The Oct. 6 Point of View article by Charles van der Horst, M.D., of UNC-Chapel Hill and Laura Svetkey, M.D., of Duke was a collection of unrelated and misleading statements that have no relevance in the current Democratic health-care reform proposals.
At this time, on average, Medicaid pays about 78 percent and Medicare pays about 93 percent of a hospital's cost per procedure. Private health insurance companies are making up the difference and paying about 132 percent of the cost per procedure. This overpayment pays for the uninsured as well as the underpayments by the government.
If the government takes over all payments, the quality of care will go down and the delays will increase.
