The Medicare Scare

Sooner or later the Social Security/Medicare cost "problem" is going to come up for review on the Hill and there will be much bloviating on how to fix it. No doubt this will bring the "privatize everything" forces out of the woodwork again, but Robert Reich does some preventative framing today. Read it all, but here's the money graf.

Don't be confused by these alarms from the Social Security and Medicare trustees. Social Security is a tiny problem. Medicare is a terrible one, but the problem is not really Medicare; it's quickly rising health-care costs. Look more closely and the real problem isn't even health-care costs; it's a system that pushes up costs by rewarding inefficiency, causing unbelievable waste, pushing over-medication, providing inadequate prevention, over-using emergency rooms because many uninsured people can't afford regular doctor checkups, and spending billions on advertising and marketing seeking to enroll healthy people and avoid sick ones.

It seems pretty clear to me that the solution is to get private insurers out of the health care business. I don't understand why there's not a greater consensus on that point.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]