Robert Reich posted his 7 biggest economic lies here http://robertreich.org/post/11329289033 to which I will add one: 8) Liberal Berkeley economists are logical, reasonable, intellectually honest, and have generally usable economic models for the real world. Economics as a profession is so prone to corruption by political agendas that it is now almost indistinguishable from raw politics. Could Reich possibly be anymore a left wing shill? I mean his arguments are so compromised that it's hard to believe he was once an academic who might have even tried to have some sort of objective point of view. His 5th item particularly stands out Let's first just look at the first 3 sentences for logical consistency. Reich's position is that Medicare and Medicaid are not major drivers of the budget deficit, even though their numbers say otherwise, because health care costs are rising so fast......?????.....OMFG, he's a Berkeley professor! Just how did this stupid of a human being attain the heights he has in this world? The golden ticket according to Reich is to EXPAND medicare and then to let them negotiate. Golly that's pure genius except Medicare has been setting prices (not negotiating) for the last 30 years - and it has worked oh so well. What a goddamn moron, and he's one of the left's leaders. Why am I still amazed...
hopefully you know that medicare pays far less for services than private pay? the only exception is drugs under medicare. the reason for that is the bush administration put in a provision banning medicare from negotiating with drug companies.
Actually on that point Reich is Right in this sense: The sum of government and private health costs would be far higher were it not for medicare which has been a deterrent to rising costs. (see the above post) American medical delivery is controlled by a government protected cartel. The FDA is a component of the cartel, medicaid and medicare are not. Medical costs are not outrageous because of medicare, but in spite of it. It is not logical to blame medicare for out of control medical expenditures. High medical costs are due to a highly regulated, essential service being offered on a take-it-or-leave it basis in the absence of competition and a free market. None of the entitlement programs are responsible for huge government deficits. Deficits are primarily created in the discretionary budget, not in the entitlement budget. Look to defense expenditures as the number one culprit. Us spends 4k/per capita versus Germany 0.3K. US spends nearly as much on military as all other nations combined, including China.! There is your culprit! (I'm not, arguing, by the way, that out of control medical costs can be ignored. They can't. It's that, and military expenditures, that are bankrupting the U.S. Bring those to items down to the level of other developed nations and you have solved the fiscal problem.) The Republicans in Congress together with the insurance industry killed the single most effective cost containment provision in the Obamacare Bill, the public option, which would have brought many more under a pay-as-you-go medicare like medical plan, saving billions. I should also point out that the administrative costs for medicare are lower than the administrative costs of private insurance companies. If private insurers really were more efficient than medicare they could easily undercut medicare premiums and no one would choose the public option. It's obvious from the fierce opposition by the insurance industry to the "public option" that they can't compete. You can't have it both ways. You can't argue out of one side of your mouth that you're are in favor of free competition while making excuses why you oppose it out of the other side. Anyone against the public option was for higher medical care costs, whether they realized it or not.
u sir ... you need to re-read what he is saying. Cost is around service/drugs cost.... which is rising exponentially compare to the rise in Madicar/medicaid users or cost of operations. Private insurance industry has over 35% profit margins - guess how are they making those huge margins....??? Insurance was a noble concept - but FOR profit insurance system can get out of hand & cause other dependent sytems go out of balance. We need massive regulations on these beasts - like it or not. An asprin should not cost you a dollar - when its made for less than 5 cents. just wait till all the water gets privatized...oops!!
freethinker, the free part is good, but you need to work on the the thinker part. Hopefully you know that medicare simply sets prices by decree, that is it uses price controls. Hopefully you understand the negative ramifications of that. Medicare drugs are negotiated, only by the insurers and not the gov't.
wow, where does one begin with all that misconception??? Now I get it, you are a lazy liberal who won't even bother to examine the numerical reality. Well I'll give you some info in the form of some easy to read charts, but until you actually know something before you spout off, I'll not respond to you in full.
oh I read it allright, and until you sir understand the massive distortions on the marketplace that entitlements and regulations have on any service you will never understand why aspirin costs a dollar. For profit car insurance works just fine and it's because the government isn't mandating that everyone gets to drive. As long as the government insists that every fat 80 year old gets a free hip replacement, then 'insurance' is anything but noble, it is downright immoral. Let's take ol Robby's unbelievably dumb comment and apply it to the military: The reason that the military budget is so high isn't because of the DoD, it is because the cost of war is getting out of control.
Medicare does not use price controls. Medicare uses price negotiation -- exactly the same principle you use every time you decide whether or not to buy something. Insurance companies use the same process to negotiate fees, but are less honest about it than medicare, since they often cheat you by not revealing the discounted amount they actually paid. Thus if you have an 80/20 policy you can be cheated. Physicians have a choice, they can choose not to accept medicare patients.