WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF MEDICAL INSURANCE IN THE U.S.?

Dr. Gawande is a surgeon with an impressive educational background. He also is a prolific author. His long article in the New Yorker goes into great detail, but is well worth reading. I may have misinterpreted his conclusions, but the article is worth reading.

MEDICINE'S COST CONUNDRUM

Dr, Gawande’s June 1 article in the New Yorker, “The Cost Conundrum” views the reasons the cost of medical care in the U. S. varies so much even though the outcomes are relatively similar. As a family physician I agree with most of what he says. I sense that a system based on the socialized medicine model is what he prefers.
Socialized medicine would be administered and paid for by the government. There would be a fixed set of rules and standards for providers. The doctors would be on fixed salaries and essentially working for the government. The government would pay for other services as Medicare does now.
Many countries already have such a system, but I don’t believe that the people of the U. S. are ready for socialized medicine. All for-profit health care insurance companies are opposed to it, as are many providers. However, I believe that our people are ready to accept single-payer. A government funded single-payer system would have one set of rules to follow and one schedule of payments, but providers would not be government employees and not be on a fixed salary.
A single-payer system would be a health insurance program that would cover health care for every resident of our country. The for-profit insurance companies now leave 45 to 47 million people without health care coverage. In order to survive, the private for-profit insurance industry would have to provide coverage that the national single-payer did not include. There is no question that their covered population and income would drop precipitously

Many who do not want a single-payer, label it “socialized medicine.” As I described it above, socialized medicine is more than single-payer, it’s single provider.
I don’t believe that our country is ready for that.

Melvin H Kirschner, MPH, MD