Tag Archives: Health Care

Where Brad and Britt Have it Wrong

Posted on November 4, 2009 | Leave a comment

I was listening to the Brad and Britt show this morning on my way to work.  The show was dominated by Rep Foxx’ comments regarding terrorism and the health care bill.   And, prolly as it should, the discussion turned back to the whole health care debate in general.  The old, should we or shouldn’t we thing concerning health care.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I love me some health care debate.  Not at all.  But what killed me was Britt’s comment:

Look, these people are already going to the emergency room and we’re paying for that.  We might as well insure them, use the power of numbers to reduce the cost, so that we all save money!

I wonder if he would say this:

Look, we are buying these people food and clothing.  We’re sending them checks every month.  We may as well take some of their paycheck early in life, invest it for them so that when they need it, they can have it later in life!

My guess.  He wouldn’t.  Which is why I call bullshit.

We all have Liberty given to us.  We can make choices or not make choices.  The consequences are there to be had.  Either you are for protecting that Liberty or you are not.

Brad and Britt are not.  They are political hacks making a buck off the radio.

Pure.

And.

Simple.

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Posted in Health Care, Politics: North Carolina

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A Lesson in the Tender Mercies of Government Programs

Posted on November 1, 2009 | Leave a comment

Of course this is how it turns out:

The Seattle Library proposal for 2010 would cut service hours by 23 percent, and 21 of the branches would limit access to 35 hours a week.

There are too many methods to suggest on how Seattle might fix this situation.  None of them will likely dawn on the civic leaders of that fair city.  Why?  Because they are government employees.  They are unable to access value in the face of duty.

See, if you suggest that perhaps Seattle should charge a bit more [if they even charge now] for their services, those fair-minded bastions of civic service would blanch!

Charge more for books!?!  We simply couldn’t do that, it wouldn’t be fair to the people of our fair city!  They are dependent upon us to provide them with a safe place to read books.  Charge.  Hah!

So instead, they’ll just reduce the availability of those free services; by 23%.  I guess with holding free services isn’t considered unfair.  And such is the mind of the leftist.  It is better to have less of a free service than more of a fee based service, even though by being fee based, you get a better system. How much would it take, do you ask, to restore services to the city’s libraries?  Let’s check:

It could operate three more branches seven days a week, for about $430,000; it could add six more for $860,000, or it could add three seven-day branches and restore a sixth day at all branches for about $1 million.

And how many people visit the library each year?

According to the ALA, Seattle, with its central library and 26 branches, is one of the top cities of its size in the nation for library visits, more than 6 million a year. Nearly one in 11 Seattle residents use the library

So, we need to scare out $1 million from 6 million visits; that’s about 0.16 per visit.  But that would mean charging people for a service.  A service that they are now getting less of.

Oh, I we haven’t even discussed just simply reducing costs yet….

And they want to trust these guys to run health care.

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Econ 101: A Lesson in the Tender Mercies of Medical Care

Posted on October 14, 2009 | Leave a comment

So, it turns out that while you may be able to legislate price, you can not legislate costs:

For years, Mayo Clinic officials have complained that Medicare and Medicaid pay less than what it costs to treat patients.

Now they’re doing something about it.

In the past week, the Rochester-based clinic said it will stop caring for 50 Medicaid patients in Montana and Nebraska starting Jan. 1, unless they have a rare disease that can’t be treated elsewhere. Also on that date, a handful of Mayo’s primary care doctors in Arizona will opt out of Medicare, forcing some 3,200 patients to pay out-of-pocket or find new providers.

Really!?!

You mean that when government imposes price ceilings you get shortages?  Who would have thought that?

The difference between prices and costs is not just a fine distinction made by economists. Prices are what pay for costs — and if they do not pay enough to cover the costs, then centuries of history in countries around the world show that the supply is going to decline in quantity or quality, or both. In the case of medical care, the supply is a matter of life and death.

…

When politicians talk about “bringing down the cost of medical care,” they are not talking about reducing any of these costs by one cent. They are talking about forcing prices down through one scheme or another.

-Thomas Sowell

It is a law as sure as gravity; when you artificially reduce the price of something below what the market would otherwise demand, you will get less of it or worse of it.

