DankNuggs 305 Posted March 15, 2012 Let's look at how well the Govt has estimated future costs of a few of their Healthcare programs. •In 1965, the House Ways and Means Committee estimated that the hospital insurance program of Medicare - the federal health care program for the elderly and disabled - would cost $9 billion by 1990. The actual cost that year was $67 billion. •In 1967, the House Ways and Means Committee said the entire Medicare program would cost $12 billion in 1990. The actual cost in 1990 was $98 billion. But hey, they will get this one right and it will save us money. At this point i think the 'saving money' angle has been abandoned... The thing is passed, the politics have changed now the people can believe they 'have something'. So the cost argument is now moot (as it becomes in most entitlement discussions) and the focus is only on the kid who can stay on his parents plan, or the pre existing conidtion case,etc... Nobody expects it to save money, and they don't care anyways because they aren't paying for it... Yay.... Solving problems by creating bigger ones. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheNewGirl 995 Posted March 15, 2012 At this point i think the 'saving money' angle has been abandoned... The thing is passed, the politics have changed now the people can believe they 'have something'. So the cost argument is now moot (as it becomes in most entitlement discussions) and the focus is only on the kid who can stay on his parents plan, or the pre existing conidtion case,etc... Nobody expects it to save money, and they don't care anyways because they aren't paying for it... Yay.... Solving problems by creating bigger ones. This is it. THey don't care, because it's "free" to them, nothing out of their pockets, etc. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
penultimatestraw 473 Posted March 15, 2012 I want a good surgeon and I don't care if he wants to help people or not. I was responding to the moronic premise that only people who want to help others should be doctors. Actually it is the Affirmative Action Doctors I worry about. Actually you want both a caring and competent doctor. If something goes wrong, which can happen even to the most technically proficient surgeon, an a$$hole may be less likely to help remediate a complication or error. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Phurfur 70 Posted March 15, 2012 Actually you want both a caring and competent doctor. If something goes wrong, which can happen even to the most technically proficient surgeon, an a$$hole may be less likely to help remediate a complication or error. You too are missing the point. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
penultimatestraw 473 Posted March 15, 2012 You too are missing the point. No, I get it - a good doctor may or may nor be the most compassionate person in the world. You think it does not matter, particularly with technicians like surgeons. Technical skill is most important for them, of course. And clearly it takes much more than altruism to be a good physician. What else were you trying to convey? EDIT - I'm going to ignore the affirmative action nonsense in your post. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jerryskids 5,069 Posted March 16, 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqeC3BPYTmE Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DanXIII 8 Posted March 16, 2012 Op is wrong fyi Sorting through the deceptive attacks on health care reform gets old, even for me. But on Wednesday the Republicans and their allies made a claim so obviously misleading that they, and the media outlets parroting them, must have known they spreading false information. The basis for the claim is the Congressional Budget Office’s latest projections for the Affordable Care Act, which critics (and I!) like to call Obamacare. When Congress first passed the law, in the spring of 2010, CBO made official estimates of how much the law would cost, how many people would get insurance as a result, and so on. It updated that estimate one year later and has, now, updated it one more time. The CBO distributed its report in the morning and, by 11 a.m., Republican offices on Capitol Hill were spitting out press releases about it. According to the Republicans, CBO had discovered that Obamacare was going to cost $1.76 trillion over the next ten years. “The CBO’s revised cost estimate indicates that this massive government intrusion into America’s health care system will be far more costly than was originally claimed,” Tom Price, chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, said. Within a few hours, both Fox News and the Washington Times were carrying online stories making the same claim. According to the Fox News account, CBO was “showing that the bill is substantially more expensive—twice as much as the original $900 billion price tag.” If CBO had truly determined that health care reform’s cost will be twice the original estimates, it would be huge news. But CBO said nothing of the sort. To figure out the cost of health care reform, CBO looks at each of the law’s component parts and, for accounting purposes, groups them into different categories. It calls one category “gross cost of coverage expansions”—that’s the amount of money the federal government will spend to help people get insurance, mostly by offering Medicaid to more people or giving people subsidies they can use to help offset the cost of private insurance. Last year, CBO estimated that the gross cost of coverage expansion from 2012 through 2021 