Another Observation comparing Government Service to Private Industry

[ThomWV]

I have bought a good bit of stuff via E-Bay and for years have regularly ordered small package sized by web-purchase, mail order, and phone calls to catalog distributors. The UPS driver knows our address well. After years of receiving packages at home, I can make this comment. If you have a package coming to you from half way across the country or more it will get to you faster and less expensively if sent by US mail than by the regular (not expedited) service of either UPS, Fed-Ex, or when it existed DHL. The US Postal Service gets the mail through, they do it efficiently, and they do it inexpensively. Their employees are reasonably paid and have good benefits. The same could be said for their commercial competitors, all except the inexpensive part that is. How does this compare to basic health care? Is there some reason to think that the Government can provide a good level of service in one area but not another? I for one am sick and tired of the constant denigration of Civil Servants by Republicans everywhere. I posted the other day about the great service I got recently from Social Security, I feel the same way about the Postal Service. I would like to feel the same way about the National Health Service, if we could only get one.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Many government-run services are very efficient. Medicare is a prime example.

Yes, Medicare pays too little to providers, and that needs to be adjusted. However, remember that Medicare covers the elderly and disabled--both very high-medical-needs populations--with about 2 or 3% overhead, compared to an optimistically estimated "overhead" of 25% or so for private insurers. Also, it is more expensive for providers to deal with private insurers than with Medicare because the private guys have whole armies of people whose job it is to deny authorizations, delay payments, deny claims, and figure out ways to dump high-cost consumers.