Is privatizing Medicare a good thing?

It is a legitimate issue to discuss. Here, in my view, is the main flaw: you ask "If the private sector can implement Medicare for less money than the government, shouldn't it?" The question is whether or not this is actually a realistic prospect.

If medicare was privatised, chances are the private operator would charge higher amounts to operate it, and would probably require either further government subsidy, or charging its patients, to do so. So I'd be very surprised if the private sector would still be able to provide the same benefits to patients without either charging them money (which defeats the whole purpose) or requiring subsidies that are at least comparable to existing spending on medicare. The other issue, which has ramifications for the above, is that private corporations are concerned primarily with delivering a profit to their shareholders, whereas medicare is intended to ensure that people covered receive low-cost healthcare.

How those two could be easily reconciled without hefty fees, I'm not sure. What I would propose is that rather than the rather complicated healthcare system the government currently operates, we instead replace it with a single system that covers all US citizens. As well as reducing the bureaucracy and administration that costs so much now, it would also improve healthcare coverage and provide better care.

You'll note that the USA, even though it doesn't have universal healthcare, spends more as a percentage of GDP on healthcare than any other western country, which indicates that the current system is actually costing more money than it should primarily because of the sprawling and hapazard administration.

Medicare is one of the most successful things our govt. Has ever done! One reason the Republicans HATE it so much is that it shows how well government programs can work!

Medicare saves us literally hundreds of billions of dollars every year over the cost of commercial insurance. It has a MUCH lower overhead, but people who are on Medicare get measurably the same quality of care as commercial insurance, and Medicare even has a higher customer satisfaction! What the Republicans want to do is to take that same amount of money and give it to commercial insurance companies, so they skim 25-30% off the top for profits, advertising, and obscene executive salaries before anyone gets any health care.

Seriously, you think people are going to get health care as good? To the Republicans, the whole purpose of health care is to make profits for insurance companies. The actual providing of health care is just an unfortunate 'cost of doing business' for these companies, to be minimized however possible.

Before 'Obamacare', insurance companies could just kick people off the system when they got sick. You could pay your premiums faithfully for years, then get an expensive cancer or something and the insurance company would just cancel you. Or they could simply refuse to insure you if they didn't think they could make a lot of money off you.

Of course the Republicans hated the idea that insurance companies should be forced to play fair. Medicare is about PROVIDING HEALTH CARE. It has a 2-3% overhead and it doesn't make any profits for anyone.

And that's why the Republicans hate it.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.