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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Katelew who wrote (131589)	2/26/2010 12:28:28 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 540934

EZest way to bend the curve is to get rid of all the non-productive (eg, not contributing to patient care) employees in the hospitals and docs' offices...all those dealing with the insurance bureaucracy. Go to single payer, eliminate a lot of make-work jobs. A week wandering around a hospital would do everybody a world of good; there are a whole lot of people who do nothing to provide medical care but take up a lot of money and space. In my old hospital, I watched 9 of about 75 (I think) patient rooms turned into office space.

To: Katelew who wrote (131589)	2/26/2010 1:11:17 PM
From: Mary Cluney	Respond to of 540934

<<<Rather than post someone's resume>>> Big mistake not looking at qualifications and fitness of people for important jobs (or even not so important jobs). Did we learn anything from Brownie. <<<I'm not saying the cost curve can't be bent. >>> The problem is not technical. If you look at Orszag and other's background you can clearly see that. The problem is purely political.

To: Katelew who wrote (131589)	2/26/2010 2:10:54 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 540934

I'm not saying the cost curve can't be bent. I've read a lot on this subject. If there are any answers out there, they haven't been published where I can get access to them. I don't think there's any way to bend the cost curve other than individuals paying for their own health care--making their own decisions on what's worth it and what's not and having providers compete on price for their business. But that's not an acceptable option. Thus the cost curve will not be bent. It may be displaced but it won't be bent. Dictating price controls would do the trick. I don't see how that can work long term. Eventually providers and provisions would dry up. Yeah, prices would be down but so would life and quality of life. So would raising taxes by X amount. I don't get that at all. You could do it by rationing. Then those who can afford rationed services will go outside the system and most will do without. Not sure how that would work long term, either. The same life/quality of life issues arise and eventually civil unrest could ensue. I'm interested in methods that don't have the potential for serious blowback or are more than just cost-shifting. It seems to me that the only thing to do is to mitigate the cost increases in small ways (through light rationing) and figure out where to get the money for the rest. The sooner we give up on the cost curve bending and start looking for how we are going to live with the costs, the better. Sort of like global warming. Can't really fix it. Will need to find a way to live with it.