Ken's Comments

I don't understand the attraction of Medicare for All.  The benefits are not that great.  The service will suck.  No one has yet talked about the impact on doctors and hospitals.  And it is NOT free.  People are so used to having commercial health care coverage they may have forgotten how an old style traditional benefit plan like Medicare works.  It covers 80% of what their fee schedule allows.  The patient covers 20% of the cost until they reach the out of pocket maximum.  That can be thousands of dollars.  Did you ever wonder why AARP runs all those Medicare Supplement commercials and makes so much money off that insurance?  It's because the Medicare benefits don't cover the costs so people who can afford it buy a Medicare Supplement insurance policy and people who can't end up financially damaged if they have bills or on Medicaid if the costs get really high. The other thing about the benefits is that Medicare is a program design...

Some random thoughts This morning I saw, for the first time, the advertisement by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg complaining about violence and division in the Country and calling on all Americans to vote Democratic to bring back peace and bipartisanship. Riddle me this Batman, what in the last two years leads Mayor Bloomberg to think a Democrat majority in either or both Houses of Congress will lead to peace and bipartisanship?  Was it the calls of Rep. Maxine Waters, Sen. Corey Booker, Hillary Clinton, and Eric Holder for people to get abusive toward Republicans?  Was it Nancy Pelosi's statements that if Democrats win the House then anyone who disagrees with them will be at best ignored and just become collateral damage for the next two years? A growing cry among Democrats is Medicare for all.  It was started by Senator Bernie Sanders and has been picked up by liberal Democrat candidates around the country. Riddle me this Batman, if Medicare is so great then why...

In Part 1, I said there are three problems - cost, quality, and extending coverage to 47 million people. I then went on to talk about the coverage problem. Now to discuss the cost and quality issues. Quality - studies show that medical care in this country can be of poor quality. Hundreds of thousands die each year from mistakes. Others suffer prolonged illnesses due to poor quality care. This creates human misery and also contributes substantially to higher costs. A number of things that need to be done, have been done or are started Reporting medical errors - the federal government set up a process for hospitals to self-report medical errors. Many states have done the same thing. Promote e-prescribing - Medicare has done this and many providers are using it. E-prescribing means sending a prescription from a doctor to the pharmacy electronically. When this is done, medical management systems can review a person's prescription history and help identify when a prescription ...