Is this a good reason to pass the healthcare reform bill?

[Sasquatch]

I believe I like this post-sabbatical nono. 

In your one paragraph you threw holy water on AND showed the cross to the Obamacare proponents, while tantalizing them with your garlic necklace. I give you an A. 

[LTC]

On the other hand NC, I'd take my US doctors over government paid doctors from the countries that are listed in your signature.  Bottom line is this:  I want US doctors to be filthy rich.  I want the medical profession to be an extremely rewarding occupation.  The reason is that, if the gubment will stay out of it, the best, smartest and most qualified candidates should claw their way to the top and become doctors.  This is, of course, assuming that medical schools actually maintain meritorious and ethical academics and admissions (but that is a concern with or without gubment involvment).  Sometimes people don't consider that there are genius good doctors and there are dumba$$ bad doctors.  I want to get the most genius good doctors out there working in our healthcare.  I also am of the opinion that the more that gubment takes over healthcare, the less incentive there will be to draw genius good doctors into the system.  Why go into the medical profession for lower pay and hassle from the gubment?  There are easier ways to make money.  And the genius's will find a way elsewhere.

Sarcasm, anyone?  The only reason anyone becomes a doctor is to become rich.......

[Shimmy]

No seriously.  What have you done with the real professor nono?

[Flummoxed Lummox]

NC - I'm hearin' yah but I really have my own to take care of.  All of those folks are just going to have to find a way - I don't know how or who can help, but perhaps there is a way.  The gubment just can't keep printing money and paying bills without repercussion.  Question:  should the baby boomer generation pass on its bills to boomer children and grandchildren?  Is there another way?

So, people who make, say, $25,000 per year (with little or no benefits) are just "going to have to find a way." If they get sick and need hospitalization their $10,000 medical bill should be no problem for them, huh? And all those people with no insurance should be able to "just find a way" (whatever that means)? I guess they should just suck it up and get a second or third job so they can pay on that medical treatment that lasted a week for the next 10 years?  And then they had better hope they don´t need follow up treatment. Then they might need a fourth job.

Dear Buddha, your post is a microcosm of the failed and out of touch mentality inherent in the conservative movement. Delusional and completely devoid of the reality that is happening ... not to mention extremely callous.

[Sasquatch]

I love how the libs try to frame this in such overly simplistic ways and then assume that the dem's plan is the end all to this view.  

If only the current healthcare reform legislation was actually about lowering costs, increasing competition, and covering those in need. I think this is what most people would like to see happen. Instead most Americans see this for what it is: a political power grab that seeks to control another area of people's lives while lining the politicians and their special interest's pockets with money.

Then they might need a fourth job.

I think a lot of people would be happy to get just one job. This is what I thought Obama was going to focus on.  

It will be interesting to see what happens to the employment rate when/if Obamacare gets passed. Especially if it forces employers to cover part-time employees. Also, how many employers will pay the fine instead of offering Obamacare? I think the current proposal makes it more beneficial to pay the fine.

A lot of employers are waiting to hire until they see how penal proposed legislation is to their bottom line. Especially since Pelosi said "we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it".

[LTC]

March 11, 2010

Dear Mr. President, Congressmen and Congresswomen,

America has higher per-capita medical spending than any other industrial democracy. Health
care spending, now $2.6 trillion, is projected to reach $4.5 trillion by 2019. Without effective
reform of the way we pay for health care, growth of health care spending will create
unsustainable fiscal burdens, eat into cash compensation, perpetuate waste, and undermine the
prospects for universal access to needed care.

The health care reforms passed by the House and Senate – with recent modifications proposed by
President Obama – include serious measures that will slow the growth of health care spending.
Putting the brakes on health care spending will take multiple measures, and we must start now.
Democratic and Republican experts have proposed many different approaches to “bending the
cost curve.” The President's proposal incorporates a long list of measures that will control rising
costs and reinforce each other:

