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Following the CBO report that indicates Healthcare premiums would remain stable compared to projected costs which is bad enough a new report released by Health and Human Services suggest cost will increase and indicates troubles with with Medicare proposals too.
Quote:
HHS analysts: Health tab would keep rising | Philadelphia Inquirer | 12/12/2009 (http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/79116477.html - broken link)
WASHINGTON - Democrats trying to push President Obama's health-care overhaul through the Senate got a sober warning yesterday that costs would keep going up and that proposed Medicare savings might harm the program.
A new report from economic analysts at the Health and Human Services Department said the nation's $2.5 trillion annual health-care tab would not shrink under the Democratic blueprint but would grow somewhat more rapidly than if Congress did nothing.
More troubling was the report's assessment that the Democrats' plan to squeeze Medicare for $493 billion over 10 years in savings relies on specific policy changes that "may be unrealistic" and could lead to cuts in services. The Medicare savings are expected to cover about half the nearly $1 trillion, 10-year cost of expanding coverage to the uninsured.
Following the CBO report that indicates Healthcare premiums would remain stable compared to projected costs which is bad enough a new report released by Health and Human Services suggest cost will increase and indicates troubles with with Medicare proposals too.
This is another sobering analysis on the costs of proposed changes to the health care that belongs in a separate thread instead of the large volumes written on existing part 1, 2, 3, et. al. threads.
Should there not be any pre-existing condition requirements? Just bear in mind that to do so will increase costs for those already paying. How can one argue that increasing the high risk pool will not increase premiums?
Should we all pay the same for insurance, regardless of age and gender? You cannot alter actuarial facts. Insurance laws allow discrimination in order to contain costs. Should younger drivers pay more than older drivers for car insurance? Again, costs are driven by actual experience results.
Let's assume that everyone should pay the same for exactly the same insurance regardless of any conditions. Ok, we add up all the projected expenses and divide by the number of people using the system. But wait, half the people cannot afford to pay the rates. And half the people do not pay taxes.
Well, let's just subsidize the half that cannot pay by increasing the taxes on those who do pay taxes. Then those who pay taxes can first pay for a higher insurance rate for themselves then secondly can help pay for those who cannot afford or want to.
Does anyone understand why people are upset. Everyone except those who live at home and are covered under their parents policies, those who do not work, those who do not pay taxes, those in legacy occupations who will continue to keep Cadilac plans, etc.
UpperPeninsulaRon the issue is the reform is not reform at all. It's just another massive entitlement program. They are not fixing anything, actually it appears they are doing the opposite and piling it on. If they want fix this issue they need to **** off a lot of power interests in Washington including Insurance Companies, Lawyers, Big Pharma, and many others.
The following things need to occur:
1. True Insurance Reform.
2. Tort Reform
3. Administrative cost reform, tackling the first two will significantly help #3
I suspect there will be cuts in Medicare, not to coverage, but to the price people pay for the Advantage plans. There will be adjustments made to the subsidies, so millions of current Advantage plan enrollees will have to pay something for the plan. What they will have to pay, however, will not exceed he Medicare premium which is currently at $96.40. I am quite sure I will have to pay something more than the $0 I currently pay.
UpperPeninsulaRon the issue is the reform is not reform at all. It's just another massive entitlement program. They are not fixing anything, actually it appears they are doing the opposite and piling it on. If they want fix this issue they need to **** off a lot of power interests in Washington including Insurance Companies, Lawyers, Big Pharma, and many others.
The following things need to occur:
1. True Insurance Reform.
2. Tort Reform
3. Administrative cost reform, tackling the first two will significantly help #3
I have no basic difference with what you are saying. When you don't know where to start, always start at the beginning. The beginning here is what is the mission? We started with bending the cost curve, then insuring everyone, creating jobs, helping small business, to even saving the planet!
I'll bet if you ask the Senators "What is the Mission?" you will get polispeak but no answer. Legislation like this is too important to be left to the legislators but under our system, that is all we've got.
We have legislators who right now, as our Speaker admitted, would do ANYTHING to pass SOMETHING related to health care, and do it BEFORE CHRISTMAS (did our Speaker say Christmas?) regardless of what it would mean to our country
The current "reform" is a totally worthless piece of trash. It does absolutely nothing to provide coverage to ayone who cannot afford it. In fact all it does is REQUIRE people to buy insurance with no provisions to help those who cannot afford it other than tax credits. Oh that does a lot of good to someone with no taxable income does it? Whenever you require someone to buy insurance costs skyrocket. Just look at Florida and how auto insurance costs doubled after everyone was required to buy it. This health care bill is total trash and should be burned immediately and everyone who authored it thrown out of government. Trash like this written by lawyers is why our country is failing and will not recover. All lawyers need to be purged from government and real legal tort reform accomplished by real productive citizens. When you let lawyers write your laws, you shoot yourselves in the head.
The current "reform" is not reform..it's subsidization. The costs will go up to cover all those others being subsidized while other services will be cut also to cover all those others being subsidized.
Should really be called "The Healthcare Subsidy" bill.
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Cost Debate versus Emotional Debate
