Health Care Reform
Posted by Mike Sylvester - 7/21/09 @ 11:16 am - Filed Under National Politics, Uncategorized
I think this post must start with the statement that “the health care system in the United States is broken.“ I truly believe that our current system is broken for several specific reasons:
- The cost of health care is rising far faster than inflation.
- The Government run Medicare and Medicaid systems are rife with fraud and abuse.
- The cost of health care is hidden in a complex web of government programs, insurance companies, and health insurance programs. It is almost impossible to determine how much you are paying for health care.
There are more problems with our current health care system; however, the above three problems are a good starting point.
President Obama is pressing Congress to pass a health care reform bill by their August recess (August 7th). Basically in his speeches he has tasked Congress to overhaul a sector that accounts for 1/6 of our National Gross Domestic Product in about three weeks. Further he has said that we must pass health care reform right now or else the opportunity will be lost for a generation.
I always oppose programs that the Federal Government wants to pass in just a couple of weeks. Recent examples include the failed TARP plan, the failed Obama Stimulus Plan, etc.
There is absolutely no reason to ram this legislation through Congress in a couple of weeks. It is irresponsible and it is absurd. Any health carereform needs to be carefully considered and time must be given for the bill to be read and analyzed by a wide array of experts including the Congressional Budget Office.
There is one reason and one reason only why President Obama and Nancy Pelosi want to ram health care reform through by August 7th, 2009.
Both President Obama and Nancy Pelosi are afraid that they will not be able to pass health care reform in 2010 because it is an election year. They know that many of the moderate Democrats in their caucus will not be re-elected if they support a healthcare reform plan that is bound to be unpopular with a majority of Americans once the majority of Americans understand how this health care reform will effect them.
In other words they feel that they have to push this unpopular reform through Congress in a hurry because a lot of their constituents will oppose the reform bill.
If the Democrats pass health care reform in the next couple of weeks I can promise you that the Republicans are going to gain a lot of seats in 2010 and even more in 2012. From the beginning I have predicted that President Obama would be a one term President. I think his ONLY chance of staying on office is if the Republicans do not field a credible, conservative candidate.
Mike Sylvester
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12 Responses to “Health Care Reform”
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Mike-I think you have hit the nail right on the head since health care reform is THE CENTERPIECE of Obamamessiah’s legislative package. If it fails he becomes more vulnerable on all issues and suffers a big political hit.I ran across an interesting speech by Krautenhammer recently in which he says that everything Obama does or proposes is about politics and his vision of his power to change not just the US but the world through personal will and “diplomacy”(defined as lies and subterfuge). He advises -”watch what he does not what he says” !
Like Nancy Pelosi-”you can tell if he is lying by seeing if his lips move”!!
Funny, I don’t see any solutions in this post, just complaints.
The Party of No, indeed.
The major flaw in your thinking is this:
Regardless of timing- if the plan is unpopular, it will cost those that vote for it jobs. really does not matter that this is NOT an election year.
Kevin and Craig,
Your high prince doesn’t even know what’s in the freaking bill.
The guy is a disgrace.
High Prince? Don’t know who you are referring to…
Craig,
You should re-read the post.
This post simply criticizes the fact the President Obama is tryng to push legislation through Congress that effects 1/6 of the national economy in two or three weeks.
He is trying to push it far too fast.
Mike
Kevin Knuth,
I disagree with you because the voters have a terrible memory.
I am sure you have noticed that Senator Bayh’s votes get more conservative the closer we et to his re-election date.
Mike Sylvester
Sorry, I don’t buy the “health care is broken” premise even though I agree with your argument about rushing things through.
The last few decades have seen immense growth in American wealth and discretionary incomes. It is not surprising and not bad that a larger portion of discretionary income is being devoted to health care. With the aging, wealth and health-consciousness of the baby boomers, greater demand for health care is hardly surprising.
Increaing the supply by opening up the spots in the medical schools would do more to satisfy demand and slow increases in price.
My parents, a retired maintenance foreman and a retired school teacher, have, for the last 15 years or so, maintained a very expensive extended nursing care policy which provides extensive benefits beyond Medicare. Thankfully, they have not had to call upon it.
Do they “need” this policy, even though they have adult children willing andable to assist if and when the occasion arises? Do they have a right or entitlement to very comfortable nursing/retirement home care? No and no. They choose to spend an appreciable amount of their discretionary income on this policy because they value the security it gives them more than other things they might purchase.
So what?
The proportion of disposable income Americans spend on leisure activities has risen, over the last couple decades, far faster than the proportion spent on food, clothing and shelter. I guess this means our golf and amusement park systems are broken too.
Mark is correct that our system gives an unfair market advantage to health care providers by allowing the industry to artificially restrict supply. They claim this is done to ensure qualified providers and thus patient safety. Yet if that were truley their goal, they would not oppose efforts to require public access to the safety records of medical personel/organizations.
