My Health Care Bill

If I could do my own health care bill, here’s what it would have:

1) Lawsuit costs lowered. Limiting the scope of lawsuits would have an impact beyond just the costs insurance companies have to pass on to doctors (who pass those on to consumers). It would lower

.. a)health insurance costs because less medical care costs the less the insurer has to pay – and the less premiums they would need from consumers.
Defensive medicine (i.e. the extra treatment doctors/nurses have to do to cover their butts in case they are sued.)

.. b) Legal fees. Even when patients win lawsuits, you know who wins really, don’t you? The lawyers, of course.

2) More medical schools to address the doctor/nurse shortage in America. We’ve been covering that through our immigration policies but every doctor we steal from the rest of the world means that someone out there has to do without. There’s plenty of Americans who want to be health professionals, who would be good at it, but there’s no place for them because our nation’s medical schools are so limited. That’s the bottleneck.

We can build more – lots more – but that costs money. Spending health care money on doctors and nurses instead of lawyers and bureaucrats is a spending program we can understand. It puts our health care priorities right.

It will also ultimately address doctor fees. - Law of supply and demand: shortages drives prices up; abundance drives them down.

3) Insurance portability across state lines. Maybe the Department of Commerce will have to do some regulating but the ease on the insurance pressure on a mobile America will be worth it.

Now for something really, really radical . . . (Drumroll!)

4) Start New Health Insurance Companies. Why not? This is something those limosine liberals could easily do. Obama wants to give the insurance companies some “competition”. he calls their profits “obscene”. Then just reducing profit margins to the “spectacular” level so they can produce more generous insurance provisions would quickly transform the industry. – And they wouldn’t have to worry about Republicans, filibusters, or even Senate reconciliation provisions.

Icing on the cake (listen up Charles Rangell, Christopher Dodd, et al) you can make yourselves a whole pile of money, to boot! - Of course, this last presumes that Obama’s rhetoric against the insurance companies were true.

- Alright, so 3 out of 4 ideas isn’t such a bad batting average!

Non-Political Jack 3/10/10

When (like most people) I stop thinking about politics, I write about other things. For example,

Twitter eye-opener
Can Sam Sloan ever be respectable?
Foundations of Investment
Herodotus in Egypt

These are linked here.

and don't forget my first Youtube video ever!

What's the Goal in Space Now?

Obama’s policy is most notable for the lack of his visibility in it. One gets the sense that his officials came up with it and he just went along, if indeed he gave any attention to it at all.

One has to wonder about a “Progressive Movement” that just wishes the entire Space Age would just go away. “Hope and Change” for space policy seems to have become “give up and stay the same”.

The one big advancement (no not the Mars manned landing – that’s just a mirage) is the commitment to encourage commercial space launches. – But to what purpose? What is the goal here?

More information: Space Policy Institute

CNN vs Fox 3/7/10

Tonight, the Oscar Awards:





I liked the back stage info from Fox, but once again CNN does the better summary.

CNN wins!

Krauthammer 3/6/10

Obama's Last Desperate Healthcare Push

My take on Charles Krauthammer's latest. His column was published in the Washington Post.

Summary: The Democrats are reversing their previous positions on reconciliation and are going to push the bill through on a straight party-line vote while ducking questions of its cost.

Quote:

Late last year, Democrats were marveling at how close they were to historic health-care reform, noting how much agreement had been achieved among so many factions. The only remaining detail was how to pay for it.

Well, yes. That has generally been the problem with democratic governance: cost. The disagreeable absence of a free lunch.

My Views: It is a shame that they could not do something to pass a common-sense bill than going for the big ideological rush. The basic problem isn't all the complexity; it is the lack of trust, something which Obama first began to loose when he changed his position of campaign finance to grab that big money in the spring primaries of 2008. People have to wade through the conflicting claims of the two parties. They would side with Obama and the Democrats, if only they could trust them more.

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Charles Krauthammer is a more establishment columnist. He came to punditry by way of psychiatry (at Massachusetts General Hospital) via the New Republic Magazine. He appears on TV where you never see his wheelchair. Here's his Wiki bio.

He wrote a book which is pictured at the right. I am drawn by the substance and the thinking than any particular writing flair.

The New Season by George Will

A Spectator's Guide to the 1988 Election

ABOUT
Written before the election began, here are the large issues facing the nation in 1988.

WHAT I THINK
This is one of those unfortunate books that are timeless in their wisdom but, because they ostensibly covered a specific event, public interest waned. - Wasn't 1988 a long time ago?

Will's thoughtful comments on such topics as social divides, the national debt, and national security - together with the pressures politicians face, are as current today as they were then.

QUOTE

Prometheus had a hard career. An egal nibbled his liver for thousands of years. Running for President is sort of like that.

AUTHOR'S APPROACH
5 Chapters: Introduction, Ronald Reagan, Republicans, Democrats, and Conclusion.
The middle 3 chapters approach the election from their respective points of view. The Ronald Reagan chapter talks about his legacy in history as well as the impact of that upon this particular election.

THE GOOD POINTS
The timeless nature of the content. How this election related to elections that came before and speculations on future elections.

THE BAD POINTS
Social issues did not get the treatment they deserved. Spending programs got all lumped together. Not enough on what programs mattered and what did not. Also, government overhead was hardly discussed at all.

CONCLUSION
I've re-read my copy every few years since I bought it in 1988.

Krauthammer 2/28/10

US Retreats from Space


My take on Charles Krauthammer's latest. His column was published in the Washington Post.

Summary: Obama and today's Democrats seem supremely indifferent to the opportunities in Space. His budget cuts most manned missions in favor of helping private sector launches. The current policy also substitutes Mars for the Moon as the goal for human flight. There are no concret plans for either supporting the private sector support or manned missions to Mars.

Quote:

For the first time since John Glenn flew in 1962, the United States will have no access of its own for humans into space -- and no prospect of getting there in the foreseeable future.

My Views: The Space Age is probably the most significant issue of our era. It continually amazes me how folks can call themselves "progressives" and fail to see the long term opportunities that exists for our civilization from Space exploration. K is probably right that Obama's policy is just smoke and mirrors to disguise a full retreat from Space.

Sad, so very sad.

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Charles Krauthammer is a more establishment columnist. He came to punditry by way of psychiatry (at Massachusetts General Hospital) via the New Republic Magazine. He appears on TV where you never see his wheelchair. Here's his Wiki bio.

He wrote a book which is pictured at the right. I am drawn by the substance and the thinking than any particular writing flair.