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Farewell to the Spectator
December 16, 2011 | 8 comments
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Tentative Praise for Ryan’s New Bipartisan Medicare Plan
December 15, 2011 | 3 comments
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The Day Ahead: Thursday, December 15
December 15, 2011 | 0 comments
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Examiner for Romney, National Review Against Gingrich
December 14, 2011 | 39 comments
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Paul Ryan to Introduce New Medicare Plan with Democrat Ron Wyden
December 14, 2011 | 4 comments
The Spectacle Blog
To follow up on a point in my previous post, this New York Times chart illustrates the spending problem facing the U.S. The short-term deficits are indicative of overspending, but by far the biggest factor in a future sovereign debt crisis would be the projected uncontrolled growth of entitlement spending:
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More Blog Posts by Joseph Lawler
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/10/20/the-debt-problem-mostly-medica
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fred| 10.20.10 @ 4:41PM
Medicare needs reform. It should be defined contribution, not defined benefit. The insurance plan should be modeled after the consumer directed health plans that were beginning to reduce spending and bring down premiums before ObamaCare passed. Early indications are that it lowers first year spending by 15% and trend growth rates by 5%.
Alan Brooks| 10.20.10 @ 10:54PM
BTW, if we don't get all the way into biotech, the Chinese and others will.
Nite| 10.20.10 @ 11:22PM
Consumer driven healthcare plans only work for young healthy people. They do NOT work well for families whose members may have chronic diseases. Your suggestions would not work for seniors with limited income. Don't worry, Obama and the Democrats are simply going to deny care for Seniors. This will occur by cuts to Medicare and the Independent Medicare Board that reports to Obama. Guess we will die quickly. That will save money.
JP| 10.20.10 @ 4:42PM
And of course the President trebled the problem with his landmark ObamaCare abortion. In five years everyone will be on Medicare. I think a special landmark should be constructed in the Beltway. It should be a solid granite base with a huge statue of The Anointed One himself. And inscribed on the base should be the name of ever politician who voted for ObamaCare. The monument should be used as a warning to future generations.
Curly Smith| 10.20.10 @ 6:45PM
The only argument for nationalized health care is the ~$90 trillion unfunded liability associated with Medicare. With the stroke of a pen that liability is moved to an NHS and then erased.
dareisay| 10.20.10 @ 11:35PM
Only politicians would create a program, force people to pay into it for years, then steal $2.5 trillion from S.S. alone, plus dipped their greedy hands into Medicare funds...
All while they dine, drink, fly, dance and party on our dime.
Now they tell our seniors...sorry, you need to take a pain pill instead of a medical treatment...we scammed you with a great pyramid scheme!
How about they cut giving our money to special interest groups, the ARTS, foreign aid year after year, grants for stupid studies, their enormous retirements, salaries and all their perks, and on and on!
I think their stealing from our senior citizens is one of the worst things they have ever done.
Mark my words, if they collect any fines for people not purchasing health insurance, it too will be stolen!
Linda Joy Adams| 10.21.10 @ 12:36AM
Its the govt contractors or what Medicare calls 'business associates.' Starting 8/08, the biggest claims processors began stealing id's of claimants and claims and creating 17 out of each. Congress passed laws that no criminal investigations are allowed even though the 'evidence' is sufficient. US att's calls it largest RICCO in US history. Appeals are thrown away and office of civil rights complaints ' disppear' before any one can review and this continues. )inside collusion?)Most patients and medicare providers are unaware as ( like the Madoff Ponzi scheme) a second offline computer system is used to do this. Its visible to 1-800- medicare operaters and 500 fraud reports with best evidence has been blocked from being shared with Medicare OIG by their CEO Mel Curtis- in violation of Vangent's signed contract with CMS. SO! the problem is not Medicare or even medical treatment costs ; its the blatant theft by the business associates that Congress gave complete criminal immunity from. ( patients's , must use other means to get this info as requests for these multiples records are ignored. HIPAA doesn't apply to these entities either. ) The illegal manipulation of diagnosis codes to have Medicare pay bills that belong to another primary party has been on-going for a decade on litigation cases ( workers comp, car accidents, etc.) this hides the severity of the injuries and thus harder to justify a settlement to pay for the real amount of future medical and these bills will get 'dumped ' onto Medicare too.) This alteration ends up creating a frauduent national health insurance data base that more and more is being used by doctors for medical history with tragic loss of life and injury according to a study Congress has had for over 2 years. Now Social security intends to use this inaccurate data to process disability claims that are often injury cases; creating more havoc and losses for the people. We' re being robbed and Congress, well knows, they left us with no 'policeman' to call. Linda Joy Adams ( documented on -going case)
Simeon Cana| 10.21.10 @ 5:03AM
US healthcare is broken. period. We spend more per capita on healthcare than any other first world nation, yet get some of the lowest results by comparison than any of our first world peers. Canada, with its universal health care, spends FAR less per capita on medical provisions, and yet has consistently higher life expectency, lower infant mortality, higher cancer survival rates, lower post-operative complications rates... they beat us in almost every measurable metric.
Obamacare, as it has been dubbed, was well intentioned, I will give Obama that much, but looks like it will slightly increase our medical coverage at a massive increase in spending costs.
This is baffling. The US should look at the options for universal health care provision (Canada does it differently from France, which does it differently from Germany- all three spend less per caoita and have better health outcomes than the US) and propose a PROPER change to our current system.
I was very optimistic when Obama first talked about reforming US health care, 'about time', I said. sadly, his 'solution' doesnt seem to be much of a solution at all.
But dont let this stop us from realising that the US NEEDS a new health care system, we just need a GOOD one, not the one that has been proposed to us.
2112| 10.21.10 @ 9:38AM
Please cite your source for your Canadian statistics.
Ken (Old Texican)| 10.21.10 @ 9:47AM
Canadian healthcare in a nutshell: Detroit Michigan.
Simeon Cana| 10.21.10 @ 11:05AM
To Ken: Sorry to have to be the one to inform you of this, but Michigan is in the United States.
To 2112, certainly, I would be happy to. Which statistics in particular are you referring to? I shall post whatever sources you require here, if that would be ok. Alternatively, if you want a bigger picture, there have been a dozen studies done in the last decade directly comparing US and Canada on health care outcomes, with unanimous results, they are available simply by typing 'us canada health care' into Google.