Courtesy The Daily Kos:
Mayo Clinic issues statement supporting Obama's health plan
by Auriandra
Mayo Clinic strongly supports President Obama’s call for health insurance reform and health care delivery reform, and agrees with the President’s position that the status quo is not acceptable. We believe that a bipartisan, collaborative approach is essential to achieving significant, patient-centered health care reform.Mayo Clinic and the many organizations and individuals working with us in the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center are strongly in favor of reform of both health care delivery and health insurance. True health care reform is getting better results for the money spent. Better results for money spent is what we meant by high value health care: better outcomes, safer care, better service and at lower costs over time. And this will translate to better access to medical services for all Americans.
We agree with President Obama’s focus on insuring all Americans and reforming the health care payment system.
Palin apparently does not realize that the waste and unwarranted subsidies which Obama referred to come from George Bush’s Medicare Advantage plans. This is yet one more example of Republicans governing incompetently and then using this history to make their argument that government is always incompetent.
The problem is not "the government that brought us" this waste but the Republican Party which brought us this waste. Without these Republican policies Medicare is far more efficient than private insurance at providing health care. The Republican policy of paying subsidies to private insurance companies costs 13% to 19% more to care for Medicare patients through private companies than it costs to care for them thorough the government Medicare program.
It is unusual for Mayo to take sides politically. The article also is critical of Ms. Palin's lack of understanding and expertise in health care issues.
