Health Insurance Competition

The political left loves to tell how private insurance companies, or any private business, should be able to compete with any entity that is government-run, especially with regard to health insurance.

But we know that government entities are not operated at low cost. The Post Office is one example. Medicaid and Medicare are government insurance coverage run amok.

What pro-government enthusiasts never tell you, is that government has no capital costs. The taxpayer subsidizes capital as well as operational outlays.

All private health insurance companies must provide expensive capital and funds and yet have only a few percentage points of profit to show for it.

Never fall for the argument that having a government agency option to choose from, in health insurance, will help the consumer.

Health Insurance for the Undocumented

At least twelve million illegal immigrants may now qualify for free health care, for themselves and relatives, under ObamaCare and present local law. So-called undocumented immigrants still get medical care when they ask for it.

Only about eight million Americans cannot afford health insurance premiums. The media dwells on a number of well over forty million that includes many who do not want coverage or do not need it for any number of reasons.

I would think it would be far cheaper to give the needy group health coverage free of charge, without revamping the entire system.

Government Health Experience

ObamaCare overlooks past experience of with regard to government health coverage.

Examples:

The bad service the Canadians and Europeans get in terms of care and rationing of care.

The sharply rising costs of Medicaid and Medicare, present forms of government sponsorship in this country, and the fraud in Medicaid and Medicare that now exists.

The current shortage of doctors and providers without adding additional patients.

The poor experience of the few states that have what ObamaCare eventually wants for “guaranteed issue” coverage.

ObamaCare can propose step-by-step changes without emulating problems encountered elsewhere, but does not.

ObamaCare and New Doctors

The Law of Supply and Demand applies to MDs and health providers as it does to all commodities.

You may tell the public you will increase their ability to get medical care. But to do so, you must also increase the number of doctors, and medical facilities, plus aides.

It takes about eight to ten years to educate and train a student willing and smart enough to become a doctor. At a cost of at least $100,000.

ObamaCare attempts to cut health costs through a reduction of doctor income. This would make it tougher to explain the investment or acquired debt of becoming a doctor. Nobody mentions training new doctors at government expense and if it ever happened, why train so hard for so little compensation?

Public and Private Worker Unions: A Distinction

Why not have the House of Representatives in Washington approve the pay and work contract of all federal employees?

There is no reason for government unions. FDR wouldn’t stand for it during the New Deal and Great Depression. If fed government labor wants better pay, they can vote for a labor party or its equivalent.

Private workers can and should have the right to join private unions. Negotiation with private employers is totally different than dealing with taxpayers where a union has the ability to influence government politicians and bureaucracy.

Public Pension Problems

The public pension deficit gaps are worse than what the mainstream media mention.

That’s because the projected income used for investments in them is still too high at 7% and 8% when actual earnings are more like 6% and less.

In reality, the estimated earnings on investments to pay future public employee pension payments ought to be equivalent to what the state or city or other local entity has to pay when it borrows to finance the pension money.

Therefore, the problem we see today has, unfortunately, been hidden too long by politicians kicking the proverbial can down the road.

Current Medicare and Medicaid Fraud

Medicare fraud is estimated to be about $60 billion each year.

Widespread criminal operations go mostly unchecked because of poor government oversight on varying levels. It consists of ploys such as using dead doctor reports, fake patients and non-existent treatments.

The FBI says Medicaid fraud is a $10 billion annual industry. Practices involve billing for nonexistent or unnecessary services, kickbacks and inflated costs.

With all this, how is the government going to undertake a massive health insurance plan that will entail one sixth of our entire economy?

Politicians on the left tell you only how this fraud-infested system is going to save money.

Educational Failings and Educators

The primary purpose of education is to teach a student to think, not to merely graduate and collect a degree.

By that standard, all current independent research and surveys have come to one conclusion. Education in the U.S. at all levels, from elementary school to high school, through college, has been a complete, dismal disaster. That is. for the students.

It has done extremely well for the “educators” who have given the latter term a new meaning.

Torts and Health Insurance Cost

The neglected cost of health insurance discussion is a subject the Obama administration intentionally glosses over because about 90% of lawyer political contributions go to the Democrat party.

