Is Something better than Nothing?

Posted: July 30, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Health care reform | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments

Forty-four years ago, then President Johnson handed former President Harry Truman the nation’s first medicare card. fdr-march-32That was July 30, 1965. This measure was one of the biggest steps taken during LBJ’s Great Society programs and undoubtedly one of the biggest steps towards eliminating poverty among the elderly since the Social Security Program. Back then, its critics included George H.W. Bush and Barry Goldwater who were bandying about the ‘it’s socialism’ meme as freely as the critics of any health care reform do today. Note to Republicans, yet again. Socialism is when the government turns private assets into public assets. It’s about ownership of assets, not about providing agencies or government sponsored private monopolies the opportunity to provide third party services in failed markets. Do you consider your utility company to be an agent of socialism?

So, today, we have watered down (and that’s being generous) health reform in an era of huge democratic majorities in government. Still, we’re losing the argument for the best and most cost effective plan to hysteria around purposefully promoted misunderstanding. We stand on the verge of passing legislature that is something, which is more than nothing, but hardly much of an improvement over the very bad status quo. Is that really worth it?

The Hill reports that Waxman’s compromises have created furor among Liberals. Count me among those of us that know that the only true way to save money on health insurance, cover every one, get the benefits of risk pooling and the economies of scale that come from uniform process and paper work is with a universal health care plan. What are we getting now? Basically a foot in a closing door and that ain’t much.

That’s a problem, since the draft bill already promises to be a tough sell for liberals. It eschews two central Democratic priorities: the creation of a government-run public insurance plan option and a requirement that most employers provide health benefits.

…

Leaders also agreed to allow states to create health “co-ops” that would compete with the government-run “public option” and private insurers, which deals a blow to liberals.

But why is every one afraid of expanding Medicare?

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The American Health Care System: Costly and Inefficient

Posted: January 7, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: U.S. Economy | Tags: , , , | 5 Comments

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My last Journal of Economic Perspectives showed up in the mail at the end of the year.  This journal is published by the AEA and I always like it because the research is both topical, academic, and empirical.  The empiricists publish here.  I was originally drawn to an article on the economic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina for obvious reasons.  However, what has now caught my eye is a series of articles under a Symposia heading of Health Care.  I have to put a disclaimer on the information that I’d like to share with you.  It is this:  I’m a financial economist and not a health care economist.  While I understand the analysis, methodology and basic tools of the trade in these articles, I’m unfamiliar with the databases and specifics of this market.  As you know I’m also not a microeconomist by nature either.  This is highly applied microtheory.  So, my depth and breadth of  knowledge on this issue is not what it is on some of the other things I’ve written about. I’m simply sharing other folks’ research with you

There were two specific articles that caught my attention.  The first was by Jonathan Gruber and is entitled “Incremental Universalism for the United States:  The States Move First?”.    The second is by Alan M. Garber and Jonathan Skinner.  It is entitled “Is American Health Care uniquely Inefficient?”   Both titles offer up important questions. This is especially true when it is possible that Health Care reform may once again be back on the policy table.  Let me highlight a few findings that stood out to me.

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Winning the Trifecta of Poverty: Black, Older, Woman

Posted: July 2, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Just about the time I think civilization has hit rock bottom, I find something else disturbing. An American Woman, Esmin Green, died because of antipathy, the abhorrent state of health care in this country, and her demographics.  She basically won the lottery for what it takes to be an invisible person in this country.  She was black, older (49), a woman, and in need of mental health care.  The folks in the room did nothing.  A security guard did nothing.  There is evidence that the staff fudged the details of her death.

“A shocking video shows a woman dying on the floor in the psych ward at Kings County Hospital, while people around her, including a security guard, did nothing to help.

After an hour, another mental patient finally got the attention of the indifferent hospital workers, according to the tape, obtained by the Daily News.

Worse still, the surveillance tape suggests hospital staff may have falsified medical charts to cover the utter lack of treatment provided Esmin Green before she died.”