Count on it.

Postscript:  For added fun, here is a foretaste of the feast to come:

“Both of these moves are very difficult for us to make,” said spokeswoman Shelly Plutowski. “Both point to the fact that we as a country need to change the way we pay for health care. Mayo Clinic and other providers lose money on every Medicare patient we see, and the same goes for Medicaid.”

Last year, it cost Mayo $840 million more to treat Medicare patients than it received in payments, Plutowski said. The clinic also lost $100 million treating Medicaid patients, she said.

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The Health Care Lottery

Posted on September 10, 2009 | 1 comment

Much debate has been made about the uninsured in America.  I have tried and tried and tried to make the point in my personal conversations that you can not claim you can’t afford thing “A” when you voluntarily spend the money that could purchase thing “A” and instead buy thing “B”.  That is to say, if I have enough money to book, but instead purchase a DVD, I can not claim to be unable to buy the book.  I simply decided to prioritize the DVD higher than the book.

The same is true of health insurance.  If I have money to purchase health insurance but instead choose to buy thing “B”, I can not claim to be unable to afford health insurance.  I just decided not to buy it.  Now, I understand that there are things in life that seem to qualify as “must have”.  Shelter, food and clothing to name a few.  People even claim that an internet connection and phone service can qualify as required services.  So I tried to find an item that in no way could be classified as “required”.  I came up with lottery tickets.

Now, looking at uninsured data found at Carpe Diem, there seem to be three rough categories of people:

uninsured by income

  1. Those that make less than $25,000 a year
  2. Those that make from $25,000 to $50,000 a year
  3. Those that make more than $50,000 a year

Those three breakdowns seem to describe the uninsured equally.  About 30% of the uninsured population are in each category.   Let’s see if my theory holds true for the lower income population.

Using data reported by 4 Professors at Duke University, we are able to see lottery participation rates as well as annual per capita amounts.

Lottery Play by Demographic

What it shows is remarkable.  Combining the players making less than $25,000 per year we see that just about HALF of the population plays the lottery.  Further, those people who play are spending near $600 a year!  This means that these players have near $600 of annual disposable income that they are choosing to spend on the lottery.  By going here, I can find a policy that covers a single 25-year-old man for $52 a month.  Or, $612 a year – almost exactly what is being played on the lottery.

Given that a group of people have disposable income of near $600 and that an insurance policy costs nearly $600, can you realistically say that those folks are unable to afford health insurance?

Me either.

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The Chairman’s Weekly Radio Address: August 16, 2009

Posted on August 18, 2009 | Leave a comment

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Saturday, August 15th, 2009

This week, I’ve been traveling across our country to discuss health insurance reform and to hear directly from folks like you – your questions, your concerns, and your stories.

Nah, nah ya haven’t.  You’ve been making fun of guys like me.  Calling me a teabagger and a right wing nut case.  What you ARE doing is travelling across the country talking to folks like you!

Now, I know there’s been a lot of attention paid to some of the town hall meetings that are going on around the country, especially those where tempers have flared. You know how TV loves a ruckus.

Ahhwww, you folksy guy you!  But really, ’cause organizing is your bag I’m just ‘spossed to not have my say?

But what you haven’t seen – because it’s not as exciting – are the many constructive meetings going on all over the country where Americans are airing their hopes and concerns about this very important issue.

I’ve been holding some of my own, and the stories I’ve heard have really underscored why I believe so strongly that health insurance reform is a challenge we can’t ignore.

They’re stories like Lori Hitchcock’s, who I met in New Hampshire this week. Lori’s got a pre-existing condition, so no insurance company will cover her. She’s self-employed, and in this economy, she can’t find a job that offers health care, so she’s been uninsured for two years.

See, now that’s strange.  And while I’m not callin’ ya a liar, I AM sayin’ I don’t believe you.  See, I went on line, just now- right this very minute- and found a quote for health insurance that covers me after a 5k deductible for about $130 a month.  Now, I don’t have a pr-existing condition, the plan WOULD cover me 12 months after I had been paying premiums.  So, ya see, you CAN get coverage.  If you are willing to, you know, work.

