Watched Bill Maher the other day

[MikeWaters]

and they had Darrel Issa, from California on the show.

He made some good points, I thought.

First, Medicare only pays 70% of what private insurance reimburses. What Blue Cross Blue Shield pays your doc $100 for, Medicare only pays $70. What that means, in effect, is that private insurance is subsidizing Medicare.

Next, 90% of seniors require supplemental insurance to Medicare. If it's so great, why are these folks getting supplemental insurance?

Finally, the plan as it currently stands actually increases the cost of healthcare in the United States, by getting more healthcare to more people, without fundamentally changing anything about the system. We will have the same sick, fat people doing the same things, except more of them will be going to the doctor.

Bill Maher himself addressed the lifestyle issue. I found myself agreeing with Maher. How can we have this conversation and not discuss the terrible habits of Americans?

Issa points out that Europeans do something pretty revolutionary--they walk a lot! Hell, at my work, we have escalators that deliver people 2 floors to the elevator bank. Heaven forbid they actually burn calories.

Creating medicare for everyone is NOT the answer.

[Levin]

I can't see an escalator and not think of the bulbous, gelatin people in Wall-E. That's where we're headed.

[MikeWaters]

Issa also mentioned the high fraud-rate that Medicare experiences.

Apparently if you have no oversight, it decreases administrative costs, but leads to more fraud.

Docs like that aspect about Medicare--less hassle (i.e. less oversight). There is nothing more annoying than being asked to call some a-hole administrator trying to justify why your patient needs services and why you should be paid for rendering those services.

Imagine of clients of lawyers could suddenly declare they would no longer pay for already rendered services.

[NorCal Cat]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

Issa points out that Europeans do something pretty revolutionary--they walk a lot!

Of course they walk a lot. They walk a lot because their cities are not sprawled out lands of suburbia, like most of the U.S. It's generally easier, and very convenient to walk to the market for groceries, rather than drive.