Health care math

The Congressional Budget Office announced that the Senate finance committee's bill will cost $829 billion over the next 10 years while generating revenue of $911 billion over the next 10 years. The revenue will be from taxes, fees and penalties in the proposed legislation. This will result in a net deficit reduction of $81 billion. When I subtract $911 billion from $829 billion I get $82 billion. But I am not going to make a big deal of this, I'll attribute it to rounding down. What I do want to rant about is some of the assumptions used here. First, the CBO uses the estimates of the bill for the Cadillac tax, a tax on high cost health insurance plans. Many members of congress have labeled the insurance industry as profit motivated to the point of greed and avarice. (This is a vampire calling a mosquito a blood sucking fiend) What makes anybody think the insurers will not cut back on selling these plans and pass on the tax cost to the buyers who still purchase these Cadillac plans?
The CBO is the same agency that said on July 16,2009 that none of the proposed health care bills would do anything to bring down the curve in health care costs. See my earlier post on the same day for details. In less than 4 months a complete reversal in the impact of health care bills occurred? Wow, I'm impressed.(more sarcasm) Anyone who has suffered the mental torture of an economics class and can still remember any of it will tell you economists always add the caveat "all other things being equal" to anything they say. In real life this does not work, so I doubt that the $81 billion dollar savings will survive the next 10 years.
And another point, this is still proposed legislation, the finance committee will vote on it tomorrow then the process starts over again trying to get the bill signed by the Senate and then it will go to the house of reps. Remember what our wildcat house speaker Nancy Pelosi said? A health care bill will not pass the house without a public option. Let's hope Ms. Pelosi can adjust to the fact that most Americans do not want more government, especially government selling health insurance. More to come as this saga unfolds.

Good Grief, Barack Obama!!

With apologies to the Charles Schulz estate and peanuts fans everywhere, how else can I put it? Friday a week ago, the IOC awarded the 2016 Olympic games to Rio De Janeiro over Chicago. Big shock to the media since there was a "Dream Team" lobbying for Chicago as the host city. Yesterday, President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. Another big surprise. The Nobel committee said Obama's promise of nuclear disarmament and diplomacy were the virtues that influenced their vote. I only have one problem with this. The nomination deadline was February 1, 2009. Mr. Obama was sworn in as President January 20, 2009. He won the presidential campaign November 4, 2008. He did not have very much time to turn his potential into acts. The combination of this nomination with Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize for unfounded and bad science makes me lose faith in the Nobel Prize Committee.

A few random rants and thoughts

One trend that disturbs me is health care overhaul zealots blaming opposition to obamacare on racism. This is not only absurd but completely unfounded by facts. Mr. Obama got 96% of the black vote. Big deal, so what. Even 100% of a minority is still a minority. Mr. Obama got elected President of the USA by not only black people, but white, hispanic & asian people as well. The only people using race as an issue are the Charley Rangels of the world. He told a predominantly black audience in his district over the august congressional recess that opponents to obamacare and the public option just could not accept the fact that a black man was the President of the USA. Mr. Rangel was probably just "playing the audience" to rally support for the misnamed public option. Again, do the math. Mr Obama was elected POTUS by 52% of all the American Voters.
People that say no other president has received so much criticism have not been in the USA very long or have the memory spans of a very brain damaged fruit fly. Criticism is part of the job for any president. To his credit, Mr. Obama has recognized this fact. Now if he will just recognize the fact that he has over 3 years to improve, not tear down the USA's health care system he will accomplish more than he could with his current strategies.

Olympic Committee follows Obama's words

Just one comment on the IOC appointment of Rio De Janeiro as the host city for 2016 Olympic games. Remember Joe the Plumber from the 2008 presidential campaign? Mr. Obama told Joe he "wanted to spread the wealth." The IOC decided to do just that and awarded Rio the 2016 Olympic games. As Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pointed out the Olympics have been held in North America, Europe and Asia, never in a tropical country. Kudos to the IOC!! Way to go, Rio!!

A few comments on the health care bill.

