Yet there are still moments when I find myself saying, “They can’t really be that stupid,” or maybe, “They can’t really think the rest of us are that stupid.” And I had one of those moments reading about a recent conference on national health policy, which featured a bipartisan dialogue among Congressional staffers.They just aren't serious about governing. We shouldn't put them in charge until they get some people who are serious.
According to a column in Kaiser Health News, Republican staffers jeered at any and all proposals to use Medicare and Medicaid funds better. Spending money on prevention was no more than a “slush fund.” Research on innovation was “an oxymoron.” And there was no reason to pay for “so-called effectiveness research.”
To put this in context, you have to realize two things about the fiscal state of America. First, the nation is not, in fact, “broke.” The federal government is having no trouble raising money, and the price of that money — the interest rate on federal borrowing — is very low by historical standards. So there’s no need to scramble to slash spending now now now; we can and should be willing to spend now if it will produce savings in the long run.
Second, while the government does have a long-run fiscal problem, that problem is overwhelmingly driven by rising health care costs. The Congressional Budget Office expects Social Security outlays as a percentage of G.D.P. to rise 30 percent over the next quarter-century, as the population ages, but it expects a near doubling of the share of G.D.P. spent on Medicare and Medicaid.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Dealing with Healthcare Costs
Krugman says that we need some serious conservatives, not idiots:
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On one point, the republican staffers are supporting a common misconception that spending money on prevention techniques lowers the cost of health care. More upfront money is spent to create and administer health care programs for preventative medicine. However, preventative medicine is not a "slush fund" or waste of money, preventative medicine increases quality of life for large segments of the population with a budgeted and planned cost expenditure.
ReplyDeleteThe cost savings for prevention medicine is realized in the cost shifting from emergency room or unrecoverable health costs (uninsured write-off health care) to a budgeted arena. Remember, the term "budgeting" in health care is an anathema. As a people, we should be budgeting and analysing how we spend our health care dollars, but every time an adult mentions budgeting health care the screaming adolescent pundits cry death panel and socialism.
The First Lady attempts to raise awareness of childhood obeisity (a serious and expensive problem for the US) and is accused of telling people how to raise thier children. The First Lady's message is preventative medicine in action at a very low cost.
Health care finance is an aggrevating area for me as a citizen and a health care professional. The discussion of health care finance is a minefield of emotional responses where people seem to forget, everybody dies sometime.
Bring on the Soylent Green! Now with more people!