PeakTrader.com

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PeakTrader:

Both Krugman and the CBO know there will be some destruction of potential output, e.g. 0.2% to 0.5% of GDP, as Americans work fewer hours, pay less in (marginal) taxes, and collect more in subsidies.

However, we need to reduce the high cost of health care, driven by over 100,000 pages of regulations.

How to reduce medical costs:

1. Limit medical lawsuits and awards, to lower malpractice insurance premiums and unnecessary medical tests.

2. Lower standards to practice medicine (to increase labor)

3. Allow insurance companies to sell health-care policies across state lines (average health care insurance ranges from a low of $1,254 in Wisconsin to a high of $8,537 in Massachusetts).

4. Allow innovation. Example:

Kaiser Microclinics At 50% of the Cost of a Full-Service Hospital

Two doctors working out of a microclinic at a mall could meet 80% of a typical patient’s needs. With a hi-def video conferencing add-on, members could even link to a nearby hospital for a quick consult with a specialist. Patients would still need to travel to a full-size facility for major trauma, surgery, or access to expensive diagnostic equipment, but those are situations that arise infrequently. The per-member cost at a microclinic is roughly half that of a full Kaiser hospital.

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We need to unleash the health care industry rather than place more burdensome controls.

The real British health care system:

“A quarter of a million people are waiting more than 18 weeks for treatment on the NHS, new figures show…for a range of treatments including oral surgery, rheumatology and geriatric medicine. This means that nearly 10% of patients are not being treated within the government’s waiting list target.

Civitas, the think tank, blames the monolithic nature of the National Health Service for “putting the patient last”.

It argues that the “customer” of the NHS business model introduced by Tony Blair and continued by Gordon Brown is the health secretary rather than the patient.

State control: staff pay is set centrally, capital expenditure is constrained, IT is a top-down programme and availability of drugs, such as expensive cancer treatments, is centrally determined.”

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“A study by Deloitte LLP has found that more than 400,000 non-U.S. residents obtained medical care in the U.S. in 2008, and it forecasts an annual increase of 3%.

Some 3.5% of inpatient procedures at U.S. hospitals were performed on international patients, many of them escaping from Canada’s supposedly superior health system.”

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I couldn’t respond to some of the ridiculous comments earlier, because I was too busy providing goods & services, and taxes for the non-working population, which increased substantially under Obama.

And, Obamacare will make it even worse, before the last of the Baby-Boomers (born between 1946-64) reach 65 in 2029.

Unfortunately, there are political hacks here too, just like the wacko libertarians at the Perry blog, who relentlessly drove every moderate out of that blog.

And, it seems, some people here believe Americans are going to Canada or the UK to put their names on a waiting list for health care.

Maybe, instead, they’re going to countries with cheaper health care, rather than try to consume non-existent health care in Canada or the UK.

Moreover, some people here seem to believe more competition and less regulation will somehow raise costs or prices.

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Maybe, you believe goods & services and taxes will just materialize without workers.

The reality is Americans will need to work harder and longer rather than work fewer hours, be forced into early retirement, go on disability, receive endless extensions of unemployment benefits, or some other type of welfare, because there won’t be enough workers to provide the goods & services and taxes to support a huge non-working population, particularly when the last of the Baby-Boomers reach 65 in 2029.

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This depression is a huge setback, and Obamacare makes it worse. Younger Americans will not work that hard to support a huge unemployed and retired population. So, we can expect a general decline in living standards, which has already begun, over the next few decades.

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EMichael, I see you’re another extremist political hack, who says a lot, but doesn’t really say much.

So, you want to blame too little taxes and regulation on “job creators” for the decline in living standards, since the economy peaked in 2007.

I’ve shown evidence, there was too much micromanagement in the economy by greedy politicians – an economy they don’t understand – which created undesirable effects, and basically made it harder for geese to lay the golden eggs.

Small businesses are the job creators, and it has become increasingly harder for them to succeed to become big businesses.

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Dan says: "RomneyCare has reduced personal bankruptcies in the state by 20 percent."

Did RomneyCare reduce the price, raise quantity, or raise quality, or did it cause a rise in the cost of living, e.g. through more regulation or the state finding ways to raise revenue.

I’m for any system that increases efficiency. So, consumers can get more for less, rather than a zero-sum shell game or making the system less efficient, to benefit some, at the expense of many.

It’s “very silly” to assume personal medical debt just disappears into another dimension without any other effects.

Would you rather die or get the health care you need and declare bankruptcy?

If I can’t buy health care, because I’m on a waiting list, how can I declare bankruptcy from buying health care?

If the government raises taxes on everyone in the state to pay my medical bills, why would I need to declare bankruptcy?

If too much regulation slows improvements in medical equipment or creation of new drugs, and I die as a result, why would I declare bankruptcy?

If regulations and taxes make the health care I need unavailable, and I don’t buy it, how can I declare bankruptcy,

When the state imposes rationing, people will likely buy less.

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