Quote Originally Posted by EyeKhan View Post
Run cheaper than what? Was Medicare ever run by a myriad of companies duplicating administrative efforts that required doctors comply with a complex and inconsistent patchwork of coverage and paperwork? No, of course not. Private insurance companies would never take on a pool of only high risk, guaranteed high claims people. Which is why the government got stuck with it - nobody else would cover old people at a price they could afford. And that is also why there should be a single payer system for the entire country requiring healthy people to participate. The high risk people can't be covered at a reasonable price without the gigantic pool of low risk people paying in to balance the costs. Duh.
So again the original estimation of the cost of Medicare was way off. The health care debate we had in this country did the same exact thing. Put forth ridiculous estimates that they knew will run over budget.

Here's the other thing about the 'gigantic pool of low risk people' that you say need to pay for the elderly care. Do you think those people are going to get old too? Odds say yes. Nearly everyone is going to need expensive care at some point.

In your system how do you ration care? Because the idea that we can just have unlimited care for everyone will not work.