My conclusion regarding health reform was confirmed by the congressional budget office today. With the present plan there will be no savings. The plan as proposed does nothing to eliminate the parasitic bureaucratic insurance environment, nor the regulatory environment, In fact the plan would merely transfer these costs to the government. Unfortunately the AMA in an effort to boost it’s credibility came out today to support the House Bill. No surprise there….just when most sensible people rose up and told congress it’s too expensive.
Obama is creating a ‘health care crisis’ much as he did with the fiancial markets promising to pull it out with ‘stimulus funding’. Congress is begiing to say “enough is enough’.No one is going to be panicked into a hasty decision. Obama wants all or nothing at all.
It seems saner heads are prevailing, as well as the skeptical response of the public in general.
Unfortunately health care will have to wait further to see just how our economy will (if) recover. As evidenced by the state of affairs in California even those well established programs such as SCHIP are being curtailed or eliminated, and this in the largest and perhaps most affluent state in the country.
Nevertheless changes do need to be made, and sooner rather than later. The cry of ‘emergency’ and crisis are beginning to sound like crying ‘wolf’. That only goes so far….banks, equity firms, mortgage crisis, credit crisis, and financial scandals . Obviously all those responsible were not playing with their ‘own money’ This too would be an enormous problem with a universal, or public program.
The most imminent medical issue is that there are a lot of providers who are about to quit, retire, or find some other less stressful financial vehicle, even if it means living under a bridge.