[Rhodes22-list] Steve's respect, and health care costs

Robert Skinner robert at squirrelhaven.com
Wed Dec 1 16:04:31 EST 2004


Steve wrote:
> Ed
> They are not be considerate of me.
-------------------------
Steve - your lack of care in spelling, grammar, and 
logic, combined with your claim of expertise and a 
responsible US government position invites far more 
ridicule than you have been offered.  

Take a little more care in writing your messages, 
and you will get more consideration, and more respect.
It's not that I don't like you -- quite the contrary.
I thought you enjoyed slugging it out, and from your
freedom with insults, I thought you had a pretty thick 
skin.

Please accept my apologies if I have overstepped the 
bounds of decency and fair play.
------------------------
>  And this country
> current deficit is completely manageable.
------------------------
Steve - From your research post re the deficit: "This 
is far from a trivial sum, but it is not necessarily an 
impossible burden either."  That is not a clear 
"completely manageable", as you claim.  It will be an 
uphill fight all the way and for a long time.
-------------------------
> Example; on the previous post of research.  Health
> care cost being the one thing that this country must
> address.  
---------------------------
>From Steve's post: "The
assumption in this study – that private sector health
care costs continue to explode for the next eighty
years – would have a devastating impact on the economy
even if we eliminated all publicly supported health
care programs. If health care costs are brought under
control, then the projected deficit would be
manageable, and not qualitatively different than what
comparable projections would have indicated in prior
years."

This is pretty specific - private, not public, health 
care costs are the culprit.  It sounds as if we are 
about to move toward government control of health 
costs -- something like socialized medicine?
---------------------
> If we inact Tort reform, Health care costs
> stop rising at the uncontrol level they currently are.
>  Reason, Health care costs have to factors that do not
> increase life span or improve health.  They are:
> Lawsuits
> Doctor & Hospital liability inssurance
> 
> Enact Tort reform; eliminating the above two
> uncontrolable double digits increases in costs and you
> have solved the main problem with the deficit.
-------------------------
Here is where Steve extrapolates from his data.  The
above-referenced post did not mention tort reform.  It 
did say, "the study by Gokhale and Smetters
demonstrated the importance of fixing the U.S. health
care system. If costs continue to rise out of control,
it will have a devastating impact on the economic
well-being of future generations."   No argument there.

But the cost of drugs is ignored in Steve's immediately 
prior comments, as are the costs of a "competitive" 
private hospital system, the insurance industry 
overhead, costs of denial of preventative health care 
to children, etc.

Yes, we can temporarily reduce some costs by preventing 
people from being able to recover damages and reducing 
the medical establishment's incentive to act 
responsibly, but we could also accomplish results by 
enhancing the role of PA's - those with more skills 
than nurses, but less expensive than doctors.

The answers are neither simple nor painless, and all
avenues need to be explored, not just those proposed
by the current administration.
----------------------
> Of course, reducing discretionary spending will help
> also.
-----------------------
Guess we'll have to stop buying boats...  But if the
movement of goods and money slows down, doesn't the
economy stagnate?

-- 
Robert Skinner


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