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/06/30/2008-06-30_hospital_video_shows_no_one_helped_dying.html

There is no reason for these things to happen in an industrialized modern country.  We are able to treat all people humanely and there are plenty of resources and wealth to make this possible.  What we lack is the will.  We would rather buy toys and have comfy huge cars and homes than take care of the least among us with our tax dollars or even our charity.

This is from Wikipedia:

Poverty in the United States refers to people living in poverty in the U.S. Within the U.S. the most common measure of poverty is the “poverty line” set by the U.S. government. The official poverty threshold is adjusted for inflation using the consumer price index. Poverty in the United States is cyclical in nature with roughly 12% to 15% living below the federal poverty line at any given point in time, and roughly 40% falling below the poverty line at some time within a 10 year time span. While there remains some controversy of whether or not the official poverty over or understates poverty, the United States has some of the highest absolute and relative pre and post-transfer, poverty rates in the developed world. Overall, the U.S. ranks 16th on the Human Poverty Index.

Those under the age of 18 were the most likely to be impoverished. In 2006 the poverty rate for minors in the United States was the highest in the industrialized world, with 21.9% of all minors and 30% of African American minors living below the poverty threshold. Moreover, the standard of living for those in the bottom 10% was lower in the U.S. than in any other developed nation except the United Kingdom, which had the lowest standard of living for impoverished children.

That’s right, the U.S. is not number one in anything right now when it comes to economics.  However, we’re close to achieving the number one for developed nations with high levels of income disparity and poverty.  We are no longer the the economy with the highest GDP (the European Union has passed us).  We have not been the economy with the highest living standard or income per capita in the world for some time. We’re 9th now in GDP per capita(  http://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?c=cu&v=67 ) per the CIA’s World Fact Book. We’re all losing ground, but there are those in our country who never reached that ground at any point in their lives.  Their numbers are growing rapidly.

We’re very low ranked on all indexes that measure how we treat the least among us for wealthy, developed nations.  This is especially true when it comes to comparing the U.S. to other developed nations. Here’s the Human Development Report link for 2007/2008.  The United States now ranks 17th in the world on this index.  (http://hdrstats.undp.org/indicators/5.html)

How can such a rich nation with so many resources and positive gifts to human civilization rank so low on how it treats its most vulnerable citizens? The answer must lie some where within us.  It lies within the people that watched this woman fall and die.  It lies within the guard that did nothing.  It lies within the hearts of the folks responsible for her treatment that ignored her for so long and then lied to cover their actions.  It lies within a system where the big economics discussion during a presidential campaign is how can I get away with paying the least amount of money possible to move this country and its citizens forward?

Look at the roads, the schools, the electrical grids, the Levees, the hospitals and then look very closely at the state of their decay.  Every time you scream don’t raise MY taxes to a politician, another crack in our infrastructure appears.  Another wounded soldier sits in Walter Reed with rat feces and mildew.  Another Esmin Green falls to the floor dying without help or hope.

I hope you all enjoy your plasma tvs, your big ol Toasterlike SUVs, and your summer vacations at Disneyworld because those are obviously more important than showing the world that the U.S. takes care of its own.  The future requires us to save, to invest, to pay taxes to build infrastructure and to provide funds for research and technology.  Our humanity requires us to provide basic services to our fellow citizens.

Now I’m not saying I want to pay for a bridge to nowhere or a museum that glorifies mules or Woodstock.  I do, however, want to pay for whatever it would take to stop another person like Esmin Green from dying, to stop toxic food and toys from killing U.S. children, animals, and adults, to ensure that our returning wounded soldiers have everything they need, and to provide for adequate basic health care for all Americans.

I know Hillary Clinton shared this vision with me.  I know that John Edwards shared this vision.  I know many of you do.  It is time we spoke up.  It is also time we offer to make sacrifices to ensure that all Americans share the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  My pursuit of happiness does not necessarily require a plasma tv, but it does require that we stop folks like Esmin Green from winning the trifecta of poverty ever again.  We need the type of universal healthcare plan offered by John Edwards and Hillary Clinton.  Let us commit to the sacrifice and work it takes to achieve it.