Public Healthcare
Obama will talk tonight on his healthcare plan. He will either demand the legislature pass the bill before the recess (ram it down the throat of America) or he will actually wait rather than risk losing support in congress. I hope for the latter.
I think there needs to be universal coverage. But not in this way, not through this bill. The industry has had solutions on the table for some time, but they have been ignored. Instead we are facing a plan that will break the financial back of this nation - or at the very least contribute to its slow economic weakening.
From a NYT Op-Ed:
"The House bill adds $239 billion to the federal deficit during the first 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It would pummel small businesses with an 8 percent payroll penalty. It would jack America’s top tax rate above those in Italy and France. Top earners in New York and California would be giving more than 55 percent of earnings to one government entity or another."
From a NYT article:
"Providing health insurance to the roughly 50 million people without it will cost something like $120 billion a year. President Obama has proposed $60 billion or so in new revenue for this purpose — a “down payment,” his advisers say. But Congress seems set to reject about half of the down payment (a plan to limit high-income families’ tax deductions for charitable giving and other such things). That makes for the $90 billion health care hole."
Americans are not even in favor of the bill - from the Cato Institute:
I think most Americans have some vision of a bunch of Swedish nurses and highly efficient German doctors administering care in a hospital designed by a Danish architecture collective or Norman Foster. Bright white walls, stainless steel exposed support structure, interestingly angled windows, monitoring machines by Frog Design blending artfully into the background. The reality is far different.
America needs healthcare reform. What it does not need is a huge, poorly planned, hastily authorized and wildly expensive healthcare system.
If you dont believe that a superpower can fall, if you think that the power of the US will continue whatever the political situation, if you believe that this is the right course for America: look at England in the 1960's. That is the risk the US faces: the gradual onset of economic malaise brought on by excessive regulation and over taxation. On top of that, add the risk of hyperinflation and the picture turns very grim.
Personally, I hope the US economy is strong enough to withstand the abuse, at least until it can be fixed. I fear that will not be the case.
I think there needs to be universal coverage. But not in this way, not through this bill. The industry has had solutions on the table for some time, but they have been ignored. Instead we are facing a plan that will break the financial back of this nation - or at the very least contribute to its slow economic weakening.
From a NYT Op-Ed:
"The House bill adds $239 billion to the federal deficit during the first 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It would pummel small businesses with an 8 percent payroll penalty. It would jack America’s top tax rate above those in Italy and France. Top earners in New York and California would be giving more than 55 percent of earnings to one government entity or another."
From a NYT article:
"Providing health insurance to the roughly 50 million people without it will cost something like $120 billion a year. President Obama has proposed $60 billion or so in new revenue for this purpose — a “down payment,” his advisers say. But Congress seems set to reject about half of the down payment (a plan to limit high-income families’ tax deductions for charitable giving and other such things). That makes for the $90 billion health care hole."
Americans are not even in favor of the bill - from the Cato Institute:
"A poll by the Washington Post and ABC News conducted June 18-21 showed that 84 percent of respondents were "very" or "somewhat" concerned that "current efforts to reform the health care system" would increase their health care costs. The survey also showed that 79 percent of respondents were concerned that current efforts would limit their choices of doctors or medical treatments.
"The president has made it clear over the last two weeks that he wants Congress to pass health care reform legislation that will result in families only having one place to turn for health care coverage: Uncle Sam," said Cato Senior Fellow Michael Tanner. "What the American people will get is less health care for more money, and deficits will skyrocket.""
As I pointed out in a post back in March, the US has the best health care in the world. Europeans may make jokes about how many in the US are not covered, but then we could make jokes about how most of their hospitals seem like Cold War relics, or how many people die every year because advanced drugs and treatments are not 'cost effective' under govt. controlled health care systems. The thing is, we are usually taught to buy into the European model.I think most Americans have some vision of a bunch of Swedish nurses and highly efficient German doctors administering care in a hospital designed by a Danish architecture collective or Norman Foster. Bright white walls, stainless steel exposed support structure, interestingly angled windows, monitoring machines by Frog Design blending artfully into the background. The reality is far different.
America needs healthcare reform. What it does not need is a huge, poorly planned, hastily authorized and wildly expensive healthcare system.
If you dont believe that a superpower can fall, if you think that the power of the US will continue whatever the political situation, if you believe that this is the right course for America: look at England in the 1960's. That is the risk the US faces: the gradual onset of economic malaise brought on by excessive regulation and over taxation. On top of that, add the risk of hyperinflation and the picture turns very grim.
Personally, I hope the US economy is strong enough to withstand the abuse, at least until it can be fixed. I fear that will not be the case.
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