Single payer system won't fix health care

In Fence Post of Feb. 16, Kaye Gamble proposed we replace all private health insurance with single-payer Medicare. I disagree.

Gamble wants you forced into a single, one-size-fits-all nationalized health care system because she thinks it would be cheaper. She states that 97 percent of Medicare's budget goes to claims, while only 60 to 80 percent of private insurers' premiums go to claims with 20 to 40 percent as profit. This is not accurate.

According to Dr. Mark Perry, University of Michigan, private health insurance profits averaged 3.4 percent for 2009. State of Maine 2009 statistics show private insurers paid 85 percent of premiums in claims. Private insurers pay corporate taxes and 2 percent of premiums in state taxes, unlike Medicare.

They spend more than Medicare on fraud detection and in-house services like disease management and on-call nurse consultations, which reduce medical costs but appear as administrative costs. Medicare fraud meanwhile costs taxpayers $60 billion per year.

Private insurers save a portion of premiums to have money for future years when claims may rise; Medicare makes no provision for the future except tax increases or borrowing.

Yes, only 3 percent of Medicare's reported budget is administrative costs. However, other federal agencies provide essential services to Medicare which are not reported in this figure, raising Medicare's true costs to 6 percent. But this overstates efficiency because it defines administrative cost as a percentage of total spending, not as a cost per beneficiary. So Medicare appears more efficient only because it pays more per beneficiary than private insurers — in 2003 Medicare paid $6,600 per person, private insurers $2,700. Comparing costs on a per person insured basis, 2005 Medicare administration costs totaled $509 per beneficiary versus $453 for private insurers.

Our health care system needs reform. Government control is not the answer.

Matthew Bliss

Pingree Grove