The Eye Popping Cost of Medicare for all

Are we as 'smart'...? Hell, I used to think we were, but in all honesty, maybe we aren't. We were sheltered and very fortunate in World War II -- everything in our "post-war prosperity" emanated from that. Now, what's left of that is evaporating, and FAST.

You have traveled throughout the world, Margot. Are you aware of any other citizens of any other country who have made as many uniquely colossal mistakes as we Americans have in the past forty years...? We're throwing it all away, with both hands....

 

Wait wait. What I hear from the anti-private crowd is that claims won't be nearly as complicated because they won't go through an approval process like they do in the private sector where all payments have to be evaluated and those claims that are denied go through appeal. Are you saying now that a government claim takes as long as a private claim? The whole process ought to be a lot easier if the pro-bureaucracy crowd is to be believed.

 

And, yet, in dollars, medicare costs more per capita than does private care. Why is that?

Keep in mind that "overhead costs" for private health plans include the cost of taking in revenue and various other things that government must still do but are done by other departments. Government cannot create wealth out of thin air, thus it must pay for it's medicare system by taxing the people, and the dead-weight on taxation is close to 20% before it even reaches Congress which then wastes it's own staggering amounts before passing it on to the likes of Medicare.

 

Why does 'socialized-medicine' ultimately cost more...? For one thing, you have to put tens of thousands of bureaucrats on the payroll to run the thing -- you know, the "civil servants".... And, without the "carrot-and-stick" paradigm that is always in the undercurrent of private enterprise, the whole thing typically slops along at what my German friends despairingly refer to as "speed-zero"....

Again, one must never confuse a government-run bureaucracy with ANYTHING having to do with speed, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. The motto of most workers in the great government "slouching ruin" of civil service is "perfect is the enemy of good enough".... Oh, and the other hallmark slogan designed to retard speed is "Hey, don't work yourself out of a job!" Just stumble along and keep your head down... your sweet retirement is just a few more years away....