Posted on Sun, Feb 14, 2010 : 8:25 a.m.
Medicare should be model for single-payer healthcare insurance
By Letters to the Editor
As a family physician for 30 years, I have seen a medical care system broken. There are many, many causes, but one is the failure to use the largest pool of patients available, the entire country, to set rates. Medicare operates far more efficiently that private insurers. Let it be the model for single payer.
Dr. Kris Parnicky Ann Arbor
Comments
David Briegel
Sat, Feb 20, 2010 : 8:46 a.m.
treetown, your post raises the question of why are so many professional medical societies and associations in favor of Medicare and single payer? Is it the fact they have to deal with real people and their insurance companies daily? Do you really think the 30% overhead vs. 1% for Medicare benefits the health of our society? If we would enforce our existing laws which prohibit fraud by jailing the upper middle class white perpetrators it would prevent a large percentage of the fraud and lower our costs.
treetowncartel
Thu, Feb 18, 2010 : 3:28 p.m.
Here is a recent letter to the President on this subject from another doctor. Dear Mr. President: During my shift in the Emergency Room last night, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient whose smile revealed an expensive shiny gold tooth, whose body was adorned with a wide assortment of elaborate and costly tattoos, who wore a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and who chatted on a new cellular telephone equipped with a popular R&B ringtone. While glancing over her patient chart, I happened to notice that her payer status was listed as "Medicaid"! During my examination of her, the patient informed me that she smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to buy pretzels and beer. And, you and our Congress expect me to pay for this woman's health care? I contend that our nation's "health care crisis" is not the result of a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. Rather, it is the result of a "crisis of culture", a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on luxuries and vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. It is a culture based in the irresponsible credo that "I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me". Once you fix this "culture crisis" that rewards irresponsibility and dependency, you'll be amazed at how quickly our nation's health care difficulties will disappear. Respectfully, STARNER JONES, MD
David Briegel
Thu, Feb 18, 2010 : 11:16 a.m.
This is what would happen if our politicians weren't on the take from the insurance and drug companies and if they would enforce the law against upper middle class and wealthy individuals perpetrating this fraud. It will never change now that bribery is considered "free speech". I wish more medical professionals would speak out!
AAresident
Tue, Feb 16, 2010 : 10:31 p.m.
Thank you for your statement. We need more doctors to speak out about our broken system.
treetowncartel
Tue, Feb 16, 2010 : 7:33 a.m.
Medicare is robbed blind annually by people cheating the system. Whereas, private insurance companies police their providers and keep their losses to a minimum. A better model is for non-profit health insurance, with some restrictions on executive compensation and then a catastrophic pool similar to the way no-fault works in Michigan. The new 990 forms from the IRS are designed to expose non-profits that really are not meeting their mission and goals, tweak them a litttle more for health care entities, including the insurance company, and maybe medicine can get back to the altruistic healing art it once was, instead of a business.