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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Discuss.

Posted by Will Bunch @ 9:39 AM  Permalink | 60 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:44 AM, 09/23/2009
    Clearly, we can't change our health care system because it would create a system that is wasteful and inefficient. Oh. Wait. --snip-- The U.S. health system has been described as the most competitive, heterogeneous, inefficient, fragmented, and advanced system of care in the world. In this paper, we consider two questions: First, is the U.S. health care system productively efficient relative to other wealthy countries, in the sense of producing better health for a given bundle of hospital beds, physicians, nurses, and other factor inputs? Second, is the U.S. allocatively efficient relative to other countries, in the sense of providing highly valued care to consumers? For both questions, the answer is most likely no. Although no country can claim to have eliminated inefficiency, the U.S. has fragmented care, high administrative costs, and stands out with regard to heterogeneity in treatment because of race, income, and geography. The U.S. health care system is also more likely to pay for diagnostic tests, treatments, and other forms of care before effectiveness is established and with little consideration of the value they provide. A number of proposed reforms that are designed to ameliorate shortcomings of the U.S. health care system, such as quality improvement initiatives and coverage expansions, are unlikely by themselves to reduce expenditures. Addressing allocative inefficiency is a far more difficult task but central to controlling costs. --snip-- http://www.nber.org/papers/w14257
    Talking point sleuth
  • Comment removed.
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:08 AM, 09/23/2009
    The Law of Unintended Consequences is what turns most folks to conservatism. Instituting a government 'fix' that doesn't address the core problems of health care (rising costs, tort reform) isn't worth a bucket of spit. Cost shifting from Medicare/Medicaid 'savings' costs the average family of four who are insured some $1500 per year. If the government is the only option, where will this 'savings' come from? It's not like Medicare doesn't limit coverage, either.
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:11 AM, 09/23/2009
    She's right to an extent. SS and Medicare lead to huge budgetary problems. The bipartisan push for increased homeownership, helped fuel the housing bubble. Cheap credit did fuel the crisis. However, her dim view of federal gov's abilities should be taken to the next logical step. If our ogv can't fix our economy, why believe it can export democracy and fix other nations?
    RG
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:13 AM, 09/23/2009
    I think Will wants us to discuss how stupid Sarah Palin is because she doesn't speak as eloquently as our Dear Leader. How's all that eloquence working out for him?
    jmc
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:22 AM, 09/23/2009
    Why are democrats so afraid of Sarah Palin? i mean if she is so stupid and clueless?
    Manny Trillo
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:25 AM, 09/23/2009
    FOX News is number 1- no? Everyone hates a winner.
    Manny Trillo
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:28 AM, 09/23/2009
    Did Will post this quote because it's clear, concise prose, unlike much of BO's teleprompter eloquence?
    pj katauskas
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:44 AM, 09/23/2009
    "So why was a speech last week by Prof. Mojib Latif of Germany's Leibniz Institute not given more prominence? Latif is one of the leading climate modellers in the world. He is the recipient of several international climate-study prizes and a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has contributed significantly to the IPCC's last two five-year reports that have stated unequivocally that man-made greenhouse emissions are causing the planet to warm dangerously. Yet last week in Geneva, at the UN's World Climate Conference--an annual gathering of the so-called "scientific consensus" on man-made climate change --Latif conceded the Earth has not warmed for nearly a decade and that we are likely entering "one or even two decades during which temperatures cool." The global warming theory has been based all along on the idea that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans would absorb much of the greenhouse warming caused by a rise in man-made carbon dioxide, then they would let off that heat and warm the atmosphere and the land. But as Latif pointed out, the Atlantic, and particularly the North Atlantic, has been cooling instead. And it looks set to continue a cooling phase for 10 to 20 more years." http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Scientists+pull+about+face+global+warming/2010571/story.html
    bird11
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:45 AM, 09/23/2009
    "So why was a speech last week by Prof. Mojib Latif of Germany's Leibniz Institute not given more prominence? Latif is one of the leading climate modellers in the world. He is the recipient of several international climate-study prizes and a lead author for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He has contributed significantly to the IPCC's last two five-year reports that have stated unequivocally that man-made greenhouse emissions are causing the planet to warm dangerously. Yet last week in Geneva, at the UN's World Climate Conference--an annual gathering of the so-called "scientific consensus" on man-made climate change --Latif conceded the Earth has not warmed for nearly a decade and that we are likely entering "one or even two decades during which temperatures cool." The global warming theory has been based all along on the idea that the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans would absorb much of the greenhouse warming caused by a rise in man-made carbon dioxide, then they would let off that heat and warm the atmosphere and the land. But as Latif pointed out, the Atlantic, and particularly the North Atlantic, has been cooling instead. And it looks set to continue a cooling phase for 10 to 20 more years." http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Scientists+pull+about+face+global+warming/2010571/story.html
    bird11
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:12 AM, 09/23/2009
    Birdy dont you know speaking out against global warming , um I mean climate change will get you screamed at by the tree huggers ? shame on you *LOL*
    PAEnglish
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:18 AM, 09/23/2009
    Global warming has stopped. The Atlantic, and particularly the North Atlantic, has been cooling instead. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwnrpwctIh4 Global cooling. What a riot!
    Talking point sleuth


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About Will Bunch
Will's new book: Learn about it here and purchase it here.


Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.

E-mail Will by clicking here.

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