[ExI] Longevity Dividend Course OP-ED Assignment 07 ptA

[Morris Johnson]

07- Medicare and Health Insurance Reform



Ok dad, we'll leave you alone on the medicare  and health insurance reform
issue….  this is one of your passionate areas.   "Oh my goodness gracious
me, Holy swamp of quicksand and alligators, I'm liable to loose a leg, get
mangled or be swallowed alive this time " says I.



USA Medicare economics as detailed in
http://www.kaiseredu.org/tutorials_index.asp show medicare costs 14% of the
USA federal budget and covers only 43 million of 320+ million and requires
159 billion or 3,765 per person average out of pocket expenditures to get
benefits. The highest cost  (25,000 or more per year) cost of beneficiaries
(10% of those covered)  use  69% of 2006 total budget. By 2018 medicare
trust fund reserves will be used up and as the taxpayer to beneficiary ratio
drops from 4/1 to a projected 2.4/1 for 78.6 beneficiaries in 2030.  This is
predicted to drive  the very fundamentals of financing healthcare  from
critical to flat-lining.



In Saskatchewan Health care consumes 95% of every tax dollar collected for
2008.  Education at 2 billion (22.7% of the 8.57 Billion dollar provincial
budget) more had better  live up to its potential to enable the citizens to
lower their short and long term health care costs to the treasury.  University
Students and Alumni all have access through the PAWS portal to a very good
database of professional, technical and scientific scholarly journals to
empower decision making.  I would be absolutely  helpless to reliably
compare  hearsay with state of the art science without being able to read
the research.  If I had one suggestion to enhance the potential of achieving
a "Saskatchewan longevity dividend" to reduce the accelerating cost  from 6
billion  to a flat-line  or even  reduced cost it would be to provide
University of Saskatchewan PAWS portal full-text scientific journal access
to every person with a Sask Health card.

Medicare must leverage knowledge, e-education  and telemedicine in order to
free up resources of  people, equipment , procedures and materials to
enhance wellness.  Without this a universal longevity dividend will remain
publicly unfundable , unsustainable and unavailable except for that 1%
superwealthy who can defy the world in order to take care of number
one.  Self-directed
preventative care in consultation with health care professionals is where I
propose health care head so that when the crunch hits in 2025 that we  have
handled it like a "Y2K" and fixed it before it hits.


The Canadian rationing method of waiting lists and limiting  numbers of
procedures available  is  unethical  where a globally distributed pool of
resources exceeds the number of paying customers .  This drives  medical
tourism.   According to http://www.singaporemedicine.com  "5 myths of
Medical Tourism)  415,000 customers accessed  high quality, low (20% of
north American comparable) cost,  efficient, efficacious goods and services.
The industry projects 4 billion revenue for 2012 excluding permanent luxury
full-service medical ocean-cruise-liner type of outsourced  nursing home
alternatives.
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