Expanded Government — and No More Tonsil Theft?
Every single desire and concern of the American people is met by Obama's miraculous proposal.
In his televised press conference on Wednesday evening, President Obama said three separate times that he was being “honest” with the American people.
So we know he was telling the truth.
Therefore, we know that we can take the president at his word when he said:
If you already have health insurance, the reform we’re proposing will provide you with more security and more stability … will prevent insurance companies from dropping your coverage if you get too sick … will limit the amount your insurance company can force you to pay for your medical costs out of your own pocket … will cover preventative care.
And — the truly amazing part — all while we “will keep government out of health care decisions.”
Even the president’s most steadfast critics must admit that’s a lot to accomplish by law without getting the government involved.
What if we don’t enact the president’s proposals? Well, in that event:
we will not be able to control our deficit … [and] your premiums and out-of-pocket costs will continue to skyrocket.
Quite frankly, that option doesn’t sound nearly as good. In the end, a more than $1 trillion expansion of government-run health care that “lowers cost and promotes choice” is not something you see everyday. We would be foolish to turn our back on such a historical novelty.
When the teleprompter was turned off and the president began to field questions, he spoke even more forthrightly. He spoke directly about the pressing health care concerns of people across the country, like their worry that when they take their kid into the doctor’s office for allergies, the doctor will seize the chance to make higher profits by taking the kid’s tonsils.
Here’s the president, in his own words:
Right now, doctors, a lot of times, are forced to make decisions based on the fee payment schedule that’s out there. So if they’re looking and — and you come in and you’ve got a bad sore throat, or your child has a bad sore throat, or has repeated sore throats, the doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, “You know what? I make a lot more money if I take this kid’s tonsils out.”
Now, that may be the right thing to do. But I’d rather have that doctor making those decisions just based on whether you really need your kid’s tonsils out or whether it might make more sense just to change — maybe they have allergies. Maybe they have something else that would make a difference.
Critics might reply that the most senseless, poorly coordinated fee-schedules for doctors — the ones that promote the most waste, abuse, and outright fraud — are those used by the federal government. Medicare and Medicaid are notorious for poorly coordinated care and for encouraging fraud and abuse. But the president’s plan deals with these shortcomings of Medicare and Medicaid — by expanding Medicaid and launching a brand-new Medicare-like “public option.”
Never before have we had a president who was so comfortable putting himself in doctors’ shoes and dispensing medical advice, and it’s about time we had someone in the White House who was qualified to offer such guidance. Here is what the president said last month when addressing a roomful of doctors at the American Medical Association:
A recent study, for example, found that only half of all cardiac guidelines are based on scientific evidence — half. That means doctors may be doing a bypass operation when placing a stent is equally effective; or placing a stent when adjusting a patient’s drug and medical management is equally effective — all of which drives up costs without improving a patient’s health.
So one thing we need to do is to figure out what works, and encourage rapid implementation of what works into your practices.
Remember, however, that this will only be done in such a way that “will keep government out of health care decisions.”
So, in all, the president’s plan is water-tight. It will heavily regulate private insurers without involving government. It will cost over a trillion dollars while cutting costs. It will help our economic recovery while raising taxes on small businesses and job-creators. It will promote choice while capping the percentage of care that consumers can choose to pay directly to their doctors rather than through a middleman (an insurer or the government). It will lower our deficits while the Congressional Budget Office says that it will increase them by hundreds of billions of dollars.
And if that weren’t enough, it will stop doctors from reaping windfall profits through unprincipled tonsil-theft.
The author, the director of the Benjamin Rush Society, was the senior speechwriter for Secretary Mike Leavitt at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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52 Comments
1. "progressive"watch:It is after staetments like these that you would like to see President Crisis’ grades. It would seem he failed Econ 101,American and western history,logic,and elementary math,as well as ethics.
Jul 24, 2009 - 1:06 pm 2. Steve:This is nothing more than Obama’s latest attempt to subjugate the American people under his communist vision.
His comments in the “Gates” episode only help to confirm that he is a racist.
I will NOT give any allegience to this country until all INSTITUTIONALIZED racial discrimanation against all WHITE working and middle class people is abolished.
