“Obama’s necessary war in Afghanistan…” Amazing.

If he was in my party I would run him out of town on a rail.

As I’m sure you’re aware, David, it’s politics. It’s how you get things done in Congress. I want to believe the cost control measures are going to happen but it is not politically effective to concentrate on those measures at this time. You should hope they happen, too. I’d like to ask, did you ever have this headline during the Bush years saying “GOP is Cheating on X Costing”? There were many opportunities to write such…

Because polls show that the skyrocketing cost of health care is one of Americans’ top concerns right now.

Not whether Iran gets a long-range nuke in a few years. Americans care about that too–but it’s a lower priority for them. Probably because it’s hypothetical (lots of things could prevent Iran from getting a long-range nuke), whereas the skyrocketing cost of health care is a reality that is hitting Americans in their wallets right now.

I’m stunned, absolutely stunned, at the cost of my medical treatment. Most of it’s being paid for by my medical insurance–which is to say, by the premiums of healthy policyholders like you. “ottovbs” or “rbottoms” would probably say I’m not worth it–just turn me into Soylent Green.

It sure beats the same-old, same-old talking points for pints you guys had for 8 yrs… “blah, blah, blah… Bash Bush…. blah, blah, blah… Bash Bush… blah, blah, blah… Bash Bush”.

Thanks for making it official you’re a troll in the best traditions of many, many Democrat trolls on this site.

Of course they are… just like they lied about getting out of Iraq, focusing in on & doing what’s necessary to win “Obama’s Necessary War” in Afghanistan, not raising taxes, balancing the budget, stopping unemployment at 8%, using the Stimulus Spending Spree money on real, shovel ready projects, repealing DADT, ending the culutre of corruption in Washington, bringing transparency to the process of adopting new programs, building a bipartisan, cooperative spirit, working with all to improve America, etc.

Instead, we have a lying president who is the ultimate Chicago-thug styled partisan roughneck, a divided, harsh political enviroment, staggering deficits, higher unemployment, a longer-than-necessary Obama recession, widespread distruct of govt, corruption and vote fraud at levels last seen when Dem Andrew Jackson was president and a WH waging war on the press, on medicine on conservatives and losing the wars that Bush was winning.

And someone is truly concerned about them cheating on the numbers for health care? Good God, because of the Democrats, Iran will likely have a fully operational long-range nuke in 2 yrs or less.

How to pay for this? First and best answer: REPEAL THE BUSH TAX CUTS!
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/john-farrell/2009/04/15/no-tea-party-protests-for-teddy-roosevelt-republican-champion-of-the-income-tax.html

I’d advise everyone to listen to the EXCELLENT two “This American Life” episodes on HC reform:
http://cmhmd.blogspot.com/2009/10/this-american-life-hc-reform-part-2.html

Follow the links, download the MP3’s and you can make audio CDs for your car, or listen on your computer.

There are lots of answers about how we cut costs in the long run within the two shows, but I’ll give you a few easy ones:

1.) McAllen, TX and EOL Care:
http://cmhmd.blogspot.com/2009/05/annals-of-medicine-cost-conundrum.html
( That’s actually two, practice variation and EOL care)

2.) Prescription co-pays: $10 for a $20 prescription, $30 for a $600 prescription. (Unless you have a coupon from the manufacturer to make the $30 copay $0.00 – listen to the second TAL show.)

3.) George Lundberg has a few ideas
http://cmhmd.blogspot.com/2009/08/health-care-blog-how-to-rein-in-medical.html

4.) Uwe Reinhardt has a modest proposal,,,
http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2009/07/24/a-modest-proposal-on-payment-reform/

5.) Wendell Potter, too:
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1920893,00.html

6.) Administrative costs:
http://cmhmd.blogspot.com/2009/07/health-affairs-2-articles-on-cost-of.html

Bottom line is, passing the bill is going to be half the battle, implementing reform in a way that is most beneficial to patients at the least cost to us as a society is next up.

But, let’s get everyone taken care of first, and avoid the 18K to 45K people dying due to lack of access to health care and THEN we’ll deal with reducing costs. Turns out, if you read the Gawande article, they may be by doing the exact same things.

Cheers,