Evidence Supports Medicare For All

medicare“In contrast to the limited networks of doctors available to the privately insured, and the appalling “under provision of services” to those left uninsured and underinsured by today’s for-profit, market driven system, a Medicare-for-All system would expand choice and access.”

Health Affairs Blog has posted a new item, ‘Evidence Supports Medicare For All’    by Ida Hellander

Dana Goldman and Adam Leive’s effort to discredit the single payer, Medicare-for-All model of financing health care — or as they put it, make “any conclusion decidedly more nuanced” — is sorely lacking in nuance, defined by Merriam-Webster as “made or done with extreme care or accuracy.”

Acknowledging Medicare’s greater success at controlling costs than private insurance plans, Goldman and Leive raise the specter of “under provision of services” and doctors leaving the system if Medicare were universal. But Medicare patients are significantly less likely to have problems with access to care and medical bills than non-elderly adults with private insurance, according to a recent study by The Commonwealth Fund. The same study found that Medicare beneficiaries are also more satisfied with their coverage than people with private insurance. Only 6 percent of beneficiaries in traditional Medicare rated their coverage as fair or poor in 2010, compared with 20 percent with employer-sponsored private insurance.

Among physicians who treat Medicare patients, 90 percent of all physicians and 96 percent of specialists are accepting new Medicare patients according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. In contrast to the limited networks of doctors available to the privately insured, and the appalling “under provision of services” to those left uninsured and underinsured by today’s for-profit, market driven system, a Medicare-for-All system would expand choice and access.

You may view the latest post at http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2013/06/07/evidence-supports-medicare-for-all/

Homer G. Farnsworth, M.D. : “40% of all Americans are currently on free government health insurance plans -about 42 million on Medicare and 72 million on Medicaid. We are one step away from a single payer system, the final push exacerbated as  “doomed to fail”  ObamaCare kicks in on steroids in 7 months and all hell breaks loose. Both sides of the aisle will begin looking at expanding Medicare for all with renewed fervor.”