while we are schlepping along the election season road buoyed by the campaign fantastico, congress is still operating. Well that is not this very minute as their 3 days work weeks has exhausted them and they need 5 weeks off, and are on their summer break, ...great work if you can get it, anyway, it never ends....a pox on their house.

Medicare is another financial beast and they don't give a crap....




Pulling the Trigger
August 2, 2008; Page A10

Let's hope Capitol Hill never catches fire. Congress would switch off the alarm and pretend there were no flames. That, at least, was the policy message sent by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her health-care enforcers when the House voted last week to deactivate a warning that entitlement spending is running amok.

Everybody has known forever that Medicare's spending trend is untenable.

The program soaked up 3.2% of GDP and 16% of all federal spending in 2007, and it is expected to grow by 7.4% or more a year over the next decade. The Tom DeLay Republicans made the problem worse with their 2003 prescription drug benefit, but in doing so they felt a twinge, a flicker, a memory flash of fiscal conscience. So as a token gesture Republicans added a "trigger" that was supposed to force some future Congress to address the program's long-term insolvency.

The trigger kicks in if Medicare's Trustees project, for two years in a row, that the program will draw more than 45% of its funding from general government revenue -- instead of from payroll taxes, or premiums and co-pays from beneficiaries. That has happened for the last two years, and probably will every year for the foreseeable future. And when it does, the White House is required to write up "corrective" legislation. Under special procedures, the White House proposal is guaranteed an up-or-down vote in the House, though not the Senate.

The trigger doesn't actually require any cost-saving, much less real discipline. All it does is oblige the political class to nod at Medicare's deteriorating finances. But even that minor annoyance is too much for Democrats, so the House voted 231-184 last Thursday to change the rules to avoid considering President Bush's proposal.

Not that the Administration's proposal is ambitious. It would merely slow the rate of spending growth enough to shut off the 45% trigger. Provisions include moving toward electronic health records and a microincrease in prescription drug premiums for 1.5 million wealthy seniors. The horror!

Congress was free to reject any of this. But a vote might draw attention from the otherwise sleepy Capitol Hill press corps, and Democrats objected even to having the discussion. Liberal health-care maharishi Pete Stark wailed about "a political ploy to foster an unfounded panic," while Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called the trigger "completely arbitrary."

Democrats have tried repeatedly since 2006 to abolish the trigger because it gets in the way of their health-care agenda, even if only a little bit. Barack Obama has plans for a slow-motion roll toward "Medicare for all," the ultimate goal of Democratic health policy. The trigger reminds people of how spendthrift and taxing the budget for Medicare already is -- even when it's reserved only for seniors.

The House vote stalls action until the next Administration, when Democrats will almost certainly dump the trigger entirely.


Pulling the Trigger - WSJ.com

__________________
No individual can plan his own existence in their view.

So the state planners must arrogate to themselves the right to manipulate any sector of the economic system if the good of “society” or the “general welfare” is paramount.

Ipso- if the rights of the individual get in the way, the rights of the individual must be sublimated.

The Road to Serfdom
FA Hayek (interpretation)


Mortgage Backed Security survivor

When your approval is something like 14%, why bother to do work eh? Just pass off critical issues to some future Congress to deal with, kind of like the energy crisis. Do you think they feel any guilt or remorse at all when they look in the mirror?

but they are tired!!!!!!!!!!

__________________
No individual can plan his own existence in their view.

So the state planners must arrogate to themselves the right to manipulate any sector of the economic system if the good of “society” or the “general welfare” is paramount.

Ipso- if the rights of the individual get in the way, the rights of the individual must be sublimated.

The Road to Serfdom
FA Hayek (interpretation)


Mortgage Backed Security survivor

Man, you got that right! The most tired bunch of worthless....

Of course when you have the best medical care the U.S. taxpayer can afford you can ignore a lot when it comes to others medical care.

I wager half of all medicines given to elderly are unnecessary, as well as half the electric chairs, and at least half of all surgeries.

Ask any health actuary, 50% of all medical spending is for the first two weeks of life, and the last two weeks of life.
Not so much on most births, but an incredible amount is spent on premature births. Premature births can be dramatically reduced with prenatal health care, which the US system provides for only about half of expectant mothers. National Health care systems provide prenatal care for virtually all expectant mothers, every dollar spent on prenatal care reduces the cost of premature births by $7.
They will also tell you that heart surgery for people under 65 extends life, for people over 65 it redistributes life, some live longer, some die quicker.

Today, most people die in hospitals, there lives extended for a few miserable weeks by heroic measures, at heroic expense.

