AIP column: Three dirty little secrets of the public plan
posted at 1:35 pm on June 18, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
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Today’s column at American Issues Project focuses on three “secrets” of the public plan that have thus far escaped the media coverage of ObamaCare. Amazingly, these do not include the fact that the Obama administration apparently doesn’t understand the definition of “competition” and the fact that the private market provides it without any competing plans from the government. Their disdain for profit as a consequence of efficiency isn’t among them, either, since their disdain for profit in general is rather well-documented.
No, I have three specific points that don’t get much visibility, and this one is probably the key point:
While Sebelius and the White House disdain and completely misunderstand the private market, the private market in fact subsidizes the already-existing public plans of Medicare and Medicaid. A correspondent from within a major insurer explained to me exactly how that works:
At a recent leadership meeting, our CEO mentioned that the providers are very nervous about the government program expanding. Currently, the government dictates to a provider how much they will be reimbursed for a given procedure. That reimbursement does not cover the actual cost, which leaves the provider to spread the remaining portion of the cost to the rest of the people who have insurance.
If the government program were to expand, the number of privately insured people to absorb that extra cost would shrink, driving up the cost of insurance for everybody else. Eventually, two things would happen…. First, nobody could afford the non-government program, and secondly (and this is what the providers are truly afraid of), providers would not be able to cover their costs. This would drive them to bankruptcy. We would then either be in a position where there are no health care providers, or the government would have to nationalize them as well.
Many providers now refuse to take new Medicare/Medicaid patients because the plans don’t cover their costs to provide services. Those who do wind up charging their other patients more to cover their losses. The private insurers bear the brunt of that business practice now, which is bad enough. If the private insurers disappear, though, providers will not recoup the losses at all, and will go out of business altogether.
Read the whole column, especially to get an idea of how Kathleen Sebelius and Barack Obama envision a public plan competing with private plans to deliver better value. The answer will stun you.
While you’re at AIP, check out the commentary from the fine stable of bloggers. Matt Margolis wonders how many jobs are being “saved” in Massachusetts, Jimmy Bise has three questions about health-care reform, and John Hanlon analyzes the latest NBC poll suggesting that the honeymoon is over for President Obama.
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More change we don’t need.
SuperManGreenLantern on June 18, 2009 at 1:38 PM
and the plot thickens.
SHARPTOOTH on June 18, 2009 at 1:38 PM
Anyone who has doubts about whether or not the above will occur need only look at Japan’s health care system… which is adored by Liberals as the ‘model’ government healthcare plan.
The Hospitals are going bankrupt. What happens when they all go under?
Chaz706 on June 18, 2009 at 1:39 PM
All part of the plan, I’m sure.
Browncoatone on June 18, 2009 at 1:39 PM
Hate to go OT this quickly, but….
Olive Garden pulls Letterman ads
Following a week of back and forth between CBS late night comic David Letterman and Sarah Palin over a crude joke he told about the Alaska Republican governor’s daughter, the Olive Garden restaurant says it is cancelling all of its scheduled ads on Letterman’s “Late Show” for the rest of the year.
In an email to a Letterman critic obtained by POLITICO, a spokeswoman for the Italian restaurant chain wrote that “there will be no more Olive Garden ads scheduled for ‘The Late Show’ with David Letterman in this year’s broadcast schedule,” citing the talk show host’s “inappropriate comments.”
“We apologize that Mr. Letterman’s mistake, which was not consistent with our standards and values, left you with a bad impression of Olive Garden,” wrote Sherri Bruen, the company’s guest relations manager.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23889.html#ixzz0Inwx0xOn&C
Pianobuff on June 18, 2009 at 1:42 PM
I need some humor. Here is some Scrappleface for you all:
Obama: 46 Million in America Live Without Haircare
BigD on June 18, 2009 at 1:43 PM
This is what people like AnninCA forget…and once these insurance providers are gone, the low government rate will no longer be “subsidized”…resulting in fewer physicians, PAs, NPs, RNs…and the rationing of substandard care begins…
ladyingray on June 18, 2009 at 1:43 PM
“Free” health care = Health care unavailable at any price.
