Ken's Comments

Friend of mine sent me an article written by John Stossel about the health care or health insurance system in the US.   http://humanevents.com/2016/05/11/free-market-medicine/?utm_source=hedaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl In response to Mr. Stossel's article, I shall suggest that he's both right and wrong.  He's right on the subject of single payer not being such a good idea: - How is that working for people who rely on the Veteran's Administration? - If traditional Medicare was so good, why do so many people buy Medicare Advantage HMO coverage? - Most State Medicaid agencies contract with private HMOs because the States did such a crappy job managing the system themselves, doctors were leaving the networks in droves, people were turning to the ER for primary care services - UK has state run health and everyone who has money buys private insurance - Australia has state run health and everyone who has money buys private i...

Read the headline and, if you wish, read the article.  Then I'll tell you why the Government is so wrong on this one. South Dakota Wrongly Puts Thousands in Nursing Homes, Government Says South Dakota Wrongly Puts Thousands in Nursing Homes, Government Says By Matt Apuzzo The Justice Department said Monday that with few alternatives available, thousands of people were held unnecessa... Oh the horror!  People in South Dakota are being imprisoned in nursing homes rather than being allowed to live out their golden years in the comfort of their homes surrounded by loved ones.  Something clearly must be done about this. Now let's talk about what's wrong with this story.  We have bureaucrats in Washington D.C. applying a national standard of care for senior citizens to a situation in South Dakota.  Make sure the rube doctors are giving the best care possible.  That sounds appropriate right? Except that it isn't a...

Want to get an understanding of what happened with the housing market and the financial meltdown of 2007 and 2008?  Go see the movie "The Big Short" or read the book of the same name on which the movie was based.  It's a brutal expose' of the games that were played in the financial markets to create the housing boom that led to the housing crash. We're far enough removed from the tragedy that the movie was entertaining and had a number of funny moments. At the same time the events of that time were tragic and it was criminal what people throughout major companies and the agencies - both public and private - created to monitor did. Some thoughts. 1. Why did it happen? The financial markets encourage greed.  The goal is quick money not steady, stable results.  Maximize profits, make money each quarter.  Money is lent based on numbers - what is your credit score.  Money is no longer lent based on evaluation of risk.  D...

So I've listed what the problems are - cost, quality, extending coverage - and addressed each. There are still some random items I'd like to talk about and I'll do that here. Can the health care system handle 47 million new customers? The following story says no: http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20090807/hl_hsn/expandinghealthcoveragemaynotimproveaccess The story says that our health care infrastructure - the number of doctors and hospitals - would be swamped if 47 million new customers entered the market. The experience in Massachusetts, where the state made health care universal confirms this to be true. You cannot just walk into an office and see a doctor in Massachusetts, you have to schedule a visit far in advance. Traditional means by which Government controls costs will make this worse - Okay, Massachusetts has a shortage of physicians and rising costs. So what does Massachusetts do? They talk about lowering how much they will pay doctors. So if you are a doctor...

President Obama did a very good thing yesterday. He took executives of credit card companies to the woodshed in a private meeting with them. The President then outlined a list of practices he wants to see credit card companies implement. Congratulations to President Obama for doing a very good thing. Credit card companies have long used scads of small print to mislead consumers and to be able to change terms at a whim from those the consumer agreed to at the time of entering into the contract to borrow. These have included shortening payment cycles, raising interest rates, and imposing penalties. The result is that some Americans are deeper in debt merely because of these changes and not because of their borrowing habits. There is a proper use for government regulation and this is it. President Obama has called for clear disclosure of credit card terms, ending the unilateral ability of credit card companies to change the contract terms with little or no notice and, most important...