Comments on: Big Health Care Promises To Cut $2 Trillion Over 10 Years

By: Tully

Tully — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:07:27 +0000

Promises, promises. This is nothing but noise. Note the complete lack of real detail in the “plan.” Some big corps would love to offload their HC costs onto the taxpayers. And some big health care corps and big pharma would love to see new money injected into the system. Especially when it comes with the ability to arbitrarily ration care in order to maintain their margins.

Anyone who thinks that any of this will actually cut OVERALL health care costs without some fairly extreme rationing is an idiot who can’t do basic math. $2 trillion? Steer manure. AT best even intelligent reform could only slow the rate of cost growth for a while, until the potential efficiencies were absorbed.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 12 May 2009 04:36:57 +0000

I just want to bring up that it is NOT doctors making the bank in this country any longer. yes they make more than the average person, but they’re not pulling in millions. And I completely agree with Terence, there’s no way we can have health care reform when private for-profit companies are running our health care. Why the hell are we listening to an insurance company on what procedures we’re allowed to have?

By: Jim S

Jim S — Tue, 12 May 2009 00:52:59 +0000

I agree with Terence. The insurance companies, hospital corporations, Big Pharma and every other for profit involved in the current system are only trying to make themselves look good. Every promise they make will be broken. Every plan they propose will be all show and no substance. They only thing they care about are their profits and they couldn’t care less about the people who can’t afford health care.

By: TerenceC

TerenceC — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:17:33 +0000

This is all crap – nothing but wall dressing to silence the “single payer” advocates. As long as there are for profit entities operating at the pinnacle of the health care industry, and as long as they are able to make campaign contributions things won’t change. Another title for this post could have been, “Big pharma, Big Business and Big Healthcare Reach Accord to Change Absolutely Nothing but Token Reform for Atleast 10 Years”

By: kranky kritter

kranky kritter — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:23:45 +0000

Everyone is going to get scathed.

By: Nick Benjamin

Nick Benjamin — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:45:22 +0000

$2 Trillion over ten years is $200 Billion per year. That’s less than 10% of current health care spending. They’re probably not talking about holding 2019 spending to 90% of 2008 spending, they’re probably talking about $2 Trillion less than projected spending. And since costs are supposed to go up 5% of GDP in the next ten years just holding cost increases to inflation probably accounts for most of the savings.

This is a good start. I’m not surprised the unions agreed to it. They maintain our high health costs are mostly due to the existence of private, for-profit, insurance companies. So they’re probably convinced they’ll come out of this fine. The insurance companies blame the hospitals. Hospitals blame insurance companies. The Doctors blame Med Schools, the Med Schools blame rising education costs and shrinking state subsidies for higher education. And Pharma’s too busy justifying drug prices to bother blaming anybody else.

The coalition is good because it means that when the plan actually comes out, and Pharma/unions/Doctors/etc. finally figure out they’re the ones who are getting screwed they’ll leave. But everyone else will support the plan strongly. They seem to have figured out that they can’t keep sucking up more and more of our economy. Most of them will be happy simply to get through the process unscathed.

By: michael reynolds

michael reynolds — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:48:46 +0000

The politics of this are fascinating. Big Health just dismissed their Republican allies. They fired their Congressional lackeys. Sorry, we are eliminating the position, you have til noon to clean out your desk. Yikes.

By: Attract Prosperity

Attract Prosperity — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:41:36 +0000

$2 trillion seems too high but if the captains of health care industry are in agreement than it is more believable.

Now I want to see what these reforms are.

Ryan

By: ExiledIndependent

ExiledIndependent — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:29:00 +0000

Again, one small comment is indicative of one of the core problems with the GOP (and of course the anti-GOP meme-pushers): as long as the Republicans are the party of “big business,” they’ll never get back in the White House. They need to be the party of freedom, independence, reduced government interference, and at the same time put “big business” on notice that the American people won’t be held captive by government nor by industry.

By: Shaun

Shaun — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:44:12 +0000

If the health-care industry is serious about massive cost cutting, which I do not believe it is, it would be a case of the leopard changing its spots. The industry’s profits are substantially in the waste itself, so it is impossible to imagine such a transformation.