Obama health care plan: He needs to cut medical costs first

Christian Science Monitor ^ | February 22, 2010 | Monitor's Editorial Board

[ricks_place]

The Obama health care plan includes a policy shift toward price controls on insurance rates. That wouldn't be necessary if Congress first contained medical inflation.

After more then 13 months in office, President Obama has finally put his healthcare proposals on the table, posting specific details on the White House website.

Why the long wait?

For one, the House and Senate have been stymied in reconciling big differences between their own bills.

Second, there is less public appetite for the pending healthcare bills. Mr. Obama needed to show his cards if he expects passage of any bill this year.

Also, Obama can’t very well negotiate a compromise with Republicans at Thursday’s healthcare “summit,” or later, if no one knows the details of his ideas.

And details matter, not just because of healthcare’s complexity but also because Obama keeps changing his tune on healthcare.

He once favored a federal takeover of healthcare insurance (or “single payer” system) before he agreed to keep the employer-based insurance system.

He once opposed the idea that every American now without insurance be required to buy it – until he favored this “mandate.”

He once wanted a government-run health insurance entity (the “public option”), until he said it wasn’t necessary.

And now, with his detailed plan public, he is suggesting that he doesn’t really believe his healthcare reform will end up reining in medical inflation.

He once promised that universal coverage and other reforms would “bend the curve” on rising costs within the medical and insurance industries. But in implicit admission that such reform probably wouldn’t bring enough savings, he proposes the creation of a seven-member federal board –the Health Insurance Rate Authority– that would bluntly set price controls on rate increases in health insurance.

In other words, don’t expect much savings from the Obama plan, and so government will need to keep a cap on insurance premiums.

[ricks_place]

Make Health Care sustainable by fist addressing Health Care Costs. From the Congressional Budget Office:

Trends in Premiums for Physicians' Medical Malpractice Insurance, by Type of Physician, 1993 to 2002 - CBO

[rod1]

Wll here is one editorial board that is unimpressed with the Bamster’s effort.

[GailA]

OBAMANOMICS--TRICKLE DOWN DESTRUCTION of the economy

SET THEIR LOCAL AND DC LINES ON FIRE!

Sen. Scot Brown's number is 202-224-5443

Capitol Hill switchboard is 202-224-3121

Lots of local demwit phone numbers on this thread.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2408217/posts

Rename, repackage, rewrite it a tad smaller, and sell another pig in a poke.

Tennessee has joined several other states in trying to pass a Health Care Freedom Act. NO COLAs for granny, retired Military or retired fed employees. BIG NEW fees for Tricare for Life retired over 65 Military's secondary health ins. (DOD bill already passed, delayed but goes into effect 2011)

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/10/military_tricarefees_blocked_100709w/

New Dem mantra: Woof, woof eat dog food granny....ala let them eat cake.

OBAMA’s WAR ON SENIORS

Friday, February 19, 2010

Obama says slight fix will extend Social Security

http://townhall.com/news/us/2010/02/19/obama_says_slight_fix_will_extend_social_security

Health Care Rationing for Seniors Another Problem in New Obama Plan

http://www.lifenews.com/bio3058.html

Socialized Med Thread

TRI CARE FOR LIFE This from a google search:

http://economicspolitics.blogspot.com/2009/05/tricare-for-life-is-obama-trying-to.html

This option would help reduce the costs of TFL, as well as costs for Medicare, by introducing minimum out-of pocket requirements for beneficiaries. Under this option, TFL would not cover any of the first $525 of an enrollee’s cost-sharing liabilities for calendar year 2011 and would limit coverage to 50 percent of the next $4,725 in Medicare cost sharing that the beneficiary incurred. (Because all further cost sharing would be covered by TFL, enrollees could not pay more than $2,888 in cost sharing in that year.)

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9925/12-18-HealthOptions.pdf

http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/hcva09/hcva110609-1.htm

Bill Would Restrict Veterans’ Health Care Options 11/06/09

Buyer and McKeon Offer Amendments to Protect Veterans and TRICARE Beneficiaries

Congress plans to block Tricare fee increases
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/military_tricarefees_blocked_100709w

By Rick Maze - Staff writer, Oct 7, 2009

Tricare fee increases imposed last week by the Defense Department will be repealed by a provision of the compromise 2010 defense authorization bill unveiled Wednesday by House and Senate negotiators.

Snip

The fee increases were announced on Sept. 30 and took effect on Oct. 1, but the defense bill, HR 2647, includes a provision barring any fee increases until the start of fiscal 2011.

Snip

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Bill Matz, president of the National Association for Uniformed Services, said the announcement of fee increases was shocking considering that the Obama administration promised earlier this year to hold off on any new fee Tricare fee increases until fiscal 2011.

“President Obama and DoD assured NAUS and the entire military family earlier this year that there would rightly be no increases in any Tricare fees” in fiscal 2010, Matz said. “We took them at their word, and I can’t believe that a co-pay increase like this was allowed to go forward,” he added.

Bambi doesn't keep his promises...so buyer beware.

[loveliberty2]

This is not about health care. This is about relinquishing to government exorbitant powers never envisioned by America's Founders! It is about a citizenry who allows a few con artists, posing as intellectual leaders, to place future generations into slavery under the guise of "helping" this generation.

Every politican in Washington who participates in, or remains silent during, this power grab should be sent home at the earliest possible date.

[ricks_place]

I often wondered why European nations keep the system they have in place when it seems more like serfdom. Then I figured then do change the political party running government on occasion but the statist system remains. The Euros are approaching bankruptcy quicker than the US but that is no comfort.