No more discrimination against whites by UNIONS, academia, government or corporate America. This isn’t 1950. Blacks in power have taught hatred against white people for 40 years. Virtually all discrimination in America is against white people.
White working and middle class are going to have to fight back. Screw the “rich” and “elite” whites”. They could care less about the backbone of this country.
We don’t need the “black” vote. If they can’t see the benefits of living in our free Western civilized world that white created then they can take a hike. 97% of them can’t.
All we have to do is get 60% of the white vote with a race neutral platform that will attrack white union voters along with all middle class white people by giving them their 14th amendment rights back. We can attrack hard working Hispanics and Asians with the same principals of the rewards of hard work and fairness under our disregarded Constitution.
If we don’t stop this evil, then we must secede wherever we can.
Jul 24, 2009 - 1:17 pm 3. Clayton E. Cramer:I guess that I would be a bit more impressed with his claims except that it appears that Medicaid’s unwillingness to pay even 1/3 the cost of a colonoscopy may be the reason that poor and black Americans aren’t enjoying the reduction in colon cancer deaths that the rest of us. The difference between what Medicaid pays, and what these procedures cost, means that a poor person can’t afford to have it done–and colonoscopy is a clear win for reducing colon cancer.
Jul 24, 2009 - 1:24 pm 4. Meryl:The juvenile level of his assumptions and assertions is so embarrassing.
He’s the mouthy 13 year old at a dinner table that needs to shut up until he grows up.
Jul 24, 2009 - 1:37 pm 5. Frank:This is good and SO appropriate:
From Meryl: He’s the mouthy 13 year old at a dinner table who needs to shut up until he grows up.
Jul 24, 2009 - 1:52 pm 6. john from cinncinatti:penney wise and dollar foolish. i bought it on special i spent 3 trillion but i saved you 10 billion. thanks honey i can sleep better tonight, knowing you saved me 10 billion.
Jul 24, 2009 - 2:12 pm 7. billslayer:Elephantitis of the state will not cure colon cancer.
Jul 24, 2009 - 2:20 pm 8. Bear:I’ll say it again…he’s the ultimate snake oil salesman…finally people are seeing that he knows nothing about what he’s selling.
Jul 24, 2009 - 2:28 pm 9. fear obama:Our real President will ream this bill through.
Jul 24, 2009 - 2:28 pm 10. AThinkingPerson:Considering Obama’s health care press conference the other night garnered his lowest TV ratings to date, I’m thinking the American public has heard enough BS from Obama.
Can’t blame them, it does get tiresome watching him talk out of both sides of his mouth.
Jul 24, 2009 - 2:29 pm 11. billslayer:Eventually every tent revival con man gets discovered and has to pull up stakes and set the carnival up elsewhere…
Jul 24, 2009 - 2:49 pm 12. The UnPatriot:7. billslayer says it well.
Jul 24, 2009 - 2:53 pm 13. Stewie Griffin:Well said, Meryl!
Jul 24, 2009 - 3:07 pm 14. don:Yeah, it’s not an aging population getting larger and living longer, or the additional costs of medical advancements in science and technology–paradoxically improving the quality of life and productivity as well as longevity–but the so called health care crisis is caused by the abuse and over use by little girls milking greedy fee for service doctors. Never mentioned are the U.S. subsidized socialist Canadians getting a discount on costly U.S. medications while U.S. citizens pay the full cost for their research and development, for profit R&D without which those medicines would never have been discovered in the first place for the benefit of Canada’s single payer non-profit system. And, of course, the so called health care cost crisis has nothing to do with rich tort lawyers, a class of parasites that just helped Wall Street lay an egg, and are promising to bring better health care at reduced costs using the California single payer DMV model. Ouch. Don’t bend over.
Jul 24, 2009 - 3:25 pm 15. Professor Guvinoff:From one TV appearance to the next, the smooth talker gradually evolves into helicopter Mom, and pretty soon, if the trend continues, we will be treated to some finger-wagging admonition. He has not alienated the whole electorate, yet, only the cops and the throat doctors. Thanks for the down-payment. The last installment probably comes by the end of the year, and sooner if God forbids some disaster strikes in the meantime.
Jul 24, 2009 - 4:05 pm 16. Melissa:What about the misinformation being espoused by folks like Rep. Foxx stating “EVERY American HAS healthcare”?
