Lest you think "Government Healthcare" is a bad thing-

[MrMickeysMom]

Number 1- The government does a much better handling as the largest 3rd party payer-under the current model of delivering health care (Medicare A and B), over ANY privately based health based plan.

People argue that Medicare's overhead is only 3%. Truthfully, it's more like 11 to 12%, but if you want administrative costs more clearly defined, read "number 3 below. Medicare cost of good certainly beats the overhead from other insurers such as the Blues, or Aetna, or any HMO, which have such poor track records of comprehensive coverage. I will tell you that my mother, till the day she died was well covered under Medicare A and B. She also paid AARP plan premiums and was fortunate enough within the state of NY to get supplementation (Epic, I believe) to assist with prescription drugs for her heart failure. This enabled her to live in her cozy little section 8 housing (another gift to otherwise elderly, low income citizens) in a small upstate village of NY state.

Medicare COULD already be implemented for everyone in this country as we look for the best way to turn our bloated system around with its unhealthy participants. We could have Medicare as a safety net, and then if we anyone thought they should have better and could afford private plans on top of government run Medicare, then we could essentially have what the UK has- a 2-tiered system of healthcare. My nephew, married to a Brit and living there finds it to work well.

Number 2- The outpatient services at Walter Reed Hospital were horrible and continue to be woefully inadequate for our servicemen & women. Guess what? The outpatient services are NOT provided by the federal government. The army fought against privitizing outpatient services all the way, but those ended up be serviced PRIVATELY. These people who got those no bid contracts were the ones who took such bad care of our soldiers.

Number 3 - If you want a more definitive description, my husband and I wrote and referenced this last year, I believe- Take care. (MMM)

Our healthcare issues, with references, of uninsured persons, universal healthcare and employer hc costs are described below.
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Uninsured:
The number of Americans uninsured has increased each year of the Bush administration from 39.8 million (2000) to 45.8 million (2004). A major cause is the decline in employer sponsored health coverage, 63.6% in 2000 to 59.8% in 2004.1 The number of uninsured is higher when counting persons who lacked coverage for part of the year. About 85 million when without health insurance for all or part of the 2 yeaar period 2003-2004.2
In addition to the 45.8 million uninsured, about 16 million are underinsured defined health coverage that does not protect them from catastrophic expenses. About 54% report go without care and 45% have been contacted by collection agencies for medical bills.3
The Institute of Medicine estimated that about 18,000 unnecessary deaths are attributable to lack of health insurance coverage.4

Universal Health Care:
The Medicare administrative costs are 5.2%, which are lower than private sectors’ administrative costs. The average private sector costs are 16,7% which include commission, premium tax and profit.5

Employer Health Care Costs:
General Motors has stated that it spend $1,525 per car produced, there is more healthcare than steel in a GM vehicle’s price, and added to the $1.1 billion loss in the first quarter of 2005.6
For each mid-size car DaimlerChrysler AG builds at one of its U.S. Plants, the company pays about $1,300 to cover employee health care costs, more than twice the cost of sheet metal in the vehicle. When the identical car is built in Canada, the healthcare cost is negligible.7 This places the U.S. at a disadvantage competitively with countries whose governments provide healthcare coverage, such as Japan. 6

References:
1. U.S. Census Bureau, August 30, 2005.

2. Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, No. 29, April 21, 2005.

3. Schoen et al., Health Affairs, June 14, 2005.

4. Institute of Medicine, May 2002.

5. Council for Affordable Health Insurance, 2006.

6. George Will, Washington Post, Sunday, May 1, 2005; BO7.

7. Kirstin Downey, Washington Post, Saturday, March 6, 2004; EO1.