Medicaid and Medicare

[DC Al Fine]

Perhaps by virtue of a lot more people dying, yes.

Plus a lot of the bloat in the programs would be gone. Doctors would order fewer tests etc, if the patients were footing the bill.

[DC Al Fine]

Perhaps by virtue of a lot more people dying, yes.

Plus a lot of the bloat in the programs would be gone. Doctors would order fewer tests etc, if the patients were footing the bill.

Uh, no. Doctor's do the same thing with private insurance plans (actually some HMO-managed Medicaid plans are actually less likely to reimburse medical professionals for unwarranted tests and procedures then private insurance plans are...) What you're describing isn't a symptom of public insurance. It's spawned from something else entirely.

I was thinking more of people who would otherwise pay out of pocket if the safety net were eliminated, but I suppose that they are a pretty small portion of the population. Fair point.

[DC Al Fine]

The cost problem is from the private providers, not the public insurance.

It's from third-party payment, which applies to both.

True that. There is bloat everywhere, even in single payer systems like Canada's.

[DC Al Fine]

The problem with single payer is that there's no incentive for people to ration their consumption of health care. You'd be amazed at what qualifies for a trip to the ER or doctor's office when you don't have a co-pay. The state either has to drastically raise taxes (well beyond Canadian levels) or rations healthcare via wait times.