The correct statement would be “Every American has ACCESS to healthcare”.
No one disputes that BUT that’s not what’s being debated.
I hate folks who twist the topics to fit their answer…it shows me they have no answers and probably don’t comprehend the gravity of how folks using ER’s for “healthcare” impacts EVERYONE financially.
This is so not about Obama…it’s about us poor people who are drowning in debt over healthcare costs.
Jul 24, 2009 - 4:17 pm 17. Rashputin:His medical degree must be another of those things he has all locked up like his MBA and other feats of incredable accomplishment that prove to the great unwashed masses that he knows more than they do; more than their doctors, more that those who manage insurance or HMO companies, more than bankser, more than auto company executives (although in the case of GM, it wouldn’t be tough show them up), and last but not least, more than the Pope himself.
Regards
Jul 24, 2009 - 4:23 pm 18. Samizdat:Bear at # 8,
The President is begining to remind me of the salesman in “The Outlaw Josie Wales”. The public is begining to ask him “How’s it on stains?” as it expectorates on the Dem Congress’ half baked and feckless proposals to socialize medicine.
The disconect between what truly ails the nation and what the President is advocating is remarkable in that Obama seems blind to how his coverage promises and costs can not possibly ever match up. If we are submited to the liberals notions of what our healthcare should be our deficit and the national debt will spiral to a point where recovery without default will be impossible. How do you think China and our other creditors are going to react to that? How would you like to see the dollar at 1/2 its value of today in a few years? Someone previously made the point that Obama didn’t learn econ 101. That is exactly right. I also sense he is willing to be pernicious to get his way. “How’s it on stains?” The public is begining to wake up.
Jul 24, 2009 - 4:52 pm 19. Jshub:The chief reason that Obama and Pelosi are pushing for a health care “reform” bill before recess is to establish a “beach head.” They will promise us anything; that universal care will cost nothing, that everyone keeps their own doctor, that there will be no rationing and that your kids IQ will automaticaaly go up 15 points. The point is to establish the framework of a “National Health Commission” or whatnot that can then be incrementally expanded. Once the “system” is in place it is there to stay and they can then proceed to ration treatment, penalize private insurers, assign doctors and approve only those procedures that are “cost effective.” They can feel the air going out of the balloon and there will be enormous pressure on the Dem congress to pass any sort of “reform” bill regardless of how ludicrous it might be.
Jul 24, 2009 - 5:01 pm 20. Samizdat:Melisa,
The answer is not in ruining everyone elses health care so that the less fortunate can have a lousy health care system. You know why the President and Congress are having a hard time constructing this scheme? It’s because health care is complex and personal and screwing it up has cataclysmic consequences to individuals.
The market benefits the overwhelming majority of us who are satisfied with our care. I am willing to consider intelligent regulation of the market and support some reform, examples would be increased portability and no denial for preexisting conditions. I would also support decoupleing health care from employment and creating a large tax credit for families or individuals who carry insurance. Incentives? Yes. Compulsion? No. Costs will be checked when there is less government in health care, not more. It is true in every other industry and can apply to health care as well.
Jul 24, 2009 - 5:08 pm 21. Sebastian Shaw:President Obama tries to be everything to everyone; however, this is impossible promises to keep. Therefore, he’s really nothing to no one–save himself & his own need for personal power. President Obama makes himself look weak & foolish since he is still in campaign mode, although he won the Office of the President of the United States. Campaigning & governing are two different things, yet Obama cannot govern since he cannot lead. All he can do is campaign with empty slogans.
I like watching Obama fall to pieces. He is clueless why the magic has died. He’s desperate. Watch the facade shatter in the coming weeks…
Jul 24, 2009 - 5:51 pm 22. blotto:On another post, I said what would demonstrate to me that Congress and the WH thought the public option was good: If the WH, Congress, Senate, all federal and state bureaucracies, all MSM, all college administrators and professors, all the progressive millionaires and billionaires, all the progressive 527s, and internet sites owners, and all unions gave up their private insurance for the public one, I’d agree to it. Simple
Jul 24, 2009 - 6:26 pm 23. WR Jonas:Sebastian hits it out of the park.The man is totally useless as a leader. Leaders inspire others around them . Usually by principle , sometime by example , in rare instances by courage and the most treasured ,by inspiration.