Yet, the cost of malpractice insurance and the need for tort reform to reduce cost, represents a major area for health insurance reform. It has not been directly addressed by ObamaCare, under which MDs can still be easily sued for malpractice.

Hidden ObamaCare Costs

With the talk about ObamaCare, it stands to reason that any government has a disadvantage in cutting costs. Politics finds it easier to hire than to fire. Voters you fire will not vote for you again. Politics finds it easier to overpay. Especially when government jobs are unionized.

Has any government ever run efficiently? The Post Office, for example?

Also: Let us consider our experience with Medicaid and Medicare. How they have botched efficiency and costs of that forerunner to proposed ObamaCare.

If the cost of Medicaid and Medicare have gotten so far out of hand, beyond their original projections, how can we believe the health care savings fantasies of the future?

Inflation: The Fed Solution?

The Federal Reserve Bank policy under Alan Greenspan after the turn of the 21st Century, and under Ben Bernanke today, has always shown some fear of deflation, the kind that engulfed Japan for over the past twenty years. So the Fed always has had an inflation bias.

But why was deflation acceptable in the second half of the 19^th Century when the U. S. operated and expanded under the gold standard? Prices trended down for decades. The financial panics the U. S. experienced were relatively short.

And why must we have 2% or 3% inflation as a norm? That can hurt middle class savings over time? To make it worse, an International Monetary Fund economist has suggested a target inflationary rate of 4%, to make it easier to fight recessions by adjusting interest rates. He deems today’s rates too low to be used as a recession-fighting tool.

But even 2% inflation is a cruel tax.

A Solution to the Shortage Of Doctors

Unsaid with all the talk about ObamaCare is the fact we already have a shortage of doctors, particularly in primary care. This gets worse every year. Moreover, this occurs most rapidly where the government keeps restricting their income and adds to the workload.

While ObamaCare planning has doctors still subject to any alleged tort malfeasance.

Massachusetts, for example, covers 97% of its residents with enforced coverage, but it does not have enough doctors to accommodate the added insured put into the system. The average wait time to see a primary care MD is up to from 36 to 50 days. Yet, the state happens to have more of these doctors than others.

Furthermore, the shortage is expected to get worse throughout the country, as doctor income is pressured downward, while workloads go up.

Doctors start careers in heavy debt and it is becoming more and more impossible for them to recoup that burden with present political thinking in this country.

Universal health care planning loses lots of its common sense regarding doctor employment. Without enough competent doctors, the best planning is useless.

Potential Doctor Shortages Under ObamaCare

Finding a doctor under ObamaCare will not be as easy as passing a law offering universal health insurance. You have to pay them a decent wage for the skills they have.

About 1,500,000 Canadians don’t have or cannot easily find a primary care physician. Because of a shortage in medical staff in Norwood, Ontario, in one instance, a TV video showed a town clerk pulling names of lucky winners to see a doctor in a lottery. Losers had to wait.

That’s only one reason many sick Canadians have come to America for surgery. Canadian officials call much of what we may consider essential surgery as “elective.”

Before we change our system to emulate Canada’s or that of the British, or any other universal health coverage version, remember health coverage does not automatically mean health care.

Our Own Greek Problem?

Under the Maastricht Treaty, leading to the European monetary union, budget deficits were sharply limited to as a percentage gross domestic product (GDP) and total debt was restricted to 60% of GDP.

However,Greece consistently cheated. France and Germany and others also broke the Treaty agreement in this regard.

Ben Bernanke, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank in the U. S., has said that total debt of 2% and 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) is sustainable, and we are now past that level. (The extraordinary Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae debt are not in the federal budget.)

So why are we not headed down the same road to disaster?

Our Own Greek Problem?

Under the Maastricht Treaty, leading to the European monetary union, budget deficits were sharply limited to as a percentage gross domestic product (GDP) and total debt was restricted to 60% of GDP.

However,Greece consistently cheated. France and Germany and others also broke the Treaty agreement in this regard.

Ben Bernanke, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank in the U. S., has said that total debt of 2% and 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) is sustainable, and we are now past that level. (The extraordinary Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae debt are not in the federal budget.)

So why are we not headed down the same road to disaster?

The Law of Medical Supply and Demand

To make health coverage cheaper without government, increase supply to meet demand. And be alert to how it should not be done.

