The Feds Are Out of Money: Healthcare Is Their New Bank

It is mentioned, almost in passing, that the “healthcare reform” on the verge of becoming law starts collecting premiums and taxes immediately, and promises benefits only in about four years.

What kind of emergency is that?

It’s not a healthcare emergency. It’s what might be called a Madoff emergency.

Whether starry-eyed utopians or cynical malefactors, the unnamed, possibly unnameable they have high ambitions for Washington to achieve their objectives. The stars are aligned for their coup d’etat, but there is one little problem: the country is out of money.

This problem threatens to stop not only their agenda, but the whole game. Washington has 2 million employees on the payroll, earning on average twice as much as those in the private sector. And probably more than a hundred million dependents—recipients of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and grants and subsidies of all types. What happens if the checks stop coming?

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Tags: David Brooks, entitlement spending, government health care, health care spending, ObamaCare
Posted Jan 22nd 2010 at 10:59 am in Congress, Healthcare, Politics | 6387480 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jorient/2010/01/22/the-feds-are-out-of-money-healthcare-is-their-new-bank/The+Feds+Are+Out+of+Money%3A+Healthcare+Is+Their+New+Bank2010-01-22+18%3A59%3A57Dr.+Jane+Orient

Health Care ‘Reform:’ $500 Hammers and the Reverse Economies of Bureaucratic Scales

At the center of the health care debate is the simple – but profound – question of whether government can deliver services, in this case health care services, better than private enterprise sensibly regulated.   President Obama clearly believes that the ‘public option will not only be more equitable but more efficient as well – a claim he made when he spoke to the Joint Session of Congress earlier this year.  Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.

The reason Obama is wrong, and the Left in general on issues of public options versus private enterprise, is simple human nature.  When it comes to such matters, it was never so well explained as by the legendary Milton Friedman:

“There are four ways in which you can spend money.  You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money. Then you can spend your own money on somebody else.  For example, I buy a birthday present for someone.  Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost.  Then, I can spend somebody else’s money on myself.  And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch!  Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else.  And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get.  And that’s government.”

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Tags: Barack Obama, bureaucracy, federal spending, government health care, Government spending
Posted Nov 17th 2009 at 10:21 am in Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 3211034 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tdelbeccaro/2009/11/17/health-care-reform-500-hammers-and-the-reverse-economies-of-bureaucratic-scales/Health+Care+%27Reform%3A%27+%24500+Hammers+and+the+Reverse+Economies+of+Bureaucratic+Scales2009-11-17+17%3A21%3A26Thomas+Del+Beccaro

Senator Harry Reid’s Hide and Seek ObamaCare Bill

On Saturday, I reported that all 40 Republican Senators signed a letter demanding to see the health care bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) claimed he sent to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).  Yesterday, Reid circulated a Dear Colleague letter in response – thanks to Christina Bellantoni of TMPDC for publishing the letter.  Reid claimed in the letter that he does not have a bill, notwithstanding the fact he had a press conference a week ago to announce a deal.  

Last Monday, Roll Call reported that “Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is expected to announce on Monday afternoon that negotiations on the Senate’s final health care reform bill have concluded and that he is sending the measure to the Congressional Budget Office, according to Democratic sources.”  At the press conference, Reid said “today’s development, my sending of, in the next few hours, to CBO a – number of – anyways the proposal we are sending them for their scoring will make us a step closer to achieving a bill this year.”  Specifically, Reid asserted that he is going to include a public option with an opt out provision in the bill, then at the 1:24 mark of the video linked above said that the public option would be “included in the bill we submitted, that will be submitted to the Senate.”  Sounds like Reid announced a deal on a bill, yet in the letter Reid backed away and stated that his bill “does not exist.”

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Tags: CBO, federal deficit, government health care, Harry Reid, health care reform
Posted Nov 3rd 2009 at 9:39 am in Congress, Healthcare, Politics | 2470650 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/bdarling/2009/11/03/senator-harry-reids-hide-and-seek-obamacare-bill/Senator+Harry+Reid%27s+Hide+and+Seek+ObamaCare+Bill2009-11-03+16%3A39%3A05Brian+Darling

HHS Chief Actuary on ObamaCare: Total Health Care Spending Will Go Up, Not Down

Richard Foster, Chief Actuary for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, released this week to several Congressional offices a financial analysis of HR 3200, the House version of ObamaCare. He reached some inconvenient conclusions for President Obama and Congressional Leadership:

-“Total national health expenditures under this bill would increase by an estimated 2.7 percent in 2019…”

 -“The additional demand for health services could be difficult to meet initially with existing health provider resources and could lead to price increases, cost-shifting, and/or changes in providers’ willingness to treat patients with low-reimbursement health coverage.”

-More than half of the expansion in coverage (18 million out of 34 million) would be from increased Medicaid coverage.

-12 million people would lose employer-sponsored coverage.

-The productivity adjustments to Medicare are “unrealistic” and providers “might end their participation” because the cuts would make serving Medicare beneficiaries unprofitable.

-Medicare Advantage enrollment would decrease by 64 percent (from a projected level of 13.2 million to 4.7 million under the proposal).

As of today, HHS still hadn’t published the analysis on their website, even though it was written by its own staff. We have a feeling it may never find a home there. So, we’ve brought it to you directly. Full financial analysis below.  

CMS OACT – Memo on Financial Impact of H R 3200 09-10-21 –

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Tags: actuary, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, employer converage, health care spending, HHS
Posted Oct 23rd 2009 at 1:31 pm in Exclusives, Healthcare, News, Obama, Politics | 2028235 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2009/10/23/hhs-chief-actuary-on-obamacare-total-health-care-spending-will-go-up-not-down/HHS+Chief+Actuary+on+ObamaCare%3A+Total+Health+Care+Spending+Will+Go+Up%2C+Not+Down2009-10-23+20%3A31%3A49Capitol++Confidential