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TOPIC: USA Today Editorial "Our view on medical inflation: Don't blame health reform for rising costs of care" (9/13/10)


Diamond

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USA Today Editorial "Our view on medical inflation: Don't blame health reform for rising costs of care" (9/13/10)
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Looks interesting and fact-rich.. so I share.

USA Today - Editorial

Our view on medical inflation: Don't blame health reform for rising costs of care


For anyone concerned about rising health costs and their effect on the economy, consider this grim new projection: By 2019, the nation's health care bill will have surged to $4.6 trillion, or nearly 20 cents of every dollar spent in America. That comes to $13,652 per person, up from $8,389 last year.

OPPOSING VIEW: Repeal and replace

Outraged that you'll be paying nearly two-thirds more than you do now? Ready to demand repeal of the reform law passed early this year?

Think again. The estimate, from the actuarial department at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, actually amounts to a kind of tacit endorsement of the measure. That's because the new law would have virtually no effect on the upward trajectory of health care spending, while bringing insurance coverage to an additional 32.5 million people and ending the worst insurance company abuses.

Put another way, the controversial reform measure has enough cost controls to deliver protections to more Americans for roughly the same money as would have been spent otherwise. What it doesn't have is enough controls to prevent health care from growing at unsustainable rates much higher than inflation. That's not a reason to repeal health reform, but it is reason to revisit it.

Health care spending continues to surge in part because, once deductibles and co-payments are satisfied, patients and providers are largely free to play with insurers' money. This creates incentives to overprescribe, overtest and overtreat — and to develop high-priced new drugs and other products that are only marginally better than existing ones. There is a lack of any real push toward efficiency. The price for all of this is passed along in the form of higher premiums and soaring outlays for government benefits.

" Bending the cost curve on health care is hard to do," President Obama conceded at Friday's news conference, something he downplayed while selling his plan to a skeptical public and Congress. Ideally, the two parties would join to do the heavy lifting, yet an honest discussion of what more needs to be done on health care costs is lacking from the current partisan debate.

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Continues @ USA Today - Editorial
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Democracy needs defending - SOS Hillary Clinton, Sept 8, 2010
Democracy is more than just elections - SOS Hillary Clinton, Oct 28, 2010

Madam Secretary Blog at ForeignPolicy.com
Project Vote Smart - Stay informed and engaged!


Diamond

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With the influx of Repubs in the House and Senate, the likelihood of women's interests being considered in the next cycle - whatever that is going to bring - is a big fat zippo.

I wonder if the bottomline here is that businesses do not favor women's equality interests. So, there are no special interests pushing the cause of women.

How can women influence this before the next big round on this?  Sure looks like it can only be through business sponsorship of our cause.. bec I dont see either party doing squat for women.

__________________
Democracy needs defending - SOS Hillary Clinton, Sept 8, 2010
Democracy is more than just elections - SOS Hillary Clinton, Oct 28, 2010

Madam Secretary Blog at ForeignPolicy.com
Project Vote Smart - Stay informed and engaged!


SuperModerator

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All I know is, my insurance premiums went up by almost 40 percent. I just signed up for a new policy with a different health care company. The premiums are lower, but the deductible is much higher. Everything else is out of my price range.

Bottom line: I cannot afford to get sick.

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