Ken's Comments

First it was the federal take over of private industries, now it will be the federal takeover of our schools. President Bush started it - working with Congress to have Federal intervention into banks, financial institutions, AIG, and auto manufacturers. President Obama has taken those programs to a new level and wants to usurp state authority over health insurance. Now President Obama is targeting our schools. Has no one read the United States Constitution? Isn't there some point at which President Obama feels the Federal Government does not have authority over us? President Bush and Congress adopted laws and regulations, and provided funding, to begin a massive federal intervention into a variety of private industries - banks and financial institutions, automakers, and AIG - to name a few. Some banks were told they could not refuse to accept TARP funds. Other organizations were told they'd get no help, like Lehman, and they went bankrupt, leaving Goldman Sachs, who had ...

I've been good at criticizing what is wrong with the economy, let me take a moment and say what I would have done differently to try to prevent us from getting to where we are right now. The answer starts in the approach - I would have attacked the problem from the bottom up, not the top down. There are a number of steps that could have been taken back when all this started to isolate the economic harm and create a gradual downturn instead of what did happen, which resulted in the economy falling off a cliff. This would not have been without pain, but a lot of the pain would have been absorbed by the lender, borrowers, and investors who took agreed to the risk of pain in the hope of financial reward. However, I think the result would have been fewer foreclosures and less people out of work. Ironically, both the Bush Administration and the Obama Administration have talked about trying to reduce foreclosures, but neither has any significant accomplishments. That's because th...

If it was not so tragic, I'd have to laugh at the people who are talking about a "jobless recovery" like it is a good thing. I've only seen one mainstream commentator - a former Clinton Administration official - come close to calling out the Obama Administration on the current economy. Instead you've got papers like the New York Times running articles saying that because there were not as many new people unemployed in the last reporting it is a sign of an improving economy. Why can't we call it like it is - all of the money the Government has spent over the last two years, under both President Bush and President Obama is only making the rich richer and it is not helping the little guys. Merrill Lynch, AIG, and Goldman Sachs pay out big bonuses to employees. Warren Buffet makes a mint off of investments he made into companies that got government support. People who can afford to invest a lot of money in the stock market are doing very well again. Chrysler...

These are more random thoughts on health care reform Eliminate COBRA - This coverage is expensive - often too expensive for people laid off. Also, the only options for the individual are the coverage options that the group selected for its employees. These options may not be appropriate for that individual. If an active individual market is created then the individual does not need COBRA. Also, COBRA drives up costs for groups because the majority of people who pay for COBRA coverage are those who need benefits. The medical claims incurred by the COBRA beneficiary impact negatively on the group's rates. I'll add more here as I think of them

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...

In previous posts, I have defined what I think the problems are - cost, quality, coverage. I have discussed what I think can and is being done about it. Now, I'll talk about the so-called Government health plan and, equally important, the health insurance exchange and why I think these are a bad idea. The Government Plan is a precursor to a government take over of the health care industry - at least the financing of it -- One night, there was a clip of President Obama denying this. The President said "No one is talking about a government takeover of health care." The very next film clip was of U.S. Representative Barney Frank saying that he supports the Government Plan idea because he wants to use it to push for a single payer system. So President Obama is misinformed, someone IS talking about a government takeover of health care (at least health care financing) and that someone is a very powerful member of his own party. And I think there are many others besides R...

In Part 1, I said there are three problems - cost, quality, and extending coverage to 47 million people. I then went on to talk about the coverage problem. Now to discuss the cost and quality issues. Quality - studies show that medical care in this country can be of poor quality. Hundreds of thousands die each year from mistakes. Others suffer prolonged illnesses due to poor quality care. This creates human misery and also contributes substantially to higher costs. A number of things that need to be done, have been done or are started Reporting medical errors - the federal government set up a process for hospitals to self-report medical errors. Many states have done the same thing. Promote e-prescribing - Medicare has done this and many providers are using it. E-prescribing means sending a prescription from a doctor to the pharmacy electronically. When this is done, medical management systems can review a person's prescription history and help identify when a prescription ...