The whole point of free speech is not to make ideas exempt from criticism but to expose them to it.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Please take a long look at this chart.


click chart to enlarge
Now, as per Jon Taplin, "Will everyone who thinks this system is working, please stand up?"
One commenter notes:

"Except there's no debate going on. It's "They want to kill grandma and take over your lives." "You'll bankrupt the country." "The quality of health care will plummet!"

That's not debate. That's one side doing their damnedest to make surenothing happens while the other is in such disarray they don't have a chance.

I would LOVE to see an honest, pragmatic, respected Republican explain to us why a Public Option is going to destroy the private health insurance market, and why that would be a bad thing. Without hyperbole. Without fear mongering. Without wild accusations regarding the 'true' motives of the current administration.

Then I'd like that same Republican to explain to us what the Republican plan is to lower health insurance and health care costs, assuming there is no Public Option.

I want numbers. I want realistic projections of what their plan will do to solve this problem. If it's so obvious we have a problem, and it's getting more and more out of control, why are they telling us to wait? To slow it down?

They want slow? FINE. Lay out a timetable, a plan, a list of problems to solve and when they will be solved, and when we will see legislation ready for a signature.

With the Democrats in such (apparent) retreat and disarray right now, the Republicans have a golden opportunity to prove to the country that they can govern responsibly. I would LOVE them to prove it to me. Instead they apparently want nothing more than the downfall of the current administration and the Democratic party.

Right now I'm disgusted with the whole lot of them."

Well? Talk to me, Forumpians.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks! Kill them facts. Maybe the facts will be enough to convince Johnson, Thune & SHS to back the public option that they enjoy.

Thad Wasson said...

Its the loss of low paying jobs. Its less people insured which raises the rates for the insured.

It will take at least 10 years to fix. You start with bringing back jobs that provide insurance benefits. You get there by placing a 500% tariff on China and other offshore companies. Use the tariff revenue to provide for our citizens until we can even out tihe import vs. export fault line.

Bill Fleming said...

Thad, allowing all people access to Medicare would fix the problem in one day. One day.

Thad Wasson said...

If we had the money in the treasury to pay for it, fine. Our Congress has spent all of it plus borrowed trillions. Do we take care of our citizens or spend our taxes on worldwide concerns?

Michael Sanborn said...

Bill,

Where do we get the money for a Public Option? If you are telling me that you can pay for this through cutting other government programs and eliminating the outrageous waste for which our government is famous, the discussion is worth opening. If you're telling me we all just have to pay more taxes, we're going to disagree on this one without much discussion.

Les said...

Can you imagine the revolt you would see if all people had access to medicare Bill? I am talking of the Dr's revolt followed by the insurance industry raising our prem's monthly/daily. It is the rest of us that pay the way for the medicare people with our insurance policies being the large donor. Medicare is subsidized by all of us who pay full price. Doesn't matter if the treasury has the fund's, the rest of us cannot match the increase.

Michael Sanborn said...

Lucid reports are here:

http://agenda.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjNlYzk4YTMwMjJiZmRjNTcxZjk0YjM5NGMyOGZlMTE=

and here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/19/AR2009081902261.html

and here:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/health/july-dec09/health_09-02.html

and another:

http://www.heritage.org/press/commentary/ed072809e.cfm

Bill Fleming said...

Mike, I agree that there needs to be system wide health care reform, not just insurance company reform.

But the insurance companies working in tandem with the public option are in the best position to leverage the health care providers. Who else is going to do it? The beneficiary? Good luck with that when you're shopping for emergency surgery after a traffic accident.

The fact is, we have a public option now, (the emergency room) and it is enormously inefficient.

It creates incentives for health care providers to cook the books and for insurance companies to raise rates and deny claims. It's nuts. And there's no defending it, economically or morally in my opinion.

Your links all bemoan the insurance companies plight. Too bad. They've had plenty of chances to clean up their act on their own accord. Same with docs and hospitals.

Theirs wouldn't be the first industry that's been tasked with the challenge of changing their business model if they want to stay in business.

Ask any publisher or automobile manufacturer.

Or ad agency, or news publisher for that matter.

Mike said...

Mike. Can you source the chart at the top of the page? I've seen all the data on various web sites but never conveniently packaged in one image. Hard to ignore the visuals and I'd love to pass it on to some of my more reactive friends.

Bill Fleming said...

Mike, the sources for the chart are now at the bottom of the chart. The article the chart came from can be found by clicking on the name "Jon Taplin" in the first line of text in the post.