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medpundit |
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Sunday, December 08, 2002I often tell my residents that one of the most remarkable things about Medicare in its early years was how the claims were handled. My wife would sit at our kitchen table every evening, filling out the Medicare forms -- they were all hard copy then, no computer forms. And after three or so months, we'd get a check -- for the exact amount of the claim we had made. The exact amount! How often does that happen nowadays? What did happen, however, was something that the AMA had predicted. The costs of treating all of those people became prohibitive -- it actually turned out that the costs were up to 10 times worse than we had predicted. That's when the hassles started -- when the regulators came in. Then came the restrictions, the price controls and all of the complicated regulations. The same thing would happen if we shift every man, woman, and child, regardless of age, to a single-payer system. Instead of taking up 20% of our GNP, healthcare will end up taking up most of it. Where will that leave us for defense and infrastructure? And with the increased costs will come increased regulations and government interference. posted by Sydney on 12/08/2002 07:10:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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