billbays.com
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Video Archives
  • Contact

First Order of Business

3/3/2010

0 Comments

 
Warren Buffett is speaking his mind on health care.  He says the focus should be on cost reduction first. He is right, but the administration sees it differently. They are interested in coverage, for the 30 million they say cannot purchase insurance. Buffett disputes the “best medical system in the world ” claims. He cites doctors per thousand and nurses per thousand favoring competing systems as he calls it. Buffett says he would support the Senate bill rather then keep the status quo. Close call there! The Senate bill is deeply flawed and a lot of people think less of it than that.

  At the so-called health care summit last week I kept thinking  the Republican group still like the status quo. Buffett and many, many others have said the status quo will bankrupt us, but that has not moved the Republicans.

  Actually, some of the Republican ideas, maybe produced by political duress, seem to make sense, but their heart is not in it. Sometimes, I listen to talk radio, albeit briefly, just to see how extreme and irrational they present things. Last week, low and behold, there was Sen. Lamar Alexander on a recorded exerpt defending insurance company profits. Alexander, if I understood him correctly, said the insurance company profits amounted to 2 days of health care costs. He contrasted that with the 363 days of paying the bills. Alexander did not bother to define costs or to define profits. Better, what is the relationship, if any, on insurance company profits and health care costs. For instance, if a health insurance policy pays 12K for a surgical procedure that is worth 4K; what market influences or  Medicare reform will produce  4K?  Where is the incentive to reduce costs?  Profits could be a constant. It would have been fun to see him quizzed on his statement. But, talk radio specializes in simple answers and catch phrases.

  The best estimates that I go on shows that around 30% of health care costs involve fraud or waste. That should be the first order of business for Congress.



0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Bill Bays

    Archives

    April 2016
    August 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    October 2008
    September 2008
    August 2008
    July 2008
    June 2008

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Website by Creative Cat
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Video Archives
  • Contact