Or they’re stories like Katie Gibson’s, who I met in Montana. When Katie tried to change insurance companies, she was sure to list her pre-existing conditions on the application and even called her new company to confirm she’d be covered. Two months later, she was dropped – after she’d already gone off her other insurance.

These are the stories that aren’t being told – stories of a health care system that works better for the insurance industry than it does for the American people. And that’s why we’re going to pass health insurance reform that finally holds the insurance companies accountable.

Do you know what that means?  To hold an insurance company accountable?  Cause I don’t.  See, I have insurance and I see doctors and my kids see doctors and the insurance company pays the bills.  I don’t fight with ’em or have to call ’em or anything.  So, what are they doin’ that you don’t like?

But now’s the hard part. Because the history is clear – every time we come close to passing health insurance reform, the special interests with a stake in the status quo use their influence and political allies to scare and mislead the American people.

Strange of you to speak so poorly about your Union brothers.

As an example, let’s look at one of the scarier-sounding and more ridiculous rumors out there – that so-called “death panels” would decide whether senior citizens get to live or die.

Before you get on with what I am sure is a well thought out response to this concept—-it’s TRUE.

Now, back to regularly scheduled programming.

That rumor began with the distortion of one idea in a Congressional bill that would allow Medicare to cover voluntary visits with your doctor to discuss your end-of-life care – if and only if you decide to have those visits. It had nothing to do with putting government in control of your decisions; in fact, it would give you all the information you need – if you want it – to put you in control of your decisions. When a conservative Republican Senator who has long-fought for even more far-reaching proposals found out how folks were twisting the idea, he called their misrepresentation, and I quote, “nuts.”

So when folks with a stake in the status quo keep inventing these boogeymen in an effort to scare people, it’s disappointing, but it’s not surprising. We’ve seen it before. When President Roosevelt was working to create Social Security, opponents warned it would open the door to “federal snooping” and force Americans to wear dog tags. When President Kennedy and President Johnson were working to create Medicare, opponents warned of “socialized medicine.” Sound familiar? Not only were those fears never realized, but more importantly, those programs have saved the lives of tens of millions of seniors, the disabled, and the disadvantaged.

Those who would stand in the way of reform will say almost anything to scare you about the cost of action. But they won’t say much about the cost of inaction.

You’ve been down this road before; remember the Stimulus package?  Yeah, how’d THAT work for ya Sparky?

If you’re worried about rationed care, higher costs, denied coverage, or bureaucrats getting between you and your doctor, then you should know that’s what’s happening right now.

We’re not worried about it; we get it.  It’s a concept that we are all familiar with.  It’s a concept that serves us well.  For example, when we ration on price we get healthy competition resulting in lower costs and higher quality.  Not that you would know about it however, so, just keep on pretending like you’ve ever had a job.

In the past three years, over 12 million Americans were discriminated against by insurance companies due to a preexisting condition, or saw their coverage denied or dropped just when they got sick and needed it most. Americans whose jobs and health care are secure today just don’t know if they’ll be next to join the 14,000 who lose their health insurance every single day. And if we don’t act, average family premiums will keep rising to more than $22,000 within a decade.

On the other hand, here’s what reform will mean for you.

First, no matter what you’ve heard, if you like your doctor or health care plan, you can keep it.

Right…..until ya need to change.  Then, then ya can’t keep it.  But just go right ahead and skip that part.

If you don’t have insurance, you’ll finally be able to afford insurance. And everyone will have the security and stability that’s missing today.

Who can’t afford insurance today?  Really?  Who?  And why not?  I swear to you…when you buy ANYTHING before you buy insurance, it means that you can buy insurance you simply choose not too.

Insurance companies will be prohibited from denying you coverage because of your medical history, dropping your coverage if you get sick, or watering down your coverage when it counts – because there’s no point in having health insurance if it’s not there when you need it.

Insurance companies will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or lifetime, and we will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses – because no one in America should go broke just because they get sick.

Finally, we’ll require insurance companies to cover routine checkups and preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies – because there’s no reason we shouldn’t be saving lives and dollars by catching diseases like breast cancer and prostate cancer on the front end.

