On the recordMarch 10, 2010
I want to thank the gentleman again, faithful virtually every week to have this leadership hour and talk about such weighty issues as health care. But to follow up on your very point, and that is today, the big question is why all these increases in private insurance rates. Well, there are several reasons, but the main reason is that private insurance premiums help subsidize Medicare and Medicaid. Why? Medicare and Medicaid underpays the providers, the gap is getting larger, and so providers have to make it up in order to survive in business on the private insurance which has to escalate in relation to that. So that is something you will not hear from Speaker Pelosi or the President. He wants to demonize the insurance companies. As a physician, I am no big friend of the insurance companies. But fair is fair. If we are going to fix this problem, we have got to start, in my opinion, by looking at cost savings. We are going to have to be real about and realistic about where the real costs are coming from. Again, you are right. Half of medicine today is under government control, and that is the part that is bankrupting the system.
