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

To: Road Walker who wrote (24012)	7/2/2012 5:28:13 PM
From: i-node	3 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

>> If you want to call Medicaid or Medicare something else, fine with me. But most of Obama Care is health insurance sold by health insurance companies. The fact that it will be near universal doesn't change it's definition any more than near universal car insurance makes it something else. I can't comment on Lane's intent as she may be talking about something else, however, I do think you're no longer talking about health insurance when you can buy it after you get sick. Substantially, at least. In some cases that isn't strictly true -- when my brother was killed, he was essentially dead at the scene yet his ER costs were 10s of thousands of dollars. Obviously, he couldn't have purchased insurance after the fact. But for the long-term, expensive to treat chronic illnesses that we hear so much about, health insurance will cease to be insurance as there is no element of risk management. Health insurance as we've known it starts to look a lot more like a new variety of annuity. It would be interesting to know how professional actuaries are handling it internally within insurance companies as the traditional meaning of risk premium is distorted so much by it. >> Outside entitlements, the majority of government spending is for investments or maintenance; "discretionary spending". Roads, airports, military, Commerce Dept trade missions, all sorts of shit. Stuff that keeps the country moving. The countries that fall behind are those that don't invest or maintain. Look around. That's in the eye of the beholder. I would argue that the Dept of Education isn't an investment; it is more akin to putting money in an incinerator. Others serve a purpose, but are neither entitlements nor investments; e.g., unemployment benefits, food stamps, etc. Still others are none of the above, like costs of running the Executive, Judiciary, and Legislative branches -- not an entitlement but certainly not an investment -- these are more kin to "period expenses" or "overhead" in accounting terminology. The huge expenses are entitlements and defense, of course, but very little of what government does can reasonably be classified as "investment" (i.e., something you expect a "return" on).

To: Road Walker who wrote (24012)	7/2/2012 5:38:15 PM
From: TimF	2 Recommendations Respond to of 42652

But most of Obama Care is health insurance sold by health insurance companies. Maybe most people covered after Obamacare fully goes in to effect. With most meaning "more than 50%"). But many of the possible new people covered won't be under health insurance. Anyone with a preexisting condition, which insurance companies are forced to cover, isn't getting insurance. They aren't pooling risk, a preexisting condition isn't a risk, its what you already have. Covering it isn't really insurance, just as the government forcing the government to pay for my house burning down, when I had not previously contracted with the insurance company, isn't insurance. Outside entitlements, the majority of government spending is for investments or maintenance Nice trick there. Entitlements are the majority of government spending, so even if 100% of the rest was for investments the majority would not be for investments. Outside of entitlements, the biggest categories are defense and interest payments. Outside of all of that, its questionable if what you have left would mainly be investment. Salaries for government workers, and benefits for those workers are consumption not investment. Subsidies are rather dubious as investments. Regulation is a cost mainly imposed on the private sector, but the governments own efforts to comply, and its drafting, promulgation, and enforcement costs are investments. Enforcement of law and administration of justice, while important, isn't something best considered and investment, the same holds for various homeland security efforts, revenue collection efforts, government publishing and communication, etc. Your left with travel infrastructure, probably research spending, and maybe some of the commerce department's activities (most of which should be eliminated buy that's another discussion). That's a small fraction of government spending. Federal government investments are significant, but they are a small fraction of spending (and even smaller if you only include investment that is reasonably likely to produce a solid return).

To: Road Walker who wrote (24012)	7/2/2012 5:47:23 PM
From: Lane3	3 Recommendations Respond to of 42652

But most of Obama Care is health insurance sold by health insurance companies. And drug stores sell flip-flops and nail polish. That doesn't make either of them a drug.