Steve Z on June 18, 2009 at 1:43 PM
Pianobuff on June 18, 2009 at 1:42 PM
The Olive Garden will be getting my business. Thanks for sharing.
txag92 on June 18, 2009 at 1:44 PM
It’s just like medicaid and medicare now. Once the govt/we pay the diff, the private insurers are doomed. Simple economics.
marklmail on June 18, 2009 at 1:45 PM
I salute Olive Garden for their decision, but they might get more business if they allowed people to make reservations. Waiting around 45 minutes for a table is not most people’s idea of a pleasant evening out.
Steve Z on June 18, 2009 at 1:46 PM
If conservatives and other non-believers would just die already, there would be enough healthcare for all.
Bishop on June 18, 2009 at 1:46 PM
More bogus liberal news. How many of those 46 million don’t even have hair? Me and Ed make two… there are certainly millions more!
;-)
cannonball on June 18, 2009 at 1:46 PM
ladyingray on June 18, 2009 at 1:43 PM
I can’t wait til AnninCA joins this thread, spews her idiocy, ignores questions about her rants, then leaves in a huff. Same old verse, same as the first.
txag92 on June 18, 2009 at 1:47 PM
Agreed.
ladyingray on June 18, 2009 at 1:49 PM
I know, she should be here soon…
ladyingray on June 18, 2009 at 1:49 PM
*waves*
DrSteve on June 18, 2009 at 1:50 PM
I’m sure they will be the targets of the first wave of rationing care…
ladyingray on June 18, 2009 at 1:50 PM
As I once heard in a quote attributed to P.J. O’Rourke-”If you think health care is expensive now, wait until it’s free!”
Amendment X on June 18, 2009 at 1:51 PM
I know, she should be here soon…
ladyingray on June 18, 2009 at 1:49 PM
She may have had an appointment at Kaiser so it may be a while. Oh wait, she knows how to work the system…. whatever that means.
txag92 on June 18, 2009 at 1:52 PM
Funny, that…especially the part about Boehner…
ladyingray on June 18, 2009 at 1:52 PM
USSR 2
Johan Klaus on June 18, 2009 at 1:55 PM
The key point is the issue, all right. I’m on MediCare now, and as usual take real good care not to have anything to do with doctors. A few years ago I had an accident, and the costs totaled over $22k. Medicare left me with a $2k+ “copay”, and when I tried to get physical therapy to address the attendant physical disabilities I found that most doctors in my area simply wouldn’t accept MediCare patients. Period. The “community clinics” in the area are, perhaps unsurprisingly, less than sympathetic to the problems of male English speakers.
Research exposed the fact that my county (Lynn Woolsey’s) pays a significant percentage less to providers than the county immediately to the south. The idea that Government Health Care will in fact provide medical care to its holders is a fraud. Good essay, Ed.
warbaby on June 18, 2009 at 1:56 PM
The REAL secret about this national health care is that is in fact unconstitutional.
Snooper on June 18, 2009 at 1:56 PM
Government’s participation in the process is driving up costs in the market? What a concept.
Sounds like government is not the solution to the problem. Government is the problem. Wait! I know I have heard that somewhere before.
TexAz on June 18, 2009 at 1:56 PM
Sebelius needs to get her face lift on her Kansas Governor plan. Obamacare won’t cover cosmetic surgery for old sad white female faces.
seven on June 18, 2009 at 1:58 PM
She may have had an appointment at Kaiser so it may be a while. Oh wait, she knows how to work the system…. whatever that means.
txag92 on June 18, 2009 at 1:52 PM
It means that as with any Govt program you either were invited to the school of get over or you were not. I`m not sure where its located but I`ve met many people who took the same courses and apply the same methods.
LSUMama on June 18, 2009 at 1:58 PM
The REAL secret about this national health care is that is in fact unconstitutional.
Snooper on June 18, 2009 at 1:56 PM
Get rid of the Constitution, problem solved.
Bishop on June 18, 2009 at 2:00 PM
Should read.