Jul 24, 2009 - 7:20 pm 24. Strawman:A leader never uses his authority to insist his view is the only way . He persuades and brings others to understand his opinion is the right solution.
Obama is incapable of demonstrating any of these behaviors. His narcissism is so colossal his ego is at war with reality every waking moment.
Oh no. Iowahawk just set a new record for chutzpah:
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2009/07/you-stay-here-while-i-swim-and-get-us-some-universal-health-care.html
Jul 24, 2009 - 8:09 pm 25. GregGS:Public health care will be created for the same reason public housing was created, to divide up the “undesirables” and let them go down the tubes for the least amount of money invested, ( I mean really to do the right thing and educate “properly” the millions of uneducated and uncouth is difficult, so take the easy way out.) This time it’s the aged and the poor…(uncouth). The elites believe the lie that the earth cannot sustain a high population and it must be managed. But as usual the left through abortion(think Ruth B. Ginsburg), the acceptance and education of homosexuality and other sexually Un-procreating lifestyles, not to mention the secularization of society, have only succeeded in depopulating the 1st world societies.
The earth can sustain at least 35 billion under a free Individual society were the free market is able to fail or succeed on an individual and free association system of competitive industry’s looking to create the best product for an agreeable price.
Jul 24, 2009 - 8:16 pm 26. Melissa:and no every body will will not have equal care and live in wonderful 4000 ft houses
and eat at the best resteraunts, that’s because we are all created equal, (that refers to our good given rights) but once we are are slapped on the butt all bets are off and the world will do what it want to us until we as individual take on the problems, with no guarantees
of positive results. It’s our kin, our church and mainly ourselves that come into play to keep the majority of society civilized, and remember it’s not a failure of freedom, or a society that everyone lives in the top 10% wage earning bracket. What makes a marxist society so popular is the uneducated masses (I include a large % of degreed individuals in this group) are usually happy when everyone lives in the bottom 10% bracket and are told that they have risen to the 10% bracket. There’s a sucker born everyday.
GregGS
Jul 24, 2009 - 10:31 pm 27. jacksmith:Wow, I sure wish I was intelligent enough to follow your train of thought. Perhaps if I drank a bottle of Scotch it would make sense…alas I don’t drink.
LEAD, FOLLOW, OR GET OUT OF THE WAY. (Thomas Paine)
We have the 37th worst quality of healthcare in the developed world. Conservative estimates are that over 120,000 of you dies each year in America from treatable illness that people in other developed countries don’t die from. Rich, middle class, and poor a like. Insured and uninsured. Men, women, children, and babies. This is what being 37th in quality of healthcare means.
I know that many of you are angry and frustrated that REPUBLICANS! In congress are dragging their feet and trying to block TRUE healthcare reform. What republicans want is just a taxpayer bailout of the DISGRACEFUL GREED DRIVEN PRIVATE FOR PROFIT health insurance industry, and the DISGRACEFUL GREED DRIVEN PRIVATE FOR PROFIT healthcare industry. An insurance bailout is all you really get without a robust government-run public option available on day one.
These industries have been slaughtering you and your loved ones like cattle for decades for profit. Including members of congress and their families. These REPUBLICANS are FOOLS!
Republicans and their traitorous allies have been trying to make it look like it’s President Obama’s fault for the delays, and foot dragging. But I think you all know better than that. President Obama inherited one of the worst government catastrophes in American history from these REPUBLICANS! And President Obama has done a brilliant job of turning things around, and working his heart out for all of us.
But Republicans think you are just a bunch of stupid, idiot, cash cows with short memories. Just like they did under the Bush administration when they helped Bush and Cheney rape America and the rest of the World.
But you don’t have to put up with that. And this is what you can do. The Republicans below will be up for reelection on November 2, 2010. Just a little over 13 months from now. And many of you will be able to vote early. So pick some names and tell their voters that their representatives (by name) are obstructing TRUE healthcare reform. And are sellouts to the insurance and medical lobbyist.
Ask them to contact their representatives and tell them that they are going to work to throw them out of office on November 2, 2010, if not before by impeachment, or recall elections. Doing this will give you something more to do to make things better in America. And it will help you feel better too.
