The New York State of out of your mind- a single payer system is the salvation 😜

I am beside myself with this one. The more I read, the more I cannot believe that such naive people actually exist let alone get elected to public office.

Putting aside for a moment the idiocy of individual states going in their own direction on health care when we are still trying to implement a national law, let’s focus on the statements below and the logic espoused here. These are various quotes from different publications covering the New York Assembly’s passage of authorization for a single payer health care system.

The real shame is that people are being misled and lied to. Based on the following, we are asked to believe that a generous health plan with no cost-sharing and no oversight over utilization will save billions of dollars just because there are no insurance companies involved. Given that logic, Medicare should be rolling in cash and large employers should not be concerned about health care costs at all given they do not use insurance, but are self-insured (covering about 70 million Americans).

If you eliminated all the activities that insurance companies perform unrelated to health care claims (which would required in some manner by any system), you might lower premiums by 5%, but you do nothing to change claim costs or the growth of health care spending.

This is among the dumbest of all statements. “…reduce rising costs by taking insurance companies and their costs out of the mix.” This recalls the rhetoric vilifying insurance companies during the Obamacare debate.

Here’s another nonsensical statement, “intrusive insurance companies whose goal is to deny claims rather than provide care.”  Insurance companies do not provide care at all. They do not exist to arbitrarily deny claims and their profits are well within normal limits. Also keep in mind that many of the insurance companies in the Obamacare exchanges are non-profit consumer operated and charge premiums equal to or in some cases higher than for-profit insurers and they still struggle with premium increases.

If you want to see the result of little or no effective administration or claim oversight, you just have to look to Medicare and its tens of billions in fraud and waste. The fact is to operate efficiently even a single payer system must perform the administrative functions of an insurer and that includes care management, application of medical necessity standards and provider management.

Here is the bottom line. Beware of naive political rhetoric promising all the positive things and ignoring the facts and the consequences. 

The New York Assembly voted 89-47 on Wednesday for legislation to establish publicly funded universal health coverage in a so-called single payer system.

All New Yorkers could enroll. Backers said it would extend coverage to the uninsured and reduce rising costs by taking insurance companies and their costs out of the mix.

With no patient premiums, deductibles or co-payments for hospital and doctor visits, testing, drugs or other care, New York Health would pay providers through collectively negotiated rates. It would be funded through a progressive payroll tax paid 80 percent by employers and 20 percent by employees.

Also, waivers would be sought so federal funds now received for New Yorkers in Medicare, Medicaid and Child Health Plus would apply.

“Employers are shifting more and more health care costs to workers or are dropping it entirely,” said Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, chief sponsor. “The only ones who benefit are the insurance companies.”

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/living/health-fitness/article22451757.html#storylink=cpy

There would be a net savings of $45 billion in health spending by 2019, Gottfried said, based on an analysis from Dr. Gerald Friedman, a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, chair of the health committee, gave an impassioned speech on the floor in support of the New York Health Act, arguing that it was long past time for New Yorkers to rid themselves of the intrusive insurance companies whose goal is to deny claims rather than provide care.

“You do not have to be an Einstein to understand New York Health is the right choice for New York,” Gottfried said.

The bill, Gottfried said, would lower costs by getting rid of insurance companies. It would lower administrative costs and allow doctors to focus their time on treating patients instead of fighting for reimbursements.

“What will bring down health care costs is taking out of the equation the more than 20 percent we now spend on administrators whose job it is to fight with insurance companies,” he said.

The plan’s benefits, Gottfried said, would be more generous than any plan on the current market, and there would be no co-pays or deductibles. The bill would also require a care coordinator for every member, though that coordinator is not empowered to choose the type of care a patient receives.

Oh, and then there is this. Vermont found out it was too costly. Surprise, surprise‼️ “Might hurt our economy?” duh ya think?

“It is not the right time for Vermont” to pass a single-payer system, Shumlin acknowledged in a public statement ending his signature initiative. He concluded the 11.5 percent payroll assessments on businesses and sliding premiums up to 9.5 percent of individuals’ income “might hurt our economy.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/single-payer-vermont-113711.html#ixzz3bSFgIqfa

Look at the estimated cost of the Vermont single-payer system; a total of 21% of payroll (income).  Now look at the current Bureau of Labor figures on what employers spend on health benefits.