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Business Roundtable – Health Status Quo Not Sustainable

November 13th, 2009 at 6:16 pm David Frum | 15 Comments |

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Guess who agrees that the healthcare status quo is intolerable and unsustainable?

Recent Posts by David Frum



15 Comments so far ↓

  • joemarier // Nov 13, 2009 at 8:09 pm

    Well, they support the reforms that are in their interest, anyway. I’m not sure how much Republicans want to cement large firms’ interests any more than they already are.

  • MI-GOPer // Nov 13, 2009 at 8:26 pm

    David, I’m hoping and trusting that you actually took a second to read the Roundtable’s press release on their “health care” committee’s report?

    In it, there’s no –zero– support of the public option. There’s no support of the major elements in the current House Democrat plan –unless you want to do the Alice in Wonderland thing and read into both the bill and the press release intimations of reform that aren’t really there.

    For the lazy trolls that usually latch onto these things and make ‘em go viral, the Roundtable says:

    “According to the report, reforms to the U.S. health care system that would help curb costs include:
    Delivery system reforms, such as value-based purchasing;
    Innovation centers that identify alternative methods of provider reimbursement;
    Accountable care organizations that realign financial incentives to improve the quality and the value of the care delivered;
    Financial penalties for failing to avoid preventable hospital re-admissions;
    Increased individual accountability for health care spending decisions, including health reimbursement arrangements and health savings accounts;
    Cost and quality of care data that is easier for patients and providers to access and use;
    Elimination of sharp regional variations in practice patterns;
    Promote wellness and prevention programs and expand financial incentives to participate in specific programs to reduce lifestyle related illness;
    and Insurance market reforms that promote competition and choice.”

    Continuing on:

    “But the report also notes that a number of potential changes threaten to increase health care spending, exacerbating the problem that true health reform should solve.

    Some of those include:
    Delayed or watered-down cost-saving efforts;
    Failure to implement a strong individual mandate to minimize cost increases in the health insurance exchange plans;
    Increases in the cost of health care to individuals from changes to consumer spending accounts or other actions that discourage consumer-engaged decision making;
    and Cost-shifting to the private sector from reductions in federal reimbursements to providers and from a public plan option, if included.”

    On the delayed or watered down cost-savings efforts… the Democrats already failed that one when they refused last week to enforce the mandated doc reimbursement reductions called for in laws already on the books… and then tried to cover it up by excising the measure from the current bill.

    Slick. Gotta keep the AMA happy, eh?

  • joemarier // Nov 14, 2009 at 7:51 am

    Incidentally, I read most of The Roundtable’s suggestions as “The Feds should do the dirty work to cut our premiums so we don’t get the blame.” My favorite is “Innovation centers that identify alternative methods of provider reimbursement.” Well, yes, if doctors would accept seashells or frequent-flyer points instead of cash, that would solve a lot of problems. I know that they’re talking about moving away from fee-for-service to salaries or retainers or whatever, though…

  • Reason60 // Nov 14, 2009 at 12:04 pm

    I am a middle manager at a medium sized engineering firm; the market demands that we provide a health insurance plan for our professionals. Each year we spend more on our health plan than we pay in corporate income taxes.

    Republican politicians who try to impress and court businesses with promises of more, and more tax cuts don’t get it; a 10% cut in our corporate income tax is peanuts, maybe less even than next year’s premium increase.

    We would be better off with a huge (20%) increase in our corporate taxes, if it was part of a bargain to take the crushing burden of health insurance preimums off our back.

  • rbottoms // Nov 14, 2009 at 1:28 pm

    We would be better off with a huge (20%) increase in our corporate taxes, if it was part of a bargain to take the crushing burden of health insurance preimums off our back.

    What are you, a commie or something. Move to Cuba.

    ~Signed,
    All the Teabaggers in the World

  • Oldskool // Nov 14, 2009 at 3:14 pm

    The insurance industry has done such a poor job “delivering” health care that resentment toward it is across the board. Imo, it’s only a matter of time before we have a hybrid private/public system and later, mostly a public system. When comparing our system to other types, the facts are pretty stubborn.

    Things like that are relatively easy to predict. Eventually gay marriage will be a given despite the hyperventilators of today, the same way civil rights were easy to see coming, womens rights, etc. The drug war will give way to treatment over punishment the same way alcohol and tobacco have been treated. It’s a matter of mortality replacing one generational way of thinking with the next. If we were smart, and we never are, we’d get on with it and marginalize the groupthinkers of the past.

  • joktu // Nov 14, 2009 at 4:41 pm

    We would be better off with a huge (20%) increase in our corporate taxes, if it was part of a bargain to take the crushing burden of health insurance preimums off our back.

    Umm…that is about as logical as saying:
    “Let’s fix that (one of many) leak in our Economic Ship by letting the IRS blow a much larger (irreparable) hole in the hull”

    or

    “I prefer the IRS confiscate much more of my employer’s pre-tax profit because with that money, the Government can do a better job of lowering healthcare cost.” -> Guess you haven’t heard about what California’s Medi-Cal plan has done to that state.

    God save us from such Ouroboros logic!