• Form insurance exchanges to curb underwriting and inefficient marketing practices that raise
costs in the small-group and individual markets.
• Reduce Medicare overpayments, including those to Medicare Advantage plans.
• Move Medicare to value-based payment. Experts across the political spectrum have called for
moving away from fee-for-volume payments to fee-for-value payments. The President’s
proposal includes virtually every idea offered to do this.
• Tax highly generous insurance plans. Health insurance benefits are excluded from income
taxation. Many economists have proposed capping the tax exclusion to reduce over-insurance
and to raise revenue. The President's proposal taxes some of the most generous policies,
though it has deferred the date by which these taxes take effect.
• Empower an Independent Medicare Advisory Board. Interest-group politics intrudes too
deeply within the mechanics of Medicare policy, raising program costs and hindering efforts
to improve care. Despite powerful opposition, the President proposes this independent board
and a process for fast-tracking such recommendations through Congress.
• Make greater use of comparative effective research. Less than one percent of the $2.6 trillion
America now spends on health care is devoted to rigorous research to determine whether this
money is being spent efficiently or well. The President's proposal includes major research
investments to support quality improvement and cost-control efforts.
• Combat Medicare fraud and abuse. The Administration has started an active task force to
combat these problems. Other ideas to reduce fraud and abuse were presented at the recent
health care summit, and were incorporated in the President’s proposal.
• Reform malpractice policies. Defensive medicine is a small but real driver of medical
spending. The President's proposal encourages states to experiment with alternative
mechanisms to reduce malpractice burdens while reducing medical injuries and errors. More
could be done, but this represents progress on a contentious issue.
• Implement HIT. Health information technologies can markedly improve the quality and
economy of medical care. Last year's stimulus bill provided substantial funds for HIT, and
the President's proposal builds on these efforts.
• Improve preventive care. The President's proposal includes significant public health
investments. It provides new incentives for physicians to provide preventive and chronic
care. It opens Medicare to finding new ways of doing so. It includes improved tertiary
prevention efforts such as improved medical management of heart failure patients to prevent
costly hospital readmissions. The ability of preventive care to slow overall medical cost
growth remains unproved. The ability of such measures to save lives and improve health is
well-established.

Taken together, these measures are a serious, multi-faceted initiative to improve the quality and
efficiency of American medical care, rein in the fastest growing portion of government and
private budgets and provide a valuable platform for future cost-control efforts. If this nation is
committed to cost containment and deficit reduction we must pass health care reform. If this
legislation fails, the chances of reducing the growth of health care spending in the future will be
greatly reduced.

Authors
Henry J. Aaron, Bruce and Virginia MacLaury Senior Fellow, the Brookings Institution
David Cutler, Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics, Harvard University
Alice M. Rivlin, Senior Fellow, Economic Studies Director, Greater Washington Research, the
Brookings Institution

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/pressroom/2010/03/av/hcletter.pdf

[LTC]

