Just opened up my premium increase notice from Anthem. Mind you, I’ve got a sizable deductible with a health savings account. With virtually no costs to my insurance company this year (heck – I’ve not met my deductible yet – only $803 out of pocket), I’m facing a 32% increase in my premium.
I saw this article reprinted in our paper the other day. Other than similar ages and overall health, I don’t have much in common with this guy: he’s a Republican, I’m a Democrat. He’s been a federal employee, I’m self-employed. But we agree on one thing: our health care system is broken.
And at the rate things are going, I’m going to be broke along with it.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
I *highly* recommend this episode of This American Life (a weekly one hour radio program that gained some fame last year for doing an excellent job of illustrating the various parts of the financial crisis). It doesn’t offer any solutions, but it does help you understand the broad array of forces that result in this soaring costs (for one perhaps unexpected example, look in the mirror).
Viv,
Another example of why Democrats in Congress went wrong by not pushing for actual health CARE reform- i.e. a single-payer plan — instead of incremental health INSURANCE reform. And now it looks like we can’t even pass a serious version of the latter, which would include a robust public option.
On this, I agree with you. National Democrats had the opportunity of a lifetime – and they blew it. It is as if, once in power, they were afraid to govern. And come 2010, they won’t get the chance.
There are good ideas and then there are ideas that are actually possible. Do you really think there are enough competent people in our government to make any sort of national health care work? Medicare and Medicaid are going to destroy this country quite soon. Obama has both houses of congress and can’t enough get done what he wants to get done. We couldn’t even handle Iraq properly and that’s just basic military theory. I’m all for health care reform, but there is just no way our government could A. manage a public option/single payer system if it existed and B. implement such a system if it were passed into law. Going from a bill being passed to a bill being implemented is what is going to destroy our health care system. What the GOP doesn’t realize is that the left has good ideas, what the left doesn’t realize is that there good ideas can never be properly undertaken by government.
How’s this for a public option..why don’t we all get together and form a no-BS insurance company, make it non-profit, and then get a government grant. It would be 10x better than any kind of government assembled public option.
Are you really that enamoured with the private sector? I think you should come work in corporate America and we can disabuse you of that.
You committed the logic sin of assuming that because I am not enamored with government, I am enamored with the private sector. I like neither, however the private sector has the potential to operate at maximum efficiency; government, by definition, does not.
You certainly do seem to have it all sorted out, Max. IIRC, you know how to win local races, solve health care, etc. What’s holding you back from actually doing these things?
come on MB, you have that “know it all” gift yourself!
I took by implication that you think the government is completely incompetent. Enamoured was a rhetorical flourish. Clearly you favor the private sector as your reply demonstrates.
The ontology of government does not necessitate inefficiency or the inability to reach maximal efficiency. Again this demonstrates an ideal view of both the public and private sectors. And I encourage you again to come work for corporate America and see how things work in reality. Your false assumption here is that everyone in government is devoid of a motivation for improving the operations of the organization. The potential and ability to improve efficiency exists in both the public and private sectors. What intrinsic barrier do you perceive here?
Read the Federalist Papers or any of the other works written around the founding of our government. We were meant to have a slow, inefficient government to protect us from tyranny. Our government cannot handle even basic tasks. The political system makes running an efficient operation impossible.
In a corporation you can have fairly accurate revenue projections and schedules of investment for capital project. The decisions are made based on logic, reason, and sound accounting principals.
Compare this to government where funding is based on political whims, elections, and polling data. Many departments live budget supplement to budget supplement and this makes it hard to make concrete long term decisions. There is no profit motive and therefore less incentive to work harder.
Take light rail for example where the city of Norfolk did not hire an expert until halfway through. The surveyor they hired didn’t account for high tide for the pylons on 264 and they were improperly put in. They had to be pulled out and replaced. That never would have happened with a private company. The city never hired an expert because they were not sure they would get funding…
Don’t even get me started on the fact that if government had to use corporate accounting standards it would be bankrupt instantly or that I don’t believe that our government is incompetent, just downright evil. You can’t fool all the people all of the time, but if you fool the right ones the rest will fall in line.
Max, put this away, go get a job in the private sector, and set a 10, 15, 20 year alarm on it. You can thank me for the laughs later.
By fairly I mean in comparison to government. That is you know your revenue is dependent more on statistically predictable variables as opposed to political whims. Corporations have mathematical models to help them with budgeting, while government has the same, politics weighs for more heavily.
The laughs I get are from people like you and tx2vadem making fun of me while simultaneously refusing to refute what I have said. At least tx2vadem makes a good, logical attempt at it.
It’s not so much making fun of you as seeing that you’ve got a hobby horse, and you’re gonna ride it. That’s fine. We all have our own ways of learning lessons. I suspect you’re not even old enough to drink. And in light of that, I suspect there’s very little I could say in terms of substantive engagement that would change your mind. Some things just take experience. I’m not denigrating you. Just explaining why I’m not trying too hard at making a “logical attempt.”
Max, you don’t know what you are talking about. Corporation have just as much difficulty with budgeting and forecasting. Finance is a complex topic for both corporations and the government. Even if you have taken some basic finance courses in college, it is much different in real world application.
The government follows GAAP. The FASB and GASB both report to the Financial Accounting Foundation. The standards are different though for a reason given the different ways in which public institutions operate versus private ones. If you are so sure about your assertion though, cite where the government does not follow GAAP.
Corporations are not devoid of politics either. That can screw with budgeting processes at companies as well. The fact that politicians mess things up though is not an indicator that the executive agencies are inept.
On examples, let me offer on of my own, take BP and their Texas City Refinery explosion that killed 15 of their workers. In terms of management mess-ups, I think this puts your example in the tiddlywinks category.
Government does not follow corporate accounting principals because if it did social security, medicare, the war in Iraq, etc.. would be on budget and we would be bankrupt.
Politics plays a much bigger role in government than corporations, therefore your point is pointless.
You dispute nothing about what I say regarding government designed to be slow, therefore I see you concede that point.
Hobby horse? This isn’t my hobby, this is my job. I wake up and read news and government reports for hours before I even leave my room. Yeah, I have no life.
I just got a 20% increase in my self employed insurance. I called my accountant who advised me his staff just got a 32% increase. I’ve had to go HSA with catastrophic insurance.
What crap. I’ll be first on line for the “public option” if the lobbyists for the insurance companies don’t strangle it in the crib.