There are many resources on the internet that can help you find people to call and contact. For example, many social networking sites can be searched by state, city, or University. Be inventive and creative. I can think of many ways to do this. But be nice. These are your neighbors. And most will want to help.
I know there are a few democrats that have been trying to obstruct TRUE healthcare reform too. But the main problem is the Bush Republicans. Removing them is the best thing tactically to do. On the other hand. If you can easily replace a democrat obstructionist with a supportive democrat, DO IT!
You have been AMAZING!!! my people. Don’t loose heart. You knew it wasn’t going to be easy saving the World.
God Bless You
jacksmith — Working Class
Republican Senators up for re-election in 2010.
* Richard Shelby of Alabama
Jul 24, 2009 - 11:48 pm 28. Sissy G:* Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
* John McCain of Arizona
* Mel Martinez of Florida
* Johnny Isakson of Georgia
* Mike Crapo of Idaho
* Chuck Grassley of Iowa
* Sam Brownback of Kansas
* Jim Bunning of Kentucky
* David Vitter of Louisiana
* Kit Bond of Missouri
* Judd Gregg of New Hampshire
* Richard Burr of North Carolina
* George Voinovich of Ohio
* Tom Coburn of Oklahoma
* Jim DeMint of South Carolina
* John Thune of South Dakota
* Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas
* Bob Bennett of Utah
jacksmith – Working Class
Jul 25, 2009 - 2:19 am 29. Emma:Kay Bailey’s not running for re-election she’s taking on crazy Rick Perry in the Texas Governors race..you go girl…so that may be a surprise vote that falls the right way.
You can tell there are many who realize the truth about the US health care system and that it IS at the breaking point in many places.
It just seems their vote depends on how far their hands are in the health care cookie jar…not a real conviction that any of these plans are bad.
If any of my representatives vote for this bill, I’ll make a point of voting for their opponent. Doesn’t matter which party. It truly baffles me that anyone on earth thinks this plan is a good idea.
And if it does go through, I predict that we’ll have a serious shortage of doctors inside of a generation. Nobody’s going to want to spend all that time and money learning how to treat patients only to be second-guessed by some government hack.
Jul 25, 2009 - 4:26 am 30. Samizdat:Jacksmith at # 27,
The 37 figure you use comes from WHO which, ironicly, employs access, not quality as its measure of health care quality. Our health care is the best in the world. Various surveys show Americans at between 70-82 % happy with their insurance and health care. The world beats a path to our door when health issues arise. No one goes to Cuba for heart valve surgery. There are regulations that I would agree to related to portability and no denial for preexisting conditions. I also think people should be incentivised via tax credits for maintaining coverage. No socialized medicine.
Jul 25, 2009 - 5:19 am 31. kazooskibum:The Democrat Party is a criminal enterprise.
Jul 25, 2009 - 6:17 am 32. reader:This is one of the best, if not the best, satirical commentary on this topic that I have read! I wish that every newspaper across the country would publish it on the editorial page. But that would never happen. . .
Jul 25, 2009 - 7:29 am 33. venividivici:I know that many of you are angry and frustrated that REPUBLICANS! In congress are dragging their feet and trying to block TRUE healthcare reform. What republicans want is just a taxpayer bailout of the DISGRACEFUL GREED DRIVEN PRIVATE FOR PROFIT health insurance industry, and the DISGRACEFUL GREED DRIVEN PRIVATE FOR PROFIT healthcare industry.
I don’t see anything disgraceful about people trying to make a profit off the skills they’ve developed over time. Sounds like you are a parasite with a sense of entitlement with nothing to offer the world.
Jul 25, 2009 - 7:41 am 34. Melissa:#29 Emma
Who do YOU think makes the decisions for your healthcare now…your MD?
He most certainly does NOT.
HIs plan of treatment is based solely on what YOUR policy covers NOT necessarily what he after 20/30/40 YEARS of education and experience sees as the solution..
If he believes in all his wisdom and experience that YOU can be cured by procedure A followed by medicine B and YOUR provider doesn’t cover procedure A and /or medication B…he scoots to PLAN C…whatever the insurers WILL cover PERIOD. Just ask him… I promise you he will be very honest with you about how his healing hands are tied.
