A Voice Of Reason

Alex Nussbaum reports in Bloomberg News that Humana CEO Michael McCallister "said President Barack Obama's plan for making government-backed insurance available to all may scuttle an overhaul of US healthcare. The public alternative, which Obama said will ensure access and keep private plans from overcharging, is instead a 'slippery slope' toward nationalized healthcare." He also raised objections about Medicare rates, asserting that the "artificially low" rates force "providers to shift more than $80 billion in costs to private insurance customers." Likewise, he contended that a public plan "would lead to similar imbalances."

Like we mentioned in an earlier post, "More... doctors are turning away Medicare patients because of the diminished reimbursements and the growing delay in payments. "

You can legislate price or you can legislate coverage, but you cannot do both. Just like we know Washington cannot legislate that Detroit build a car most Americans want to buy for $10,000, we should not expect Washington to be able legislate that the level of health care we have come to expect should cost the same as our cable TV or cell phone bill. But sadly, that is what a lot of people think they should get.

Good Ol' Wally

Thanks to Scott Adams for this Dilbert cartoon. (Click on image for a larger version)

A Poem

My son had to write a poem for school. He chose as his subject, the movie, 300.

King Leonidas, lead your 300 Spartans well
Only after they’ve eaten their rations in Hell
This is Sparta! You shout with great jubilee
A point you manage to get across throughout the whole movie

You know you will lose in the pit of your soul
But first, dramatically kick this messenger into that oddly placed hole
Spartans are jacked, something every man strives to be
Outside of the gym you have no life as far as we can see

Donning only a helmet, cape, and tight leather briefs
Into battle you roar prepared for its griefs
Yep, Leo, you’re one awesome dude
But would it hurt you and your soldiers to be a little less nude?

Draw your sword, you’re in for one wild night
Those immortals you cut down barely put up a fight
Your phalanx now surrounded by those Persian S.O.B.’s
A surprise attack on their Xerxes, this moment you did seize

As the god king bled, his archers drew back their bows
One final stroke to end their Spartan woes
I guess in the end you really didn't have a chance
However, before you check out of this world, please, please put on some pants

When Spartans fight, it’s a testosterone fest
There’s no doubt in my mind Sparta is the best

The Tragedy of Supremely Bad Law

"The press hailed it as a victory for patients. People harmed by drugs can sue the manufacturers, the Supreme Court recently ruled, even when the firms have scrupulously complied with all FDA rules.

But the decision will prove to be a pyrrhic victory for patients. In the long run it will hurt countless thousands desperately needing innovative drug treatments.

In dissent, Justice Samuel Alito pointed out that the case, Wyeth v. Levine "illustrates that tragic facts make bad law." The tragedy was that Diana Levine, a musician in Vermont, lost her arm due to gangrene after a physician's assistant injected her with Phenergan, an anti-nausea drug made by Wyeth that's been on the market since 1955. The assistant ignored no fewer than six warnings on the drug's FDA-approved label, stating that injection into an artery could cause gangrene and that the use of an IV heightened the risk of mis-injection. (The assistant also injected twice the maximum labeled dosage and ignored Levine's complaints of extreme pain, which the label stated indicated injection into an artery.)

Wyeth argued that it should not be liable to state tort actions when its label clearly and succinctly warned about the dangers of misuse in language approved by the FDA, the agency charged by federal law with determining the safety of drugs marketed to the American public. A Vermont jury awarded Levine $7.4 million.

In affirming that decision, the Supreme Court has opened up pharmaceutical companies to being whipsawed "with 50 (or more) potentially conflicting rules," Alito noted. In effect, the ruling leaves tort juries in every state "rather than the FDA...ultimately responsible for regulating warning labels for prescription drugs."

The Supreme Court's decision will inevitably lead pharmaceutical firms to pull drugs off the market, particularly those developed for relatively small populations of sufferers. The risk of tort liability suits in 50 different states will be too great to keep selling many of them. And that risk, no doubt, will stifle the development of new drugs for a wide variety of diseases."

Excerpts from an article by Hans A. von Spakovsky. Mr Spakovsky is a former commissioner on the Federal Election Commission and counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice.

