How would lowering the Medicare age save the system money?

[Faryn Balyncd]

10. I would have jumped on $600/mo....

The price my wife an I paid for a $30,000 deductible policy rose to $428/mo per person, even though we had paid for over 25 years without ever exceeding our deductible (no claim had ever been paid by the insurance company since our youngest child had surgery over 25 years ago, and no claim had been paid on either of us in over 30 years.) Yet we were in our 60's and other carriers refused to write insurance on us. So the $856/mo we paid between the 2 of us only insured us against catastrophic illness. $600/mo per person for real insurance would have been a bargain we would have jumped on in a millisecond. And it would have saved the Medicare system money because our actual expenses were significantly less than $600/mo/person.

One of the reasons it would have been a win/win situation for us, as well as for the Medicare system, has to do with the opaque and discriminatory pricing system that has evolved in medicine in the last 30 years.

That is that if you are uninsured, or have a high deductible policy, under the current system you run the risk of being billed for the fantasy "regular rates" that hospitals charge uninsured or under-insured patients, rates that are 300-600% higher than the rates charged insurance companies that negotiate discounts, whereas if you were able to buy in to Medicare, you would be responsible for 20% of a reasonable rate.

It is because of this malignant, discriminatory and predatory pricing system that now exists in medicine, that Medicare, by virtue of its fair pricing system and efficient administration, could charge a rate that would provide a reasonable profit to medical providers, and still be done with a fee system which would allow Medicare to save money, and still be a bargain to American patients.




Edited to add:

Here are some links to the extent (250-600%) to which both uninsured patients (and many with high deductible policies from insurance companies which have not negotiated steep discounts from providers) are over-charged (They may be told they can get a "10-20% "discount if they pay cash in advance):
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Faryn%20Balyncd/1