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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (10674)	10/23/2009 9:29:07 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 42652

Baker's statements don't seem to fit with each other. He says about tort costs - "As the cost of health care goes up, the medical liability component of it has stayed fairly constant. That means it’s part of the medical price inflation system, but it’s not driving it." But if its part of the price inflation, than reigning it in will contribute to reigning in the inflation, even if not as much as those who push the issue most claim. Also he seems to be considering just the direct liability costs, but not the indirect costs such as defensive medicine, or reduce competition when some doctors in some specialties stop practicing in a certain area (some of them either moving out, or retiring early, and also less new doctors picking the specialty or choosing to work in that location).

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (10674)	10/23/2009 11:34:29 PM
From: i-node	Respond to of 42652

A.That’s wildly exaggerated. According to the actuarial consulting firm Towers Perrin, medical malpractice tort costs were $30.4 billion in 2007, the last year for which data are available. We have a more than a $2 trillion health care system. That puts litigation costs and malpractice insurance at 1 to 1.5 percent of total medical costs. That’s a rounding error. Liability isn’t even the tail on the cost dog. It’s the hair on the end of the tail. Ms. Underwood apparently did not look closely at the Towers Perrin study, as it did not take into account the cost of "defensive medicine", which is probably more than 90% of the total. The most credible study puts the total cost at somewhere between 8-10%, which isn't chickenfeed. Any legislation that doesn't address it can't pass the laugh test.

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (10674)	10/24/2009 11:05:35 AM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 42652

perspective Friday, October 23, 2009 Obama to tax ICDs, pacemakers I just read this story over at The Hill: The more the fiscal details of the healthcare bills emerge, the more appalling they seem. The Senate Finance Committee bill includes a broad provision taxing all manner of medical devices. This tax includes such frivolous luxuries as pacemakers, stents, artificial heart valves, defibrillators, automated wheelchairs, mechanized artificial limbs, replacement hips and knees, surgical gurneys, laparoscopic equipment and the like. Funny, I just now finished reading physician David Gratzer's new book,Why Obama's Government Takeover of Health Care Will Be a Disaster which states that if Barack Obama has his way, the American health care system is headed for a train wreck. The train wreck is here, folks, and if we don't continue to fight back, those of us with severe medical problems will pay the price. Labels: healthcare, politics posted by Helen at 2:06 PM 13 Comments: Blogger DADvocate said... Making health care affordable for all by making health care more expensive? Makes perfect sense to me. At some point in our lives virtually all of us will need medical devices of some sort. This is complete idiocy. 3:26 PM, October 23, 2009 Blogger Dr.D said... I recently had a pacemaker put in. Does this mean that I will pay an annual tax on it? Or would that be a one shot tax, like a sales tax? If it is a reoccurring tax, can I avoid the tax by having it removed? (I can live, for a while at least, without it.) What a deal ObamaCare is going to be! 3:45 PM, October 23, 2009 Blogger Helen said... Dr. D, I think the tax will be to the medical suppliers but my guess is that it will be passed down to those of us who need these devices. 4:42 PM, October 23, 2009 Blogger fred said... Headed for train wreck? We are there without Obama....and getting worse and worse. Now I am not concerned about myself. My wife gets health coverage. But what she is given in health coverage is money she is not given in salary. And how many people that had coverage have lost it when they lost jobs? And how many with pre-existing conditions (too fat, too thin, diabetes etc) can't get covered? And how many jobs now charge the worker for part of the coverage? Govt involved? sure. Medicare, medicaid, V.A. and all our military...and it works! Why not stop griping and offer a solution. What Would You Do to make it work? 4:53 PM, October 23, 2009 Blogger Alex said... The way Barry's approval rating is skyrocketing DOWNWARDS at historical rates, he won't be passing anything. So just hunker down my fellow conservatives & Libertarians and we can defeat this Alinskyite yet. 5:15 PM, October 23, 2009 Blogger TMink said... fred wrote: "Medicare, medicaid, V.A. and all our military...and it works!" You don't work in health care of have any of those insurances do you fred? drhelen.blogspot.com