Add the number of patients but add more doctors. Developing disincentives for doctors to practice family medicine, will not make medicine cheaper. You cannot legislate lower income for doctors and have more in the system.

Driving out of business over 1500 competing private insurance companies with onerous mandates will not reduce costs. Have insurance companies compete over state lines, which they presently are not permitted to do. That may even attract competition.

And remember, rationing of benefits under the guise of “suggesting” treatments that doctors ought to give, is not a proper way to reduce demand to meet supply.

Law Suits and Health Costs

The political bias in health insurance is highly evident and ObamaCare is guilty of it. It explains why tort reform was never a part of the proposals.

What could save enormous costs but is hardly ever mentioned is tort reform. Even though the government will tell the doctor how to practice, he or she could still be sued for malpractice. All that’s needed is a cap on lawsuits, something the lawyers are successfully lobbying against.

At least 25% of medical costs are for defensive medicine. Yet, impartial arbitration panels could determine whether patients have been harmed, and how, and for how much they ought to be compensated.

Without lawyer imagination, subterfuge and costs.

ObamaCare Taxes on Small Business

By forcing every employer to insure its employees under ObamaCare, those who don’t offer coverage, will pay a penalty.

Labor is a major cost for most small, non-manufacturing businesses, The net, bottom line often does not exceed 5% or 10%. With an added health tax, many entrepreneurs who would love to insure employees when they want to attract them in a booming economy, will not be able to afford them.

Is this legislation for a recessionary economy in need of a genuine boost?

Should Government Operate Supermarkets?

ObamaCare in its present form, despite what the administration has said. will not force the 1500 or so private health insurance companies become more competitive.

All it had to do would be to make it possible for companies to compete across state lines. ObamaCare did not call for it.

But if the government presence could make health insurance more competitive, why not a government supermarket chain to cut prices? Or a government clothing chain?

That is what Russian consumers "enjoyed" under the Soviet Union.

College Training Dysfunction Correction Needs

I have noted before the lack of balance in colleges with regard to the world political and cultural view of campus teachers.

One-sided views negate the purpose of going to college for a broad education. The minutiae that are relegated to memory are soon forgotten. But the ability to reason and think ought to be the prime college education goal.

The remedy is simple: Publish the resumes, including commentaries of all professors and full time instructors, along with the rest of the routine material that colleges use to entice prospective students.

Have teachers and professors comment on their ideas about recent Supreme Court decisions on business, finance and other pertinent U. S. Constitutional matters. Moreover, schools ought to be responsible for the relative accuracy of such statements made to recruit students.

Truth in advertising laws should apply to college recruiting.

“Guaranteed” Health Coverage Can Cost Lives

Almost 15% of patients in Great Britain must wait more than one year to receive treatment, after they have been referred to a specialist by a doctor. As much as 50% of patients getting government care must wait between 18 to 52 weeks for treatment.

Over three-quarters of Canadians must wait about three months for an MRI under government-operated health care.

You can imagine how their governments put teeth at the bottom of the preference list when they must cut costs.

More than 75% of National Healthcare Service British patients waited four or more weeks for admittance into a hospital, as reported in May, 2009.

The average survival rate for all types of cancer for patients in the United States is 60%. Canada’s survival rate is at 55%; Europe’s is at 48%. About 80% survive prostate cancer diagnosis in the USA , as compared to about 43% in the U.K., under their nationalized service.

Something ObamaCare proponents in this country never mention.

Americans are not all familiar with this. The media tends to overlook such facts and continue to spout ObamaCare propaganda without much analysis.

Government Drug Cost Manipulation

Overseas government sponsors of public health insurance always set standards for doctors to treat patients. This is what is being done to reduce costs under government-sponsored programs in England, Canada, and Europe.

But what you are not told by U.S. public health enthusiasts, for example, is that cheaper drugs dispensed are often the older versions. They are older generics, whereas newer, more costly branded versions are not dispensed.

That saves money for the government health system.

However, in many instances, older drugs are not better. In fact, they may not do as good a job as the newer, branded drugs.

The government saves money at the expense of the patient’s health or life.

Why Not Have Government Health Standards Instead ?

The Harvard School of Public Health reported that about twelve health style abuses account for over one million American deaths each year. Cut down those statistics and you have remedied the health care problem.

