Anybody still think ObamaCare will mean better coverage for more people?
Official calculations show that Medicare has $34 trillion less than it needs to keep all its promises to seniors. Yet ObamaCare will take $500 billion out of Medicare over 10 years to cover 30 million uninsured Americans.
Basic arithmetic suggests that this would hasten the demise of the program. Not so, according to President Obama. He says he'll squeeze out savings by cutting reimbursement to providers. ObamaCare will create something called the Independent Payment Advisory Board, composed of 15 experts. Their job will be to hold down spending by identifying reimbursement cuts, and their recommendations will be binding on Congress. If this board recommends what many fear it will, Medicare's reimbursement rates will drop below Medicaid's, which will mean that doctors will turn away seniors like they do the poor. In effect, in addition to an early death option, ObamaCare offers seniors diminished access to quality care. If this is compassion, give me cruelty.
RyanCare is not perfect, but at least it won't rob Grandma Millie to buy Cousin Joe coverage. It will allow all those who are 55 or older right now to stay in the current Medicare program. But come 2022, everyone presently younger would get an average of $15,000 — the amount Medicare would spend per beneficiary — in “premium support” to use toward a health plan of his or her choice. Low-income and sick seniors could get up to another $8,000 or so.
This is hardly ungenerous. But liberals are still crying bloody murder. Why? Because RyanCare would raise the “voucher” amount annually based on general, not medical, inflation. And since medical inflation outpaces general inflation, with every passing year the voucher would buy less, and seniors would be on the hook for more.
But this misses the point even worse than Dwyane Wade missed the tying free throw for the Miami Heat Tuesday night. RyanCare wants to give seniors control over their Medicare dollars precisely to unleash their market power to curb medical inflation. It might not fully succeed, because it won't let seniors buy coverage from wherever they like. Rather, it will limit their options to expensive plans, with all kinds of unnecessary bells and whistles, on a federal exchange. Still, it will cut inflation somewhat. And the savings that result would go directly into seniors' pockets, not skimmed off to pay for someone else's coverage.
ObamaCare, she says, is "the worst thing that could happen to seniors in their old age." Inaction is the next worst thing, which makes RyanCare the least bad: "As a senior in the making, if those were my only options, I would ignore Democratic demaguguery and take RyanCare in a heartbeat. ObamaCare, however, I'd avoicd like the plague"
"The least bad thing" is not exactly ringing praise, but maybe it's the best we can expect from government these days.
Comments
I providing health care to all a country's residents is a sure road to self-destruction, why isn't every developed country in the world bankrupt? Why is the U.S. the only country that couldn't possibly afford to make it work? I suppose a demogogue could accuse you of hating your own country, or at least doubting its ability to do what every other developed country does without much trouble.
Little-Place-To-take-A-Pee: Have you been living under a rock? Greece = BROKE; Portugal = BROKE; Mexico = BROKE; Brazil = BROKE; et al; et al! Count the counties to which we are sending foreign aid, those that we are defending with our military (ALL of Europe, Korea, Japan, Afganistan, and so on) and then explain why they are, in your words, "doing" medical expenses "without much trouble"! Is it maybe because the USA is "covering their butts", financially that they can "afford to make it work"??
Ask any Canadian or British citizen how their health is being "taken-care-of" - heck, even you might learn something (although, I doubt it could ever happen!).
What Kalb said!
+ 1000
OK, let's DO ask a British citizen how his health is being taken care of. Let's ask Stephen Hawking.
Hawking has myasthenia gravis, a disease so debilitating that he can't even talk with adaptive devices, much less move about. He like's Britain's National Health Service: "I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS. I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived."
Admittedly, ObamaCare has some problems; we should have simply put everybody into Medicare. Why haven't we learned the lessons of no-fault auto insurance? The reason we're spending 16% on health care instead of the 8% other countries pay for universal coverage and better outcomes is that we spend all our resources arguing over whether (and by who) a bill should get paid.
Harl: Have you ever been involved in a car accident in Michigan (a no-fault state)? If you had, you would not think so highly of iot - IT JUST IS A WAY FOR INSURERS TO GET OUT OF COVERING MOST ITEMS!!!
NO THANKS!!!!
As for Mr. Hawking - just why in anybody's name do you consider him to be anywhere close to being an average citizen??? I read somewhere that his disease was ALS but a very slow type - he has lived for over 40 years with it.
He has been coddled like no one else both in Great Britain and in our USA - Free rides on the "Vomit-Comet" (normally a charge of over $3000/ride) were he was weightless for a short time.
When did Mexico become a "developed nation?" At any rate, Portugal, Greece, etc., are not in trouble because of their health systems.
If you're going to make that claim, you are obligated to offer some evidence. Just saying it doesn't make it so.
I can just as easily list Western European countries that are riding out the current recession quite well. Why aren't Sweden and Switzerland broke?