46 Million illegal aliens in America Live Without Haircare but obtain universal health care at hospital emergency rooms.
Bulldogger on June 18, 2009 at 2:02 PM
…or something!
ladyingray on June 18, 2009 at 2:02 PM
Your corresponsent is describing “cost-shifting”, which is the time honored practice by healthcare providers of marking up services to obtain higher payments from the uninsured and those private health insurance plans whose provider contracts are tied to % of provider charges rather than having fixed pricing.
As the health insurance industry has consolidated considerably over the last 5-7 years, the remaining players have obtained the clout to move to fixed pricing for almost all providers with perhaps the exception of rural hospitals with even those subject to chargemaster increase limitations.
What it boils down to is that the ability to cost-shift to private insurers is already quite limited; therefore, the coming financial crises in the healthcare sector may be closer that you think.
BTW, another dirty little secret about Medicare, especially regarding hospital reimbursment, is that it employs an army of financial and medical experts to determine as best they can the exact reimbursement to cover only the provider’s cost of providing services. That is, Medicare carefully develops reimbursement mechanisms with the express intent of allowing providers zero margin. By contrast, private health insurers negotiate provider contracts to meet underwriting models that provide product pricing that is supportable in the market; that is, they don’t give a fig if providers have a very healthy margin just as long as they can put out a market-competitive product. No wonder providers are getting antsy about a goverment option in the commercial market.
Tongueboy on June 18, 2009 at 2:03 PM
You idiot, I was trying to speed up my own quick demise by partaking in my well loved habit, SMOKING.
But you idiot libs killed that golden goose. Since I quit smoking, I not only will be around a bit longer to leach off Medicare, but you’ll not get the tax money I happily used to hand over. But NO, you had to keep raising the tax on cigarettes. Now you get NOTHING
Jeff from WI on June 18, 2009 at 2:06 PM
Something tells me, Obama already knows, and understands these points. He’ll just plow thru, because the devastation, and destruction of this nation, IS the point. He wants to rebuild it, in his image. Watch for money bearing his image.
capejasmine on June 18, 2009 at 2:07 PM
Ed:
Has anyone ever suggested increasing the supply (i.e. making med school more affordable/accessible as well as removing barriers to multi-state insurance policies) as a means of increasing competition and lowering costs across the board? If there is a role for gov’t in healthcare, it seems it should be to 1) remove/preempt stupid state-based legislation that currently prevents multistate policies and/or multistate accessibility (i.e. by enacting fed statute that specifically preempts state laws and allows insurance policies that meet the stated criteria to be sold in every state of the union); and 2) if the gov’t wants to spend tax dollars on health care, then do so by subsidizing the education of health care providers and possibly subsidizing construction/creation of health care facilities (through guaranteed loans, subsidized interest rates, etc). Thoughts?
secarr on June 18, 2009 at 2:07 PM
Ed, why do you assume “without high administrative costs” automatically means “no administrative costs” whatsoever? Can’t it also mean lower administrative costs? I think you read too far into that.
Greenhelmet on June 18, 2009 at 2:11 PM
Don’t worry, PBHO is already working on that.
pullingmyhairout on June 18, 2009 at 2:11 PM
that was well written Ed, and very informative.
The thing you forgot to mention (secret) is that Medicare and Medicaid have 60 Billion Dollars EACH YEAR in FRAUD because there is no profit incentive to catch it. If there are no administrators, expect that figure to continue to increase the cost of health care.
60B/year over 10 years is 600 B (That’s WASTE of over half what they are projecting the entire new health care plan will cost).
ThackerAgency on June 18, 2009 at 2:12 PM
I read a report a short time ago that laid out the whopping percentage of retired pensioned employees compared to those actually working in union, federal, state and local jobs. It’s bankrupting our nation one retirement after another. The same goes for the lick and a promise ponzi scheme they ironically named social security.
With the baby boom about to reach the Retirement Boom, this means the quicker government can control our health care, the quicker they can reduce our quality of life by dictating which procedure we may or may not have; thus increasing the odds of an earlier death. Smoked when you were younger … tough titties on the lung meds or transplant!
