From the Obama campaign: Life of Julia
I’ll be honest. This makes my stomach churn. Every one of life’s moments, made possible by the benevolence of President Obama.
Poor Julia. Obama wants her dependent on him her entire life.
Update: Apparently this has taken off. Here’s the WSJ and The Atlantic
Filed under: 2012, big government | 66 Comments »
The New York Times has an article on the the slowdown and leveling off of health care cost, as a percentage of GDP. The economy is undoubtedly a factor, as people simply delay care. But consumer-directed plans might also be a factor.
Many experts — and the Medicare and Medicaid center itself — point to the explosion of high-deductible plans, in which consumers have lower premiums but pay more out of pocket, as one main factor. The share of employees enrolled in high-deductible plans surged to 13 percent in 2011 from 3 percent in 2006, according to Mercer Consulting.
That means thousands of consumers with an incentive to think twice about heading to the doctor. One study by the RAND Corporation found that health spending among people who shifted into a high-deductible plan dropped 14 percent — though the study also found that enrollees cut back on some care that tended to save money in the long run, like vaccinations.
The article notes that there also haven’t been any big “blockbuster” drugs released in the past few years.
I think that makes the case for high-deductible and/or consumer-directed care. Patients that are insulated from the true cost of care will consume more. Shift costs their way and they consumer less.
Across the silos of care the only constant is the patient. Policymakers are being on “patient-centeredness,” but that typically means some way of monitoring and tracking patients. I think these can be a useful tool to complement, but not replace, what ultimately has to be the patient’s responsibility.
Unfortunately, the ACA makes the high-deductible plans more expensive and subjects them to the same requirements to offer “free” preventive care and the like, thus defeating the purpose.
Filed under: aca, health insurance | 7 Comments »
Here’s all you need to know about the 2012 Medicare Trustees Report, which was “released” in the sense that press releases have been issued and talking points have been distributed. Have not seen the actual report language, but will post a link when I do.
The spin is that the ACA is working and will save money. And then CMS Richard Foster will speak.
Somewhere in the back of the report, Foster will write something to the effect of “these projections are based on current law and will not be viable” long term. He’ll reference the doc fix.
Count on it. So, are those pointing to the savings “wrong”? No. Are they lying bastards? Yes.
Update: Here’s the actual report.
Yep. Foster writes:
“Further, while the Affordable Care Act makes important changes to the Medicare program and substantially improves its financial outlook, there is a strong likelihood that certain of these changes will not be viable in the long range. Specifically, the annual price updates for most categories of non-physician health services will be adjusted downward each year by the growth in economy-wide productivity. The best available evidence indicates that most health care providers cannot improve their productivity to this degree—or even approach such a level—as a result of the labor-intensive nature of these services.
Without unprecedented changes in health care delivery systems and payment mechanisms, the prices paid by Medicare for health services are very likely to fall increasingly short of the costs of providing these services. By the end of the long-range projection period, Medicare prices for hospital, skilled nursing facility, home health, hospice, ambulatory surgical center, diagnostic laboratory, and many other services would be less than half of their level under the prior law.”
He goes on:
For these reasons, the financial projections shown in this report for Medicare do not represent a reasonable expectation for actual program operations in either the short range (as a result of the unsustainable reductions in physician payment rates) or the long range (because of the strong likelihood that the statutory reductions in price updates for most categories of Medicare provider services will not be viable).
Filed under: Affordable Care Act, healthcare, Medicare | 2 Comments »
A little uplifting reading for you.
National Journal: In Nothing we Trust
It’s long but covers Americans’ increasing indifference to our institutions — government, churches, corporations, etc.
Filed under: 2012, Economy | Tagged: middle class | 14 Comments »
I will have nothing to say on health policy for awhile. My schedule is packed from here until early June.
Pens in 6
Bruins in 5
Devils in 5
Rangers in 6
Kings in 7
Blues in 6
Blackhawks in 7
Predators in 7
Pens over Preds in 6
Fluery is your Conn Smythe winner — only because Malkin won’t be able to abuse Ruk’s team, as seen below:
Filed under: fun stuff | 22 Comments »
Start-up wants to deliver tacos via drone helicopter – FAA regs don’t allow for that.
“Current U.S. FAA regulations prevent … using UAVs [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, like drones] for commercial purposes at the moment,” Simpson said over Gchat. “Honestly I think it’s not totally unreasonable to regulate something as potentially dangerous as having flying robots slinging tacos over people’s heads … [O]n the other hand, it’s a little bit ironic that that’s the case in a country where you can be killed by drone with no judicial review.”
Filed under: innovation, NDAA | Tagged: idiots, NDAA | 5 Comments »
This article in the Atlantic addresses the “money and politics” problems and touches on what successful lobbyists offer members of Congress: expertise and research. Congressional staffers are not typically paid that well and they’re overworked, so they rely on well funded and staffed people to do their research, draft their white papers, etc. for them. I’d include coalition building in that. The whole thing is worth a read.
The article links to a Ezra Klein piece, also worth reading, on lobbying that includes this nugget from a book that he was reviewing:
The lobbyist today is ethical, and well educated. He or she works extremely hard to live within the letter of the law. More than ever before, most lobbyists are just well-paid policy wonks, expert in a field and able to advise and guide Congress well. Regulation is complex; regulators understand very little; the lobbyist is the essential link between what the regulator wants to do and how it can get done…. Most of it is decent, aboveboard, the sort of stuff we would hope happens inside the Beltway.
Couldn’t have said it better.
Also, every so often a member will gloat that he returned money from his budget that would have been spent on staff. That just tells me he’s not hiring well. You learn very quickly how well or poorly a particular member is staffed.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: political process | 8 Comments »
I’m passing this along because I thought it was an interesting model. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time right now to do a full post on it.
Liberals Are Wrong: Free Market Health Care Is Possible
Filed under: health insurance | 22 Comments »
Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
jnc4p
Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Arcanaut
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojkt
All Things in Moderation 