would be $1.445 trillion. Now CBO thinks the gross cost will be $1.496 trillion. The number shifted, in part, because the CBO has changed its projections for economic growth. (MSNBC’s Tom Curry has a nice explanation of this.) But, in the context of such a large a budget projection, that’s barely any difference at all. In the this latest estimate, CBO extends its projection out one more year, to capture the expenses from 2012 to 2022, in order to capture a full decade. In 2022, CBO says, the gross cost of coverage expansion will be $265 billion. Add that to the $1.496 and you get (with rounding) the $1.76 trillion—the one in the press releases and the Fox story. But there is nothing new or surprising about this. It’s only slightly more money than the previous year’s outlays. The ten-year number seems to jump only because the time frame for the estimate has moved, dropping one year, 2011, and adding another, 2022. Obamacare has virtually no outlays in 2011, because the Medicaid expansion and subsidies don’t start up until 2014, which means the shifting time frame drops a year of no implementation and adds one of full implementation. The New Republic Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mike Honcho 3,940 Posted March 16, 2012 Op is wrong fyi Sorting through the deceptive attacks on health care reform gets old, even for me. But on Wednesday the Republicans and their allies made a claim so obviously misleading that they, and the media outlets parroting them, must have known they spreading false information. The basis for the claim is the Congressional Budget Office's latest projections for the Affordable Care Act, which critics (and I!) like to call Obamacare. When Congress first passed the law, in the spring of 2010, CBO made official estimates of how much the law would cost, how many people would get insurance as a result, and so on. It updated that estimate one year later and has, now, updated it one more time. The CBO distributed its report in the morning and, by 11 a.m., Republican offices on Capitol Hill were spitting out press releases about it. According to the Republicans, CBO had discovered that Obamacare was going to cost $1.76 trillion over the next ten years. "The CBO's revised cost estimate indicates that this massive government intrusion into America's health care system will be far more costly than was originally claimed," Tom Price, chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, said. Within a few hours, both Fox News and the Washington Times were carrying online stories making the same claim. According to the Fox News account, CBO was "showing that the bill is substantially more expensivetwice as much as the original $900 billion price tag." If CBO had truly determined that health care reform's cost will be twice the original estimates, it would be huge news. But CBO said nothing of the sort. To figure out the cost of health care reform, CBO looks at each of the law's component parts and, for accounting purposes, groups them into different categories. It calls one category "gross cost of coverage expansions"that's the amount of money the federal government will spend to help people get insurance, mostly by offering Medicaid to more people or giving people subsidies they can use to help offset the cost of private insurance. Last year, CBO estimated that the gross cost of coverage expansion from 2012 through 2021 would be $1.445 trillion. Now CBO thinks the gross cost will be $1.496 trillion. The number shifted, in part, because the CBO has changed its projections for economic growth. (MSNBC's Tom Curry has a nice explanation of this.) But, in the context of such a large a budget projection, that's barely any difference at all. In the this latest estimate, CBO extends its projection out one more year, to capture the expenses from 2012 to 2022, in order to capture a full decade. In 2022, CBO says, the gross cost of coverage expansion will be $265 billion. Add that to the $1.496 and you get (with rounding) the $1.76 trillionthe one in the press releases and the Fox story. But there is nothing new or surprising about this. It's only slightly more money than the previous year's outlays. The ten-year number seems to jump only because the time frame for the estimate has moved, dropping one year, 2011, and adding another, 2022. Obamacare has virtually no outlays in 2011, because the Medicaid expansion and subsidies don't start up until 2014, which means the shifting time frame drops a year of no implementation and adds one of full implementation. The New Republic Wait are you trying to say I shouldn't get my news from Fox or right wings bloggers? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jerryskids 5,069 Posted March 16, 2012 Op is wrong fyi The New Republic Actually, that's the part I called "5th grade math." We had several discussions here when Obamacare came out where people didn't seem to get that concept. Or they were being deliberately obtuse. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gocolts 300 Posted March 17, 2012 Op is wrong fyi The New Republic So, do you think this healthcare will cost anywhere near what they are claiming or do you think it will likely cost more???? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Recliner Pilot 61 Posted March 17, 2012 So, do you think this healthcare will cost anywhere near what they are claiming or do you think it will likely cost more???? Medicare projections were off 1700%, but the Community Organizer knows what's what. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites