[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.