There are real savings that can be realized by a rational health care system.
Something that we currently do not have in the United States.

__________________
“ The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations 1776

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics"
FDR's second Inaugural Address

Of course, those nations don't have a multi-billion dollar lawsuit industry feeding off their neo-natal medical services, either.

For every birth defect, there is some parasite with a law degree that will take the case and sue the hospital and OB for it.

Look at our rate of cesarian sections. Why is it so high? One factor is that there are parasites like John Edwards lurking about, waiting to profit off any potential perinatal injury. Docs are cesarian happy because sketchy science in the courtroom has set a climate where failing to perform a stat c-section at the slightest hint of mild fetal distress yields enormous liability.

It's a case of courtroom theatrics driving medicine.

Of course, only someone with no clue what they are speaking about would drag prenatal care into a discussion of Medicare. Unless, of course, one thinks obstetrics is a major expense category in the over-65 crowd, or the severely disabled patient population, or the end-stage renal failure population......

Ah, a "rational healthcare system". Code for "we'll decide when you don't get healthcare anymore, based on cost".

Matt

__________________
De duobus malis, minus est semper eligendum

Thats one reason I liked Fred Thompson, he was willing to touch this third rail. McC is a little as well. BHO wants taxes as opposed to a combination.

How come Congress gets no flak for taking off a month but Bush does ?

__________________
Hope is the opposite of audacity. It's passive, an excuse for inaction.

Socialism doesn't create a rising tide that lifts all boats. It drains the lake and teaches the boat riders not to help themselves by rowing.

“What's the difference between Sarah Palin and Barack Obama?”

“One is a well turned-out, good-looking, and let's be honest, pretty sexy piece of eye-candy.

“The other kills her own food.”

easy there big fella.....

__________________
No individual can plan his own existence in their view.

So the state planners must arrogate to themselves the right to manipulate any sector of the economic system if the good of “society” or the “general welfare” is paramount.

Ipso- if the rights of the individual get in the way, the rights of the individual must be sublimated.

The Road to Serfdom
FA Hayek (interpretation)


Mortgage Backed Security survivor

I don't know nobody seems to be taking this issue seriously, that's the problem with the current government and likely the future government, they're more interested in business as usual instead of facing these huge problems that will define what happens to America in our future. Republicans, Democrats, they're more concerned with maintaining the status quo when we seriously have to reverse some disturbing trends. Not only that, there are calls for Universal Healthcare when we can't even afford medicare! Two do-nothing congresses in a row, that latter worse than the first and two hopelessly stupid parties.

Our government is the product of the people.
America, like other countries, have become almost completely engrossed in their daily lives, entertainment and materialism that thoughts beyond their nose aren't considered.
An freely-elected government that becomes corrupt and ineffective is directly the result of a public that is out of touch.

Yes, both parties prefer to push spending now and taxing to the future. Neither party can point to this as a bastion of fiscal responsibility.

ianwhatiseem said:

"Our government is the product of the people."


Sewey responds:

. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have restated so well (though perhaps not with that intent) the message of Lincoln that we all accept and admire: the one about our government being of, by, and for the people. That means the government is our product -- yours, mine, and the other peoples’. Inescapably, we are all partners in this democracy (and republic).

Our partnership is foundering. The various reasons for getting into such trouble are debatable and not yet clear. The reasons for not getting out of the trouble, on the other hand, are painfully clear. It’s because we have forgotten how to operate a partnership. Instead of working together, we stubbornly adhere to our individual preferences. We refuse to moderate our debates and reconcile our differences. We denounce the other person’s character and impugn his/her motives.

Partners argue sometimes. But they rarely fantasize, as we seem to be doing, that they are gladiators.

P.S. Sorry, I got off the subject of Medicare financing. I was distracted by all the vilification in some of these postings.

You are absolutely right about Medicare "etal: entitlements. Those funds could be better spent on "War" and extending the "Empire". People are living too long anyway and wasting space. Down with all health insurance !Doctors would much rather get their money directly from the user or be paid in kind (as they once did).

I am thinking of a scene in the movie Forest Gump...where Forest discovers his buddy "bubba" has been badly wounded by a shot in the chest.
His friend places a large leaf over the gaping wound and kept telling Forrest "I'll be all right Forest, I'm just fine" ...even up to the moment he dies he can only say "I want to go home now"......America at BOTH the governmental and citizen level have become as stupid as both Forest and Bubba - refusing to acknowledge that very serious problems are piling around all of us - and all we can say to each other is "we have always pulled through, we'll be alright"...