Obama Health Care; The Final Straw:
Good Morning to all of you bright untainted minds out there in reality land; your King of Simple News is on the air.
I wrote piece on healthcare in July and parts of it bear repeating. But first I want to clear something up. If you see this differently, please respond, this is an open forum.
If in fact Obamacare is passed without the ability for states to opt out and set up their own healthcare system, the monkeys dead and the show’s over. As far as a public option at the Federal level, the Fed’s couldn’t run an outhouse and keep up with toilet paper replacement, let alone a national healthcare system for 307 MILLION people.
Secondly, we need to take a hard look at the healthcare insurance companies. While the insurance companies point out that they don’t make a lot of profit, that’s not what we need to focus on. “What does it cost to operate the insurance company before profits?” That’s the question we need to ask, because that is exactly where your insurance premiums go.
I can make any company a non-profit simply by overpaying the management and employee’s. I can provide Gulfstream jets and a getaway in Barbados. I can give the management golden parachutes to retirement….you get the drift.
Jack E. Lohman wrote the book, “Politicians, Owned and Operated by Corporate America.” Jack Lohman says that nearly 40% of the cost of medical care is attributed to the operation and profits of the big insurance companies. http://moneyedpoliticians.net/
Here are some of the remaining reasons that forcing every American to buy healthcare insurance under penalty of law, and the government providing insurance for those who can’t afford it,…flatly won’t work!
Before we take the high dive into the healthcare pool, let me say one more time that ignoring any problem for 40 years or so has a tendency to allow that problem to become insurmountable; as in, there are no palatable solutions.
The federal government’s solution to anything is higher taxes and more interference into individual and states’ rights. Higher taxes may prove more than a little difficult to collect in the present environment. To collect taxes one must get the horse ahead of the cart which in this instance would be employment prior to taxation.
Obama says that he can hit the rich right in the pocket book and pay for his socialized healthcare plan. I say he can’t. Not that he can’t tax the rich; he can do anything he wants to so long as the Democrats hold a super majority. His real problem is that the cost of socialized medicine in a declining economy of 307 Million folks creates a mathematical impasse. Mr. Obama went to Harvard, but his strong suit certainly wasn’t math, it was political science. Political science? Now there’s an oxymoron!
Should the current bill pass, Obama will be taking the backdoor approach to socialized medicine by forcing everyone to buy health insurance rather than the front door approach of taxing the heck out of everyone and providing government healthcare.
Under the current provisions of the bill, government would set up an insurance company and compete with private insurance companies for business. Government would then provide insurance for all who can’t afford it. Uh-oh, Robin Hood ain’t dead.
This is where it gets really ugly. The Democrats (as was John McCain) are amnesty people, for say, 20,000,000 illegal’s who can’t afford health insurance. Add that to the legal 20 Million people who are unemployed. Then add those 40 Million to the remainder of the 60% of Americans who reside at the bottom of our social ladder and who own less than 4% of the nation’s wealth. And then there are the companies that will fold what’s left of the tattered tent when the forced healthcare for employees goes into effect. And then there are the 1.2 Million legal immigrants that are joining our jobless party each and every year along with a constant inflow of illegal immigrants. Did I mention the 78,000,0000 Boomers who are lined up at the Medicare window?
Seems there may be a whole lot more folks who can’t afford conventional health insurance than those who can. I hope those rich folks have more money than I think they do.
In Mr. Obama’s instance, sometimes it’s fortunate to have not studied math isn’t it?
Did I just hear someone ask if I have a better plan? I’m so happy that you inquired, because I do. Each state (not the fed’s) needs to set up a non-profit clearing house where everyone pays something into a healthcare fund. The doctors and hospitals would be paid out of that non-profit fund (I’m talking non-profit and no jets at all). Those who do not want to pay into the plan would be allowed to die in peace without so much as an aspirin in intervention. Choice is important.
Where does that leave the big healthcare insurance companies you might ask? Certainly not making a profit in the business of sickness and life and death; that’s for sure. There are simply some things that are not fits for gorilla capitalism.
Everyone would pay a fee of $20.00 to see a doctor. This would discourage non-essential visits that are currently considered to take up as much as 30% of the doctor’s office calls.
Tort reform against malpractice suits would be immediate and severe. In other words, there would be no more TV commercials that state, “If you know anyone who ever knew anyone that was ever related to anyone who walked by a hospital or doctor’s office at least three times in their lives, please call Shiftless, Shafter, and Sleeze; we may be able to get them a settlement.”
I would STOP all immigration immediately if not sooner and quit adding to the pool of those who can’t afford health insurance and who don’t have jobs. I would give a 90 day amnesty for all U.S. companies who are employing illegal’s to discharge the same. Any employer who violated this law after 90 days would be hung at sundown. Who needs a fence?
