Day: October 12, 2009

Are There Other Health Ideas?

We have heard all the clap trap about the Dems and we have have heard the plan from the Repubs…wait…my bad there is no plan coming from the Repubs……but there are others out there that have plans…..some pretty good some not so…..but at least they are trying to find a balance….

“A Better Way To Health Reform” written by Martin Feldstein in the WaPo….excerpts quoted below:

A good health insurance system should 1) guarantee that everyone can obtain appropriate care even when the price of that care is very high and 2) prevent the financial hardship or personal bankruptcy that can now result from large medical bills

A good system should not try to pay all health-care bills. That would lead to excessive demand, wasteful use of expensive technology and, inevitably, rationing in which health-care decisions are taken away from patients and their physicians. Countries that provide health care to all are forced to deny some treatments and diagnostic tests that most Americans have come to expect.

Here’s a better alternative. Let’s scrap the $220 billion annual health insurance tax subsidy, which is often used to buy the wrong kind of insurance, and use those budget dollars to provide insurance that protects American families from health costs that exceed 15 percent of their income.

Specifically, the government would give each individual or family a voucher that would permit taxpayers to buy a policy from a private insurer that would pay all allowable health costs in excess of 15 percent of the family’s income. A typical American family with income of $50,000 would be eligible for a voucher worth about $3,500, the actuarial cost of a policy that would pay all of that family’s health bills in excess of $7,500 a year.

The family could give this $3,500 voucher to any insurance company or health maintenance organization, including the provider of the individual’s current employer-based insurance plan. Some families would choose the simple option of paying out of pocket for the care up to that 15 percent threshold. Others would want to reduce the maximum potential out-of-pocket cost to less than 15 percent of income and would pay a premium to the insurance company to expand their coverage. Some families might want to use the voucher to pay for membership in a health maintenance organization. Each option would provide a discipline on demand that would help to limit the rise in health-care costs.

Two related problems remain. First, how would families find the cash to pay for large medical and hospital bills that fall under the 15 percent limit? While it would be reasonable for a family that earns $50,000 a year to save to be prepared to pay a health bill of, say, $5,000, what if a family without savings is suddenly hit with such a large hospital bill? Second, how would doctors and hospitals be confident that patients with the new high deductibles will pay their bills?The simplest solution would be for the government to issue a health-care credit card to every family along with the insurance voucher. The credit card would allow the family to charge any medical expenses below the deductible limit, or 15 percent of adjusted gross income. (With its information on card holders, the government is in a good position to be repaid or garnish wages if necessary.) No one would be required to use such a credit card. Individuals could pay cash at the time of care, could use a personal credit card or could arrange credit directly from the provider. But the government-issued credit card would be a back-up to reassure patients and providers that they would always be able to pay.

I am not endorsing what Mr. Feldstein is saying, but at least he has some ideas…which is more than we can say for a wealth of people on the Right.

What the final bill will look like is anyone’s guess….but I would almost bet that it will look nothing like a real “public option”…..most likely some pale imitation of the original concept…….but I think that ALL viable conceptions and solutions should get their day and then the best of ALL should be the final bill…..it is that simple….no need to turn it into rocket science….

Jobs!….Jobs!….Jobs!…..

The news is not good on the job markets…..we keep losing job after job, but yet the recession is over……well that is crap to begin with….it may be over for investors but if you work for a living it still very much a threat to your life.

Sorry…I digress…….since the GOP has absolutely nothing to counter any Dem proposal on health reform, they have jumped head long into blaming Obama for the jobs lost and immediately equate that with a failed stim plan that he, Obama, had passed in the early days of his presidency.

Bloomber is reporting”

Republicans said the jobs data are evidence Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan and the administration’s other economic recovery programs are failing. The report put Obama on the defensive after previous economic reports signaled a recovery was gaining traction.

Within minutes of the release of the government’s report, Republicans began e-mailing statements faulting Obama’s policies.

“President Obama can either acknowledge that his economic experiments have failed and change course, or continue down this path and see even more Americans lose their jobs,” Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement.

House Republican leader John Boehner, who criticized Obama for traveling to Copenhagen, said Democrats’ pledges that the stimulus package would create jobs are proving false.

bama may soon suffer the political fallout from the recession, said political scientist Bruce Buchanan at the University of Texas in Austin. The president and his party would pay a price in next year’s congressional elections if the numbers continue to disappoint.

Democrats at this point aren’t in danger of losing their majorities in Congress, he said. The political damage will be limited, “barring some peg to hang repetition on.”

When Obama took office in January, the U.S. unemployment rate was 7.6 percent. September’s unemployment figure would have reached 10.4 percent if hundreds of thousands of Americans hadn’t opted out of the labor force because jobs are so hard to get, Rupkey said.

Unfortunately, the voter does not realize nor care that any job losses began a year before Obama took office….all they know is that their neighbors and friends are unemployed and the sitting president will have to suffer the consequences of someone else plunders.

The Repubs will attack and attack the Obama admin, and eventually they will hit on something that will resonate with the voter, whether it is true or not, the voter will take heed….and it appears that jobs may just proves to be that position that actually works and not backfires on the GOP.