Diabolical, far fetched?
Perhaps, but, do you really trust those who won’t provide the best long term treatment for our heroic soldiers with a medical file containing your DNA, or maybe a fatal allergy? I don’t.
kregg on June 18, 2009 at 2:13 PM
That’s why the AMA is so important. They set the amount of doctors that come into the system artificially low.
My proposal is that they could train doctors WITHIN the military and fund everything through military spending if they wanted the federal government to increase the supply of doctors. I think your idea is good. They need to expand the VA clinics and make them available to everyone for a fee – and staff them with military doctors.
ThackerAgency on June 18, 2009 at 2:15 PM
Where’s anninca to proclaim that there is no difference between govt insurance and your average HMO?
MarkTheGreat on June 18, 2009 at 2:16 PM
All I know is that the current health system costs way too much. The insurance companies understand that 10% of a bif number is more dollars than 10% of a small number. As costs go up, their cashflow goes up. They have no incentives to reduce costs so long as all other insurance companies do the same thing.
The current system is a license to steal, because doctors can load up tests, specialists, medications, therapy, and more tests to monitor medications, and the insurance companies pay for it. The numbers get ever bigger, and insurance primiums do too.
saiga on June 18, 2009 at 2:17 PM
From the health plan
BE AFRAID! FIGHT BACK! JOIN THE RESISTANCE!
JiangxiDad on June 18, 2009 at 2:19 PM
To all old people should die tome….I like it….But before that, how about an IQ test…….you fail you die……..heh….signed old person
nondhimmie on June 18, 2009 at 2:25 PM
To all old people should die tome….I like it….But before that, how about an IQ test…….you fail you die……..heh….signed, old very smart person.
nondhimmie on June 18, 2009 at 2:26 PM
Don’t know much about history
Don’t know much about how health care works
Don’t know much about an economics book
Don’t know much about the constitutional law I took
But I do know that I would love imposing Marxism on you
And I know that if you would just love Lenin too
What a wonderful socialist country this would be
La ta ta ta ta ta ta
(History)
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
(Health care)
La ta ta ta ta ta ta
(Economics book)
Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
(Constitutional law I took)
But I do know that I would love imposing Marxism on you
And I know that if you would just love Lenin too
What a wonderful socialist country this would be
- The Boy Emperor
MB4 on June 18, 2009 at 2:31 PM
You got a point. But how about this..If all libs and associated KoolAid drinkers would just commit late term abortions on themselves only productive job holding responsible people would be left and they could afford to pay for their own health care.
Oldnuke on June 18, 2009 at 2:31 PM
AnninCA is busy today, working at her non-profit organization.
But if she were here, she would tell you that Kaiser is not your average HMO. It is the bestest of the best.
ObamaCare will be just like Kaiser for everyone.
Get on board with the idea or lose in 2010 and 2012.
myrenovations on June 18, 2009 at 2:32 PM
Ugggh. No thanks, I’d rather operate on my own organs than let those quacks dig around in my guts.
TMK on June 18, 2009 at 2:32 PM
We got us a constitution? Where?
MarkTheGreat on June 18, 2009 at 2:33 PM
So connect the dots. They are today talking about regulating via the Fed and Treasury. In that, they would be able to seize “any” institution (insurance company) that could fail. So, if Blue Cross looks like it will go bankrupt… they seize the company and make it their own.
This is communism people. At the very least facism. Who is going to stop Obama? Who’s running him?
suzyk on June 18, 2009 at 2:34 PM
I’ve read the following colomn from Larry Elders that make the point about those fictional 45 million without health care.
larvcom on June 18, 2009 at 2:35 PM
As I tell HS kids when I make presentations on history and business… the government doesn’t have a job. All government does is leech off of the market. If they drain too much blood, BOTH get sick.
The government pays for NOTHING. They simply take from one and give to another. The idea that government can “provide” anything on its own is nonsense.
mankai on June 18, 2009 at 2:36 PM
Obama is the usurper to the throne of King George III.