Pssst, over here.  You mentioned above that the normal tactics were being used to fight this, cough cough, reform bill of yours?  Well, far be it from you to go down that road.  Cause, ya know, insurance companies cover that today already.  But shhhh, better for you if no one calls ya on that!

That’s what reform means. For all the chatter and the noise out there, what every American needs to know is this: If you don’t have health insurance, you will finally have quality, affordable options once we pass reform. If you do have health insurance, we will make sure that no insurance company or government bureaucrat gets between you and the care that you need. And we will deliver this in a fiscally responsible way.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  What kinda mooch do ya think I am?  No government bureaucrat, fiscally responsible.  Rich!

I know there’s plenty of real concern and skepticism out there.

Ya think?  Even you Democrats are eating your young on this one.

I know that in a time of economic upheaval, the idea of change can be unsettling, and I know that there are folks who believe that government should have no role at all in solving our problems. These are legitimate differences worthy of the real discussion that America deserves – one where we lower our voices, listen to one another, and talk about differences that really exist. Because while there may be disagreements over how to go about it, there is widespread agreement on the urgent need to reform a broken system and finally hold insurance companies accountable.

Nearly fifty years ago, in the midst of the noisy early battles to create what would become Medicare, President Kennedy said, “I refuse to see us live on the accomplishments of another generation. I refuse to see this country, and all of us, shrink from these struggles which are our responsibility in our time.” Now it falls to us to meet the challenges of our time. And if we can come together, and listen to one another; I believe, as I always have, that we will rise to this moment, we will build something better for our children, and we will secure America’s future in this new century.

Jeez!

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Two Parallels in One Article

Posted on July 16, 2009 | Leave a comment

I’ve admitted before that I am no economist.  Fact is, I haven’t even ever taken a class in economics.  However, I did major in mathematics and work significantly with statistics at my current job.  As I tell my boss, “I’m nifty with numbers”.

So, as I wax poetic on all of these economic issues I do so with a bit of trepidation.  See, really, from an “expert’s” point of view, I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Which makes seeing two of my most often repeated mantras in text at one time very exciting.  This article from Mises.org just made my morning:

Mandating benefits for employees imposes costs on employment. The would-be worker bears the cost. It makes the worker more expensive to hire. The employer has to pay not only a salary but also a benefit. If you make it more expensive to hire people, fewer people will be hired.

It is no different from eggs at the supermarket. If they are $2 each, you will purchase fewer of them — you will economize. This is nothing but the law of demand: consumers will demand less of a good at a higher price than of a good at a lower price. A salary plus benefits amounts to a price that the employer must pay to purchase the work of a laborer. At a higher price, less work will be purchased by the employer.

You should read the whole article; it’s fantastically simple.  And for once, I see in print, what I seem to intuit.  And furthermore, it is verbalized with economic expertize that I simply can’t claim:

There is no real reason to prove these assertions empirically since they flow from the logic of economics.

The article is entitled  “The Jobs Program” and deals with health care:

Sadly, there is no way that free health care can be granted to all living things with the stroke of a pen. Broadening availability will require that the entire sector be turned over to the private sector, so that it can be controlled through the price system like everything else.

But while Mr. Rockwell is speaking about the current health care bill, his article could easily be speaking about the new minimum wage increase slated this month.

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Posted in Economics, Health Care

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The Economist Weighs In

Posted on July 1, 2009 | 1 comment

Look, I’m just a guy with a college degree.  I’m not an economist but I am handy with numbers.  And, mostly, I am capable of free thinking.  Which is why I find this article from The Economist laughable.

We start off well, in fact I had high hopes after just the first sentence.

DIAGNOSING what is wrong with America’s health-care system is the easy part.

I happen to agree with the author’s take.  I DO think that it’s easy to diagnose what’s wrong with America’s health-care system.  Which is why I was disappointed when The Economist got it wrong.  Not even 30 seconds later we are stunned to learn that nearly 50 million Americans don’t have coverage.  This is gross and simply unacceptable for a major news source to make a statement this absurd.  50 million.  Americans.  Uninsured.  Really?  Let’s take a look.