I think you would go a long way towards mending this problem by both placing fewer restrictions on who can enter the industry, as well as allowing the public to have access to information which will allow them to determine the quality of specific individuals and organizations in the health care industry.
Let the health care consumers regulate the industry, instead of allowing it to continue regulating itself.
There’s only one high prince for me and that’s the Lord Gothma Buddha.
1. The cost of health care is rising far faster than inflation.
2. The Government run Medicare and Medicaid systems are rife with fraud and abuse.
3. The cost of health care is hidden in a complex web of government programs, insurance companies, and health insurance programs. It is almost impossible to determine how much you are paying for health care.
Why does the cost of healthcare increase faster than inflation? Wage growth is generally greater than inflation, this is what increases our standard of living and buying power. However, healthcare is labor intensive. Does the doctor increase productivity year over year by seeing more patients in the same amount of time, no? For wages of labor intensive fields, the rate of change will be greater than inflation simply because they like everyone else wants more money.
Another reason for the increase in healthcare costs is the way it is calculated. For those 0 to 18, the rate of change is low, but as you approach age 65, it grows far, far faster than inflation. Medicare is growing far faster because a boom begets a boom and a bust begets a bust. We are now entering the cycle of a boom years ago. Our population is not uniformily distributed through ages 0 to 100.
A major reason why healthcare costs for those under age 65 have increased faster than inflation is due to cost shifting. Keep in mind that 1 in 3 healthcare dollars are spent to provide care to those age 65 and over and Medicare only reimburses 70% of the cost. This means 30% of the cost of seniors is shifted to everyone else. There is no cost constraint here. They go, we pay.
I heard a representative today on the news say that $700 Billion in healthcare costs are wasted. This is 25% of total costs. Since Medicare and Medicaid account for half of total costs, how much of this waste is attributed to them? If none, then that means 50% of all non government healthcare costs are wasted. How many believe a government program is more efficient than private?
A wire stent costs $4,000!! The Parkview Health charges $65,000 for three days!!! Is it really necessary to have a private room?
When my wife asked Parkview Health what a service might cost, they said they had no idea what it would cost, yet on the bill there was only one line item. It is not like a lot of line items that add up to a total bill. They new, but did not want to say. A Auto Repair garage can provide an estimate, but a hospital with all its codes has no ideas what a cost might be.
I am tired of paying medicare taxes to help someone compete for healthcare services driving up demand. At the same time I get charged 30 to 50% more for the same service to make up for what Medicare does not pay. If Medicare did not exist, I would not have a problem paying for my own healthcare.
When you talk about cutting healthcare costs, who do you affect? Zimmer, Biomet and Medtronics make medical implants. They pay workers a fairly decent wage and have great benefits. Are we talking about cutting the price of these implants, if so are we talking about cutting wages and benefits of the workers? Merk makes drugs by hiring workers who are paid a good wage with good benefits. If we are healthcare is going to cut costs, are we talking about cutting the wages and benefits of these workers as well? We then have those who work in doctor’s offices such as nurses, receptionists, accountants, and lab techs. Again if we are going to cut the cost of healthcare, we need to cut their wages and benefits as well. When it comes to hospitals who hire janitors, lab techs, nurses, doctors and surgeons, we must also cut their wages and benefits as well.
Basically when one wants to reduce the cost of something, they spend less and the result is the provider sells less. If the provider gets paid less, then they spend less. In simple terms our healthcare generates huge taxable incomes that provide federal and state tax revenues that fund Social Security and Medicare.
However, what I hear lately is that there is too much waste and that they want to cut the waste. Again someone is being paid and it may be a waste of money, in which case they either lose their position or take a wage and benefit reduction which translates into a GDP reduction.
Government imbedded itself in our nation’s healthcare system in 1965 when it created Medicare. It created the seed money for Rx drug companies, research, diagnostic equipment, medical implants and hospitals all in the name of treating our nation. The problem was it was never funded properly. It never accrued the assets needed to fund future liabilities and in essence is one large Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. Like Bernie Madoff and Mr. Ponzi of the great depression, Medicare will fail as well.
There are only two options: the government will mandate change or the market will mandate change. If government mandates change, then people will not be making their own healthcare choice. If the market mandates the change then people will decide where and how best to spend their money. There is a myth that healthcare costs will continue to climb forever. This is not so. At some point few will be able to afford healthcare at which point many providers will be out of work, looking for any patient just to survive.
Engines and Turbines have governors that control the rate at which they run. However, with our healthcare system artificially stimulated by government interference, there is no “governor” to control healthcare costs. Government has never paid for one single thing. The person who pays for it can be found by looking a mirror.