On 6/14/2011 5:17 PM, Ed Huntress wrote:

These sound pretty reasonable, except for the health care. Any plan that
just squeezes the payments, especially like Ryan's plan, doesn't address the
problem of rising costs. All it does is punt the problem over to someone
else.

In the case of Ryan's plan, it punts the problem to seniors, as if they,
individually, can apply pricing pressure to the insurance industry and to
the providers. This is cowardly and stupid, and the result would be a
serious decline in health care for the elderly.

The plan you describe above attempts to deal with it by squeezing the whole
system by limiting cost increases to something well below the real
historical trend. This is bound to provoke a crisis, because the health care
industry doesn't raise prices because they're making a bundle and are trying
to make more. It's because of a combination of incentives that drive prices
up: ever-increasing standards of medical treatment, and the one-way
expectation and demand for ever-more-advanced medical technology. The
customers don't want to hear about discount treatments that are almost as
good as the best. They want the best. Or they'll sue.

If Congress had the guts for it, they would address the issue of treatment
cost-efficiency by directing payment to results within cost boundaries: pay
for performance. But the Democrats won't face the fact that we're already
rationing care, and that we're better off taking the decisions out of the
hands of insurance companies. And the Republicans have screwed the pooch.
They're not going to let themselves be accused of establishing "death
panels," after all of their demogoguery on the subject.Neither one is ready
to take the reigns and take responsibility for deciding where the money
would be spent. If it was Congress itself making the individual decisions, I
wouldn't want them to, either.

So we're not going to get a very good result from any of the plans being
proposed. Nobody has the political guts to do what's necessary. What's
necessary is semi-independent panels of experts to set the payment
schedules, like they have in some European countries. Think of it as a
Federal Reserve for health care. That ought to make the skin of any
Republican crawl right off their back. Too bad they're blind and deaf. The
facts about perverse incentives driving health care are not a secret. Most
serious policy analysts are saying the same thing.



The stupidest thing about the republicans' plan to cost shift the
expense of health care from the government to the elderly is that it's
the perfect formula for losing your job in congress. The elderly may be
dumb****s, but once they see how they are getting ****ed by the
republicans, how do you think they will respond to it?

They won't sit on their asses and leave it be. They will organize and
every damn one of them will vote against everyone the see with an "R"
after their name. This kind of thing is sure to **** off old people and
to get them insanely ****ed at the republicans. So I say, pass the Ryan
plan. Then next election you won't see any republicans after the
massacre. But the republicans are too damn stupid and wedded to their
extreme ideology to do anything but put the Ryan plan in place if they
get the chance. Do it republicans. Pass the Ryan plan. Don't let the
door hit you in the ass when you leave though.

Hawke

On Jun 15, 2:33*am, Hawke wrote:
On 6/14/2011 5:17 PM, Ed Huntress wrote:







These sound pretty reasonable, except for the health care. Any plan that
just squeezes the payments, especially like Ryan's plan, doesn't address the
problem of rising costs. All it does is punt the problem over to someone
else.

In the case of Ryan's plan, it punts the problem to seniors, as if they,
individually, can apply pricing pressure to the insurance industry and to
the providers. This is cowardly and stupid, and the result would be a
serious decline in health care for the elderly.

The plan you describe above attempts to deal with it by squeezing the whole
system by limiting cost increases to something well below the real
historical trend. This is bound to provoke a crisis, because the health care
industry doesn't raise prices because they're making a bundle and are trying
to make more. It's because of a combination of incentives that drive prices
up: ever-increasing standards of medical treatment, and the one-way
expectation and demand for ever-more-advanced medical technology. The
customers don't want to hear about discount treatments that are almost as
good as the best. They want the best. Or they'll sue.

If Congress had the guts for it, they would address the issue of treatment
cost-efficiency by directing payment to results within cost boundaries: pay
for performance. But the Democrats won't face the fact that we're already
rationing care, and that we're better off taking the decisions out of the
hands of insurance companies. And the Republicans have screwed the pooch.
They're not going to let themselves be accused of establishing "death
panels," after all of their demogoguery on the subject.Neither one is ready
to take the reigns and take responsibility for deciding where the money
would be spent. If it was Congress itself making the individual decisions, I
wouldn't want them to, either.

So we're not going to get a very good result from any of the plans being
proposed. Nobody has the political guts to do what's necessary. What's
necessary is semi-independent panels of experts to set the payment
schedules, like they have in some European countries. Think of it as a
Federal Reserve for health care. That ought to make the skin of any
Republican crawl right off their back. Too bad they're blind and deaf. The
facts about perverse incentives driving health care are not a secret. Most
serious policy analysts are saying the same thing.

The stupidest thing about the republicans' plan to cost shift the
expense of health care from the government to the elderly is that it's
the perfect formula for losing your job in congress. The elderly may be
dumb****s, but once they see how they are getting ****ed by the
republicans, how do you think they will respond to it?

They won't sit on their asses and leave it be. They will organize and
every damn one of them will vote against everyone the see with an "R"
after their name. This kind of thing is sure to **** off old people and
to get them insanely ****ed at the republicans. So I say, pass the Ryan
plan. Then next election you won't see any republicans after the
massacre. But the republicans are too damn stupid and wedded to their
extreme ideology to do anything but put the Ryan plan in place if they
get the chance. Do it republicans. Pass the Ryan plan. Don't let the
door hit you in the ass when you leave though.

Hawke- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

LOL..it is already happening.

Several senior citizens I know who WERE life long Republicans are now
going to vote Democrat in the next election because Ryan's plan.

And they are pressing their senior friends HARD to do the same.

TMT