In messages about health-care reform (that is, against it!), some right-wing correspondents of mine claim that Medicare and Medicaid deny more claims than private insurers do. I want to know how to counter this claim.
More discussion below the jump.
Some of these correspondents have worked in the health-care industry and seem to be well informed. In other words, they may not just be blowing smoke when they make this claim.
When I suggested that the government programs together cover far more people than any one private insurer and therefore must deny more claims, one correspondent countered that he meant more denied claims in percentage terms, not just in absolute numbers.
I'm thinking that perhaps the best counter-argument, assuming the basic claim is true, is that Medicare and Medicaid can't cherry-pick the people they cover, nor can they dump covered people by recission, so they get a pool of people who make more claims and therefore have to be denied more often. But I'm not sure whether this follows logically, nor am I sure whether it's the best counter-argument.
So I am open to suggestions from well-informed kossacks. Help me out, guys!