Voices: Health-care reform

June 24, 2009 07:50 pm

— The battle is on between the needs of U.S. citizens and the greed of big money which controls not only U.S. health care but also the Congress of the United States. One dollar out of every six is spent on health care. Are we really that sick?
I read that the administrative costs of Medicare are 3 percent. The administrative costs of private insurers are 20 percent. Seven times as much! How can this be? Well, Medicare doesn’t concern itself with advertising, huge executive salaries, or profits for the stockholders. Yet critics of a government-run health program swear that private insurers operate more efficiently than government can. Looking at the difference in administrative costs, how can the critics say that?
Critics also talk about “a bureaucrat between you and your doctor.” I have been on Medicare for 15 years. Not once have I encountered a bureaucrat while receiving medical treatment. However, I have more than once heard my doctor complain about the amount of time he has to spend dealing with insurance companies.
I understand that Medicare is in financial difficulty. I have read that 27 percent of Medicare expense occurs in the final year of a patient’s life and that, on average, a patient’s medical expense in the last two months of life is half of his lifetime medical expense. Perhaps we should devote more thought to hospice care.
Finally, I understand that we are the only major industrialized country without government-run health care. I also understand that per capita health-care costs in these countries are far lower than ours. Interestingly, statistics do not bear out the claim that our health-care system provides better outcomes.
U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt was quoted (Globe, June 19) as saying “some flawed policies (are) used in countries with government-controlled health care.” Well, Rep. Blunt, if these policies are so flawed I would expect that other countries would correct them. Can you name any country which has abandoned a government plan for a fee-for-service plan such as ours?
In sum, we have some facilities and technology which are the best in the world. But many or our citizens have no medical coverage. We have Cadillac medical care for some. I would prefer Chevrolet care for all.
Clifton L. Smith
Joplin