When Doctors Opt Out

"Here's something that has gotten lost in the drive to institute universal health insurance: Health insurance doesn't automatically lead to health care. And with more and more doctors dropping out of one insurance plan or another, especially government plans, there is no guarantee that you will be able to see a physician no matter what coverage you have.

Consider that the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission reported in 2008 that 28% of Medicare beneficiaries looking for a primary care physician had trouble finding one, up from 24% the year before. The reasons are clear: A 2008 survey by the Texas Medical Association, for example, found that only 38% of primary-care doctors in Texas took new Medicare patients. The statistics are similar in New York state, where I practice medicine.

More and more of my fellow doctors are turning away Medicare patients because of the diminished reimbursements and the growing delay in payments. I've had several new Medicare patients come to my office in the last few months with multiple diseases and long lists of medications simply because their longtime provider -- who they liked -- abruptly stopped taking Medicare.

Bottom line: None of the current plans, government or private, provide my patients with the care they need. And the care that is provided is increasingly expensive and requires a big battle for approvals. Of course, we're promised... that universal health insurance will avoid all these problems. But how is that possible when you consider that the medical turnstiles will be the same as they are now, only they will be clogged with more and more patients? The doctors that remain in this expanded system will be even more overwhelmed than we are now."

"When Doctors Opt Out" by Marc Siegel, MD, opinion article in the Wall Street Journal

National Health Preview?

Praise Mitt Romney. Three years ago, the former Massachusetts Governor had the inadvertent good sense to create the "universal" health-care program that the White House and Congress now want to inflict on the entire country. It is proving to be instructive, as Mr. Romney's foresight previews what President Obama, Max Baucus, Ted Kennedy and Pete Stark are cooking up for everyone else.

In Massachusetts's latest crisis, Governor Deval Patrick and his Democratic colleagues are starting to move down the path that government health plans always follow when spending collides with reality -- i.e., price controls. As costs continue to rise, the inevitable results are coverage restrictions and waiting periods. It was only a matter of time.

They're trying to manage the huge costs of the subsidized middle-class insurance program that is gradually swallowing the state budget. The state's overall costs on health programs have increased by 42% (!) since 2006.

What are the alternatives? If health planners won't accept the prices set by the marketplace -- thus putting themselves out of work -- the only other choice is limiting care via politics, much as Canada and most of Europe do today. Another would "limit coverage to services that produce the highest value when considering both clinical effectiveness and cost." (Guess who would determine what is high or low value? Not patients or doctors.) Yet another is "a limitation on the total amount of money available for health care services," i.e., an overall spending cap.

Even the single-payer cheerleaders at the New York Times have caught on to this rolling catastrophe. In a page-one story this month, the paper reported on the "expedient choice" that Mr. Romney and Democrats made to defer "until another day any serious effort to control the state's runaway health costs. . . . Those who led the 2006 effort said it would not have been feasible to enact universal coverage if the legislation had required heavy cost controls."

Now they tell us. What really whipped along RomneyCare were claims that health care would be less expensive if everyone were covered. But reducing costs while increasing access are irreconcilable issues.

Which brings us to Washington, where [they] are about to try their own Bay State bait and switch: First create vast new entitlements that can never be repealed, then later take the less popular step of rationing care.

The consequences of that deception will be far worse than those in Massachusetts, however, given that prior to 2006 the state already had a far smaller percentage of its population uninsured than the national average. The real lesson of Massachusetts is that reform proponents won't tell Americans the truth about what "universal" coverage really means: Runaway costs followed by price controls and bureaucratic rationing.

Excerpts from a WSJ opinion piece

Health Insurance DMV Style?

Does anyone REALLY think the government (regardless of which party is 'in control') should be in charge of anything?



After you watch this video, watch it again and substitute health care terms for the automotive industry terms.

Warranty - Health Insurance Coverage
DMV Auto Repair Center - Government Run Health Care Center (GRHCC)
Simple Form - Simple Form (you know, like HIPAA)
DMV Auto Repair Expert - Government Employee at the GRHCC front desk
...have your car serviced - ...see a physician

It really is that simple!