As we read more about the different versions of the Health Care Reform bills making their ways through Congress, it is becoming clearer that the answer to current debate may well be to expand Medicare to cover more of the population.
As Congressman Anthony Weiner pointed out on these pages last week – 40 percent of Americans already get their health care from a single-payer, government-run, government-administered public option plan through Medicare, Medicaid, the Veterans Administration and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
We know, as does Weiner, that Medicare is not perfect and contains fraud and waste that must be eliminated. Nevertheless, it will be easier to fix an existing system than to invent a brand new bureaucracy filled with flaws, inequities and problems.
Private insurance companies can still offer polices to cover Medicare’s deductibles, gaps and prescription short falls. Doctors are used to the system of payments as are hospitals.
Congress could then work on freezing or even, gasp, rolling-back malpractice insurance rates by putting national caps on the suits, awards and settlements.
By adding coverage for the young, uninsured, the poor and our undocumented immigrants the staggering monetary burdens placed on our health care institutions and professionals will be eased and costs could be adjusted downward for the first time in history.
No longer will the insured pay the cost of caring for the uninsured.
