USAToday ignores single payer National Health as solution to Medicare!

Amazing that the ONLY real solution - single payer national health - is ignored by this writer and and this paper. GOP controlled - or Corporate Owned - media censorship?


http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-03-16-medicare-riddle_x.htm

Medicare: The next riddle for the ages
By William M. Welch, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — As President Bush and Congress try to fix Social Security, the other huge federal program for seniors faces insolvency even sooner. But when it comes to Medicare, the politicians have no prescription.

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"Society is not likely to tolerate large discrepancies in health care for different groups," says William Gale, an economist at the Brookings Institution, a think tank. "We're not going to stick seniors with year 2000 health care quality while the rest of us are enjoying 2050 health care quality."<SNIP>

• Cut payments to doctors, hospitals and other providers. Congress has regularly cut payments to providers other than drug companies and has faced pressure to repeal those reductions. If federal payments are cut too much, doctors could refuse to treat Medicare patients, just as some decline Medicaid patients.<SNIP>

• Increase seniors' premiums, deductibles or co-payments. For many seniors, Medicare premiums and health care costs not covered by Medicare consume a big share of their Social Security checks. Actuarial studies by Medicare show that on average, premiums and cost-sharing amount to 34% of the average Social Security benefit.
<SNIP>

• Reduce the number of treatments that Medicare will cover. Eliminating coverage of expensive, high-tech treatments could produce a backlash when recipients are denied care.<SNIP>

• Restrict eligibility. Congress could raise the eligibility age from 65 to 67, to match Social Security. That would save Medicare $28 billion a year and reduce the number of beneficiaries by 11%, according to the Urban Institute. But it would hit low-income workers hardest, leaving many 65- and 66-year-olds without health insurance, the study found. The political pressure is in the opposite direction — to make Medicare available sooner to people who want to retire early from jobs that provide health coverage.<SNIP>

•Adopt free-market solutions. The president and Republicans in Congress want to use competition — between insurance plans, doctors, hospitals and within the pharmaceutical industry — to bring down medical costs. They also favor expanding tax-deductible health savings accounts that will let consumers finance more of their medical expenses from their own savings. The 2003 Medicare law provided incentives to steer seniors into managed-care plans backed by Medicare, such as HMOs. But those incentives were expensive, and the government pays more to cover a senior in an HMO than for one in traditional Medicare. <SNIP>

When has this ever worked in the real world for Medical costs?

•Adopt free-market solutions. The president and Republicans in Congress want to use competition — between insurance plans, doctors, hospitals and within the pharmaceutical industry — to bring down medical costs. They also favor expanding tax-deductible health savings accounts that will let consumers finance more of their medical expenses from their own savings. The 2003 Medicare law provided incentives to steer seniors into managed-care plans backed by Medicare, such as HMOs. But those incentives were expensive, and the government pays more to cover a senior in an HMO than for one in traditional Medicare.