Bear with N in Seattle here. N gets today's "Comment of the Day" for weighing in on PubliCola writer Jake Blumgart's (best) post (of the day), with a batch of relevant info an insight.

9. N in Seattle says:

Let us not forget that the Senior Communications Manager for Premera Blue Cross is this guy, who’s also a former leader of (Un)SoundPolitics and one-time aide to Skeletor Slade Gorton. Neither he nor his employer is a disinterested spectator in this battle.

The perversity of Medicare reimbursement rules — where cost-efficient care is “rewarded” with decreases in reimbursement — is a problem in reforming the healthcare system, but Earling tosses out the reddest of herrings with this:

“Obviously, if doctors and hospitals in Washington State are already losing money, expanding that problem by bringing even more people into a system that underpays local doctors and hospitals will be really problematic.”

That is absolutely not obvious. In fact, adding younger, healthier, far less costly beneficiaries to Medicare would increase its revenue from premiums while simultaneously decreasing its per-beneficiary expenditures. Medicare currently aims at the highest-cost patient population — not only the elderly, but the permanently disabled and those with end-stage renal disease. Adding many healthy individuals to this low-administrative-cost program could be a real boon if done right.