  • The real number being used is 47 million
  • Of those 47 million it’s been reported that 9 million are enrolled in Medicaid and failed to report it
  • 8 million are kids.  These kids are now covered by SCHIP

We’re down to 30 million now.  Fully 40% off the 50 million number quoted by the Economist.  But there’s more–way more.

  • 1.7 million are parents making more than 300% of FPL [federal poverty level]
  • 5.9 million are non-parent adults making more than 300% of FPL
  • 3.1 million are adult parents eligible for assistance today
  • 2 million are non-parent adults who are eligible for assistance today

Now we’re at 17.3 million.  17.3 million people who are not covered.  Now for the best part.  Wait for it—wait…waaiit……9 million aren’t even US citizens.  How AWESOME is that?!?

So, after getting the number down to 17.3 million, we’re able to shave off another cool 9 mill  bringing us to the grand total of 6.3 million.  And we get 50 million from The Economist.  Gross.

Next the author compares the benefits of American health services with OECD and their averages.  As far as I can tell, the comparison used three metrics:

  1. Infant mortality rate
  2. Life Expectancy
  3. Survival Rates for Heart Attacks

Again, the depth, or lack thereof, in reporting is surprising.  It has been documented that the infant mortality rate in the US is much higher than other countries because of the methods used in reporting.  According to WHO the definition of birth is:

Live birth refers to the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of conception, irrespective of the duration of the pregnancy, which, after such separation, breathes or shows any other evidence of life – e.g. beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord or definite movement of voluntary muscles – whether or not the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta is attached. Each product of such a birth is considered live born.

However, in many cases, countries fail to report all births due to their own definitions; for example:

  • In Switzerland and other parts of Europe, a baby born who is less than 30 centimeters long is not counted as a live birth. Therefore, unlike in the U.S., such high-risk infants cannot affect Swiss infant mortality rates.
  • In Belgium and France — in fact, in most European Union countries — any baby born before 26 weeks gestation is not considered alive and therefore does not “count” against reported infant mortality rates.
  • Some of the countries reporting infant mortality rates lower than the U.S. classify babies as “stillborn” if they survive less than 24 hours whether or not such babies breathe, move, or have a beating heart at birth.
  • In Canada, Germany, and Austria, a premature baby weighing <500g is not considered a living child.

When these and other reporting anomalies are factored in, Norway, which has the lowest infant mortality rate in the world, ranks no better than the United States.  Further, since 2000, 42 of the world’s 52 surviving babies weighing less than 400g (0.9 lbs.) were born in the United States.  Hardly an indicator that the United States if failing in the area of infant health.

The CIA has the United States ranked 50th in life expectancy.  And, as noted above, the article uses this metric in it’s assessment of the United State’s system.  However, it has been reported that Life Expectancy is not a valid measure of a country’s health care system:

…robust statistical analysis confirms that health care spending is not related to life expectancy.  Studies of multiple countries using regression analysis found no significant relationship between life expectancy and the number of physicians and hospital beds per 100,000 population or health care expenditures as a percentage of GDP.  Rather, life expectancy was associated with factors such as sanitation, clean water, income, and literacy rate.8 A recent study examined cross-national data from 1980 to 1998.  Although the regression model used initially found an association between health care expenditure and life expectancy, that association was no longer significant when gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was added to the model. Indeed, GDP per capita is one of the more consistent predictors of life expectancy.

Yet the United States has the highest GDP per capita in the world, so why does it have a life expectancy lower than most of the industrialized world?  The primary reason is that the U.S. is ethnically a far more diverse nation than most other industrialized nations.  Factors associated with different ethnic backgrounds – culture, diet, etc. – can have a substantial impact on life expectancy.  Comparisons of distinct ethnic populations in the U.S. with their country of origin find similar rates of life expectancy.  For example, Japanese-Americans have an average life expectancy similar to that of Japanese.

And this is just the first paragraph.  Keeping up with the Liberal press is simply exhausting.


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Universal Health Care: French Edition

Posted on June 22, 2009 | 2 comments

So, the President travelled to the Mid-East and then Europe earlier this month.  While in France, the President delivered his Weekly Radio Address.  In this address, he spoke directly about our health care situation and how we need to change it.  I think that we should take the opportunity to explore the French version of this vision.

