Monthly Archives: May 2017

Pre-Existing Conditions – Who Should Pay

And the debate rages over health care again.  And the left is going to lie again.

I’m seeing many posts decrying the new health are bill being moved through congress.  Gaining special attention is people’s opinions of the concept of pre-exisiting conditions.

Before I go further, it is my position that government has no role in health care, medical care or health insurance.  None.  It’s also my position that insurance companies treat pre-exisiting conditions within the context of actuarial science.  That is, if an individual has a condition prior to obtaining insurance, either the cost of that insurance is higher or the condition isn’t covered.

That being said, the narrative being trotted out by democrats is absolutely false.  Namely that Trumpcare will do away with the requirement that insurance companies must offer a policy to anyone who applies.  If you had a pre-existing condition during Obamacare and were able to obtain a policy, so too will you be able to obtain a policy under Trumpcare.

So, that being said, who SHOULD pay for such pre-existing conditions?  I found a nice article and they explain it this way:

We have a tendency to use “pre-existing conditions” as a euphemism for “expensive health care needs” but the two aren’t quite the same.  If you and I are both healthy today, and both participating in the same insurance plan, the pricing of our insurance should already factor in the probability that one of us will someday face a health problem requiring expensive treatment – and the plan should be able to handle it when we do.  But a sick person without insurance (or looking to change plans) is in a different situation; their need for health treatment is a certain problem rather than a merely possible one, and hence the average expected cost is much higher.  Technically, what they need is not insurance against a possible, unknown problem, but rather help paying for a certain, known problem.

There’s no way around a simple truth: treating an expensive health condition costs (someone) lots of money.  There are four basic approaches that can be taken to this problem.

1)    Leave sick people to face the costs of their own treatment, whether out of pocket or through high-cost insurance, no matter how ruinous those costs become.

2)    Mandate that other, healthier people overpay for the value of their own health insurance, so that sick people can underpay for the value of theirs.

3)    Spread the costs of paying expensive health bills throughout society, for example by having taxpayers pick up the tab.

4)    Require a targeted group to shoulder the costs.

The aspect that I like about this article is that they take no position on the policy.  Only that there are a limited number of options – options that describe who pays.

An important note – if you are someone that already has insurance, are healthy and then gets sick, you will be covered under that policy.  You will be provided the medical care you require and do not have a pre-existing condition.

 

The Left’s Lack of Independent Thought – And They Don’t Believe in Science

I’ve recently been engaging in climate science, the settled nature of it and the implications it has on politics.

For me, my take remains the same:

CO2 is a green house gas
Man contributes to increasing levels of CO2
Green house gases contribute to a warming world

Man has warmed the world more than it otherwise would have.

I am not convinced of catastrophic global warming.   Neither are 97% of the world’s scientists.  In fact, the IPCC itself states:

The climate system is a coupled non-linear chaotic system, and therefore the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible.

Most skeptics I know and read are of the same position.  We agree that the world is warming, that man is contributing but doubt the degree and future catastrophic consequences – the science isn’t in.

You would think such a position could easily be mainstream.  Admitting past actions and waiting for the science to come in on future actions.  But we’re dealing with the Left here, a group of people completely unhinged from reality.  For evidence, ask yourself, given that climate science  is complex and that we admit to not knowing all there is to know, look at two groups of people.

One group is made up of a population totally and completely in lock step.  Not one member of the group doubts the group thought and not one member votes against this group thought.

The second group is made up of diverse opinions.  There is debate.  There is an element of open mindedness.  Politicians in this second group do not vote in a block.

The first group are made up of folks on the left – they claim they believe in science.  They don’t.  They believe in the near religion of man made catastrophic global warming.  The second group is made up of those on the right.

We believe in science.

As evidence of this fact, we were given a demonstration this week:

In the latest sign of what some see as growing rigidity of thought among American liberals, new New York Times columnist Bret Stephens has been skewered online by readers of the paper for his first column. The subject of that column was a growing rigidity of thought among American liberals.

In a recognition of how serious the situation had become, executive editor Dean Baquet appeared on CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday morning, asking host Brian Stelter, “Didn’t we learn from this past election that our goal should be to understand different views?”

Apparently not. It’s unclear how many people have dropped their subscriptions over Stephens column, and how much of the outrage was amplified by social media. Either way, the anger is a sign of a deeper struggle on the American left over what, exactly, are the core values of the Democratic Party. There are many competitors: identity politics, wage equality, reproductive choice, renewable energy. Which are central, and which can be treated as ancillary concerns? Liberals are painfully, publicly asking themselves that question.

Liberals are cancelling their subscription to the New York Times becuase they are forced to share ideas in their safe space.

Tolerant left indeed.

Test

Testing

Happy May Day

Yesterday was May Day around the world – the one day when the world’s most social/commun-ist minded people celebrate the forms of government that renders the common man so much worse off than they otherwise would have been.

Consider two neighbors and their divergent paths:

While both Chile and Venezuela are democratic republics with mixed economies, Chile has a far greater level of market integration. HumanProgress.org’s ranking of economic freedom (based on the level of government intervention) lists Chile as the 10th freest economy in the world, leading South America. Venezuela, however, ranks last in the world.

Venezuela and its Chaveznistas have been so successful that the oil industry is in shambles, people are starving and even toilet paper is scarce.

Never to be ones to be satisfied with their poor reputation, these gentle souls of the people continue to make news:

A May Day march in Portland, Ore., “devolved into a full-scale riot with random acts of vandalism” by anarchists late Monday, police say. Attacks on police and emergency personnel resulted in 25 arrests.

Molotov cocktails, smoke bombs and other items were thrown at police, according to member station Oregon Public Broadcasting.

“Various fires were set in the street and in garbage cans, a police car was spray-painted and vandalized, and there were attempts to set at least one business on fire,” according to Portland Police. “Numerous projectiles were thrown at or launched at police and firefighters including rocks, bottles, ball bearings, fireworks, smoke bombs, and road flares.”

I leave you with The Sage: