You need to provide a link to this. Rex-b in post 148 refers to a "below market rate" which is 20-30 below private ins. reimbursements, but that in no way implies it is "below cost".
You found one article in post 112 and conclude that ALL medicare payments are below "cost". That's wrong. It does not even make sense that all the providers that accept medicare payments are doing it at a loss. What are they going to do, make it up on volume? Read here: Ezra Klein - Does Medicare Pay Below "Cost?" (Wonky!) So, your assertion that medicare pays below cost is not true, in general. It is true that inefficient hospitals may not be able to provide services for the price medicare reimburses, but the efficient ones can and do provide care for the medicare rates. If you are changing the whole system, there is no requirement that says the medicare reimbursement rates have to stay exactly the same.
Read my posts. I didn't say all medicare payments were below cost. Never did I say that. I said in globo, government sponsored plan payments are below cost. The article you quoted confirms that. Okay, so your retort to my argument that in globo, meaning when taken as a whole, Government sponsored payments are not below cost, is to tell me that some payments, approximately cover costs while others do not. The article does not include a category of payments that are above cost. So if you take an average of a bunch of negative numbers and a bunch of zeroes, you will have a negative average. So what is your argument? You disagree with me but your source doesn't.
From the article: I can assure you no business would take the business consistently at a loss, or below cost. You can't stay in business that way. This govt. policy incents the hospitals to become more efficient. What does private ins. do to incent the hospital to be more efficient, when they can pass on premium increases at 2 times the rate of inflation year after year, to the business community that they are making less competitive year after year, at least with those companies outside the US that do not have to carry a $1,000 dollar a month premium cost for every employee with a family?
Okay, now you're just trolling. This is immediately what I thought when I read your post. Mr. Madison, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
Now you are just trying to shoot the messenger instead of dealing with the issues. 100% personal attack, zero fact. You can't win a policy discussion that way.
I'll return to my post, which has been posted twice, and nobody has responded to yet. This is the real problem, it is huge, and we need to move in the direction of solving this. It won't be done overnight, it will have to be done in steps. U.S. Heading For Financial Trouble? - 60 Minutes - CBS News How do you solve that problem?
I've already addressed infant mortality, life expectancy etc. There are hundreds of issues that create these stats and pointing to them as a failure in our healthcare is naive. Other than that, your article confuses me. I have said many times, we need reform. I have said many times that expanding a national health program that doesn't cover the costs is not the way to go. This guy says the same thing. If any of you Obama fellaters can explain to me how this is going to cut costs, I'm all ears. So far neither he, nor any of you have explained that. I have done just the opposite and laid out exactly why it will increase costs but you guys just want to ignore that. I have asked Red directly to respond to my posts in this and other threads either by responding to his or by explicitly asking him a question with no reply. I have to admit, I'm even more concerned that you weren't trolling when you suggested that governments role is to incentivize hospitals to run more efficiently, which, by the definition you provided, was to stop expansion of their companies. Also, I find it trollsome that you completely ignore the fact that most hospitals are not for profit and are forced to take medicare patients at the cost forced on them by the government. Tough guy hasn't responded to my posts for a week but gives everyone else from 6:30 to 9:00 AM on a saturday morning to respond. You're too much chief amigo.
