The American Spectator : Save Us From Medicare

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Save Us From Medicare

By Richard E. Ralston on 8.10.11 @ 6:07AM

Can't we have medical care without 100,000 pages of federal regulations?

On many levels, Medicare is a fraud and a hoax. So it is no surprise that the current debate, and the way the debate is reported, is not about whether Medicare delivers medical care at all, let alone its availability or quality. Many politicians value Medicare exclusively as a weapon to be used to keep them in office.

The starting point of a policy discussion should not be dramatized in a television ad that shows the chairman of the House Budget Committee literally throwing an old lady in a wheelchair off a cliff. That attack was on a congressman who proposed no changes whatsoever in Medicare for anyone currently in the system or older than 54. The argument is simple: "Anyone who wants to change Medicare wants to kill you." Y President Obama achieved the historic downgrading of America's credit rating the old-fashioned way. He earned it.et proponents of the current Medicare system want all seniors to rely upon it exclusively, even though they say the whole system could be obliterated as the result of an election -- an odd way to make the case for trust in government to meet all of our needs.

Where does that leave the debate? On one side are those for whom Medicare is an end in itself. Their goal is to protect a one-size-fits-all institution, a bureaucracy and a spoils system, rather than maintain or improve the quality of medical care. On the other side are those who might push Medicare reform in the right direction: more freedom, more choices for seniors, more competition.

But the reformers say their goal is to "save" Medicare. Why? Can't we have medical care without 100,000 pages of federal regulations?

We must reject Medicare that claims to pay for everything while rapidly setting up new boards and commissions, whose purpose is to eliminate benefits.

We must reverse the gradual destruction of Medicare Advantage plans. The millions of seniors who flocked to them must be allowed to pursue these limited private options until they prove their worth and replace Medicare.

We must reject those who claim that seniors love Medicare while the government takes Social Security payments away from any senior who does not sign up for Medicare Part A insurance.

These outrages are perpetrated by regulatory fiat. While they are being challenged in court, the first reform of Medicare should be legislation to force congressmen to cast a vote on whether they will continue to allow taking Social Security away from seniors who do not sign up for Medicare Part A. Would they dare to vote against it? If they pass such legislation would any president dare to veto it? Simple justice requires us to find out.

Besides forcing citizens to rely on government as the only source for their medical care, congressmen also love to force physicians to become, in effect, public employee unions that crawl hat-in-hand to lobby for adequate reimbursement. We must eliminate the annual ritual by which Congress votes to temporarily delay severe cuts in Medicare reimbursements to physicians and other health care providers to levels below their costs.

The political priority is and always will be a spoils system. Politicians struggle to make us believe that they are not just the best but the only permissible source to meet all of our needs. Forget freedom, autonomy, self- reliance or independence. Their goal is universal dependence on them and perpetual growth in government until it consumes everything.

We must reject both sides that want to "save" Medicare. What we need are reforms that will save us all from Medicare.

About the Author

Richard E. Ralston is Executive Director of Americans for Free Choice in Medicine, Newport Beach, California.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (22) | Leave a comment

Pecos Pete| 8.10.11 @ 8:57AM

Follow the money.

AARP supported ObamaCare. Why? Because their medical insurance program generates most of their income and ObamaCare allows its continuation.

Contrast that to the planned termination of Medicare Advantage which is one helluva a good insurance program for seniors.

Follow the money.

David| 8.10.11 @ 9:11AM

This guy knows a little something about Medicare.

Being on it, I can say it is ridiculously stupid and evil.

Indiana Alex| 8.10.11 @ 9:18AM

All I want is freedom. It shouldn't be too much to ask in this country.

Give me a choice on entitlements. Allow me, if I so choose, to opt out of Medicare, and while we're at it, the other budget busters, Social Security and Obamacare.

I will readily give up all that I've "contributed" to this point, although this is really meaningless as we have to property right to any of these "revenues".

I will manage both accounts myself, with an eye on what I believe is the appropriate retirement age, and seeing as it is my life we are discussing this shouldn't seem like a terribly radical suggestion.