With just a little bit of Googling I found numerous articles from sources such as:

Reuters

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

Business Week

After just an easy overview of these articles, it is apparent that the French are kicking our asses in the whole health care thing.  In the Business Week article, France has itself coming in 1st with the US rounding out at 37th.  In Reuters, Uncle Sam is running 19th in a 19 man race while France, again, places 1st.  All in all, no matter how you look at it, America is lagging.  Perhaps Mr. Oabama had it right to initiate his Health care kickoff in the country that has it going on.

But, before we acknowledge that we have indeed failed, let’s take a look at what it is that has France ranked so high in all of our studies.  For example, in the Reuters study, it was a ranking of 19 nations in preventable deaths due to treatable conditions.  And in the Business Week article, it quotes the ranking done by WHO, The World Health Organization, that has France coming 1st and the United States a dismal 37th.  In that ranking, the WHO lists infant mortality rates, life span, available beds and doctors per citizen as well as deaths from respiratory disease.  And all of this, of course, as the United States pays more for it’s health care than any other nation.

On the face of things, it would seem that indeed, the United States is in dire need of reform and, in fact, may finally have to implement some form of national health care.  After all, America remains the only industrialized nation not to have such a system.

In the following days, I will look deeper into the claims made by various agencies.  Look deeper into the numbers and identify if yes, the United States is in as bad as shape as it would appear.

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The Chairman’s Weekly Radio Address: June 6, 2009

Posted on June 8, 2009 | Leave a comment

Barack Obama’s Weekly Radio Address

June 6, 2009

Over the past few days, I’ve been traveling through the Middle East and Europe working to renew our alliances, enhance our common security, and propose a new partnership between the United States and the Muslim world.

You can call it that, in fact, many do.  I mostly call it an apology, but hey–that’s just ME.  Oh yeah, psst, when, umm, are the, you know, Muslims going to step forward and propose a new relationship with the United States?

But even as I’m abroad, I’m firmly focused on the other pressing challenges we face – including the urgent need to reform our health care system.  Even as we speak, Congress is preparing to introduce and debate health reform legislation that is the product of many months of effort and deliberation.  And if you’re like any of the Americans I’ve met across this country who know all too well that the soaring costs of health care make our current course unsustainable, I imagine you’ll be watching their progress closely.

Closely.  Yeah, that’s a word.

I’m talking about the families I’ve met whose spiraling premiums and out-of-pocket expenses are pushing them into bankruptcy or forcing them to go without the check-ups or prescriptions they need.  Business owners who fear they’ll be forced to choose between keeping their doors open or covering their workers.  Americans who rightly worry that the ballooning costs of Medicare and Medicaid could lead to fiscal catastrophe down the road.

Okay, so really, turn down the lights and put away the mics.  Serious.  Medicare and Medicaid.  In a speech designed to convince me that we need to turn our health care system over to you, you bring up Medicare and Medicaid?  Maybe, just maybe, before you decide that you wanna add another program to our debt load, you would think that you would fix these two?  No?  how come?  Really, yeah….details….

Simply put, the status quo is broken.

Perhaps.  But I am SURE you have no clue as to why.

We cannot continue this way.  If we do nothing, everyone’s health care will be put in jeopardy.

Not true.  Not true at all.  See, people who continue to value health care will make sure that they have it.  Those that don’t, well, won’t.  But jeez, that would require that you have experience in the real world, and well, you don’t have that.  Do you?  My, how embarrassing.

Within a decade, we’ll spend one dollar out of every five we earn on health care – and we’ll keep getting less for our money.

Wanna talk about that whole “Less for our money thing”?  Did you know that the world’s wealthiest most powerful people come to America for medical care?  You know, King Hussein, you know, King of Jordan, traveled to a small farm town in the middle of Minnesota;s farm land to see a doctor.  Meanwhile, a small town teacher in the heart of the same farm community also drove to the Mayo for treatment.  Gotta hand it to those conniving merciless profiteers out there in Rochester.  Bastards!

That’s why fixing what’s wrong with our health care system is no longer a luxury we hope to achieve – it’s a necessity we cannot postpone any longer.