Under Michigan law, insurance companies are NOT relieved of covering most items. It's just that you need to look to YOUR insurance company, not the other guy's insurance company, for property damage to your own car. If your own insurance company screwed you, well, perhaps you should have selected a different insurance company. But in Indiana, if the other guy was both at fault, and uninsured, you'd be in exactly the same situation, forced to turn to your own insurance coverage to be made whole. Sounds like you need a different insurer.
Yes, I agree, Mr. Hawking is nowhere near being an average citizen. On the other hand, he was pretty average when he was diagnosed - he was a 21-year-old college student. NHS kept him alive long enough to become the world's most famous physicist.
And I'd like to have that quality of health care here. Unfortunately, we have to be willing to only pay about half as much as we currently pay, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.
Japan is facing bankruptcy with its plan. Oh, why do we pay more for healthcare? Take a look at Parkview's new hospital. Private rooms are not found in countries where they have "government paid healthcare." In Japan you can get a private room, but it will cost you. In Canada, you have to wait months some times for basic services, much like the VA here on Lake Avenue.
In addition those "other" countries are facing bankruptcy as well. However, I would call them broke already, they just do not want to admit it yet. The British are dumping everything they can to pay for what they have. People are protesting.
Healthcare in the United States by some respects is in a crisis. When you speak to people, they say it has gotten too expensive. They point to 50 million uninsured and an increase in bankruptcies. I attended a forum at St. Mary
Mr. Larsen: Thank you for your info!! john b. kalb
My wife and I are seriously considering moving to Canada, if one of us can find a job. As a teacher, her job is not secure. Her medications, without insurance, would cost about $2,000 a month. In other words, if she loses her job, she will die. Period.
There is no other developed nation where that would happen. Please defend our system, you advocates of libertarianism. Which one of you would murder my wife? Because that's exactly what would happen.
Little-place-to-take-a-pee: I assume thast you are either:
1) Unable to get a job that pays your liberal idea of what you are worth, or
2) Unable to work, due to a physical or mental disablity, or
3) A man who expects his wife to earn a living for both of you, or
4) Some other problem that limits you from making $24,000 per year to pay your wife's medicine bill - heck, you can make that much at McDonalds!
5) And you can accuse the rest of the American taxpayers of "murdering your wife"? Man, you are sick - you better go to Canada so you can wait in line to get well!
You don't love your wife enough to see that she gets her meds? - at least without having someone else pay for them? THAT'S WHAT'S WRONG WITH TOO MANY AMERICANS TODAY!!!! I really find it hard to sympathize with you.
And do you think your wife is such a poor teacher that her job is not secure?
if he needs to earn $24,000 to pay his wife's meds working mcdonalds should he dumpster dive for half,eaten big macs to feed the family?
Mr. Kalb:
Since your own name is "john," I find it astonishing that you think it's funny to note that "john" is slang for a bathroom. Gosh, I've never heard that one.
I'm not employed under circumstances that provide insurance coverage for my wife. The details are none of your damn business.
My wife's job as a teacher is not secure because she has only one year of full-time experience, and we live in a state that seem determined to balance the budget on the backs of teachers, cops and other decent people.
My wife was her high school valedictorian, a former Mensa member and the holder of two graduate degrees. She is infinitely more intelligent than you.
I can't find work because I won a lawsuit against a former employer. No one will touch me. Do you really think, by the way, that McDonald's provides insurance coverage? Or that McDonald's pays $24,000? That would have to be take-home, by the way. At any rate, McDonald's has declined to hire me.
I think that, as a general rule, if one man wants to question another man's masculinity, he ought to be willing to do it to his face. In this case, I don't recommend it.
Little-Place: You can find me because I use my name -(and I am in the phone book, by the way). How could I ever meet you face-to-face since you hide behind the moniker you use?
I am not surpised in any way that you are unemployable DUE TO YOUR OWN ACTIONS!
So the details of your employment are "none of my damn business" yet you can accuse me (and a whole bunch of others) of being somehow responsible for your wife's possible "murder"? Seems very "one-sided" to me!
Littlejohn: Your angry comments inadvertently expose your "entitlement" belief system, to wit:
1. "My wife
If you want raw data instead of just rankings, the CIA World Factbook has what you want.
The US has a higher infant mortality (defined as deaths before age 1) than 55 other countries, with a death rate of 6.06 babies per 1000 births. Cuba has 4.90, the Czech Republic has 3.73, Hong Kong has 2.50 and Monaco has 1.79. You probably won't find too many babies dying because of eating red meat, drinking Pepsi, getting shot while pedding drugs, or from heart attacks from watching TV all day.
The US has lower life expectancy than 50 other countries, with an expected life at birth of 78.37. In war-town Bosnia and Herzegovina, it's 78.61, in Jordan with all the mid-east terrorists, it's 80.05, in Singapore with all their crime, it's 82.14, and in Monaco, it's 89.73.
