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  1. Havakasha is offline
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    01-09-2012, 11:32 PM #1

    Medicare Is Still More Cost-Efficient Than Private Insurance

    http://www.dailykos.com/
    2 AT 06:30 PM PST
    Medicare is still more cost-efficient than private insurance
    byJoan McCarter
    Last year, both the Congressional Budget Office and Standard & Poor's reported that the growth of costs in Medicare has slowed significantly, much more slowly that the growth of costs for private care.

    Turns out, it's not just a one-year trend.

    Despite competition and choice in the private insurance system, Medicare spending has grown more slowly than private insurance premiums for comparable coverage for more than 30 years.
    From 1970 to 2009, Medicare spending per beneficiary grew by an average of 1 percentage point less each year than comparable private insurance premiums. Between 2000 and 2009, Medicare’s cost advantage was even larger—its spending per beneficiary grew at an average annual rate of 5.1 percent while per-capita premiums for private health insurance plans grew at 7.2 percent, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. [...]

    In inflation-adjusted terms, Medicare spending per beneficiary increased more than 400 percent between 1969 and 2009 while private insurance premiums increased by more than 700 percent.

    What explains Medicare’s sustained cost advantage over private insurance? Medicare has much lower administrative costs than private insurance (administrative costs account for about 14 percent of health care spending, or a whopping $360 billion a year).

    And Medicare has considerable negotiating leverage with providers as a result of its huge enrollment.

    Which proves the problem with plans like Wyden-Ryan, or just plain old Ryan, which has been embraced by just about every House Republican, and most GOP presidential candidates. In four decades of data, there's no evidence to suggest that competition in health care has done anything to bring costs down. Rather than working to figure out how to make Medicare work more like private insurance, policy-makers need to be figuring out how to get more people in Medicare.

  2. Havakasha is offline
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    01-23-2012, 05:22 PM #2
    I know this thread plays havoc with your world view SiriuslyWrong. Sorry.

    I quess we are all Marxists, even you. lol.
    Last edited by Havakasha; 01-23-2012 at 06:57 PM.

  3. SiriuslyLong is offline
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    Joined: Jan 2009 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 3,560
    01-23-2012, 05:27 PM #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Havakasha View Post
    I know this thread plays havoc with your world view SiriuslyWrong. Sorry.
    No, reading Daily Kos does though.

    "Daily Kos ( /ˈkoʊs/) is an American political blog that publishes news and opinions from a progressive point of view. It functions as a discussion forum and group blog for a variety of netroots activists, whose efforts are primarily directed toward influencing and strengthening the Democratic Party."

    About objective as Fox News..............

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DailyKos

  4. Havakasha is offline
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    01-23-2012, 06:42 PM #4
    No one ever claimed it DailyKos didnt have a point of view (its a blog dummy) unlike ummmm Fox news. Fair and balanced.
    My ass.Lmfao.

    At least you get a variety of opinions from the Democratic perspective unlike Fox which