Bjerknes

"Top Economist"
Mar 16, 2004
116,523
Yeah, he was correct in the aspect that health care does need reformed. But it's not a reform if you don't have a public option and you don't eliminate/re-work medicare/medicaid. It was a severely half-assed attempt. The only good things in the bill are the raise of age limits to 26 and the requirement that all citizens carry insurance.

The raise in cost of health care is being over-dramatized. Costs have risen, although though for most it's a small raise. The truth is health care costs were always rising and will continue to do so.
The problem is that there is no money left for a public option. The government already spends all of its tax revenue on entitlements alone, the rest of the spending is either borrowed from foreigners or the FED. That cannot go on forever as there will be a point in the Chinese economy where their marginal utility to buy US bonds becomes negative. And that's probably happening now.

Well, duh Fred. We've only been funding two wars by selling bonds to Chinese businessmen.
That's a big problem, but not the only problem.
 

Bjerknes

"Top Economist"
Mar 16, 2004
116,523
The average American is too busy to get into the intricacies of the situation. But I think most now understand the end result.

It's really unfortunate those guys were given a walk by the government, talk about de-regulation at it's highest.
I really don't think they get it, Aaron. Not once have I seen Brian Williams on Nightly News show the print on the US Dollar Index. All they show are the stock indices. So if the average American only watches this program for their news, then they won't understand why their grocery bills trend higher. And it doesn't help that those considered "mainstream economists" never mention the dollar and claim that the government is not spending enough. It's absolute lunacy.

The /DX rules all. It's the world reserve currency. If it declines, everything else goes up. I don't care about stock prices, I care about savings and capital formation. Without that we have no middle class.
 

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Oct 11, 2005
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I really don't think they get it, Aaron. Not once have I seen Brian Williams on Nightly News show the print on the US Dollar Index. All they show are the stock indices. So if the average American only watches this program for their news, then they won't understand why their grocery bills trend higher. And it doesn't help that those considered "mainstream economists" never mention the dollar and claim that the government is not spending enough. It's absolute lunacy.

The /DX rules all. It's the world reserve currency. If it declines, everything else goes up. I don't care about stock prices, I care about savings and capital formation. Without that we have no middle class.
I meant it in the sense, that the average American realizes his dollar doesn't go as far. He doesn't know how that happened, but he knows something is up.
 

Bjerknes

"Top Economist"
Mar 16, 2004
116,523
I meant it in the sense, that the average American realizes his dollar doesn't go as far. He doesn't know how that happened, but he knows something is up.
Could be the case. But they will probably blame the average speculator and foreign entities instead, which really isn't the problem.
 

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The problem is that there is no money left for a public option. The government already spends all of its tax revenue on entitlements alone, the rest of the spending is either borrowed from foreigners or the FED. That cannot go on forever as there will be a point in the Chinese economy where their marginal utility to buy US bonds becomes negative. And that's probably happening now.
We already have a public option, it's just limited. Medicare and Medicaid could be restructured. The money is in the budget, every year. Or the Congressional blue cross could be opened to the public as well. The idea isn't that the government gives the people free health care from tax revenues, the idea is that the government allows citizens to purchase health care from them at a cheaper rate.
 

Bjerknes

"Top Economist"
Mar 16, 2004
116,523
We already have a public option, it's just limited. Medicare and Medicaid could be restructured. The money is in the budget, every year. Or the Congressional blue cross could be opened to the public as well. The idea isn't that the government gives the people free health care from tax revenues, the idea is that the government allows citizens to purchase health care from them at a cheaper rate.
And I still don't understand how the macroeconomics allow that cheaper rate without a certain negative impact.
 

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And I still don't understand how the macroeconomics allow that cheaper rate without a certain negative impact.
You'd have to do some research and look into it, but that's the idea.

A good example is auto insurance, the more people that have it the cheaper it is. The issue is with making sure everyone has it.
 

Bjerknes

"Top Economist"
Mar 16, 2004
116,523
You'd have to do some research and look into it, but that's the idea.

A good example is auto insurance, the more people that have it the cheaper it is. The issue is with making sure everyone has it.
Alright, so more people have healthcare under this plan as it forces folks to buy insurance from certain providers. This means demand increases, but what happens to supply?

One of my professors who taught some topics on reinsurance made it clear to us that folks who have insurance would only take more risks. I forget what he called it, but it is some principle in insurance topics. Since this sort of risk is prevalent in today's society, it means that pricing models for insurance products would only increase in value over time. And as such, so would costs.
 

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Alright, so more people have healthcare under this plan as it forces folks to buy insurance from certain providers. This means demand increases, but what happens to supply?

One of my professors who taught some topics on reinsurance made it clear to us that folks who have insurance would only take more risks. I forget what he called it, but it is some principle in insurance topics. Since this sort of risk is prevalent in today's society, it means that pricing models for insurance products would only increase in value over time. And as such, so would costs.
Supply really isn't an issue. You can be insured for just about anything, the issue is cost.

Risk does play a part in health insurance. However, what you're talking about is an exaggeration. I'm on insurance and I would play rugby, go backpacking, etc when I wouldn't when I wasn't insured. That's what the majority of people do. Most insurance rates aren't based on risk unless someone is a professional athlete, daredevil, etc. Average risk isn't something that's quantifiable considering it's relative to the individual and most insurance policies are purchased through the employer as a group. There is risk involved in every policy, that's why you pay a deductable before most insurance will begin covering you.

The larger issue is wellness. The more unhealthy your co-workers are, the higher the insurance cost. My dad's lawfirm has 2 people that survived cancer, so their rates are rather high. They go with my mother's because she's a VA nurse and it draws from a much broader, less risky pool. Looking at an even broader scope, the US is one of the least healthy countries, so costs are already expensive.

Another thing to add in is the cost of uninsured treatment at hospitals. Prices of procedures, tests, treatment are generally based on the amount of uninsured patients seen by a hospital. The more insured patients a hospital knows it will receive the lower the cost.

And we just lost to UCONN.
 

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