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then cut farm subsidies, corporate subsidies then welfare.
programs to help people should always be the last to suffer
You don't see the irony in that stance?
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The bulk of the cost of health care is labor. If you pay nurses and X-ray techs and hospital janitors 50 cents on the dollar, it gets cheaper. Of course, those jobs would largely go unfilled. The medium term solution is to use technology to knock out most of the labor costs.
Respectfully, I think you are on the right track, but you have to look a bit deeper.
Let's take an X-Ray at the ER. The price might be $500 to $700 -- maybe more. Then on top of that, there will be the radiologist's bill to read the X-Rays. But if we ignore the price and instead look at the cost of the X-Ray, it becomes very interesting.
What is the cost (not price)? Nowadays, X-Rays are digital, so there are no consumables (no film or development chemicals). So the cost is a few pennies of electricity (if that) and maybe 10 minutes of the X-Ray Tech's total compensation (and of course total compensation is larger than actual wages).
How much does an X-Ray Tech earn? It seems to vary quite a bit by location. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has this from mid-2016:
Let's take the median X-Ray Tech who earns somewhat over $57,000 per year. Now, total compensation is higher, and fully burdened compensation is higher still. How much? Let's just pick a number -- say $100,000.
Soo.... what is 10 minutes compensation for a $100K employee? A little over $8. Fine - round it up to $10.
So why the heck to X-Rays at the ER cost $500+ ?
My thesis is it is administrative bloat -- you have to add to that $10 of the actual cost of the X-Ray. You have to add in countless hours of administration -- billing insurance companies, insurance companies responding, the hospital re-billing with different billing codes, etc etc etc etc.
So, I agree with you that labor drives up health care, but I believe it is the labor of countless paper pushers who do not actually deliver health care services. They merely push paper. If we could find a way to eliminate all of those billing clerks and consultants etc, then the price of the X-Ray would be more reasonable.
90% marginal taxes are a historical tax rate here in the US. I guess it was us liberals who paid attention in HS History Class.
Perhaps liberals were paying more attention to that cute girl in the 3rd row. Zero percent -- 0% -- was the historical tax rate in the USA for far longer.
But then liberals never passed Econ 201 & Econ 202.
You still didn't read the article.
THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH OTHER THINGS TO CUT, AND THERE ISN"T ENOUGH RICH PEOPLE'S MONEY, TO CLOSE THE GAP.
And the more we borrow to cover the shortfall, the more interest needs to be paid and the higher the portion of the overall debt it becomes.
You are exactly right. But you have to understand it's much easier to say "tax the rich" than address the fundamental issues of why things cost so much, or the changing demographics that will results in the rise of costs, particularly in health care.
First thing you have to do is go past the ideological/political issues. One sides politicians say "tax the rich" so the people that align with that side has to cheer for his team. On the other hand the other side might say "less welfare" when that isn't even the core problem either.
The issues (cost of healthcare primarily) are so complex that politicians are afraid to tackle it, and looking at the responses here the voters don't understand it anyways and are content to label it into one simplified bucket or another. So why should the politicians? They simply don't care - to them 'tax the rich' solves everything. It's easy to comprehend and it fits there worldview.
To understand the solutions to the issues, people at least need to understand the problem. We aren't even at that state yet where people understand the problem.
Right, because you earned those while all other entitlements are wasted money thrown at the unworthy.
The problem with factionalism is that only one faction wins. And it may not be yours.
People pay into Medicare/SS but not the others. This is why they should not be cut. Yet unfortunately they are always discussed to be cut while welfare programs for the able bodied poor are never talked about anymore. Another reason SS should never be cut is the extreme age discrimination in the workplace. Many older people won't get hired even if they want to work.
the irony you are referring to is that your home state receives a disproportional federal spending relative to the taxes it remits
While a true statement, can't see what that had to do with YOUR statement.
But yes, due to the late Inouye's influence, and our extensive military, we got pork.
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