All I am asking for is freedom, which really shouldn't be much to ask. Of course the only choice Liberals fully embrace is when to terminate an inconvienient pregnancy.

The idea of a significant portion of the population that is not bent over, hands out, arse in the air, their lives and livelihood not dependent on the whims of Congress is too frightning for contemporary Liberals to imagine.

POST American| 8.10.11 @ 9:27AM

"--And notice how little by little
RED China 'values' are seeping in,
being introduced."
-ALAN WATT
(yesterday)

NOT UNTIL the EUGENICS capstone,
and their MASSIVELY U.S. taxpayer
enabled RED China TREASON OP ---is
identified, called out and warmly, definitively
and finally prosecuted will anything STOP
GETTING WORSE.

"You have to DEMAND to know the
connections, the Masonry, the oaths and backers of
even your local figures. Then you'll discover
the strings that connect them all the way
to the top. Then you'll see how its being
manipulated and corrupted and 'directed'.
This is ESSENTIAL to deaing with this."
-ALAN WATT

Bill| 8.10.11 @ 2:21PM

That's Alan Watt, right, not Alan Watts?

Petronius| 8.10.11 @ 9:49AM

We had a system which the medical profession imposed upon itself and worked very well. Then in 1960, the AMA and the major casualty companies wrecked it. They turned medicine into a money mill which nullified market controls. Hospitalization claims were overpaid pro forma and inflation established as a permanent part of the mix. We cannot retreat to the old structure because most municipalities which operated general hospitals closed them and tore them down 30 years ago. But the basic convention physicians practiced under can be revived with a major modification for lab tests and in office procedures. The AMA fixed fees to be paid out of pocket for office visits and physicals. That used to be $5. Today it's $300+. If that charge was removed from insurance schedules and the patient writes the check at point of service, the cost of every medical appointment will drop substantially. But the big nut is indigent care. Doctors and for profit hospitals used to get direct federal and state tax credits for patients who could not pay. If all physicians worked pro bono 2 days per month and hospitals agreed to split up the indigent patient load while being granted tax credits for revenue forgone, we can say so long to a lot of bureaucrats and expense. The only obligations on the part of any patient receiving care would be a token payment based on ability, and forfeiture of any rights of litigation. Charity cases would be arbitrated by state boards as they used to be. And they would have legal authority to make summary judgments and specify payment of damages. Ergo, insurance costs will also drop for doctors and patients. Medical insurance can then function as it should, by paying benefits for unanticipated hospitalization, surgery, testing, and other procedures. Any takers?

Mike 3/505| 8.10.11 @ 11:32AM

Naaaah. We can't do that. Makes too much sense.

Regards,

Mike

loulou| 8.10.11 @ 10:07AM

Physicians do not accept Medicare now due to poor reimbursement and ridiculous paperwork. More and more will opt out. Then the Gubmint will have to force them to participate. Physicians will not submit to that kind of tyranny and will stop practicing medicine. I guess at that point we'll have to import "doctors" from Bangladesh and Haiti, etc.

Have you considered| 8.10.11 @ 12:22PM

Loulou, I believe this type of thing has already happened in MA thanks to Romneycare.

Seems to me that I read the state will not issue a license to practice if the doctor will not take Commonwealth Care.

I have not seen statistics on how many doctors entered or fled the state in response to this, but the implication of much longer wait times to get into a doctor's office is a possible indicator.

I believe I also read that Mayo Clinic will no longer accept new Medicare patients due to Obamacare and the very iffy reimbursement rates. I think the advertised 500Billion in Medicare saving was derived from reimbursement rate cuts.

Petronius| 8.10.11 @ 3:20PM

You'll get some Laotian shaman under contract to Berwick's death panel at the Soylent Corp. who will give you a lights out with really super smack.

