Archive for September, 2009
TAXING OUR WAY TO HEALTHY LIVING
The Dietary Nanny Patrol is at it again, this time with an article in the current New England Journal of Medicine claiming that a penny-per-ounce tax on sugary soft drinks would help to reduce the nation’s bulging waistline while raising $150 billion “that governments can use for health programs” over the next decade. And cows nationwide will breathe a sigh of relief over the plunging demand for belt leather. This is another in a long line of similar ideas to paste a bull’s-eye on isolated food groups as a way to refill depleted tax coffers under the guise of public health advocacy. It always seems odd to me that the estimates of enhanced tax revenues and increased public health are so often trumpeted together, even though the achievement of one always comes as a tradeoff against the other. Such “solutions” send mixed messages and are inefficient as hell.
LESSONS FROM MARYLAND ON CONTROLLING HEALTH CARE COSTS
My “Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics Award—Health Care Division” goes to the Wall Street Journal. Today’s (09/14/09) six-column, page A4 article by Jane Zhang, “Maryland Reins In Hospital Costs By Setting Rates,” is accompanied by a graph labeled “Keeping Costs Down.” It shows one line of data labeled “U.S.” that shows a steep increase from about 20% in 1980 to more than 150% now, and a second line labeled “Maryland” that, over the same period, indicates a far more gradual increase from about 10% to a bit over 20%. The pictorial difference is dramatic and strongly suggests that the state’s bureaucratic controls on hospital rates have been fantastically successful in “Keeping Costs Down.” Actually, they haven’t done any such thing.
PRESIDENT OBAMA’S HEALTH REFORM MESSAGE TO SMALL BUSINESS: DROP DEAD
As America’s six million small business employers (1-499 employees) increasingly struggle to stay afloat during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the President and U.S. Congress are working hard to saddle them with new health insurance mandates that will sink many and force many more to lay off workers. The proposed legislation—named without a whiff of intended irony The Affordable Health Choices Act—will require all but the smallest employers to offer massively rich health benefits that far exceed what most provide today.
Besides the benefits, the bill requires employers to directly shoulder 72.5% of single and 65% of family premiums—far more than many pay now. Any company that fails to comply will be forced to pay a fine to the government of up to 8% of total payroll—money that will not be available for their own employees to buy insurance. Instead the funds will flow into the federal till to help subsidize American families making up to $88,000 per year—instantly converting much of the country’s middle class into a new welfare class.
PRESIDENT OBAMA’S SPEECH TO CONGRESS: FAITH-BASED HEALTH REFORM
President Obama went all-in on health reform tonight (September 9, 2009) with his win-one-for-the-late-senator pitch to the assembled houses of Congress. Beyond his always-inspiring rhetoric, his actual proposals offered virtually nothing we haven’t heard before. His essential message: when it comes to health reform, I’m asking the American public to accept hope over experience, faith over fact.
Have Faith that the government will provide a public insurance option that is more competitive, efficient, fair, and effective than anything you can get from a private insurer. Subtext: Ignore the man behind the curtain who has already given you the unmatched fairness and effectiveness of FEMA, Fannie, Freddie, Medicare ($74 Trillion in the hole), Social Security ($17.5 Trillion under water), the national debt ($11.7 Trillion and counting), the sex-offender registry, and the SEC’s crack enforcement of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
AN OPEN LETTER TO OUR CHILDREN: YOU’RE ABOUT TO BE SHAFTED – AGAIN
Dear Kids:
If you’ve paid any attention to the raging health reform debate, you probably think the key issue is whether we will get a public health insurance option or a system of government-supported cooperatives. Wrong. The main event for you is that your under-40 generation is about to be shafted by my over-50 one—big time. We’re about to enact yet another one of those intergenerational transfers from you to us that we’ve become so good at, having gotten away with it on Social Security ($17.5 trillion in unfunded liabilities), Medicare ($74 trillion), and the national debt ($11.7 trillion). To put these numbers into perspective, the entire U.S. GDP is only about $14 trillion. Oh, well, in for a penny…