The person making the decision for YOUR healthcare in all likely hood is a risk management professional…and he has NO medical degree as he’s a bean counter and he weighs YOUR treatment against a profit and loss sheet. His department is usually assisted by an RN who helps them with the medical jargon.
He’s thinking… Hhhmmm let’s see what’s the % of recovery for XYZ….only 15% ,well well then we need to pull back and start denying because the sooner this person goes the less it affects my bottom line.
I have a friend who quit the healthcare ins. industry because HE not the MD was making life and death calls and his conscience could not take it. Ironically some in the profession brag about their “management” skills… to the detriment of life.
I won’t presume that the government’s plan will be better or worse at this point it’s not concrete enough to judge BUT the fact is
IF YOU HAVE ANY TYPE HEALTHCARE/INSURANCE… YOU ARE ALREADY BEING RATIONED BY YOUR PROVIDER.
Jul 25, 2009 - 10:46 am 35. venividivici:#34
That entire screed is actually more of an argument against third-party payor systems than in favor of government intervention.
Also, if people were allowed to contribute to HSAs, then they could pay for whatever procedures were necessary because there would be no “plan” per se, it would simply be a pool of money owned by an individual, who could then choose which procedure best fit his health needs, in consultation with his doctor.
Finally, employers who get complaints from their employees have the option of switching group health plan providers to better align the coverage with their workers’ needs, unlike a “one size fits all” plan that would be administered by the government.
All of the flaws you point out about current private insurance definitely would get worse under a government plan, since at least the private plans have to consider “customer satisfaction” or else the employer switches providers, so saying “it’s not concrete enough to judge” is just whistling past the graveyard or being disingenuous.
Jul 25, 2009 - 11:16 am 36. Moogie:Lawyers. They determine costs, not health insurance companies.
This bill has NO tort reform of any kind in it. None. Zip. Zilch.
This bill is being written by … wait for it … …
… … Lawyers.
So quit bitching about greedy insurance companies (as if demanding a share of MY money to pay for your health insurance isn’t greedy) and go after the damned ambulance chasing lawyers.
Jul 25, 2009 - 12:22 pm 37. Ceecee:Obama is such an i-d-i-o-t!! He is arrogant, egotistical and either a downright liar or completely clueless. Which is it?
Well, seeing as he’s hell-bent on taking over this nation… how he think he is the only one who has the answers to creating utopia in the U.S…. how he lectures us on racism and spending, fires CEO’s, and on and on… I tend to think he’s more evil than dumb. Maybe not evil. But he’s shrewd, manipulative, deceitful, and on a huge power-trip.
If this bill passes… I will be beside myself!! HIs legacy will be known as the President who came in like a whirlwind, created tons of czars, and brought down this nation with his stupid socialistic agendas and his obsessed media who thought he could do no wrong. If the media would even just question him and report the FACTS, his approval ratings would be way down. The media keeps people blind and dumb to the idiot that is Obama.
Jul 25, 2009 - 2:22 pm 38. Ceecee:Obama’s healthcare is all about control… more and more control by govt. over people’s lives. It also includes buying votes and payback for his constituents… like all the young people who voted for him (many of whom don’t have insurance because they don’t want to pay for it).
He stirs up people’s fears. Everything with him is like a doomsday scenario… if we don’t pass this stimulus package.. if we don’t pass this health care bill… blah, blah.
And all the people who buy his spiel are just plain ignorant and foolish. He’s like a salesman, bound and determined to make the sale, not because he truly cares about you or me, but because he refuses to fail or even worse, to acknowledge that what he’s selling STINKS!!
I’m so afraid he’s gonna get this thing passed. With an adoring media and a Democratic majority, it seems like nothing ever stops him from getting everything he wants. I just hope and pray that he doesn’t get this. My parents are now on Medicare and I fear for them greatly if this Obamacare goes through… and for all of us.
Jul 25, 2009 - 2:28 pm 39. Steve:I think we all know people who think that to get things done the only thing that they have to do is show up and smile. Obambi is one of those guys.
Jul 25, 2009 - 2:37 pm 40. Odysseus:jacksmith, I don’t think so. I’ve seen stats that show cancer victims living longer here than in Europe. The Canadian and UK systems are infamous for making people wait years for treatment.
