Paying in full for health care, The public does not save money when Medicare shifts its costs

ONE reason private health insurance premiums keep rising is thatthe government does not fully fund its health programs. Doctors,hospitals and other health-care providers shift those costs ontoprivate insurers.

In California, the cost shifts are substantial, according toDaniel Kessler, a professor at the Stanford University GraduateSchool of Business and a senior fellow at Stanford's HooverInstitution.

"If, in 2005, the revenues for every California hospital'sMedicare and Medi-Cal patients would have been sufficient to coverthese patients' costs, then private-payer patients' revenue-to costratio would have declined by 10.8 percentage points," Kessler …