Re: The first of the new Obamacare taxes will start January 1, 2011

Now THAT idea is super! A multiple win; does not even consume or need more taxes.

Health control bill: "line up against the wall, cover your eyes, do not flinch when the guns go off".

That's the 'Allan Grayson' (D, Orlando, FL.) plan. :(

do

Obama and the dems failed because they wouldn=92t deal with the fundamental issue, "medical service cost".

They headed straight for =93access=94 and their solution has only aggravated the core issue, cost.

Nobody here seems to dispute the cost break down. There=92s been voiced a suspicion that medical malpractice insurance is driving up the cost =85 but at best, depending on whose numbers you believe that=92s a 8-10% cost driver.

So having that info what strategy, would you boys use to drive down costs? Complaining about it isn=92t going to work. I guess you could wait for the next cycle of politicians =85 but my money is betting that won=92t fix the problem either.

Sorry to hear about your situation Charlie, but I suspect no matter who is in office the slope of this function is positive.

My suspicion is that the politicians don=92t have any magic pills either. They certainly don=92t seem to have any backbone these days.

s, do

Here's an interesting idea:

"As a nation we have unwittingly increased medical costs by not understanding how to lower costs: treat diseases early through the simple methodology of performing diagnosis, minor surgery, and drug regimens in a small, clinic environment.

Treating diseases early will save billions. First we must have easy access to clinics that are staffed adequately to handle some emergencies and minor ailments. Small clinics cannot only lower costs by catching diseases early but also prevent more serious complications later. Properly treated, many illnesses respond without the need for hospitalization and expensive life-saving diagnostic and surgical interventions.

We need low-cost or free primary clinics that are plentiful and spread throughout cities, towns, and countrysides. Because many expensive diagnostic tools are not needed in primary care clinics, the cost to build and maintain these facilities is minimal. When more elaborate tools are needed, patients would be sent to nearby clinic-hospital centers for additional treatment. These procedures would be paid for by Medicare or Medicaid type insurance programs or a newly created Federal insurance."

Add on to that:

Allow insurance companies to operate across state lines. Eliminate junk lawsuits to reduce costs of defensive medicine. Increase co-payments to discourage overuse of free services. When everything is free, nothing is available.

-Bill

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I'd casually observe that the cost of defensive medicine is more like

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The small clinic thing--we do that already. We've got outpatient surgery centers, etc., doing things doctors don't dare do in their offices any more, due to liability. That's thanks to slip-and-fall lawyers like Sen. John Edwards.

And, those surgery centers get ever more costly and sophisticated, to where they aren't simple at all any more.

OTOH if you restore the price feedback, hundreds of millions of consumers will relentlessly drive costs down to the bare minimum in millions of transactions every day. Presently, moral hazard prevents that.

Put more simply, the normal price feedbacks have been severed. Fix that, and the thing will fix itself.

I spoke to my mom (a nurse) today about something she's looking into. "How much will that cost?," I asked. "I don't know," she said, "I didn't ask."

-- Cheers, James Arthur

Check and double-check!

Remember, you get what you pay for.

Thanks, Rich

I saw something on the commute home this afternoon that I thought I'd never see. On an "Open MRI" center (storefront, really) there was a big sign (two foot high letters) advertising "$1000 less than the hospital"). Wanna bet they're "out of plan" for most insurance (there are only two in the state).

Yep.

I asked. They wouldn't tell me.

eyes, do

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The problem is "end of life care". Defensive medicine may be 20% of the problem, and uninsured may be another 10%. The rest is keeping dead people alive for 6 months, or 6 weeks.

"We end up spending about a third of our overall health care resources in the last year of life," Bergman said. "It represents a huge avenue for improvement."

-Bill