MB4 on June 18, 2009 at 2:38 PM
Yep, just read the listing of specific grievances in the Declaration of Independence if you don’t believe that!
Oldnuke on June 18, 2009 at 2:40 PM
No government entity has ever competed with a fair market entity because they can lie, cheat and demonize the fair market with our tax dollars.
fourdeucer on June 18, 2009 at 2:44 PM
The Olive Garden will be getting my business. Thanks for sharing.
txag92 on June 18, 2009 at 1:44 PM
So happy that last week Olive Garden is where we took out all of our family who came to help us celebrate our daughter’s high school graduation.
Jvette on June 18, 2009 at 2:45 PM
I am no Olive Garden fan but I will take the Fam. out there this week end to show my support.
I think those bread sticks are always under cooked.
TheSitRep on June 18, 2009 at 2:47 PM
You are thinking of the VA as it currently stands. Why would a doctor with just as much education in the military be any worse than any other doctor? My point is the government is itching to spend money. The military is already the federal government’s domain and has a huge budget. Why not just increase military spending. . . instead on bombs and foreign wars, spend it on training doctors and improving and increasing medical facilities.
If you offer that available to people without insurance for a fee, the health care system is ‘reformed’ without making too much of a difference in the current system that works for so many people.
ThackerAgency on June 18, 2009 at 2:48 PM
Well, it’s why we have had countless emergency rooms shut down in Southern California. They could no longer absorb the cost of treating uninsured people. They are required to not turn away people, so the only solution was to shut down. They are not required to admit patients to the hospital who are uninsured.
There is also a shortage of specialists on call to emergency rooms. They see no reason to be on call, come in and perform surgery, and then get minimal to no payment for it.
There was an article in the LAT Sunday magazine a few years ago that discussed it. On a Friday, a guy fell off horse and had a bad fractured leg with vascular involvement. They needed a special type of orthopedic surgeon but couldn’t find one even though this guy was insured. He had to wait 3 days before one could see one. So, this affects everyone. However, to add insult to injury, in this very long article there was not one mention of the fact that it is illegal aliens who have flooded our ERs and have caused them to shut down.
Blake on June 18, 2009 at 2:48 PM
I’ve long since learned that anything free soon becomes unaffordable.
Chaz706 on June 18, 2009 at 2:49 PM
I could have said energy… or something else. But I am hungry.
upinak on June 18, 2009 at 2:55 PM
Very true – my wife works at a small clinic and she caught a DME (Durable Medical Equipment) provider sending out bogus patient request for medical devices. The company kept sending a request to the doctors for penis inflation devices but the patients were females! Her clinic manager tried to report the fraud by calling the state and federal medicare offices, the state insurance regulator and none of those would allow a fraud charge to be filed! Finally they called the clinic’s liability insurance legal department for advice – they advised to drop the matter because the clinic could be legally liable for damages against the DME company if the fraud case could not be proven. Absolutely amazing.
MidWestFarmer on June 18, 2009 at 2:59 PM
The bottom line is that doctors and hospitals are not going to provide services that they can’t make any profit on. If the government won’t pay enough, and other customers don’t take up the slack for government insurance, then the doctors and hospitals will stop doing the procedures they don’t make any money on.
Liberals will of course call this greed, but have no ground to stand on unless they’re working as healthcare providers for free themselves.
tom on June 18, 2009 at 3:02 PM
Come, join hand in hand, brave Americans all
And rouse your bold hearts at fair Liberty’s call
No tyrannous acts shall suppress your just claim
Or stain with dishonor America’s name
In freedom we’re born and in freedom we’ll live
Our purses are ready. Steady, friends, steady
Not as slaves, but as freemen our money we’ll give
Our worthy forefathers, let’s give them a cheer
To climates unknown did courageously steer
Through oceans to deserts for freedom they came
And dying, bequeathed us their freedom and fame
In freedom we’re born and in freedom we’ll live
Our purses are ready, steady, friends, steady
Not as slaves, but as freemen our money we’ll give
The tree their own hands had to liberty reared
They lived to behold growing strong and revered
With transport they cried, now our wishes we gain
For our children shall gather the fruits of our pain
In freedom we’re born and in freedom we’ll live
Our purses are ready, steady, friends, steady
Not as slaves, but as freemen our money we’ll give
MB4 on June 18, 2009 at 3:03 PM
Nitpick, nitpick! You’re missing “the big picture” here! This is the moment when the earth will begin to heal, the oceans will stop rising and we are FINALLY going to start taking care of our sick! Just keep saying “Yes We Can!”
