CBO tells Deficit Commission that HCR did not reduce health costs enough

but then we already knew that, didn't we? But it was more important to "preserve the private delivery system", right Rahm, Mr. President and Congress?



Negotiating Medicare drug prices alone could have saved 200 billion over 10 years. The drug re-importation bill was estimated to save 100 billion over 10 years. 300 Billion in reduced drug costs was what President Obama "negotiated" away when he got 80 Billion over 10 years as the concession from Pharma. The citizens of the US lost 220 Billion dollars in savings right out of the gate.



Here is the actual May 26, 2010 CBO slide presentation on the health care costs as related to the budget.
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/115xx/doc11544/Presentation5-26-10.pdf


It's also essential to remember that government subsisdies for healthcare premiums did nothing to lower overall costs - they just split the cost between the individual and the government. HCR did nothing to lower the aggregate costs and everything to keep them artificially high. A real public option was the ONLY instrument for actually reducing costs due to lower overhead and administrative costs and NO PROFIT, but that single element of real reform was eliminated.

I will NEVER give up pressing for real healthcare reform. Our current President and Congress couldn't deliver. They did not have the political guts or gumption to do the right thing if it meant that their political coffers would be impacted.

This debate will not go away. Healthcare in the US will still be unaffordable for many milions of people and remain an international disgrace.

BUt we still gotta make sure doctors keep their Picassos and yachts.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN31432035

"More than half of U.S. doctors now favor switching to a national health care plan and fewer than a third oppose the idea, according to a survey published on Monday.

The survey suggests that opinions have changed substantially since the last survey in 2002 and as the country debates serious changes to the health care system.

Of more than 2,000 doctors surveyed, 59 percent said they support legislation to establish a national health insurance program, while 32 percent said they opposed it, researchers reported in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

The 2002 survey found that 49 percent of physicians supported national health insurance and 40 percent opposed it.

"Many claim to speak for physicians and represent their views. We asked doctors directly and found that, contrary to conventional wisdom, most doctors support national health insurance," said Dr. Aaron Carroll of the Indiana University School of Medicine, who led the study..."

in the country, are employees of the CC and so are not operating as private contractors affilated with the Clinic.

This allows the docs to earn a great salary without having to do or worry about all the insurance and payment crap.

I believe doctors would be paid very well. Most have dedicated themselves to their profession.

Some got into the game because they wanted to make money and also help people.

And then, of course, there are people who were smart enough to get into medical school and look at medicine as a vocation and not an advocation.

There is a movement toward this business model.

in the country, are employees of the CC and so are not operating as private contractors affilated with the Clinic.

This allows the docs to earn a great salary without having to do or worry about all the insurance and payment crap.

I believe doctors would be paid very well. Most have dedicated themselves to their profession.

Some got into the game because they wanted to make money and also help people.

And then, of course, there are people who were smart enough to get into medical school and look at medicine as a vocation and not an advocation.

There is a movement toward this business model.

rewarded for their hard work, but many do not want to deal with all the insurance crap and do not long for a Picasso :)

as many of them supported a public option or even a single payer solution. It was all about the $$$, and the $$$ lie with the for profit private insurance middleman standing between you and your doctor, making the decisions for you like what is a necessary procedure, what is not covered, what is considered too experimental, what is considered an unnecessary expense and therefore not covered, and of course what you will pay for this wonderful disservice and guidance.

http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/politics/

worth a read. My Summary: If Congress doesn't fuck it up going forward, the Health Care Bill actually did make a difference in long term budget by slowing the increasing cost of Medicare and taxing high cost insurance plans.

Slowing the increase is good, but it not the same as decreasing.

I am not convinced that the tax on "Cadillac" health care plans was the right thing in the first place. I think it encourages employers to downgrade their benefit plans and I also think that provision was almost directly targeted at unions who negotiated away salary increases for years in exchange for the Cadillac plans.

it may make it more palatable to you. There is no question unions opposed it, but it affects more than just union health care plans.

Boy am I sick and tired of half measures on our side to try and pry a republican or even a blue dog to vote for anything that will better the common good or help those who need it most.

This will just give the GOP fuel to run against the plan in November and then kill it after they regain power.

I just can't believe this is happening. With all the supposed best and brightest in the White House. How could they let this happen?

If he would have fought for the public option he probably would have gotten it.

Instead he remained aloof, hovering over a process that was being guided by a few conservative democrats.

Since most of this doesn't kick in for a few years, the main argument used by the White House, cost containment, is out the window.

Hopefully, the few measures that kicked in this year, lifting the life time cap for one, stay in place. Don't count on it though.

I can't see how anyone would look at the system that was in place in 2008 and say they love it. Well, the people who have never been sick or touched by the cold hearted bureaucrats running the show.

I am very disgusted.

I'll vote for Fisher and kucinich this fall and Sherrod Brown in 2012. After that...

begin - when ya don't start out wanting the best, you're never gonna get it. aim low and settle for even less is no way to negotiate IMO. Thus we have the health care providers welfare act.