[chimeracoder]

> I mean come on, we have huge rolls of the public already on Medicare for a variety of reasons. Why not just put everyone on it and be done already?

1) Medicare isn't single-payer; it's a multipayer system

2) The government-run portion of Medicare underperforms the private payers in cost, medical outcomes, and patient satisfaction (the three primary axes on which success is measured).

If you want to point to data that suggests that a single-payer system would be successful in the US, Medicare is the last example you want to pick, because it suggests the exact opposite.

[FussyZeus]

> The government-run portion of Medicare underperforms the private payers in cost, medical outcomes, and patient satisfaction (the three primary axes on which success is measured).

Would you be willing to cede that this is likely because their patient base grows constantly and yet their funding is cut at every turn? I'm not saying it's their only issue, but constantly being drained of resources while getting additional work to do makes it somewhat incredible that they operate as well as they do.

[chimeracoder]

> Would you be willing to cede that this is likely because their patient base grows constantly and yet their funding is cut at every turn?

Medicare Advantage is growing faster than Medicare and operates on the same budget, so no, that's not an explanation for Original Medicare's shortcomings.