The problem with health care in the US is **too much** government intervention, not a lack of it. The government passed the law in 1943 that pushed us into employer-provided health care and thus the problem of non-portability. The government also prevents insurance companies from competing across state lines which makes premiums higher and it was the government that started with the fee schedules in Medicare and Medicaid that pushed doctors and hospitals to raise their prices.
Walmart offers generic prescription drugs for $4. They did this to compete. If you want health care to be cheaper and more available, throw open the gates of competition and watch what happens. It won’t cost a trillion dollars, either.
I once saw a bumper sticker that said gun control was not about guns, it was about control. You can consider the Democrats’ plan “health care control.”
Jul 25, 2009 - 3:14 pm 41. Grumpy Old Fart:A little brake. Do you think he needs an oil change in Air Force One? Did he get his gas bill for the month? I furget he gets unlimited free gas and carbon credits too. Lucky so and so.
Grumpy Old Fart
Jul 25, 2009 - 4:06 pm 42. myth buster:headed for the final solution
How many people die in socialized medicine systems because they went undiagnosed? Funny how fatal heart attacks don’t count against Britain’s survival rates when the patient is never admitted to the hospital, but dies in the ambulance instead, never mind how long they had to wait.
Jul 25, 2009 - 4:07 pm 43. proreason:Brilliant piece, Mr. Anderson. Kudos to you.
Jul 25, 2009 - 4:31 pm 44. hansolo:#34 Melissa:
Do you really truly believe doctors order additional and/or unnecessary test just based on insurance coverage so that they ensure they get paid??? Is this why doctors spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in education and sign hippocratic oaths just to play in this scheme?
Any doctor I have ever met, whether it is my own personal MD, or just somebody I know, are committed professionals dedicated to helping people. That is what it takes to spend the dollars on education and the hours put in and the sacrifices made to have the privelege of HIPPOCRATICLLY COMMITTING to help people with their ailments. They care. That is why being a medical professional should pay well, because few people have it in us.
Do you want the answer for WHY they order a series of tests??? It is because it is the LAW…a law developed by people who have no business making them. And if he/she doesn’t order those additional (perhaps unnecessary) tests, then he gets sued. And the $200,000 a year malpractice insurance he is forced to carry does not cover him/her.
Obama’s plan will not have the effect of reducing our coverage and raising costs, it will also have the consequence of deincentivizing any young aspirers to the medical profession. We simply do not have the supply right now of qualified doctors and that supply is about to drop exponentially if this bill gets passed.
Joe in SoCal.
Jul 25, 2009 - 6:38 pm 45. hansolo:Obama’s plan will not “ONLY” have the effect of reducing our coverage and raising costs, it will also have the consequence of deincentivizing any young aspirers to the medical profession. We simply do not have the supply right now of qualified doctors and that supply is about to drop exponentially if this bill gets passed.
Jul 25, 2009 - 6:40 pm 46. Jerry:I went to the hospital last Sunday night (July 19) with a nasty gallbladder attack. I received a CT scan of the abdomen, a HIDA scan, and blood work. The person in the next room came in with what turned out to be a pancreatitis attack. He received similar, if not identical tests. I was covered by private insurance and will wind up paying $300 out-of-pocket for my emergency room admission. The person with pancreatitis had arrived about two days before he visited the emergency room from Quito, Ecuador. He will pay nothing, but the hospital will be reimbursed under some program that already exists for part of the costs, while absorbing the remainder.
I am certain that this ad hoc arrangement is humane and even fair. It has been in place for decades. We cover the uninsured by spreading their incurred costs over everyone else. It works for everyone and does not require fixing. No one dies of acute problems in America for lack of insurance. Emergency rooms become the venues for primary care as well, but that is the way the system has handled the uninsured, again, for decades.
The real cost savings will occur when diseases become curable. Common flu, pandemic influenzas such as swine and avian, auto-immune diseases, and Alzheimer’s dementia, among others are on the verge of being conquered (within 5 years). When Boniva is no longer $120 per pill, the number of hip replacements will go down. Some medical specialties will go out of business. Those are the ways we will lower health care costs, not by rationing.
