Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktPosts have been a bit down over the last week (I’ve been sick and swamped at work), so here’s a bit of a random collection of stories.
“[F]our Republican senators will unveil a plan Thursday that would transition Medicare enrollees into the same health care program offered to federal employees while gradually increasing the eligibility age and requiring wealthier seniors to pay more.” The article notes that “the measure would phase out the existing Medicare program over an unspecified period of time.”
I can’t access the link that came with the above blurb, but maybe nova can help us out.
The CBO says the ACA will costs less but cover fewer people than first expected. Since the law’s primary goal is arguably to increase coverage, that seems like a bad thing.
It looks like the IPAB is going to be repealed as democrats run from the death panel as fast as they can. One of the criticisms offered up by at least one politician was that it takes these decisions away from Congress. Ummm…wasn’t that the point?
And just so it isn’t all health care, here is an amusing review of the movie version of Atlas Shrugged Part 1. The reviewer is assigned to watch random instantly available movies on Netflix and mostly he just makes fun of the movies.
And as we start the NCAA tournament….Go Green!!
Filed under: aca |
All Things in Moderation 
test
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quiz
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I have noticed that morniing traffic is pretty good, but the afternoon falls off a table. I can’t complain since I don’t have a real job, but I guess may be actuall work is keeping a lot of people busy?
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Markets have kept me fairly busy during the day recently.
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Yeah, I do think actual work is keeping people busy. It probably doesn’t help that most of our posts have just been the Morning Report. As much as I enjoy and appreciate reading the insight you all have to offer in finance, I don’t have much to contribute. I usually manage to find time to comment on a piece where I think I can contribute even if work is busy.
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ashot:
It probably doesn’t help that most of our posts have just been the Morning Report.
The topics most likely to generate comments/discussion also tend to be the most contentious and likely to piss people off. I could be wrong, but I suspect the drop off in posts/comments has at least something to do with lingering hard feelings from the brouhaha from a couple weeks ago.
But hey, at least it hasn’t been dominated by conservatives. 😉
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Letting the general public in on the Federal Health System has been one of those ideas much bandied about but never acted on. Mostly it’s been suggested as a poor man’s exchange network since the infrastructure is pre-existing and the system is much lauded for its low costs, which mostly seems to be a combination of competitive pressure and economy of scale.
I’m not sure how it would work with Medicare. It would be a minnow swallowing a whale.
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No, there is no oil shortage in the world. There will be at some point in the future 10-20 years or more, hard to say exactly, but not now:
“When Irish people talk about black gold, they’re usually referring to Guinness. That may be about to change, after an Irish company discovered the first ever commercial oil field off Ireland’s coast.”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/46690745
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I think BHO’s original idea was to throw the Fed Employee HC system open to the public, without a mandate. “Same benefit Congress gets” etc. Criticism from the left, especially John Edwards, was aimed at the non-mandatory nature of BHO’s campaign idea. Let us now pause to remember John Edwards. OK, that’s enough.
Is the Medicare trust fund, if I may call it that, in negative territory yet?
I have to think that YJKT is right about the minnow-whale concept.
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I thought the CBO scored Obamacare at $1.76 trillion, almost double the promised $900 billion original price tag?
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Re: IPAB, I havent’ read teh article, but Ds are dropping off what would have been a bipartisan vote b/c the pay for is tied to malpractice. a tactical error on the GOPs part, I think.
I’ve heard about the Medicare to FEHBP plan but haven’t seen any paper on it. will post whatever comes across my desk.
[been buried in exhcange reg this week / lost a day to computer virus/malware on Tuesday]
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ashot/NoVA:
I have a Faux Health Care Report in the queue if you two want to add to it. I too have been busy, so I haven’t gotten around to finishing it off.