It is really difficult to comment on the current health care bill being massaged and sculpted by the senate finance committee. It is still very much so under construction, or destruction depending on your outlook. I am glad the finance committee was able to defeat the public option. Maybe they were paying attention to the voters concerns at all those town hall meetings in August.
On the other hand, I don't see where this so called private co-op (with a $6b government subsidy as "seed money") is a big improvement. It sure looks like this co-op is going to be another government sponsored extortion, excuse me, enterprise. This frightens me because it seems like the health care equivalent of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for the housing industry. Do the American Taxpayers need to finance another nightmare for another industry important to the American economy? I think not.
What really burns me up is the congressmen's statement that the insurance business needs to have their feet held to the fire. If this isn't the pot calling the kettle black, I cannot imagine what would be.
Here's a few suggestions for all our congress men and women to help them get through this.

1. Leave your egomania out of the decision making process. The voters did not elect you so you can create a legacy or make history at their expense. The voters elected you to represent their interests in congress, not visa versa.

2. Stop calling anyone who disagrees with your ideas Nazis and astroturf. There are still WWII veterans around who would take great offense at you referring to their sons and daughters as nazis just because they do not believe the public option is a gift from heaven above via yourselves.

3. Start using page limits on legislation. Remember the acronym KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid.

4. Accomplish some real positive health care reform. Put a limit on medical malpractice lawsuit awards. Too many doctors are practicing too much defensive medicine. They order tests and other procedures that are not medically necessary just to protect themselves from lawsuits.

Well, this is enough for now. If I go on any further I might be made an honorary member of congress. (What irony indeed)

A few more thoughts on healthcare overhaul (aka nationalized medicine)

There is an old saying," if it ain't broke, don't fix it." The USA has the best healthcare delivery system on this planet. It is not broken but nonetheless fearless leaders in DC, mainly liberals and democrats, want to overhaul it. An overhaul is not needed. The problem every American has with our healthcare system is the drastic increases in its costs. This is what needs fixing. Unfortunately, our politicians are only good at taxing Americans and then giving some of it back to bribe us to vote for them. This is why there is so much stress and disagreement coming out on the healthcare issue. American voters are justified in their fear of what the warlocks and witches of congress will conjure up as an "overhaul" of our health care system. Americans need to deluge their congressional representatives with their viewpoints on healthcare. Eventually they will listen or be voted out of office.

The lack of universal healthcare coverage is the lamest excuse Big Brother Government Healthcare advocates use in this debate. They harp on the fact that the USA is the only "developed " country on earth without it. Two questions come to mind when I hear this. First,"and your point is . . ?" and second "So Frigging What??!!!" When I was growing up, I used this argument to try to get my parents permission to do something. The conversation would go like this. Me," can I do such and such, all the other kids at school can do it." My parents response, " if all the other kids at school jumped out of an airplane without a parachute, would you do it too?" Needless to say, we did not have very many of these conversations.

Another phrase I am tired of hearing from politicians is "the need to create a level playing field." This is usually given as an excuse for whatever legislation they want taxpayers to fund whether we want to or not. Well, I just found a website dedicated to all you level playing field fans. For a glimpse of level playing field Utopia, click here.

Congress attempts to rewrite preventive care study

The September 1, 2009 issue of the Washington Post reports a study of the cost effectiveness of preventive care is not going to generate the savings that have been promised by advocates of Obamacare. Entitled "Using clinical information to project health care spending," the study was published on the website of the journal of health policy research "Health Affairs." Michael J. O'Grady , one of 4 authors of the study, had this to say about the study. "There's no free lunch here. Prevention will not pay for everything. But it's not as expensive as it looks at first blush"

How did Obamacare supporters in Congress react to this. They have already requested the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan agency established by Congress to provide impartial evaluations of the cost effects of proposed legislation, to revise their studies to support their position. Donna Christensen, (D-US Virgin Islands) introduced a bill which would allow congressional leaders to request the CBO to alter their research methodology to a longer time period in hopes it would show more beneficial cost savings. I wonder what the Obamacare fans would say if the 25 year time frame still did not generate the savings they say preventive care will cause.

I say preventive care should be a major part of any health care reform. It doesn't matter to me if it generates savings or not, it will improve the quality of life for the chronically ill. The Hippocratic Oath requires Medical Doctors to do no harm or injustice to their patients. This is what preventive care is all about, providing the best care possible for the ill. The Obamacare fans seem to want their cake, eat it and lose weight at the same time.