The S&P Downgrade
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An oldie from August, that I’ve been hanging on to, for some reason. Veronique de Rugy breaks down S&P’s memo about why they downgraded US debt to an AA+ rating.
The bottom line:
In other words, to avoid a downgrade, it would have been key in S&P’s opinion to show signs of willingness to cut (contain) Medicare …
How Lifetime Benefits and Contributions Point the Way Toward Reforming Our Senior Entitlement Programs
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When you get Medicare and Social Security benefits, you’re not really getting “your” money back. In many cases, you’re getting back far more than you paid in and the whole system isn’t designed to make that kind of math work.
Our recent analyses of lifetime contributions and expected benefits in Medicare show that, over …
How Medicare Killed the Family Doctor
Our doctors do not work for us, they work for the insurance companies. And that’s a big problem with third-party payment for medical care.
Health Care Cost Increase Is Projected for New Law
Health Care Cost Increase Is Projected for New Law – NYTimes.com
A government analysis of the new health care law says it will not slow the overall growth of health spending because the expansion of insurance and services to 34 million people will offset cost reductions in Medicare and other programs.
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The 3 ways to ration what you get
Here’s Warren Meyer, talking about the different types of rationing.
So here is what it boils down to: For every product or service purchase, someone makes a price-value trade-off to determine if that product or service should be purchased for a given price in that particular instance.
One option for …
Estimating health care reform costs
Jon R. Gabel writes in the New York Times today, saying that we shouldn’t fear the cost of health care reform because the CBO has a long history of underestimating the savings from reforms.
In the early 1980s, Congress changed the way Medicare paid hospitals so that payments would no longer be based on …
Who's Better: Medicare or Private Insurance?
Last month, in a meeting at work, I listened to a presentation about medical billing and denials. During the presentation, the presenter made an offhand remark at insurance companies denying claims ”without ever seeing the patient or knowing what the needs are”. The unstated assumption was that a government run health plan would do a …