 |
Cutting Through the Cost-Shifting BS |
 |
(FYI, I’m participating in a “debate,” more of a friendly discussion, on Change.org about the differences between President Obama’s health care plan and single-payer. Check it out.)
Before they pull out the lie about “socialized medicine,” the insurance industry, the drug industry, and the business interests who are against health care reform will use seemingly rational arguments to explain why their against providing quality, affordable health care for all.
By reasonable, I mean complicated, official-sounding, and at the end of the day, untrue. Like the argument about something the industry calls “cost-shifting.”
Cost-shifting, according to the industry, is what happens when you have more people enrolling in public health insurance plans like Medicare. Their arguments is because Medicare pays so little to doctors (not quite true, their payment rates are now the industry standard), doctors have to raise their rates for people not on Medicare, shifting the cost from those on public insurance to those on private insurance.
As Representative Becerra explains, it’s a lot of BS:
Health insurance is so expensive that so many in America go without it, or don’t have the amount that they need to truly cover their medical needs. When they get sick, guess who picks up the tab? Taxpayers. So, yes, there is cost-shifting going on, but it’s in the other direction. Because the health insurance and drug industries have done so little to slow skyrocketing health care costs and actually make care affordable, the public must pick up the slack for those who can’t afford to pay.
This is why we need a public health insurance option, so people can always be covered and pay what they can afford, lessening or completely eliminating cost shifting.
(also posted at the NOW! blog)