Postpone.  I suspect that’s a word you will get used to saying.  Perhaps not hearing.  Cause, well, you know, YOU won’t be expected to be covered by this crappy insurance.

The growing consensus around that reality has led an unprecedented coalition to come together for change.

Huh?  Flashback Presbo?  What in THEE hell are you talking about?

Unlike past attempts at reforming our health care system, everyone is at the table – patient’s advocates and health insurers; business and labor; Democrats and Republicans alike.

No one is at the table you crazy loon.  Just you.

A few weeks ago, some of these improbable allies committed to cut national health care spending by two trillion dollars over the next decade.  What makes this so remarkable is that it probably wouldn’t have happened just a few short years ago.

Right.  Along with the President of the United States firing a CEO, limiting executive pay and compensation and then just kinda shredding bankruptcy law.  But hell, who’s keepin’ score?

But today, at this historic juncture, even old adversaries are united around the same goal: quality, affordable health care for all Americans.

See, you politician speak on this one.  We all agree that “medical care” is high.  But you don’t wanna fix that.  Nope, no way.  What you wanna do is keep it high and then just make everybody pay for it.

Now, I know that when you bring together disparate groups with differing views, there will be lively debate.  And that’s a debate I welcome.

Welcome.  You keep using that word.  I do not think that word means what you think it means. /sexyspanishaccent

But what we can’t welcome is reform that just invests more money in the status quo – reform that throws good money after bad habits.

We must attack the root causes of skyrocketing health care costs.  Some of these costs are the result of unwarranted profiteering

See buster.  I KNEW you could do it.  Damn profiteers.  I mean really, who would think that modern economic theory was so so wrong!?

that has no place in our health care system, and in too many communities, folks are paying higher costs without receiving better care in return.  And yet we know, for example, that there are places like the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, and other institutions that offer some of the highest quality of care in the nation at some of the lowest costs in the nation.  We should learn from their successes and promote the best practices, not the most expensive ones.  That’s how we’ll achieve reform that fixes what doesn’t work, and builds on what does.

Whoe nellie!  That’s not what you’re saying.  What you are saying is “Lets take this same crappy system and just nationalize it.  Let’s just make everybody buy insurance and then tax the hell out of ’em”.  You never once have mentioned innovation in terms of “medical care” delivery.  Never!

This week, I conveyed to Congress my belief that any health care reform must be built around fundamental reforms that lower costs, improve quality and coverage, and also protect consumer choice.  That means if you like the plan you have, you can keep it.  If you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor, too.  The only change you’ll see are falling costs as our reforms take hold.

LOL

I also made it very clear to Congress that we must develop a plan that doesn’t add to our budget deficit.

Stop.  Serious.  Who is buying this?

My budget included an historic down payment on reform, and we’ll work with Congress to fully cover the costs through rigorous spending reductions and appropriate additional revenues.  We’ll eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in our health care system, but we’ll also take on key causes of rising costs – saving billions while providing better care to the American people.

All across America, our families are making hard choices when it comes to health care.  Now, it’s time for Washington to make the right ones.  It’s time to deliver.  And I am absolutely convinced that if we keep working together and living up to our mutual responsibilities; if we place the American people’s interests above the special interests; we will seize this historic opportunity to finally fix what ails our broken health care system, and strengthen our economy and our country now and for decades to come.

Good night.  I am done.

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The Chairman’s Weekly Radio Address: April 25, 2009

Posted on April 28, 2009 | Leave a comment

Barack Obama’s Weekly Radio Address

April 25, 2009

Good morning.

Good morning.  But I bet it gets worse in about 3-2-1….

Over the last three months, my Administration has taken aggressive action to confront an historic economic crisis.

Yup, way worse.  Look, you keep sayin’ it, you Just Keep SAYIN’ it!  This is ONLY historic because it is the first time it has ever really affected YOU.  Stop.  And. Do. The. Math.

As we do everything that we can to create jobs and get our economy moving,

You know, I have tried.  I have read this line and then re-read it.  Like lots.  And I just can’t quite get over this whole part.  YOU CAN’T CREATE JOBS!  YOU don’t produce ANYTHING.  Sigh.

we’re also building a new foundation for lasting prosperity

You are not.  You.  Are lying.