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wait, are you asking about the Coburn-Burr plan?
http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=604e55db-45cc-4357-99ef-8e774dff536d&ContentType_id=eb0b88e8-9875-4b39-be9b-3d886daf4835&abb8889a-5962-4adb-abe8-617da340ab8e&b4672ca4-3752-49c3-bffc-fd099b51c966&63a582cd-9897-45a0-be42-17095ad322e2&efd17605-54a8-44be-90b1-f3794c91987a&d741b7a7-7863-4223-9904-8cb9378aa03a&Group_id=c82e4d0c-906d-4071-bfdf-15e23b7100a3
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but Ds are dropping off what would have been a bipartisan vote b/c the pay for is tied to malpractice. a tactical error on the GOPs part, I think.
So they have bipartisan agreement on repealing the IPAB, but are tacking on malpractice reform to the bill? That seems idiotic.
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So they have bipartisan agreement on repealing the IPAB, but are tacking on malpractice reform to the bill? That seems idiotic.
Never underestimate the Republican propensity for overreach.
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what yellow said — best as I can figure anyway:
rather than repeal IPAB with enough D votes to legitimately say it was bipartisan* just before the 2 year anniverary and throw a wrench into the upcoming 2nd victory parade the admin is planning, the House GOP has decided they don’t need the D votes to repeal would rather use the one thing that toxic to those Ds tha have signed on. My take is they want to hang IPAB and reform on every D. Don’t want them to be able to go home and say “I voted against the worse part of this — the death panel”
it’s a talking point. “Ds side with trial lawyers and vote to keep IPAB.”
*i know the admin was whipping Ds not to vote for repeal. that effort has stopped.
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“My take is they want to hang IPAB and reform on every D. Don’t want them to be able to go home and say “I voted against the worse part of this — the death panel”
it’s a talking point. “Ds side with trial lawyers and vote to keep IPAB.”
*i know the admin was whipping Ds not to vote for repeal. that effort has stopped.”
Bingo. Seems like good politics to me.
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All my free time (and there’s not much) has been consumed with listening to George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones books . . . and trying to finish my own long-in-the-works fantasy novel, just to be able to say I actually finished writing a novel written past the age of 15. I wrote one novel when I was 15, and it was really bad. This one is a little better, but I finished the other in eight months and I’ve been dabbling on this one, off and on, for 11 years now, so one would hope it would be slightly better.
I’ve got a few other half-finished novels. I’d just like to be able to finish ’em. So, when the writing bug strikes, which it doesn’t that often, that’s what I do with my spare time.
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I could be wrong, but I suspect the drop off in posts/comments has at least something to do with lingering hard feelings from the brouhaha from a couple weeks ago.
Doesn’t help, but the problem is also our relatively small pool of contributors. If I disappear to chase will o’ wisps and lmsinca takes a break and tao doesn’t show up and Mark has billable hours, the whole operation grinds to a halt.
Yet we seem to be collectively out of new invitees.
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I could be wrong, but I suspect the drop off in posts/comments has at least something to do with lingering hard feelings from the brouhaha from a couple weeks ago.
It’s less a matter of hard feelings than a reassessment. I, for example, wasn’t involved in the brouhaha, yet there are limits to what I will share or discuss in this forum as a result of it. To me, it just ain’t worth the bother.
And some of the drop off has to do with illnesses, family priorities, and other matters.
As for new invitees, none of my 3-D friends blog or want to. And the subjects discussed here wouldn’t be on their A-list if they were. Different things appeal to them.
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I’ve just been slammed this week.
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I second msjs@3:00pm.
Am I totally missing the boat re IPABs? I like it not constantly being a political football in Congress and I don’t buy the “death panel” jargon. In my world, private insurance companies already make such decisions.
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IPABs should be tried before being rejected.
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re: the FEHBP plan — it’s not coburn, it’s the Rand Paul plan.
http://paul.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=481
Paul, Graham, Lee and DeMint
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ashot:
Forgot to tell you yesterday that the title of this post had Bonnie Raitt in my head for much of the day.
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Forgot to tell you yesterday that the title of this post had Bonnie Raitt in my head for much of the day.
Was it you who had the Sound of Music stuck in his head because one of my other headlines?
I’m with Mark and Okie on the IPAB. At least that may be more likely to happen now that Republicans are trying to spike rather than just score.
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