Signatories
Kenneth J. Arrow, Nobel Laureate, Joan Kenney Professor of Economics and Professor of
Operations Research Emeritus, Stanford University
Stuart Altman, Sol C. Chaikin Professor of National Health Policy, Heller School For Social
Policy and Management, Brandeis University
Susan Athey, John Bates Clark Medal winner, Professor of Economics, Harvard University
Alan S. Blinder, Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics, Princeton University
Linda J. Blumberg, Senior Fellow, the Urban Institute Health Policy Center
Thomas Buchmueller, Waldo O. Hildebrand Professor of Risk Management and Insurance,
Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy, Ross School of Business, University of
Michigan
Leonard Burman, Daniel Patrick Moynihan Professor of Public Affairs at the Maxwell School,
Syracuse University
Gary Burtless, Senior Fellow of Economic Studies and the John C. and Nancy D. Whitehead
Chair, the Brookings Institution
Anne Case, Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Princeton
University
Peter Diamond, Institute Professor and Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
Randall P. Ellis, Professor and Associate Chair, Department of Economics, Boston University,
President-Elect, American Society of Health Economists
Alan Garber, Henry J. Kaiser Jr. Professor, Professor of Medicine, Professor of Economics,
Health Research and Policy, Professor of Economics, Stanford University
Dana P. Goldman, Norman Topping Chair in Medicine and Public Policy, University of
Southern California, Director, Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics
Jonathan Gruber, Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Director,
National Bureau of Economic Research’s Program on Health Care
Richard Hirth, Professor of Health Management and Policy, Director, Health Services
Organization and Policy Doctoral Program, School of Public Health, University of Michigan
John Holahan, Director, the Urban Institute Health Policy Center
Jill Horwitz, Louis and Myrtle Moskowitz Research Professor of Business and Law, University
of Michigan Law School
William Hsiao, K.T. Li Professor of Economics, Department of Health Policy and Management,
Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard University
Theodore J. Joyce, Professor of Economics and Finance, Baruch College, City University of
New York and Academic Director, Baruch/Mt Sinai MBA in Health Care Administration
Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Laureate, Senior Scholar, Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology
Emeritus, Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs Emeritus, Woodrow Wilson School of
Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
Lawrence Katz, Elisabeth Allison Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Harvard
University
Adriana Lleras-Muney, Associate Professor with Tenure, Department of Economics, University
of California Los Angeles
Harold S. Luft, Caldwell B. Esselstyn Professor Emeritus of Health Economics and Health
Policy, School of Medicine, University of California San Francisco; Director, Palo Alto Medical
Foundation Research Institute
Willard G. Manning, Professor, Harris School and the Department of Health Studies, University
of Chicago
Eric S. Maskin, Nobel Laureate, A.O. Hirschman Professor of Social Science, Institute for
Advanced Study, Princeton University
Len M. Nichols, Director, Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics; Professor of Health
Policy, George Mason University
Harold Pollack, Helen Ross Professor, School of Social Service Administration, Faculty Chair,
Center for Health Administration Studies, University of Chicago
Daniel Polsky, Professor of Medicine and Health Care Management, University of Pennsylvania;
former Senior Economist at Council of Economic Advisers, 2007-08
Meredith B. Rosenthal, Associate Professor of Health Economics and Policy,
Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health
Stephen M. Shortell, Blue Cross of California Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and
Management, Dean, School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley
Jonathan Skinner, John Sloan Dickey Third Century Professor in Economics, Professor of
Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth College
Matthew D. Shapiro, Lawrence R. Klein Collegiate Professor of Economics, Department of
Economics, University of Michigan
Katherine Swartz, Professor of Health Policy and Economics, Harvard School of Public Health,
President, Immediate Past President, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management
Richard H. Thaler, Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Economics,
Booth School of Business, University of Chicago
Kenneth Thorpe, Robert W. Woodruff Professor and Chair, Department of Health Policy and
Management, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University
Laura Tyson, S.K. and Angela Chan Professor of Global Management, Professor of Business
Administration and Economics, Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley;
former Chairman of the National Economic Council, 1995-1996; former Chairman of the
Council of Economic Advisers, 1993-1995
Paul N. Van de Water, Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Richard Zeckhauser, Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Political Economy, John F. Kennedy School
of Government, Harvard University

[Sasquatch]

I wonder how people can comment on Obamacare when, as Pelosi says, "we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it"?



I also wonder if Obama's cousin, Dr. Milton R. Wolf, will be invited to any future family events?

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/11/obama-family-health-care-fracas/

[ben stein fan]

The "intellectual" elites also supported Hitler, the Communist in Russia, Mao, they support Chevez, and don't forget their favorite of all time Castro.

Having been subjugated to seven years of higher education it doesn't sunrise me that the majority on the list are academic theorist..who refuse to live in the real world and hold themselves up in the ivory tower.

BTW...remember some of our greatest murderers and thugs have won a nobel prize or two

[Flummoxed Lummox]

The "intellectual" elites also supported Hitler, the Communist in Russia, Mao, they support Chevez, and don't forget their favorite of all time Castro.

Having been subjugated to seven years of higher education it doesn't sunrise me that the majority on the list are academic theorist..who refuse to live in the real world and hold themselves up in the ivory tower.

BTW...remember some of our greatest murderers and thugs have won a nobel prize or two

  Oh dear Buddha.  

The "anti-intellectuals" also supported the American backed coup d'etat in Chile to supplant a freely elected President with a military dictatorship; they supported a preemptive invasion in Iraq to oust a dictator who posed no threat to the United States; they continue to support Israel despite its human rights abuses against Palestinians; they supported the illegal funding of arms to Iran (whom they know vilify) to support terrorists in Nicaragua; they funded the same terrorists in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets that we now call our enemies; and so on and so on.

Having been subjugated to little or no higher education it doesn't surprise me that the majority of the foreign policy ignoramuses are the BSF types..who refuse to live in the real world and hold themselves up.

BTW...remember some of our greatest murderers and thugs have had the backing of the conservatives in the United States.

[plumbervol]

This entire fight comes down to the Insurance lobbyist vs everybody else. Obama caved and kissed their but they want it all. The AMA backs the bill but the Hopital and Medical Association Administration lobby opposes it.  It is the old capital vs Labor agenda, Republicans hate working people plain and simple.

[LTC]

Republicans hate working people plain and simple.

Oh so true!