The New Editor - Health Care

Harry Reid in 2009: 'Obamacare Will Cut The Deficit By 3/4 Trillion Dollars'

tpelia@yahoo.com (Tom Elia) — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:17:44 -0600

They think you're an unreflective, drooling moron.

ObamaCare: Rhetoric Vs. Reality

tpelia@yahoo.com (Tom Elia) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 05:54:00 -0600

... Obamacare's relentless march to full-fledged introduction in 2014 demonstrates that, for all its good intentions, it will make the health care system more confusing (see above), costly and contentious. It won't control health spending -- the system's main problem -- and will weaken job creation.
...

The argument about Obamacare is often framed as a moral issue. It's the caring and compassionate against the cruel and heartless. That's the rhetoric; the reality is different. Many of us who oppose Obamacare don't do so because we enjoy seeing people suffer. We believe that, in an ideal world, everyone would have insurance. But we also think that Obamacare has huge drawbacks that outweigh its plausible benefits.

It creates powerful pressures against companies hiring full-time workers -- precisely the wrong approach after the worst economic slump since the Depression. There will be more bewildering regulations, more regulatory uncertainties, more unintended side effects and more disappointments. A costly and opaque system will become more so.

The Health Care Disaster and the Miseries of Blue

tpelia@yahoo.com (Tom Elia) — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:03:00 -0600

Walter Russell Mead:

Obamacare was supposed to be the capstone in the arch of a new progressive era. The Dems were going to show us all that government really does work. Smart government by smart people, using modern methods and the latest up to the minute research from carefully peer reviewed articles in well regarded social science journals can solve big social problems. Obamacare was going to be such a big hit that even the bitter clingers would have to put down their guns and their Bibles long enough to thank the Democrats for this wonderful new benefaction.
...

It is a perverse but very real fact of life that the more complex and rich the system to be regulated, the less the "experts" and the goo-goos have the political power to impose their vision on the regulatory process. The more carefully crafted a law needs to be, the more it is going to be full of lobby lollipops and sweetheart deals. A legislative body trying to write a health care law for a country like ours is like a neurosurgeon operating, drunk, with one hand holding a chainsaw and the other in a boxing glove.

Read the whole piece.

Another $17 trillion surprise found in Obamacare

tpelia@yahoo.com (Tom Elia) — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 10:46:00 -0600

The Daily Caller's Neil Munro reports:

Senate Republican staffers continue to look though the 2010 health care reform law to see what's in it, and their latest discovery is a massive $17 trillion funding gap.
...

The $17 trillion in extra promises was revealed by an analysis of the law's long-term requirements. The additional obligations, when combined with existing Medicare and Medicaid funding shortfalls, leave taxpayers on the hook for an extra $82 trillion in health care obligations over the next 75 years.

The federal government has an additional $17 trillion unfunded gap in other obligations, including Social Security, bringing the total shortfall to $99 trillion.

3 Reasons to End Obamacare Before it Begins

tpelia@yahoo.com (Tom Elia) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:16:00 -0600

From Reason.tv:

HHS Sec. Sebelius Has 'No Idea' If ObamaCare Adds To The Deficit

tpelia@yahoo.com (Tom Elia) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:03:00 -0700

From the Washington Free Beacon:

White House Quietly Increases Budget for Obamacare's Exchange Subsidies by $111 Billion

tpelia@yahoo.com (Tom Elia) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 00:42:00 -0700

Forbes magazine's Avik Roy:

It will be interesting to see if Obama budget officials can explain why their estimates are so different today than they were a year ago, or if they will simply shrug their shoulders and say, "What's $111 billion among friends?"

New Drugs Cost Even More Than You Think

tpelia@yahoo.com (Tom Elia) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:03:00 -0700

Megan McArdle:

For every approved drug, pharma spent between $4 billion and $11 billion on R&D. Yes, there's probably some wiggle room on the accounting, but not that much--your auditor is not going to let you reclassify your new delivery trucks, or a Human Resources SVP, as a research expense.

Read the whole post.

As the Fraud Unravels...

tpelia@yahoo.com (Tom Elia) — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:03:00 -0600

ObamaCare's fiscally unworkable fraud.

What a shocker.

Paul Krugman in 2010: 'Real Solution to Medicare will be Death Panels and Sales Taxes'

tpelia@yahoo.com (Tom Elia) — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 13:12:00 -0600

I somehow missed this, which is from a November 2010 edition of ABC's This Week:

Paul Krugman: "Some years down the pike, we're going get the real solution [to Medicare], which is going to be a combination of death panels and sales taxes.... We're actually going to take Medicare under control and we're going to have to get some additional revenue, probably from a VAT. But it's not going to happen now..."

More, from November 2010, Krugman reiterates the point.

Survey: 30% of Firms Halting Coverage When ObamaCare Starts

tpelia@yahoo.com (Tom Elia) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:29:00 -0600

MarketWatch's Russ Britt reports:

Once provisions of the Affordable Care Act start to kick in during 2014, at least three of every 10 employers will probably stop offering health coverage, a survey released Monday shows.

While only 7% of employees will be forced to switch to subsidized-exchange programs, at least 30% of companies say they will "definitely or probably" stop offering employer-sponsored coverage, according to the study published in McKinsey Quarterly.

Who could have known?

Rep. Ryan On Debt Reduction, & Dems' 'Mediscare' Tactics

tpelia@yahoo.com (Tom Elia) — Tue, 31 May 2011 00:02:00 -0600

Ryan Explains Medicare's Troubles, His Proposal

tpelia@yahoo.com (Tom Elia) — Thu, 26 May 2011 00:03:00 -0600

Rep. Ryan (R-WI) compares his proposal with that of Obamacare.

Saving Medicare: Free Market Reforms Are Better than Bureaucratic Rationing

tpelia@yahoo.com (Tom Elia) — Wed, 18 May 2011 13:20:00 -0600

(via Hot Air)

HHS approves 200 more new healthcare reform waivers

tpelia@yahoo.com (Tom Elia) — Mon, 16 May 2011 13:39:00 -0600

According to The Hill, it is now more than 1,300 waivers, including one for the entire state of Maine.