Canada’s health costs for seniors rising slowly, points way to Medicare solvency

[eridani]

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2012/october/canada%E2%80%99s-health-costs-for-seniors-rising-slowly-points-way-to-medicare-solvency-ar

Archives of Internal Medicine article

Researchers find the U.S. could have saved more than $2.15 trillion on Medicare since 1980 had it employed cost-saving measures similar to Canada's

A study published in today’s Archives of Internal Medicine finds that per capita Medicare spending on the elderly has grown nearly three times faster in the United States than in Canada since 1980. (Canada’s program, which covers all Canadians, not just the elderly, is also called Medicare.) Costs grew more slowly in Canada despite a 1984 law banning co-payments and deductibles.

In the first study of its kind, Dr. David U. Himmelstein and Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, professors at the City University of New York’s School of Public Health, analyzed decades of detailed Medicare spending data for persons aged 65 and older in the U.S. and Canada.

[frazzled]

1. These are all things the administration has been talking about

for some time: allowing the government to negotiate drug prices, lump sum payments to hospitals for care, emphasis on primary care ...

Obama in fact talked about allowing Medicare to negotiate for drug prices just the other day. But of course, the Republicans will yell and scream, and some compromise will have to be worked out. We should send them all to Canada for lime rickeys and vinegar fries.

[eridani]

2. Good. Let's email and fax him about drug price negotiations

Too bad we couldn't have gotten that in ACA to begin with.

[democrattotheend]

3. When did he talk about it?

I had not heard that...this is encouraging.