– a foundation that invests in quality education, lowers health care costs,

Now stop, just stop.  You have no intention of lowering health care costs.  In fact, the opposite is true.  You want RAISE the total health care spend, you just wanna pull the cost from the wealthy and give it to the poor.

and develops new sources of energy powered by new jobs and industries.

See, I hear whatcha are sayin’, I just don’t think that yo know how to go about it.  You have to let these entrepreneurs loose in a “sandbox”.  Let them think and learn and invent FREE of government; not beholden to it.

One of the pillars of that foundation must be fiscal discipline.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA  -inhale- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  Stop it.  Please.  Oh lawd, THAT is rich!

We came into office

How much longer are you going to continue to play that card?

facing a budget deficit of $1.3 trillion for this year alone, and the cost of confronting our economic crisis is high. But we cannot settle for a future of rising deficits and debts that our children cannot pay.

Umm, but you did.  Serious.  Check it out.  And, not for nothin’, but YOU did it.

All across America, families are tightening their belts and making hard choices. Now, Washington must show that same sense of responsibility. That is why we have identified two trillion dollars in deficit-reductions over the next decade, while taking on the special interest spending that doesn’t advance the peoples’ interests.

I’m feelin’ it!  I’m a feelin’ it!

But we must also recognize that we cannot meet the challenges of today with old habits and stale thinking. So much of our government was built to deal with different challenges from a different era.

Amen!

Too often, the result is wasteful spending, bloated programs, and inefficient results.

I’ll say it again, AMEN!

It’s time to fundamentally change the way that we do business in Washington.

Hallelujah

To help build a new foundation for the 21st century, we need to reform our government so that it is more efficient,

Yes Lord!

more transparent,

Yes Lord!

and more creative. That will demand new thinking and a new sense of responsibility for every dollar that is spent.

The demons have been purged and and we are on our way to fiscal heaven!  I feel, I say I FEEL the love!

Earlier this week, I held my first Cabinet meeting and sent a clear message: cut what doesn’t work. Already, we’ve identified substantial savings. And in the days and weeks ahead, we will continue going through the budget line by line, and we’ll identify more than 100 programs that will be cut or eliminated.

But we can’t stop there. We need to go further, and we need an all-hands-on-deck approach to reforming government. That’s why I’m announcing several steps that my Administration will take in the weeks ahead to restore fiscal discipline while making our government work better.

First, we need to adhere to the basic principle that new tax or entitlement policies should be paid for. This principle – known as PAYGO – helped transform large deficits into surpluses in the 1990s. Now, we must restore that sense of fiscal discipline. That’s why I’m calling on Congress to pass PAYGO legislation like a bill that will be introduced by Congressman Baron Hill, so that government acts the same way any responsible family does in setting its budget.

Second, we’ll create new incentives to reduce wasteful spending and to invest in what works. We don’t want agencies to protect bloated budgets – we want them to promote effective programs. So the idea is simple: agencies that identify savings will get to keep a portion of those savings to invest in programs that work. The result will be a smaller budget, and a more effective government.

Third, we’ll look for ideas from the bottom up. After all, Americans across the country know that the best ideas often come from workers – not just management. That’s why we’ll establish a process through which every government worker can submit their ideas for how their agency can save money and perform better. We’ll put the suggestions that work into practice. And later this year, I will meet with those who come up with the best ideas to hear firsthand about how they would make your government more efficient and effective.

And finally, we will reach beyond the halls of government. Many businesses have innovative ways of using technology to save money, and many experts have new ideas to make government work more efficiently. Government can – and must – learn from them. So later this year, we will host a forum on reforming government for the 21st century, so that we’re also guided by voices that come from outside of Washington.

We cannot sustain deficits that mortgage our children’s future, nor tolerate wasteful inefficiency.

Coulda fooled me.  Have you seen what you have been spending kind sir?

Government has a responsibility to spend the peoples’ money wisely,

THIS I know.  I just don’t think that you know it.

and to serve the people effectively. I will work every single day that I am President to live up to that responsibility, and to transform our government so that is held to a higher standard of performance on behalf of the American people.

Thank you.

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