We can't afford health care overhaul

Quote :

The Obama administration just announced that the cumulative budget deficit from 2010 to 2019 would be $9 trillion, not the $7 trillion it originally forecast in February. That brings its numbers much closer to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates. Basically, the White House abandoned its rosy economic scenario and is now more in line with mainstream economist's views.

Warren Buffett recently opined in The New York Times that because of these gigantic deficits our national debt is mushrooming. He said "Fiscally, we are in unchartered waters." He's worried that foreigners and even U.S. citizens won't buy the new government bonds issued to fund the deficits and the Federal Reserve will be forced to buy them. That's printing money and can be inflationary.

The Heritage Foundation puts the impact of these deficits on the national debt in perspective. Specifically they say:"The public national debt -- $5.8 trillion as of 2008 -- is projected to double by 2012 and nearly triple by 2019. Thus, America would accumulate more government debt under President Obama than under every President in American history from George Washington to George W. Bush combined."
http://www.adn.com/opinion/compass/story/923327.html

From 2006 but just as timely today....

Record Share Of Economy Spent on Health Care

Political, medical and economic leaders and experts have long warned that health care cost trends will gradually overwhelm the economy, and many companies now complain that employee and retiree health costs are making them less competitive. Yesterday's report added new reasons to worry.

The overall cost of health care -- everything from hospital and doctor bills to the cost of pharmaceuticals, medical equipment, insurance and nursing home and home-health care -- doubled from 1993 to 2004, said the report from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In 2004, the nation spent almost $140 billion more for health care than the year before.

In 1997, health care accounted for 13.6 percent of the gross domestic product.

"Americans rejected the tougher restrictions of managed care in the late 1990s, and yet they want all the latest advances in medical technology," said Drew Altman, president of the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, which researches health issues. "Since government regulation of prices and services is not in the cards, the inevitable result is higher costs."

The health care increase of 7.9 percent in 2004 was almost three times the overall national inflation rate, which was 2.7 percent. The average hourly wage for workers in private companies was essentially unchanged that year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

LoisLane wrote:

Quote :

The Heritage Foundation puts the impact of these deficits on the national debt in perspective. Specifically they say:"The public national debt -- $5.8 trillion as of 2008 -- is projected to double by 2012 and nearly triple by 2019. Thus, America would accumulate more government debt under President Obama than under every President in American history from George Washington to George W. Bush combined."
http://www.adn.com/opinion/compass/story/923327.html

Yeah, well for the record, the $5.8 trillion figure as of 2008 isn't even close to being correct. The correct number is $10,024,724,896,912.49, almost twice that figure, so the Heritage Foundation is wildly under-reporting the national debt figures. In fact, that 5.8 trillion dollar figure is from 2001, not 2008.

It's hard to believe that they would make such an error accidentally. They certainly didn't "put the national debt in perspective" by reporting such blatantly bogus numbers.

See for yourself...

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm

By the time that President Bush left office, the National Debt was almost 11 trillion.

Next time you hear a wingnut say 'Why the hurry" to reform health care,remind them of this....

More people in U.S. lack health insurance: Census
Thu Sep 10, 11:34 am ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of people living in the United States without health insurance rose to 46.3 million in 2008 from 45.7 million a year earlier, a U.S. Census Bureau official said on Thursday.

David Johnson, who heads the Census Bureau's housing and household economic statistics division, told a telephone conference the data were collected in March of 2008 -- before the sharp economic downturn in the latter part of the year which saw many more people lose jobs and health insurance.

The new census numbers could feature in arguments over President Barack Obama's plans to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system and dramatically expand medical insurance coverage.

Johnson said that anyone who had insurance earlier in the year and lost it because of unemployment in the latter part of 2008 would have been counted in the report as having medical coverage -- meaning next year's uninsured numbers could be far worse.

The data showed that the number of people who were covered by private insurance fell between 2007 and 2008 and those enrolled in government health programs rose.

The report said that between 2007 and 2008 the number of those with private coverage fell to 201 million in 2008 from 202 million in 2007. The number of people enrolled in government programs climbed to 87.4 million in 2008 from 83 million in 2007, it said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090910/us_nm/us_usa_healthcare_census/print

Think we can't afford Obama's healthcare proposal? YES WE CAN!!

Here's how -

http://aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf

Passion wrote:

Think we can't afford Obama's healthcare proposal? YES WE CAN!!

Here's how -

http://aclu.org/pizza/images/screen.swf

Yeah. Well what exactly does this animation have to do with the proposed reform of the health care insurance system?

I wish we could do it off the backs of those who smoke, drink, and eat fast food. The people who make the nation unhealthy in the first place. Tax those things. That's why I wouldn't be too bothered by the legalization of pot.