Quotes of the day

60,000 people have canceled their AARP memberships since July 1

TheBigOldDog on August 17, 2009 at 10:54 PM

Heh, heh – it made the lib news – now the libs are getting a dose of what the Obamasham can do.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/17/eveningnews/main5247916.shtml?tag=stack

izoneguy on August 17, 2009 at 11:11 PM

I keep reading and hearing this. Can someone give some solid evidence of this claim?

SouthernGent on August 17, 2009 at 10:52 PM

I doubt truthful evidence is out there, I do expect the left has written several falsehoods about this.

allrsn on August 17, 2009 at 11:09 PM

False Talking Point Alert — Number Two in a Series

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/03/false-talking-1.html

“The cost of health care now causes a bankruptcy in America every thirty seconds,” President Obama said at the opening of his White House forum on health care reform just now.

The claim, based on a 2001 survey, “is simply unsupportable,” he writes. “The figure comes from a 2005 Harvard University study saying that 54 percent of bankruptcies in 2001 were caused by health expenses.”

But the Harvard survey asked those filing bankruptcy whether health care costs were “a reason” behind their troubles. They were included.

They also included any bankruptcy filers with $1,000 or more in unreimbursed medical expenses in the previous two years.

Moreover, the Harvard researchers’ use of the term “medical” for expenses includes issues such as having a gambling problem.

A more recent study by another group, approaching it another way, indicates that in 2007 about eight-tenths of one percent of Americans lived in families that filed for bankruptcy as a result of medical costs.

Medical Bankruptcies: A Data-Check

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenumbers/2009/03/medical-bankrup.html

A good part of the problem is definitional. The Harvard report claims to measure the extent to which medical costs are “the cause” of bankruptcies. In reality its survey asked if these costs were “a reason” – potentially one of many – for such bankruptcies.

Beyond those who gave medical costs as “a reason,” the Harvard researchers chose to add in any bankruptcy filers who had at least $1,000 in unreimbursed medical expenses in the previous two years. Given deductibles and copays, that’s a heck of a lot of people.

Medical Bankruptcy: Myth Versus Fact

http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/25/2/w74

David Himmelstein and colleagues recently contended that medical problems contribute to 54.5 percent of personal bankruptcies and threaten the solvency of solidly middle-class Americans. They propose comprehensive national health insurance as a solution. A reexamination of their data suggests that medical bills are a contributing factor in just 17 percent of personal bankruptcies and that those affected tend to have incomes closer to poverty level than to middle class. Moreover, for national health insurance to have an impact, it would have to define “medical” expenses in a much broader way than is now typical of either private or government-funded plans.

Finally, any form of national health insurance must be paid for. As economist Victor Fuchs points out, that process creates winners and losers whose identity might not be obvious. He writes:

The ultimate cost falls on families and individuals, even when the payment mechanism makes it appear the bill is being sent elsewhere…. No magic wand of finance can divert labor, capital and other resources to medical care without resulting in a reduction in resources available for food, housing, education, recreation, or other goods and services…. The average family will have to pay the same share under any system.27
Put differently, weaving a medical-cost safety net that could protect virtually every person from bad behavior or bad luck might actually poke holes in the safety net for other vulnerable citizens. Good intentions are not enough. The Book of Job, far older than the Roman laws cited by Himmelstein and colleagues, teaches the hard lesson that no amount of good fortune is irreversible. Some combination of illness, job loss, and personal problems can assuredly dislodge even the most firmly rooted member of the middle class.

Unfortunately, expansive proposals to protect all of us distract from the pressing need to protect some of us, such as the forty-five million Americans with no health insurance and millions of others who are underinsured and vulnerable. “First, do no harm” is not just good advice for physicians; it should apply to those who would make health policy as well.

izoneguy on August 17, 2009 at 11:25 PM