rssJust in Time for the Health Reform Debate…
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 at 4:37 pm
- 2 Comments
… comes a report (pdf) that finds Medicare’s hospital fund will go broke sometime in 2017 — two years earlier than analysts reported just a year ago. The projections for Social Security are much better, with the trust fund for the elderly expected to dry up in 2083 2037.
Not that any of this comes as a surprise. Congress has faced the looming Medicare crunch for years, only to punt any major reforms to another day. This year, though, might be different. President Obama has made comprehensive health care reform a top priority, and he’s putting heaps of political capital toward the cause. Indeed, everyone from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) to the American Association of Retired Persons is tossing out press releases right now pointing to the new Medicare insolvency numbers as a rallying cry for a sweeping health care overhaul in 2009.
Here’s AARP:
Medicare’s accelerating insolvency is largely a result of two problems — an economic recession that is increasing demand on public health programs while lowering revenues, and skyrocketing costs throughout the health care system — that will only be fixed by comprehensive reform in 2009.
And here’s Grassley:
Kicking the can down the road isn’t an option anymore because we’re at the end of the road. Necessary policy reforms to add efficiency and improve Medicare’s fiscal health without cutting benefits will take time to implement. If Congress waits, the savings from those changes won’t materialize until after the program becomes insolvent. At that point, the only options would be cutting provider payments, reducing benefits, or raising payroll taxes.
Doing these things, though, will be a Herculean task. Americans are projected to spend $2.6 trillion on health care this year — a figure that’s projected to grow at a much quicker clip than the rest of the economy in the coming decade. And despite a recent pledge from some of the largest medical industries to trim their costs, there’s not a player in the health delivery system that really wants to take a pay cut. On top of everything else, the short term expense to overhaul the health care system will be tremendous. Even if those changes are made in the name of long-term savings and stability, they could be a tough sell among lawmakers who’ve already got a bitter taste after allocating hundreds of billions of (borrowed) dollars to prop up the ailing economy.
Whoever said it’s good to be the king wasn’t in Obama’s shoes.
2 Comments
Comment posted May 12, 2009 @ 3:33 pm
Health care in America is like a corpse, where vultures pick at the flesh until all that's left is the bones. The for profit companies are the insurance companies, the drug companies, the billing houses—they are the carrion vultures who extract every penny from the patient. They certainly have no love for Universal Health care, as their is little profit in a government run establishment. The propaganda ads have already started broadcasting on radio and television, with probably paid professional actors vilifying the European system of medical care. Before Europe was overrun by millions of legal and illegal immigrants, my relatives received excellent general health, hospital, eye and teeth care. But when England joined the Common Market and were forced by a bunch of bureaucrats in Brussels to open their doors to cheap labor, the health care system went downhill.
In America it's like a feast, with the insurance entities picking and choosing people, according to their sickness. Insurance companies investigate pre-existing conditions, so they can deny coverage. Even when your sick you have to reach your deductible, before the “hounds of Hell,” will pay anything. Then in addition you have the co-pays and premiums. Nothing like that in England. No worry about debt collectors or bankruptcy for medical bills. Their is no billing department in a hospital or clinic. You pay your share in taxes as does the employer. Of course things have been altered, because of the once, quiet and peaceful country has been invaded by commonwealth immigrants and millions of illegal aliens. If you want to to see what America is going to look like after a path to citizenship–better known as AMNESTY take a look across the sea. See the traffic chaos on the roads of Britain. My relatives have informed it's not the England of Sir Winston Churchill, but a multicultural mess where indigenous Englishman have been ignored, and foreign labor have been given council housing over the working class. The free trade agenda is like the undercurrent of illegal labor taking jobs from Americans, where immigration law has not been enforced.
Our nation is no different, as Federal mandates has been forced upon us higher taxes, to pacify corporate welfare. Cheap foreign labor has wrecked the English Social welfare system, because immigrants are very knowledgeable on cheating all manner of federal, state benefits. The liberal subversive groups continually expand on the mantra that 47 million people have no health insurance. The truth is a large portion of the millions of illegal immigrants families cannot afford medical insurance, that why the Fed's used a Federal law, making hospitals comply with illegal aliens and must be received. That's why California hospitals have either crashed and burned because of this law. Emergency rooms were meant for just that—Emergencies, but illegal immigrants have caught on, that they can get relief from any minor ailment, including the common cold.
AMERICA WILL NEVER HAVE A DECENT HEALTH CARE SYSTEM, UNTIL EITHER INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE RETIRED OR MUST FIND THEIR PATIENTS IN THE WEALTHY CONSUMERS. WITH SO MUCH CORRUPTION EMANATING FROM WASHINGTON, I DOUBT VERY MUCH THAT A SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM WILL EVER PASS IN OUR SENATE.
Comment posted May 12, 2009 @ 10:33 pm
Health care in America is like a corpse, where vultures pick at the flesh until all that's left is the bones. The for profit companies are the insurance companies, the drug companies, the billing houses—they are the carrion vultures who extract every penny from the patient. They certainly have no love for Universal Health care, as their is little profit in a government run establishment. The propaganda ads have already started broadcasting on radio and television, with probably paid professional actors vilifying the European system of medical care. Before Europe was overrun by millions of legal and illegal immigrants, my relatives received excellent general health, hospital, eye and teeth care. But when England joined the Common Market and were forced by a bunch of bureaucrats in Brussels to open their doors to cheap labor, the health care system went downhill.
In America it's like a feast, with the insurance entities picking and choosing people, according to their sickness. Insurance companies investigate pre-existing conditions, so they can deny coverage. Even when your sick you have to reach your deductible, before the “hounds of Hell,” will pay anything. Then in addition you have the co-pays and premiums. Nothing like that in England. No worry about debt collectors or bankruptcy for medical bills. Their is no billing department in a hospital or clinic. You pay your share in taxes as does the employer. Of course things have been altered, because of the once, quiet and peaceful country has been invaded by commonwealth immigrants and millions of illegal aliens. If you want to to see what America is going to look like after a path to citizenship–better known as AMNESTY take a look across the sea. See the traffic chaos on the roads of Britain. My relatives have informed it's not the England of Sir Winston Churchill, but a multicultural mess where indigenous Englishman have been ignored, and foreign labor have been given council housing over the working class. The free trade agenda is like the undercurrent of illegal labor taking jobs from Americans, where immigration law has not been enforced.
Our nation is no different, as Federal mandates has been forced upon us higher taxes, to pacify corporate welfare. Cheap foreign labor has wrecked the English Social welfare system, because immigrants are very knowledgeable on cheating all manner of federal, state benefits. The liberal subversive groups continually expand on the mantra that 47 million people have no health insurance. The truth is a large portion of the millions of illegal immigrants families cannot afford medical insurance, that why the Fed's used a Federal law, making hospitals comply with illegal aliens and must be received. That's why California hospitals have either crashed and burned because of this law. Emergency rooms were meant for just that—Emergencies, but illegal immigrants have caught on, that they can get relief from any minor ailment, including the common cold.
AMERICA WILL NEVER HAVE A DECENT HEALTH CARE SYSTEM, UNTIL EITHER INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE RETIRED OR MUST FIND THEIR PATIENTS IN THE WEALTHY CONSUMERS. WITH SO MUCH CORRUPTION EMANATING FROM WASHINGTON, I DOUBT VERY MUCH THAT A SINGLE PAYER SYSTEM WILL EVER PASS IN OUR SENATE.
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