The Case against Universal Medicare
We are already hearing reports of doctors who do not take Medicare patients. In a 2010 survey of 9,000 physicians, the American Medical Association reported that 17 percent of doctors restricted the number of Medicare patients; among primary care physicians, a whopping 31 percent did. With universal Medicare, is the population really going to accept, and would Congress really allow, the continued reductions in prices?…
By some estimates, the Medicare program loses a staggering $60 billion to fraud each year. This amounts to 11 percent of the Medicare budget and would be enough to double Federal spending on primary and secondary education. No private company would ever tolerate this abuse. Imagine the fraud if Medicare covered 300 million Americans.
From Dana Goldman and Adam Leive at the Health Affairs Blog. Entire post is worth reading. See also, my Health Affairs Blog post with Tom Saving, Is Medicare More Efficient than Private Insurance?, and the NCPA study, Health Care Reform: Do Other Countries Have the Answers?
Universal anything is too idealistic. I wish we’d be more civilized and developed as a species to exercise such a concept, but we are not. Therefore, when we talk about universal this and that and refers to a service, we need to realize for factors that alter this reality, such as those taking advantage of the system and those who have to pay for these problems.
This could cause a deep decline in the quality and access to care.
No universial medicare in the current form, but perhaps it could be made more efficient?
@Cory
As Sam said, that is a little idealistic. To throw the question back at you: Why shouldn’t the system be improved in the status quo before going universial?
@Dalton
I’d say improve it in the status quo, and if it is possible expand it.
But I’m not saying fixing it would be easy; it will require major changes.
Reasons to restrict medicare payments:
“(1) Medicare payment rates are too low (85%)
(2) Ongoing threat of future payment cuts makes Medicare an unreliable payer (78%) “
@August
It looks like those both have simple fixes: spend more.
The fraud would jump exponentially. Just like in cases of tax fraud/tax evasion if there is enough incentive for people to evade something…they will. Forcing all Americans to be put on this system provides major incentive to commit Medicare fraud.
In order to truly justify the claim that people will be committing more medicare fraud I would need more data on the people evading now such as: motive ect. But if this is true, we are in for rude awakening when obamacare comes into full effect.
This is causing a massive disincentive for people to become doctors, and that will cause a healthcare deficit for Americans who really need it. This law should be trashed end of story.
Isn’t it ironic that the fraud comes from the same people who say the reimbursements for Medicare are too low?
It’s only ironic when it’s true. You do realize that “provider” includes FPs like me as well as Physical therapy, DME suppliers, etc.? So, yeah, “providers” are committing lots of fraud. When I spend 30 minutes counseling an anxious grieving newly widowed woman and document in my plan, “prolonged discussion and counseling visit” I have just committed fraud because I didn’t specify the time spent. My “fraud” gets lumped in together with the low life who bills for $1,000,000 in DME he didn’t supply. So yeah, technically it is “ironic” but it is also one of the reasons why this FP wants nothing more to do with primary care and is moving towards a more narrow field of care with fewer opportunities for running afoul of the government.
Government should have to take a step against all those doctors who are committing the fraud with the innocent patients. These people don’t have heart in their chest. Most impotent thing is that government should have to play a effective role in creating awareness among the people. So that people can easily protect themselves from such fraud. This strategy will beware the others to avoid such fraud.
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