Defend Medicare at all costs

To the editor:

July 30, 1965, was the official signing of the Medicare bill. Insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and physician practices take advantage of every legal loophole to increase their profits.

By constantly increasing the cost of health care, they drain the Medicare Trust Fund and our pocketbooks. And every day, fewer and fewer of our tax dollars go toward healing the public, and an ever-increasing portion of our health care dollars go to their profit.

The transition away from fee-for-service, which was supposed to decrease costs and prevent unnecessary services, resulted instead in increasing costs. Under President Trump, global payments, a fixed amount per patient, allowed private entities to keep a portion of their dollars to cover their administrative costs and profit, whether or not services were provided. Medicare Advantage plans were limited to 15 percent profit.

In the case of an Accountable Care Organization, no percentage was defined for admin costs and profit.

The Center for Medicare Services, estimated 40 percent of the government’s — our — money was being diverted to profit. We can no longer afford a for-profit health care system. A single-payer system, similar to traditional Medicare, would lower health care costs in New York State and everywhere. 

Helen Krim