Archive for March, 2010
Shenanigans in federal healthcare reform
Posted by Bruce Kaskubar in analysis on March 18, 2010
I’d like to emphasize a point made by Rochester’s Fran Bradley in his Medicare article.
He mentioned efforts to address Medicare fraud and abuse. The monster ObamaCare legislation includes such measures. The shenanigan, the disgusting political reality of it, is this…
Fraud and abuse in an existing system should be dealt with as quickly as it can possibly be identified and corrected. Right?
Not in ObamaCare’s Washington. Oh no. You see, reducing fraud and abuse reduces healthcare costs. Those reductions are needed in the ObamaCare legislation to help the CBO run the numbers in a way that show ObamaCare reducing the deficit. Take the fixes to fraud and abuse out of ObamaCare and it no longer reduces the deficit.
On the other hand, proposed Medicare changes actually related to ObamaCare were taken out and passed as separate legislation. Why? Because they added over $200 billion of cost to ObamaCare. Taking that expense out was an other way of fixing the CBO math.
So, fraud and abuse that should be fixed as quickly as possible and that have nothing to do with ObamaCare are in ObamaCare (waiting for a year to be passed) while costly bits related to ObamaCare are taken out and fast-tracked.
What a bunch of crap from a bunch of crappy people.
A Perfect Storm of Ignorance
Posted by Bruce Kaskubar in analysis, columnist on March 13, 2010
This is fantastic. Jeffrey Friedman writes in the Cato Policy Report about the history and effects of regulations on the banks, regulators, rating companies, and (of course) us, particularly related to the housing bubble and subsequent banking collapse. If you can’t stand the details, stick with it for the nature of the beast.
Canadian denied health care goes to Mayo Clinic
Posted by Bruce Kaskubar in analysis on March 8, 2010
In Best of the Web Today, James Taranto tells a story of Canadian health care that includes the Mayo Clinic.
[H]ere’s a story of someone facing bankruptcy owing to medical costs. The twist is he’s Canadian. From the Toronto Sun:
Now, with the Mayo Clinic having done what the Alberta Cancer Board wouldn’t authorize or even explain, but with the tumour unable to be totally removed, the province will now not fund the expensive drug, Avastin, that the Mayo prescribed to keep him alive and keep the remaining tumour from increasing in size–despite the costs of the drug being totally funded by the province for other forms of cancer.
Had he lung cancer, breast cancer, or colon cancer, then the cost of the drug–$4,555 per treatment, two times a month–would be totally covered by Alberta’s version of OHIP [Ontario Health Insurance Plan].
Suffering from brain cancer, Kent Pankow was literally forced to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. for lifesaving surgery–at a cost to family and friends of $106,000–after the health-care system in Alberta left him hanging in bureaucratic limbo for 16 crucial days, his tumour meanwhile migrating to an unreachable part of the brain, while it dithered over his case file, ultimately deciding he was not surgery worthy.
And so he is not only a victim of brain cancer, he is also a victim of arbitrary discrimination.
But he doesn’t.
Kent Pankow, as it turns out, has the right disease but he has it in the wrong place.
The good news is that President Obama remains committed to bringing U.S. health care into line with Canadian standards. If he succeeds, sick Canadians will eventually be set free from the ruinous temptations of places like the Mayo Clinic.
For some reason, Tim Walz hasn’t shared Mr. Pankow’s story with us.
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