  • sdspringy // Nov 14, 2009 at 5:00 pm

    http://www.am1500.com/link/Some_Vaguely_Heretical_Thoughts_on_HealthCare_Reform_from_The_New_Yorker

    Some excerpts from this article, from an author who is pro healthcare reform:

    The President is on the verge of fulfilling his campaign pledge to extend health-care coverage to many of the uninsured. He is doing this, however, not by transforming the existing system of private insurance, which gave rise to many of the current problems, but by extending it. The White House has reached a deal with the big health insurers, such as Aetna and CIGNA. In return for the industry’s agreeing to cover people with preëxisting health conditions, and making various other more minor concessions, the government will force more than twenty million new customers into its arms.

    The Pelosi bill, in particular, wouldn’t do much, if anything, to address the overall escalation in health-care costs, much of which is rooted in the nature of insurance, where individuals consume costly health services, and different people—the other members of their risk pool—pay for them.

    A very reasoned and well written summary of the current legislation which passed in the House.

  • MI-GOPer // Nov 14, 2009 at 7:49 pm

    sdspringy… you’re right, of course.

    But notice how the far left trolls here tried to avoid the truth behind David Frum’s misleading headline and mischaracterization of what the “health care reform committee” of the Business Roundtable had to say about moving forward on reform?

    Once again, far Left and Democrat trolls running fast away from the truth. Wrong direction for politics, for sure.

    Speaking of directions, did you see the composite numbers released today on RCP? The question of is America on the right/wrong track? Wrong track wins again… now it’s up to 56%! Wow. No wonder the Democrats are so keen on doing anything and everything needed to pass health care reform… there’s a solid rebellion against that “mandate” that trolls like BlankHead think Obama’s election netted the Democrats.

    56%: America is on the wrong track.

    And what’s been the #1 issue fogging up the airwaves, newspapers, blogs? Democrat health care “reform”. 56% of America thinks we’re on the wrong track.

  • sinz54 // Nov 15, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    Joe Marier: I know that they’re talking about moving away from fee-for-service to salaries or retainers or whatever, though…
    That’s what we’re doing here in Massachusetts, as one of the cost-saving add-ons to RomneyCare: Moving doctors into group practices, where each is paid a salary by the group.

    My own doctors are already in group practices.

  • sinz54 // Nov 15, 2009 at 12:24 pm

    MI-GOPer: No wonder the Democrats are so keen on doing anything and everything needed to pass health care reform
    They’ve been keen on it for 70 years.

    And now they realize it’s now or never: The launch window is closing fast. They can’t have divisive votes on health care reform, abortion, etc., in the heat of the 2010 congressional election campaign. So they’re trying to ram it through before the start of the new year.

    So they’ll get some bill, any bill, passed by Christmas or thereabouts. It will be flawed, it will be weak–but it will have the phrase “HEALTH CARE” in its title.

  • SFTor1 // Nov 15, 2009 at 1:19 pm

    The Democrats know that a health care bill will be the beginning of breaking the backs of the health care oligarchs. It will set the wheels in motion towards a workable system. The bill as it stands would be laughed out of most countries around the world that have efficient systems.

    It gets down asking oneself whether the U.S. economy and taxpayers can continue on the current path. If you get that one right, you know that it is not a question of whether, but of how.

    The discussion seems to shift more and more to the how.

  • youngdoc // Nov 16, 2009 at 12:36 pm

    Round-table reference to “life-style related illnesses” is not prominent enough in their recommendations. I am convinced that the obesity pandemic will be the greatest health care challenge world wide this century, and as such will impact every other aspect of our lives.
    Gov’t does have an obligation to protect our individual pursuit of happiness, and the millions of people dragging down our national economy due to their inability to sustain a healthy weight has a strong impact in our individual ability to prosper.
    But is not that simple. Obesity in many cases is a sign of addiction to glucose, there’s growing evidence of this that I’m exposed to regularly as a young psychiatrist, and addiction by definition implies severe disruption of a person’s free will in terms of their substance of abuse. Basically, addiction means self-distructive behavior. I would know: as a psychiatrist and life-time weight watchers member after losing 66 lbs. in 2008.
    Neither the free-market nor universal health care will save us from this pandemic, but in desperation people will turn to gov’t to solve their problems. If you wish to see the free-market endure in our health care, immediate action most be taken to educate the public about what they are facing and creating incentives for people to change. In practical terms, the carrot and the stick model. Funnel gov’t resources to education about nutrition, addiction, biology from very early on, and to promotion of fitness while at the same time adopting differential insurance pricing based on well-established, easily measured, standards of health such as BMI, blood pressure readings, and hemoglobin A1C levels to promote responsible behavior, a standarized electronic medical system would be needed for this.
    However, we won’t get out of this mess with more technology, only would a more educated, empowered people. Medicines, surgical procedures are mainly enablers of our own self-distructive behavior. Large segments of the health and food industries are taking our money while we self-destruct.

  • DFL // Nov 16, 2009 at 3:00 pm

    Thinking outside the box, I’d go for letting the Left gets its way on Single-Payer(with tort reform) if the Right gets to privatize certain government functions like the Post Office, Amtrak, NASA. And end the Interstate Highway system, which has transformed itself into a subsidy for the road builder lobby.

  • Independent // Nov 17, 2009 at 9:47 am

    it’s kind of funny to see the trolls stay away from arguments they just can’t win, eh?

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