saving medicare: lessons from canada
DESCRIPTION
Medicare, the only universal, publicly-financed health program in the United States covering seniors 65 years and older, lifted a generation of seniors out of poverty and has provided basic health protection for 48 years. Today the program faces a financial crisis in the coming decade and it increasingly fails to provide comprehensive health security for seniors. Benjamin Day, Director of Organizing for Healthcare-NOW!, and Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program, argue that current proposals that merely shift costs onto providers or patients are inadequate, and we will have to improve and expand Medicare to cover everyone to save it for seniors. Looking at lessons from abroad, this webinar makes the case that single payer health reform is needed to save health care for all American residents.TRANSCRIPT
- 1. Saving Medicare: Lessons from Canada healthcare-now.org pnhp.org Benjamin Day Director of Organizing Healthcare-NOW! Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPH Professor, CUNY School of Public Health Co-Founder, PNHP June 26, 2013
2. Medicare Signed Into Law July 30th, 1965 3. 2009 Medicare Trustees Report: Insolvency by 2018 ($billions) $601 $701 $835 $592 $784 $926 $371 $224 $59 $0 $100 $200 $300 $400 $500 $600 $700 $800 $900 $1,000 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Income Expenditures Assets 4. Under ACA: Medicare Trust Fund Exhausted in 2026 (early as 2019) 5. Graph source: Medicare Spending and Financing: A Primer, Kaiser Family Foundation, 2011. 6. U.S. Spends Almost Double Next Highest Spending Country 7. U.S. Health Care System the Sixth Largest Economy in the World Country 2010 GDP United States $14,447,100 China $5,739,358 Japan $5,458,873 Germany $3,280,334 France $2,559,850 U.S. Health Care System $2,542,690 8. Whats right about Medicare 9. Whats wrong Incomplete Coverage 10. Wealth Matters Planning for Retirement? Dont Forget Health Care Costs Medicare . . . Covers only 51% of health care services. . . . For a 65 year old couple retiring this year, the cost of health care in retirement will be $240,000. 11. Whats wrong Privatization Public money with private control : 12. Despite Medicares Lower Overhead, Enrollment of Medicare Patients in Private Plans Has Grown 13. Canadian Medicare- a true single payer 14. 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 Year ChangeinMedicareCost/Senior(1980=1) Canada U.S. Cost Control in a Parallel Universe: Growth in Medicare Spending Per Senior in the U.S. and Canada, 1980-2009 Source: Himmelstein & Woolhandler, Arch Intern Med, December, 2012 15. How Has Canada Controlled Costs? Lower administrative cost - 16.7%v 31.0% (U.S.) Lump-sum, global budgets for hospitals with stringent capital control of new buildings and equipment Single buyer purchasing reins in drug/device prices Exclusion of private insurers - private plans overcharged U.S. Medicare by $34 billion in 2012 Source: Himmelstein & Woolhandler, Arch Intern Med, December, 2012 16. Take Action for Medicares Birthday, July 30, 2013! healthcare- now.orgpnhp.org