Joe Lieberman’s Plan to Make Health Care Worse and More Expensive

[Derechos]

Paul Krugman

So Joe Lieberman is proposing that we raise the Medicare eligibility age. That’s a truly cruel idea; as it happens, I know several people who are hanging on, postponing needed medical care, hoping that they can make it to 65 before something terrible happens. And if I know such people in my fairly sheltered social circles, just imagine how widespread such stories must be.

But beyond that, think about what it means to move people out of Medicare into private insurance, if they can get it.

Medicare has its problems — but all the evidence says that it is substantially more cost-effective than private insurance. Partly this is because it has lower administrative costs; partly it’s because Medicare is able to use its market power to negotiate lower prices. And the international evidence is overwhelming: single-payer systems are much cheaper than systems centered on private insurance.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/10/joe-liebermans-plan-to-make-health-care-worse-and-more-expensive/


Lieberman's op-ed can be found here http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-medicare-can-be-saved/2011/06/06/AGexjqNH_story.html

[OHdem10]

1. No surprise, Lieberman has more than once said on TV the

New Leal Programs are old and out worn. He comes
up with another voucher program.

[Angry Dragon]

2. Then Congress should lose their medical coverage

[lsewpershad]

3. When are

we going to get rid of this puke-prick.

[hifiguy]

4. Moldy Joe is King Midas in reverse

Everything he touches turns to shit.