expensive care needed by only a few. Maybe if Medicare was structured more like an HSA HDHP and less like some vote buying kludge created by a government committee, it could do what it is supposed to do–provide health coverage for the major expenses that some people have in old age. If it can’t do that, then perhaps we should repeal and replace it.
Euthanasia won’t be politically feasible ever. But, I think that our current system will shift to more “humane” treatments during the last year or so of life (AKA no premium medicine for terminally ill patients) when the number of middle-age and older voters finally changes to less than the majority.
As the Boomers die (years from now), the younger people will finally have the power to vote out expensive Medicare treatments, at least until they themselves are old enough to need them. At which point the public opinion will likely change again.
As long as there are politicians appealing to the aging voters, there will continue to be changes in Medicare. We are still a form of democracy (although some speculate about the reality of that statement). Therefore, our health care system remains at the mercy of whatever party rules the senate. We can only hope that those we vote for will actually carry out the will of the majority of their respective constituents- and that this is beneficial to us.