the new health care?

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by JoeRedskin

Obamaites can call me a naysayer if they please, but to me this statement is simply foolish:

"Our health care system is broken," Obama said. "We are not going to rest until we've delivered the kind of health care reform that's going to bring down costs for families, improve quality, affordability, accessibility for all Americans." Pelosi: House taking up health care by late July - Capitol Hill- msnbc.com

Sorry, you cannot decrease costs and increase quality of care and service. Do I hope I am wrong? Sure. Do I think this is a utopian statement that is either intentionally misleading or so incredibly naive as to be idiotic? Yes.

How does he intend to fund this pollyanish plan? Through a mix of tax increases and restrictions on current tax breaks. The biggest is repealling all or a portion of the tax-break for employer based health care payments. Essentially increasing premiums for this type of insurance (whether I am paying the insurer or the govt. or a combination thereof, the cost for insurance increases).

As FRPLG said, one of the fundamental problems is that people are looking for a Ferrari but seem to think they can get it at the cost of Hyundai. If we want top quality universal health care coverage, it comes with an incredible price. I don't see the vast majority of americans willing to pay that price. In fact, I don't see the vast majority of insured Americans (82% or approximately 202 million) willing to increase their costs for what will result in a benefit to minority of americans (18%, approximately 46 million) and a likely detriment to themselves (i.e. more costs or worse, more costs and worse benefits).

Is reform necessary, sure - every system needs should be reviewed to ensure or try for improvement. Is creating a universal national health care policy funded by tax increases and restrictions on benefits the answer? Not in my opinion. Rather, focus on cutting medical costs by revamping doctor oversight which will help lower litigation cost and thus lower malpractice rates and payouts. Find ways to lower the costs to become a medical professional. Possilby create a workman's comp type system for malpractice awards (just throwing that one out there off the cuff)- i.e. get rid of the traditional defenses to malpractice and require only that an injury occurred to get a payout, in return, the payouts will be set up like worker's comp. no puni's. These two thing may help cut down the cost of malpractice insurance which, in turn, cut down fees which will cut down costs to insurers.

With costs lowered, insurance becomes more affordable and fewer people are uninsured.

The emphasis, of course, is first to lower prices then find ways to cover the remainder.

Personally, I just don't see any of it happening. Far too many vested interests in the current system. Much will be talked about but I doubt any real change will come.

I can tell you that every single finance professional at my employer, the biggest Medicaid and under-insured provider in the state of Pennsylvania, agrees wholeheartedly with you.

From the chief financial officer down to the VP of finance down to the CFOs of the hospitals down to me as the manager of financial planning, we all think the same thing: wouldn't it be nice if Obama could get it done because it would mean a huge boost in funding for us. Quality would go up in the inner city hospitals who are currently underfunded, while quality would plummet at the suburban community hospitals in working class neighborhoods. And there are a lot more of them than there are of us.

It's an absurd pipe dream which shows how out of touch Obama can be with reality. He's a great leader, and strong on law and ethics, but his strength is not with financials. One look at the numbers tells you this: you can't cut the nation's overall healthcare bill without cutting quality. The only way he can make affordable healthcare happen is by having the rich subsidize it.

I named some areas in which expense savings could be realized earlier in this thread. But to accomplish what he wants (affordable healthcare for everyone), those savings would barely register as a drop in the bucket.

Someone just needs to do the math for him, and hopefully he'll come down to reality on this issue and get practical.