Wayne | 8.10.11 @ 10:47AM

Please, we can not talk about reforming Medicare without reforming the FDA and lawsuits. We don't need the government and lawyers what type of treatments are acceptable and which ones are not.

cicero| 8.10.11 @ 10:57AM

I love the argument that all of the doctors are going to stop taking Medicare patients because of the low reimbursement rate. Low in comprison to what? Give me any system that guarantees my fees, and I will make it work. What are the doctors going to do, sit in empty offices? Then, who makes the payments on the Beamer and the condo in Boca?
Due to government involvement in medical care, the rates paid for procedures have been inflated to absorb the monehy alloted. Now that the medical profession has helped to bankrupt the system, they are worried that there will not be enough money to pay the inflated rates.
Cicero's first law of economics: Debt expands to meet thee money alloted to it. The more the government threw into the pot, the higher the doctors' rates went. They got used to that. The fact that fully one/third of all government reimburesment for both Medicare and Medicaide was billed (and paid) fraudulenty by the "brotherhood of healing" seams to get too little attention.

Occam's Tool| 8.10.11 @ 3:42PM

Dear Cicero, you bloody moron: If my practice costs $200.00/hr to operate, and the reimbursement you're willing to give me is $100.00, I will not take your insurance in private practice. There's a Doctor Shortage, Moron. In addition, the training of your average general surgeon is 4 years college, 4 years medical school, and 7 years residency. You can't train them fast enough.

I look forward to watching you scramble for your medical care under Obamacare.

Occam's Tool| 8.10.11 @ 3:50PM

By the way, idiot, I did very well in my private practice not accepting Medicaid, and I would have done the same for Medicare if their payments had been too low. It is better to have an empty office than treat someone for below cost, idiot.

Joe D.| 8.10.11 @ 11:22AM

EXCELLENT. You are 100% correct. Keep spreading the word.

jgo| 8.10.11 @ 1:00PM

I wrote off the Socialist Insecurity Abomination, Medicare and Medicaid years ago.

The one reform that could save us from Medicare is making it totally optional for people of all ages. If you want it, you should have to opt in, and pay appropriate taxes/premiums, but the radical leftists would never stand for that, and the "Republicans" are too timid to even bring up the possibility.

George S| 8.10.11 @ 2:32PM

Can't we have medical care without 100,000 pages of federal regulations?

Yes, but that would force government into the medical care and insurance business without a club to beat on free market competition. Government does not want to run things for our benefit, they want to run things to control us.

As a frame of reference: Public broadcasting was passed with a 24-page legislation. That set up the system for government to compete in the free market with their own player, PBS. It is not doing well. But if government wanted PBS to dominate the market, they would require regulations to kneecap broadcasters into what they can or cannot air; and maybe an individual mandate to purchase PBS. That would need a more muscular FCC with bureaucracies and agencies swarming across the country to enforce. That would mean the Public Broadcast Act going to 1,000 pages. Instead of 24. There's your difference -- control vs choice.

Clinton Lovell| 8.10.11 @ 2:32PM

There is a solution for it but the solution relies upon us understanding how wealth is created in the organization of our economic society and monetizing it in a fundamentally different way from that we use today.

cicero| 8.10.11 @ 5:12PM

Occam: My,My. Did we hit a nerve? Your office costs $200.00 per patient to run because you got in bed with Uncle, and now have to hire a dozen staff members to fill out the forms. After all those years of school, you still have to have patients to pay the tab. If everybody is forced into government programs, you will ahve to take what they give you, or do something else. There goes all that training.
My point is that your profession, like mine, created its own monster, which is now threatening our existence.
Ran into a doc in the Bahamas. He left Jpohns Hopkions when he got tired of the paper chase. He and his nurse/wife run a private, cash only office. He is happy as a clam, and does not have to resort to verbal hysteria to make his obvious point.
My point stands. You are a victim of your own propaganda. There is no shortage of doctors. Wait until the government helps you out by paying medd students to flood the country. They can then lower the rates as low as they want. All of the docs will be staff, just like in Britain.

cicero| 8.10.11 @ 5:16PM

Occam; By the way, I don't want to be your enemy. I enjoy your posts, most of the time. After all, how many of us can quote Marcus Porcius Cato, and in context, no less?

jesse| 8.10.11 @ 10:58PM

Being on it, I can say it is ridiculously stupid and evil.
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jesse| 8.10.11 @ 10:58PM

Now that the medical profession has helped to bankrupt the system, they are worried that there will not be enough money to pay the inflated rates.
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