Star20 on June 18, 2009 at 3:04 PM
USSR 2 on steriods – provided at no expense to the public.
So if the insurers are forced to jack up their rates to cover non-reimbursed costs and thereby become unafforable to more and more people – all of which spirals into insurers going out of business or be nationalized, then the providers – hostipals, clinics, etc would not be fully reimbursed and follow suit into bankrupcy or nationalizaton.
Does this mean Obama General National Hospital is just waiting to be born?
Further, since medical records will be digitized and easily compared to voter rolls, then will people be denied Obama care on the basis of not voting Democrat?
Friendly21 on June 18, 2009 at 3:05 PM
Obama Care, the birth of the one party system in the US.
Friendly21 on June 18, 2009 at 3:05 PM
BTW, there’s only one way to fix the above problem, and that is to make all doctors federal employees, and all hospitals government institutions.
Yes, there are non-profit hospitals, but they watch their budget just the same as the for-profit hospitals. They still can’t afford to provide services they don’t get paid adequately for.
tom on June 18, 2009 at 3:06 PM
Food is on the list of things for government to control.
Heck, they did a fine job in the USSR on the subject.
Chaz706 on June 18, 2009 at 3:07 PM
ladyingray on June 18, 2009 at 1:43 PM
I can’t wait til AnninCA joins this thread, spews her idiocy, ignores questions about her rants, then leaves in a huff. Same old verse, same as the first.
txag92 on June 18, 2009 at 1:47 PM
I think I may have made her mad yesterday.
TXMomof3 on June 18, 2009 at 3:11 PM
RE: KaiserCare – it killed two of my grandparents at (relatively) young ages.
Grandfather @ 52 – conflicting medications caused a fatal stroke.
Grandmother @ 64 – oh, that tumor in your lungs? No reason to operate, we’ll just treat it with chemo…three months later she was dead.
That’s what we’re in for with Gov’t health care…
ElvenPhoenix on June 18, 2009 at 3:13 PM
Seems to fit perfectly… and that’s just the first grievance.
Chaz706 on June 18, 2009 at 3:17 PM
RE: KaiserCare – it killed two of my grandparents at (relatively) young ages.
Grandfather @ 52 – conflicting medications caused a fatal stroke.
Grandmother @ 64 – oh, that tumor in your lungs? No reason to operate, we’ll just treat it with chemo…three months later she was dead.
That’s what we’re in for with Gov’t health care…
ElvenPhoenix on June 18, 2009 at 3:13 PM
People such as yourself will have to speak out about the dangers of such a system. I am sorry for what you and your family had to endure.
TXMomof3 on June 18, 2009 at 3:25 PM
Father@64 – big, nasty tumor discovered in pancreas last month, inoperable because veins grew around it to get blood to heart, chemo only option.
Vietnam Vet dying for his country 40 years later because of the agent orange said country dumped on him for 4 years.
At some point we’ll know for sure how at least one heroic soldier is taken care of by the government…I pray that he has more than three months.
Tuesday we went to his second chemo treatment and it was an overwhelmingly disturbing experience.
racecar05 on June 18, 2009 at 3:47 PM
If you have Medicare you have to have a Medicare Supplement policy to pick up the charges that the govt. won’t pay the doctors and hospitals. Those plans are getting more and more expensive. If you don’t have a supplement, then you are billed the difference.
So if the govt does not pay for the total cost of care with Medicare what do you think the govt. will pay when we have a single payer plan?
Vince on June 18, 2009 at 4:04 PM
And for the good news…Olive Garden salad? Still delicious.