It’s been estimated that smoking costs about 467,000 American lives a year. High blood pressure from unhealthy lifestyles causes about 395,000 lives per year. There is some overlapping as bad health habits are the cause of multiple afflictions.

An emphasis on such changes can save the American economy an enormous amount of money, while keeping its capital infrastructure intact.

But that may be too simple for many of our health care grandstanding politicos. They would rather change the entire structure of a sixth of the economy. By having government controls.

The Media and My Doubts

The media is often inaccurate in their business and financial information and idea comments. Always question the accuracy and slants you get on such subjects.

There are three basic reasons for my doubts about the accuracy and slant of the media.

One is the fact that most of the actual reports are not in-depth. Reporters and columnists may not have the time to devote to the topic or they are simply too lazy to get into details.

Secondly; many do not know their subject. It is difficult to adequately discuss business or finance without real hands-on business and/or financial experience. Few in the media do meet these requirements.

And thirdly; the slant of most reporters and columnists who have learned from their college professors, have had a left-leaning bias thrust on them for a number of years. It shows in their career work. They have no idea how the real, day-to-day business and financial world works.

So my ingrained doubts about the media persist.

U.S. Government Show Trials

Government show trials, comparable to those in the Soviet Union, have happened before our eyes and can happen again. They serve the purpose of populist politicians.

Under the Obama administration, a few months back, Congress organized a union chase after Toyota, which is non-union, in a huge show trial with the cameras and the finger pointing. No suggestions were made that confused victims sometimes stepped on gas pedals instead of brakes, which jammed sensitive equipment. And occasionally high-tech equipment went bad.

The government and union conflict-of-interest with its ownership of competing General Motors and Chrysler, of course had nothing to do with this extravaganza showcase.

45 million Americans Without Health Insurance?

The left in the U.S. in this country claims 45 million Americans have no health insurance. There is lots of doubt about this figure. Many claim, with reasonable authority, that this includes illegals, those in between jobs that offer insurance, and folks who are not interested and wish to self-insure.

But as with many of their claims, facts are not important; the left prefers to substitute good intentions with fact as the norm.

Yet, if that number is considered, that is only about 15% of the population. And, in truth, we are looking at true need in only about 5% of the population. They can be handled without a massive restructuring of our national economy.

College Political Shortcomings

I have spoken about this often before. Its importance makes it worth repeating.

Of the 630,000 full time college instructors and professors, there is a major dysfunction in the way they instruct their students. It has been going on for some time, but it has been recognized only by a few.

It has to do with the world political and cultural view of those who teach our youth. and negates the whole purpose of going to college.

Tidbits relegated to memory are soon forgotten. The ability to reason and think clearly, ought to be what college education should instill in youthful minds.

But when not more than 5% of college professors and teachers vote Republican, even much less in the social sciences, as in the 2004 election, red flags should go up all over.

How broad are perspectives being taught? These academics are turning out media “giants” and our business and political leaders who are attuned to ideas slanted to one political party.

The media are desperately in need of a broader perspective than what they get in school. They require a more independent, and less politically slanted view of what they now get toward business, finance and western values.

The Entitlement Era in Bloom

Sometimes the liberal sense of entitlement gets out of hand. Examples: Ads on credit card reduction services where banks are abused for wanting to collect “YOUR money they lent you.”

Or where you have the sole right to change the terms of your mortgage from lenders, obligations that you never could afford and never should have taken.

Read or listen to the media and you get the impression that bankers and not the politicians are responsible for the mortgage mess.

Wasting College Tuition Funds and Time

I would suggest two new books, about wasteful college education, a subject on which I cannot comment often enough. It’s a message to which the media gives too little attention.

One study is “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses” by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa (the University of Chicago Press), and “Higher Education?: How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids—and What We Can Do About It,” by Andre Hacker and Claudia Dreifus (Macmillan).

The sociologist Andrew Hacker and New York Times reporter Claudia Dreifus say, among other points, that faculty attention on tenure and sabbaticals have an influence on the education a university offers. Too little effort involves the learning environment.

Sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roska, provide another serious view of the educational mess we consider the most prestigious college educators. Arum and Roska find about half of students do poorly in analytical reasoning and critical thinking as well as written communications during their first two years of college.