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The corporate christan myth

B

BarneyFife

Diamond Member
I hear the corporate christians yap and yap about how efficient private industry is. Guess who has less overhead, a government run Canadian system or a private us system?? DING DING DING. Canada with an overhead of 1-2% while the private is 15%.

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Can it be possible that governement programs are run more efficient than the private programs?

Lets take a look

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WHAT!! Are you going to tell me that the Medicare (an evil wasteful liberal government program) has an overhead of 2.1% and private companies have 13%??
 
Well, there's a reason for that low Medicare overhead:
Medicare clearly has economies of scale, but its overhead figure is a bit misleading. The average per-member-per-month premium for commercial HMOs in now in the $200-$250 range, while the typical PMPM for Medicare is in the $600 range. If the Medicare PMPM were $200 rather than $600, then it would have an administrative overhead of 6.3 percent rather than 2.1 percent-still very good, but not out of the range of the very lowest-cost private insurers.

For that relatively low overhead, Medicare offers only a single product (little choice except in urban areas where Medicare+Choice is available), provides limited medical management (and that seemingly by lawsuit), conducts provider contracting by fiat (negotiations take place in Congress), and has almost no marketing costs (no competitors).

The administrative overhead of the typical commercial health plan, whether a life and health insurer, HMO, or Blues insurer, is clearly higher than that of Medicare, the Maine 5 percent target and that of "best practices" insurers." And health plans in the "best practices" administrative overhead range may operate in unique market environments often unavailable to competing carriers.
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Originally posted by: BarneyFife
I hear the corporate christians yap and yap about how efficient private industry is. Guess who has less overhead, a government run Canadian system or a private us system?? DING DING DING. Canada with an overhead of 1-2% while the private is 15%.

Link


Can it be possible that governement programs are run more efficient than the private programs?

Lets take a look

Link

WHAT!! Are you going to tell me that the Medicare (an evil wasteful liberal government program) has an overhead of 2.1% and private companies have 13%??
Click to expand...

Are you limiting your arguement to state-run medical programs or extending the principle in general?
 
Both systems have their pluses and minuses.
It all comes down to whether or not you believe that healthcare is an expectation or a luxury.

It is not comparing apples to apples. There are flaws in the Canadian system and flaws in the American system.

Canadian system tends to have longer waiting lines. But everyone is covered.
Americans have faster service. But 15% or so do not have health insurance.

Canadian system has been government run for over 30 years.
Switching over to a public system in the US could put even more strain on a ~$500b deficit.
The healthcare industry is the largest industry in the US (i think) and converting and restructuring would be very costly and a nightmare logistically.

There are also social issues to contend with. Per capita major crimes, car accidents, and pollution exposure is much higher in the US and will in the end cost more.

I am a supporter of two-tier healthcare. Not popular with the people in Canada but to me makes sense.
If you are rich and pay your taxes, and continue to effectively pay into the public healthcare system, i have no problems with you going to a private hospital to pay for your treatment. This not only allows the rich to avoid long lines, but the poor have one less person in front of them in line. And since the rich person is effectively paying double, the care for the poorer majority would be the same or improved.

Now it is very well known that Canada spends far less than the US on healthcare (not even taking into account the efficiencies) but in the end we are basically stuck with what we've got.

For reference: Canada Medicare
Country / life expectancy / infant mortality / per capita cost (USD) / % GDP / % gov't revenue / % paid by gov't / % paid by private sector
Canada 79.3 / 5.6 / 2,163 / 9.5 / 16.2 / 70.8 / 29.2
USA 77.0 / 6.4 / 4,887 / 13.9 / 17.6 / 44.4 / 55.6
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Canadian and American systems compared
 
Originally posted by: piasabird
What is a Corporate Christian?
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I think he was referring to the fact that christians are supposed to help their fellow man and not wish harm onto others. Yet most christians vote conservative which advocates less government and private health services.

He is questioning the religious right's beliefs.
 
Apparently anyone who thinks private industry is more efficient than the government.
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So Capitalist.


I think that this is avoiding the mulitple layers of waste in any government system. This health care system does not exist on its own, as a government run entitiy, you need to account for all of it before you get an idea of the real level of waste. To pick and choose seperate, but attached departments does not tell the real story.
 
Originally posted by: SuperTool
Originally posted by: eigen
Originally posted by: BarneyFife
We can extend it to anything you want.
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Soviet russia wasnt a model of effciency.
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Doctors didn't get paid much at all in Soviet Russia. So for the money, they were pretty efficient 🙂
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It's true. Those damn overpriced doctors...
I think that with a $500b trade deficit, the US might as well import doctors🙂
Cheap ones. Like from Cuba.

1) you get to free them from their dictator.
2) cuba's literacy rate is the same as the US's.
3) cuba's life expectancy is the same as the US's.
4) cuba's birth rate is the same as the US's.

They've gotta have some good cheap doctors 🙂

PS. ~30million americans speak spanish.Census
 
america has high healthcare costs because of our unhealthy lifestyle.

edit: forgot to finish my thought: This might be why cubans have similar health statistics even though the per capita GDP in cuba is probably less than what the average america spends on healthcare.
 
Originally posted by: miketheidiot
america has high healthcare costs because of our unhealthy lifestyle.

edit: forgot to finish my thought: This might be why cubans have similar health statistics even though the per capita GDP in cuba is probably less than what the average america spends on healthcare.
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For sure those are the social differences i was talking about.
Americans are fatter than Canadians...smoke more...
We do more pot though...fortunately that has low health consequences, if any 😉
 
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