TheMightyMonarch on June 18, 2009 at 4:23 PM
So, again the rules of capitalism apply even when you don’t want them to. In the polar opposite of a monopoly, single-payer, prices come down not due to efficiency or cost savings but because the sole payer has demanded they come down. The suppliers react as you would expect: rationing everything but the most profitable of goods and services.
Kafir on June 18, 2009 at 4:23 PM
Then I like you very much. Ann is the biggest evil I’ve seen on this board, because if she is real, she represents the kind of evil that is banal. She wouldn’t hurt a fly, but she is complicit in creating a tyranny here. She is an enabler of evil, by her very stupidity. A person like that NEEDS religion to guide her. Instead, she has Cindy Sheehan and Nancy Pelosi.
JiangxiDad on June 18, 2009 at 4:27 PM
As I have mentioned previously, it takes minimum 7 years post undergraduate (starting July 1 of any particulary year)to train an general doctor, even if education was free. What happens if this is passed this summer? It will be 8 years before an increase comes via this route.
Believe it or not many doctors in training used to be in the Reserves, until Desert Storm when they tried to activate them and it would have decimated the medical training facilities which rely on their slave labor to stay in budget. Then the supply of doctors in the Reserves plummeted.
An interesting thought to save money would be to eliminate ownership by the government of the VA facilities (i.e. sell the assets to the private market)and give the vets a health card that would be managed by a private insurance company and that they could use at the local hospital. Just thinking out loud.
txmomof6 on June 18, 2009 at 4:48 PM
Two choices. One – They could not afford it – severe rationing of care.
Two – Forced labor of healthcare providers including support staff (You think all those janitors and sterilizers of equipment and cafeteria workers come free?) Resulting in a mass exodus of best and brightest, hello foreign doctors ala what is going on in England.
txmomof6 on June 18, 2009 at 4:53 PM
As I tell HS kids when I make presentations on history and business… the government doesn’t have a job. All government does is leech off of the market. If they drain too much blood, BOTH get sick.
The government pays for NOTHING. They simply take from one and give to another. The idea that government can “provide” anything on its own is nonsense.
mankai on June 18, 2009 at 2:36 PM
pullingmyhairout on June 18, 2009 at 5:12 PM
And what is their response? (sorry about the mess up above.)
pullingmyhairout on June 18, 2009 at 5:14 PM
Unfortunately, because of high liability premiums, doctors call for these tests in order to cover themselves from frivolous litigation. PA has lost many doctors– obstetricians, heart specialists, gerentologists, etc. (who have either left the profession or gone to another state to practice) because of out-of-sight liability insurance and no caps on lawsuits.
Modern diagnostic tools, as they increase in sophistication, are also expensive. Procedures that were once nonexistent or exotic are now more plentiful. With the demand for organ replacement, artificial organs, medications for chronic conditions that once upon a time spelled early death have also driven up costs.
onlineanalyst on June 18, 2009 at 5:53 PM
Redistribute everything, Lib-bama.
The idiot liberal mindset is that if everyone can’t have state of the art health care, then by God no one will.
The same with wealth, property, and wages/salaries.
Between the economy-killing, free-market destroying health care proposals, and the cap-and-tax economy-killing, backwards-thinking energy agenda, it is not hard to reach the conclusion that Obama wants America as we know her to fail.
That’s right. Obama wants America to fail.
hillbillyjim on June 18, 2009 at 8:00 PM
I agree that the healthcare system is expensive, but not for the reasons that you suggest…
To put it bluntly, our nation is infested with sue-happy lawyers waiting to cash in on every opportunity, no matter how small.
Medical students graduate with the equivalent of a 2nd mortgage in student loans. Add on several thousand dollars a year in malpractice insurance, and things aren’t looking as rosy as they first appear.
Many, many additional (and probably unneeded) tests are ordered to guard against further lawsuits that increase the prices for everyone.
Tort reform is needed to lower the artificially high cost for medical care. Until that happens, prices will continue to soar.
dominigan on June 18, 2009 at 9:04 PM
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