If everyone knows that statins and a baby aspirin a day represents good medical practice, they can assume the responsibility for their own heart health care with minimal professinal intervention. Aspirin and lovastatin in the form of Red Yeast Rice are available over-the-counter. Side effects as a result of these treatments occur whether one is insured or not.
The internet and diagnostic knowledge bots will aid primary practitioners and laypersons with the ability to shorten diagnostic times and improve accuracy. When chest x-rays are machine-read, when Cisco Telepresence systems enable specialists to interview patients in rural areas without leaving their Manhattan offices, health care will be less expensive without being less available. It is, or should be, scientific and technological innovation that will make health care better without making other things worse.
By the way, my very intelligent wife has pointed out that Senator Edward Kennedy would already be dead under Obama’s bill unless the government began to decide who would live and who would die based upon their productivity. Let’s see! Employed elderly can live, while unemployed elderly should not. Government employees and union members can breath, non-union workers – not.
Jul 25, 2009 - 10:13 pm 47. Gulfport, FL:Our President is a stoner.
Jul 26, 2009 - 1:26 am 48. GregGS:46. Jerry: “By the way, my very intelligent wife…”
Sorry Edward Kennedy would not die under the Obama plan because all the elites of our society will get whatever they want through taxpayer subsidies as they do right now in congress, and if they didn’t they would use their money and political influence under the
Jul 26, 2009 - 10:27 am 49. spindok:“old black market” (actually the free market that our medical system has not seen 100% of since the johnson administration), just as russian elites did under communism.
“Right now, doctors, a lot of times, are forced to make decisions based on the fee payment schedule that’s out there. So if they’re looking and — and you come in and you’ve got a bad sore throat, or your child has a bad sore throat, or has repeated sore throats, the doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, “You know what? I make a lot more money if I take this kid’s tonsils out.”
- and I had at least given Obama credit for being an astute politician. Not too smooth to begin your talk to the one organization you need behind you to get anything done on health care by calling them all butchers for hire who would rather slice open a kids throat than give her some pills just to make a few hundred extra bucks.
“So one thing we need to do is to figure out what works, and encourage rapid implementation of what works into your practices”
Umm, I thought that is what we had been doing for the past few millenia…(walks out of auditorium)
Really what doctors need is another lawyer/politician to tell them these things.
“Hey Barry, I have a good one. Some of the folks over at NIH were telling me that they plan to replace of of the lab rats with Politicians and Lawyers”
“ummm…aaa..why is that doc?”
“well for one thing there is no shortage of expendable lawyers. Also the scientitists get too attached to the animals and there are some things even a rat won’t do”
Spindok
Jul 27, 2009 - 7:28 am 50. Chris:More BS, just like when he said we’d have more jobs after he was elected.
Jul 27, 2009 - 1:52 pm 51. Tim:I don’t want President Obama’s Healthcare, nor does President Obama want it for his family, nor does the Democratic congress want it for themselves. This is a fact. President Obama and the great majority of the Democratic congress declined to pledge that they would use only the benefits of their proposed public option. What does this tell you?
I hear people say that the public healthcare option would be bacially an extension of Medicare, which many people are satisfied with. Well it is also a fact that Medicare is going bankrupt. Further, it is also a fact that private insurers basically subsidize the costs of Medicare patients to physicians. Without private insurance payments to doctors, many could not afford to operate on Medicare payments alone. It appears that the logic of extending a financially unsustainable Medicare system to the entire nation is a similar type of logic that more spending will save money. Or that including 47 million more people in a financially bankrupt system will save money.
Signed,
Jul 30, 2009 - 9:31 am 52. Tim:An independent minority voter
When will politicians get the message that they cannot go on spending taxpayers money! The country is broke. There is simply no more money to create more government entitlements. President Obama goes on and on about how irresponsible the Repubs were in speding too much (they were), and then what does he do but go on the biggest spending spree in history. Yes there are some circumstances where it is appropriate to borrow money for something which cannot wait (i.e. for car repair and you need a car to go to work), but I do not think creating more gigantic government entitlements qualifies as an emergency. Just the opposite, creating more government entitlements is exactly the wrong thing to be doing right now.
Jul 30, 2009 - 9:39 am