I haven't researched all those other countries, but in the UK, the government only sets the salaries for doctors it hires for the National Health Service, just as in the US, the government sets the salaries for doctors it hires for the VA. In both countries, doctors are free to set up practices and charge whatever they can convince patients to pay.
You have to look at cost of living when you compare jobs in two locations. According to their website, general practitioners working for the National Health Service in the UK make
I see no mention in the article of WHAT the $500 Billion in cuts are in Medicare.
They are cutting out the SUBSIDY for PRIVATE INSURANCE- all of those affected can still get full medicare coverage.
No need to read the whole article- when it starts by telling a lie!
"Andrew J Says:
June 12th, 2011 at 11:29 am
if he needs to earn $24,000 to pay his wife
You Christians rail against "thou shall not kill" fetuses but pooh, pooh love thy neighbor as you would love yourself.
AJ
Tim, no employer with decent health insurance will hire Littlejohn, because his wife's health care costs make him ten times as expensive as hiring any other candidate for a given job.
And doctors won't accept payment in slightly used Big Macs.
In order to provide care for his wife, he needs to turn to a life of crime. Robbing people at ATMs wll pay for $100 worth of recreational drugs, but to pay for a $100,000 hospital stay, you can't expect to rob 1,000 ATM users without getting caught. What you need is a big-bucks crime.
Real estate is a good field for big-bucks crime. Don't you know real estate, Tim? Should he package fraudulent mortgages, or is an old fashioned scam like Like Diane a better bet?
Every position that I have interviewed for has never asked, questioned or researched my family members healthcare. I on the other hand have had pre employment physicals. I believe the notion that LittleJohn cannot get a job because of his wifes medications a red herring. How does an prospective employer learn of his wifes illeness and costs associated with them?
In addition, companies must higher second parties to manage healthinsurance and are not informed which employees cost the most or share health information with the company.
There must be something else we do not know.
Bottom line is we are born with the right to seek our own potential. What we are dealt in life is another thing. We may be born with a gene that provides long life and others born with poor health due to a number of things (mom drank, smoked, drugs, ate poorly during her expectancy).
The US has lower abortion rates, which means we end up with most likely a higher percentage of unhealthy babies at birth. We also have far more care given to premies than any other country.
Potential employers run credit checks on employees these days.
If you're operating a small business - which accounts for most new jobs - your health insurance is individually underwritten. In order to deduct the costs of the plan from your taxes, you have to cover all employees in a class, and you can better believe that if adding the family of employee #11 doubles your health insurance costs for the first 10, the boss will know about it LONG before the 30 day probationary period is up.
The US actually has a HIGHER (although it's slight) abortion rate than the UK.
Once again a swing and a miss Harl! No employer can ask about his wifes health, it's against the law. Nice try though.
Strike 2: Your example of needing to turn to a life of crime for a $100k hospital stay (while humorous) is completely irrelevant as well. His dilemma is one of $2000 a month maintenance medications, which, while expensive I would submit is certainly (in LittleJohns' case) "do-able" with a $500 a week job. Probably a moot point anyway because no matter whose side wins the health care debate, both democrats and repubs agree on the "no pre-existing" conditions disqualifier.
Strike 3: "Real estate is a good field for big-bucks crime." Not for an agent it isn't, all we get is a percentage for bringing buyer and seller together . What's your beef with real estate agents? We don't package up bad mortgages and sell them, investment bankers do. We don't make loans to people who can't repay them, your government does.
Every single residential real estate transaction is completely controlled and regulated by a host of cross referencing federal, state, city, county, and township agencies. An agent couldn't screw anybody if he wanted to.
I appreciate your posts and even your blog once in a while, as sometimes you have some interesting stories to share, I'm just always a little taken aback by your propensity to label me a crook all the time. Did I take advantage of you in a previous life or something?
They don't have to ask you about your wife. They ask you to sign an statement allowing them to investigate you, including your credit history. And as I said, when your health insurance costs double for adding one employee, you decide to eliminate the employee during the probationary period.
In order for someone to earn an extra $24,000 in take-home pay by taking on a second job, the job has to gross $35,000 to $40,000 annually. That's pretty unusual. There are a lot of people out there that are trying hard to make that in their primary job.
If what you say about real estate is true, how do you explain
Floren Klopfenstein? He didn't package up bad mortgages. What he did was to misrepresent the real estate he was selling. He told them they could build at Lake Diane, but they couldn't get building permits because there weren't acceptable sewers, and once they were able to get building permits, instead of a tony private lake, it had turned into just another public access lake. That's why people remember his name and the name of American Wonderland Corporation decades later, because he screwed so many people, and screwed them so badly.
I know of no illegalities you've engaged in, Tim, but your comments are awfully niggardly. Instead of "all for one, and one for all", you believe the government should operate on the basis of "all for Tim and Tim for Tim".