I can go on and on, but you get the drift. I don’t have the time to write a 1,000 page law such as the current piece of garbage coming out of Congress. “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” - Albert Einstein
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Regarding Tort Reform, check out the article from the Boston Globe. It delved into Medical malpractice reform in Texas a couple of years ago.
I think the answer is simple, Tort reform isn’t the answer. That is unless you are a doctor looking to get rich and avoid accountability for your incompetence or negligence.
All laws exist to take advantages away from one group and confer them on another. Any surprise that the rich (Doctors) benefit in this scenario and the poor get screwed. As for lawyers; there are more starving and unemployed lawyers than there are rich ones. That’s not the case with doctors. Read the article closely.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/26/malpractice_curbs_hailed_faulted/
Greg,
Thanks for the comment. As I read the article, I noted that the lawyers didn’t want to take the cases because there wasn’t enough money in it for THEM. And that is exactly what tort reform is intended to create.
The fact that the lawyers are willing to take cases for rich clients for a loss of income is a totally different matter and does not constitute a foul against the poor.
What I see here is a broken legal system rather than a thumbs down for tort reform. The legal system has little to do with justice and all to do with one of the highest paid sources of employment in the United States.
If a lawyer’s client is found guilty and goes to jail, do the lawyers then pay loss of income to their client during the period that he is incarcerated? Which lawyer would take that case for malpractice?
That being said, tort reform is at the bottom of the list of healthcare reform from a priority standpoint, but I feel that it is an important element if handled properly.
We must be careful not to paint all doctors as “Rich and in it for the money.” Here is a story regarding the critical shortage of doctors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/health/policy/27care.html
I don’t want to venture too far from healthcare, but the U.S. has one lawyer for every 265 citizens; the highest per-capita in the world.
We have one lawyer for every prisoner in the U.S., as the United States also has the highest per-capita prison population in the world.
Yep, having a high paid occupation continue requires more customers (growth) and since the law makers are also lawyers, they can make just about anything illegal. They can also import those potential customers.
Please consider all of the unintended consequences of the current plan to force every American to buy health insurance under our current system.
Most families would be strapped to their last dime and would cut back on spending and saving in all other areas in order to come up with the mandatory premiums.
Dropping down to poverty level or becoming purposely unemployed in order to receive FREE government healthcare and other social benefits would become far more attractive. Human nature cannot be overcome by laws. Murder, after all, is illegal.
The current price tag for Obama’s plan will be like all other government projections; based on growth and optimum conditions. The overrun for this bill will be the greatest in U.S. history.
Hi Mike, and thanks for referencing my blog above.
First let me say that I am retired and now a Medicare patient, and I think it’s a great system (having spent 40 years in health care).
Not perfect, as there are many things that need to be changed. But it is better than any private insurer out there. I use the same (private) doctor as before; he just sends his bill to a different insurer (Medicare). It is indeed a better system that I’d like to see my kids and grandkids protected by.
Understand that Medicare is government health “insurance” and not health “care.” I’ve never had a bureaucrat deny me service but I have had insurance CEOs do so (when I owned my company). And if something is not covered (like cosmetic surgery) I can buy it on the free market, the good old fashioned way, with cash.
Also, on the 2% profits that insurers claim, remember that this is only the income they pay taxes on, after deducting the massive bureaucracy costs (see more on that at http://moneyedpoliticians.net).
By and large I oppose the system congress is working on: mandates which are an insurer’s dream (moving the nation from 85% insurance coverage to 100%) and an “option” that covers just 10% of the people. I’d like to see them kill this bill and implement single payer (HR676 and SB703), which would be less costly and provide better care.
I agree that states should be able to opt out, but only if they chose to provide a single payer system or something stronger than the federal law. Otherwise we simply transfer the massive amounts of campaign contributions (bribery) to the states, so the industry can continue their quest to kill all healthcare reform.
Unfortunately, a public option is going to serve as a dumping ground for the insurance companies.
At first blush the “higher taxes” for a Medicare-for-all system are a turnoff, but when you consider that 100% of the public is already paying for the healthcare system as it is, and for the same amount of dollars we are spending today (16.5% of GDP) we could provide first-class Cheney-care to 100% of our population, including the illegals, it becomes a preferred form of torture. (Though I do agree that we need to solve our immigration problems, and would suggest that all companies employing illegals be required to buy airplane tickets.)
The Medicare-for-all system would eliminate the insurance bureaucracy waste (31% of our costs) and we’d spend it on patient care instead. We’d pay for the system through our national infrastructure (taxes) and eliminate this cost for businesses. They could spend the savings on keeping jobs in the US instead of outsourcing to countries already with universal healthcare. A bailout for 100% of our businesses, not just the banks and car manufacturers.
On tort reform I would not like to see arbitrary caps, but do believe that we should convert from a jury of 12 idiots to a three-judge panel. Let the judgers decide on a case-by-case basis.
