Posted on 11/27/2007 4:40:59 PM PST by rwbusa50
If you need a good idea of what government-run healthcare would mean to you and your family, look no further than Medicare, or the wrangling taking place in Washington surrounding Medicare funding.
With much of the media focused on the Democrats' efforts to expand eligibility and funding for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), much less publicity has been given to Congressional deliberations on Medicare. While SCHIP is a backdoor effort to grow government-run healthcare, the Medicare funding process is a good example of what happens once politicians get to decide how much and what sort of healthcare participants receive from the federal budget.
The Democratic-controlled Congress has been working all year to determine how to allocate an estimated $390 billion dollars to cover more than 40 million seniors and other recipients. The process is byzantine, as the legislative process tends to be. It involves everything from possible changes to Medicare Advantage to physician fees to reimbursements for a host of treatments and therapies housed in this mammoth program.
What the process isn't principally about is the best healthcare for Medicare recipients. Foremost, this is a political process with political ends in mind.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
In addition to that concern, I came across this article that reminded me that if people like this have their way, it will be a notorious complicated mess.
Citizens should decide, if they want healthcare or not.
To paraphrase the El Rushbo, ‘Nothing fails so miserably as government..’ and they continue to prove it every day. Departments like HUD, DOE, FEMA, etc, are a huge waste and beyond control in its present form.
The only way for you too understand what Health Care is if you don’t have it.
British Citizen on HHS: "I would have to get better to die."
And if that isn’t a good enough example, there is always the VA.
As an employer, I am suspecting an additional 8 to 10% payroll tax to subsidize health insurance for employees.
In fact, I would expect somewhere in the range of $125.00 per week additional cost per employee, without gaining any increased productivity.
right now, with all the taxes and insurance added on, a theoretical employee has to produce just over $150.00 worth of production before I see one penny of profit. Add another $125.00 for insurance per week and that employee has to produce $875.00 per week before any profit is made for the employer.
After all, we hire employees to do work so we can add value to the work and derive a profit.
government confiscates the profit incentive. Why bother???
If employers have to provide health care insurance or pay into a fund mandated by government, I see a mass closing of small businesses. How does anyone expect to pass on an extra 10 to 20 percent in employee expenses without raising prices considerably and the inflation???
My business is taxed to the max now. Add workers comp, the 2nd biggest expense after payroll and it just isn’t worth it trying to play by the book.
Walk into the ER. Speak espanole. Get free care. Because nobody gives out their real name or address.
Somebody else will pay. Right??
If I am going to get government healthcare, I want the same plan as congress. Just like I want the same retirement plan as congress. if it’s good enough for them, then we should have it too. Right??
Either way we have it, we are paying for healthcare if we are gainfully employed. for them and them and them and maybe me if theres anything left.
Exactly.
Isn't interesting that nobody in the MSM has bothered to ask B!tch Clinton that very same question?
Medicare is already bankrupt. The only reason they still cut the checks is that the federal government is underwriting the losses.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I DO think that the changes in healthcare need to come from bureaucrats, with the advice of someone with an economics education. While I would love for the system to be aligned with my conservative views, I don’t think its possible for awhile. We need emergency intervention and sometimes thats not pretty.
I highly advocate that every American that wants to be informed about the healthcare system read this book:
“HEALTHY, WEALTHY AND WISE:FIVE STEPS TO A BETTER HEALTH CARE SYSTEM”
Authors: John F. Cogan, R. Glen Hubbard, and Daniel P. Kessler, AEI Publishing, 2005.
John Cogan is an economist from Stanford university. In summary, his five proposals are:
1. Change the tax law so as to reduce the preference for medical care purchases through employer-based health insurance.
2. regulation of markets for health insurance.
3. Expand provision of health information.
4. Control anti-competitive behavior by providers and insurance companies.
5. Reform the Malpractice system.
Here is a table from the book* explaining the proposed financial impact of the above changes:
% CHANGE /ABSOLUTE CHANGE ($ IN BILLIONS)
Tax deductibility -6.2 /-43
Tax credit 0 / 1
Insurance Market -1.0 /-7
Reforms
Medical -1.7 /-12
Malpractice Reform _____________
Total -8.9% /-61
*John F. Cogan, R. Glen Hubbard, and Daniel P. Kessler. Healthy, Wealthy and Wise: Five Steps to a Better Health Care System. AEI Publishing. (2005).
This is the only author in health policy so far that I do not want to slap for spinning statistics in their favor.
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