Medicare Increased Payments To Providers And Still Managed To Keep Overall Spending 3400095

“Medicare increased payments to providers and still managed to keep overall spending to 7.8 percent in 2001,” said Representative Pete Stark, Democrat of California. “Meanwhile, private insurance premiums went up 10.5 percent. Given these results, I cannot understand why Republicans continue to devise plans for turning Medicare over to private health insurers.” Can it be possible for total spending by private insurance to go up faster than spending on public insurance and yet have the private insurance plan be better? Explain.