But there are a lot of cash dollars changing hands from the insurance industry and attorneys to the politicians, so I don’t see this happening overnight.
All of that said I do like your idea of state run systems as well (I hate congress!).
It isn’t Medical care that needs to be run by the government, it is LEGAL care…
After all, the Law is a product of government, so all legal services should be run and paid for by the same government. This would take the insane profit motive out of the application of the Law, and make it what it should be, and extension of government.
This would solve ALL tort type issues, product liability nonsense (can you say coffee is hot at McDonald’s?) and would also even the playing field between rich and poor, since ALL lawyers for the defendants would be public defenders pulled from a common pool, no Johnny Cochran types.
Since the Lawyers make the Laws, this will NEVER happen
Both Mike and Jack have the right ideas. I would add a couple of things.
States should be able to opt out only if the voters approve- it should be subject to a referendum. It is next to impossible for special interests to bribe all the voters.
Third party payment for healthcare eliminates constraint of costs. If you had to pay as you go, soon the providers would have little business at the current prices, prices would come down. For those who couldn’t afford care, we have to decide as a society whether or not we are willing to help them.
Preventative diagnostic tests should be widely available and offereed on a non-profit basis, administered by nurses or P As. Something like a diagnostic test equipment library.
An incentive program to establish medical and dental clinics, with an intensive emphasis on education outreach to promote preventative lifestyle changes and general wellness, staffed by students who would be educated for free in return for commitment to serve for a specified number of years.
Expanded use of internet video conferencing between patient and doctor or nurse.
I would also argue for the elimination of malpractice insurance. As a healthcare provider, if you screw up, you compensate the patient, period.
Admittedly some of my ideas may be half baked, so I would welcome responses.
Best to all,
Michael in NC
Jack,
Thank you for commenting and nice to hear from you again.
The current bill before Congress is a walking disaster, and like yourself, I would like to see it defeated and let cooler heads prevail.
State run single-payer plans operated as a true non-profit is my “preferred form of torture.”
None of this will work however, if we don’t get an immediate handle on population growth.
Thanks for stopping by Jack.
Wordherder, Good ideas!
If we were to reform the heatlhcare system as suggested above, many of the items on your wish list would become a reality in the form of a natural progression.
You said, “Expanded use of internet video conferencing between patient and doctor or nurse.” While I agree, here again, the threat of a lawsuit due to your not being required to physically see the doctor, eliminates this possibility.
We live in a litigious society that has wiped out millions upon millions of jobs under the auspice of protecting the people.
Yet, none of our wishes are possible without having viable employment and without curbing population growth.
The White House claims that they have created or saved 650,000 jobs. In other words, had the White House not bought jobs with deficit spending; things would be much worse.
I never have the words to properly address such blatant distortion of facts.
The question is then, are these phantom saved jobs possible on their own merits, or do they require continual deficit spending for their support? I’m thinkin’ the latter is most likely the case.
It is not a health care bill..
It is a mandatory insurance bill.. The two shud not be confused.. You will get insurance.. Maybe they will help you get health care, maybe they won’t..
And, as usual, we have a choice in this democracy.. Our choice is terrible, or horrible… And, I can’t decide.. Again..
WmA..
Wma,
You are spot on! This is a mandatory insurance bill, and the greatest windfall for insurance companies ever witnessed.
This is not a knee jerk subject for me. I have studied the problems of healthcare for years and stated in my book that it was the second greatest problem in America, right behind “growth is the answer.”
In my opinion, if passed, this bill will bring down the house as it bleeds our Middle Class of their last dime while at the same time, adding the final straw that will bankrupt the government.
Again, we have reached the end of an era.
How is it in the long history of humanity only recently in the past 100 years or so have we needed all this additional “Health Care”? and at what cost? Is a longer life necessarily a better life?
George,
Excellent point…excellent!
It is common knowledge that the majority of healthcare costs come at the very end of our lives in an attempt to defeat the premise that “No one is getting out of here alive.” We keep trying.
A full 27% of Medicare’s total budget is spent on the patients last year (last months) of life.
My grandfather died at age 89 and was never in a hospital until the final week of his life. The lesson here, don’t go to the hospital, people die in there! Just kidding.
Your question is, “Does intensive medical care and the associated costs benefit the quality of life or the number of days of life?” And that my friend, is a very good question.
Our government is purposely undermining our quality of life by producing lower living standards through greater population density.
At the same time, they are attempting to make us suffer the ills of their poor planning on a longer term basis through mandatory healthcare. Hmmmm!
i like this idea of state clearing house and if you’re not a contributor you can’t get anything, but the federal gov’t has removed the posibility of that happening with the EMTALA law that is the current law of the land
meggers49,
The state has made many things impossible for the benefit of the state…not the people.
If medical care is available to one and all regardless of input, output, circumstances, etc. we get the system that we currently have.
What a mess!