Letter, Times Union (Albany, N.Y.), July 15, 2011
I just returned from Connecticut, where I had a hip replacement without incident, followed by rehabilitation at my son’s home.
With Medicare on the cutting table, I fear the results of compromises. Traditional Medicare allows free choice of hospital and physician, not circumscribed by place of treatment. This is not true of Medicare Advantage, a privatized form of Medicare.
Medicare has a proven overhead of less than 4 percent, while private insurance overhead is 10 percent to 30 percent.
Hip surgery and medical care and drugs are costly, but need not be as costly if we had a system in which we could negotiate drug prices, hospital fees and medical fees, in which there was only one bill reimbursed by a single payer. The savings would be enough to insure all the uninsured so that we could have improved traditional Medicare for all.
As we celebrate this month of the outstanding 46 years of Medicare accomplishment, we suggest that Medicare is not the problem; it is the solution.
Richard Propp, M.D.
Capital District Alliance for Universal Healthcare
Albany