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simchaland
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2009 Dec 11, 3:23am
Amen. Now we just need to convince our Representatives, Senators, and our President. Good luck. I've tried...
Â¥
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2009 Dec 11, 3:25am
It is unacceptable for the health care system to be used as a cash cow for
medical goods & service providers.
FTFY.
"According to Towers Perrin, a global professional services firm, malpractice litigation costs $30 billion a year and has grown at more than 10% annually since 1975."
Anyhoo, if I were King I'd move the malpractice insurance from covering the doctor to covering the patient. It'd just be part of one's general insurance package, and the insurance companies would fight the doctors not shield them.
Leigh
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2009 Dec 11, 4:22am
Wow, interesting thought Troy re: malpractice insurance...never thought of it that way.
Can you please elaborate on the Ponzi aspect of Medicare, I don't follow. Thanks.
Peter P
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2009 Dec 11, 7:11am
Can you please elaborate on the Ponzi aspect of Medicare, I don’t follow. Thanks.
I thought it would be self-evident. But anyway...
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/05/20/the_medicare_ponzi_scheme_96581.html
Peter P
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2009 Dec 11, 7:16am
I think Republicans should especially support universal health care, and anything that helps tort reform.
I do not get the fuss about abortion. If the government should not pay for abortion then it definitely should not cover maternity.
Don't we want abortion to be much more affordable than maternity?
I am generally pro-life, except that I strongly support the death penalty and I believe that abortion, though vile, is preferable to having neglected children, aka future welfare recipients.
Â¥
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2009 Dec 11, 8:34am
yeah, Medicare is due to blow up real soon now since 3% of the wagebase as an input isn't enough to cover the boomers as they move into their 60s.
From the article:
"There is $34 trillion sitting off the balance sheet, waiting for future generations to pay," Herzlinger said.
That works both ways, though, on the other side of the $34 trillion expense is $34 trillion in income to the medical industry. Yowza! Full employment for everyone -- $34 trillion can pay 4.5M people $150,000 a year for 50 years!
Of course, elderly health care is purely consumption and not accretive to the national production of wealth, other than the fact that personal health is personal wealth so a healthy society is a de-facto wealthier one.
and I believe that abortion, though vile, is preferable to having neglected children, aka future welfare recipients.
The libertarian side of me has no problem with what people do with their bodies. I'm not religious so a one day fertilized egg or two week old blastocyst is just a ball of interesting cells to me, potentially a life but neither here nor there as far as I am concerned. Late term abortions are done for other reasons, nearly all because the health of the fetus/infant is severely compromised for some reason, and I don't see any need to interfere with that decision since, like you, there are costs involved and as a left-libertarian I think we've got to pick our battles about who society can support and how much.
I think the moment of birth is better than any to draw the line about government guarantee of the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Before then, it's really none of my business.
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All right, my agenda is really Tort Reform, but that is not a realistic goal until we can assume that every human being walking within the bounds of this country has access to health care.
Of course, hard choices must be made, but there are only a few ways to stop the uncontrolled ascend in health care costs:-
1. limiting lawsuits
2. higher deductibles (e.g. first $2500 - $5000 of costs should be paid by the patient every year)
3. reasonable end-of-life decisions (heirs of the estate should make such decision)
4. deregulating medical professionals (we should be able to import cheap sous-doctors from other parts of the world.)
It is unacceptable that American families face financial ruin over unexpected illnesses. It is unacceptable for the health care system to be used as a cash cow for trial lawyers. It is unacceptable for a ponzi scheme health care system, namely Medicare, to exist.
It is also unacceptable for people to be discriminated against based on their income. Any plan to subsidize health care costs of low-income earners amounts to excessive social engineering.
Furthermore, companies should not be given tax-breaks for providing health care benefits because individuals should be incentivized to make health care choices themselves.
I am confident that a well-run universal health care system will cost less to the taxpayers.