Beyond Obamacare

[dkf]

WE need death panels.

Well, maybe not death panels, exactly, but unless we start allocating health care resources more prudently — rationing, by its proper name — the exploding cost of Medicare will swamp the federal budget.

But in the pantheon of toxic issues — the famous “third rails” of American politics — none stands taller than overtly acknowledging that elderly Americans are not entitled to every conceivable medical procedure or pharmaceutical.

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Medicare needs to take a cue from Willie Sutton, who reportedly said he robbed banks because that’s where the money was. The big money in Medicare is not to be found in Mr. Ryan’s competition or Mr. Obama’s innovation, but in reducing the cost of treating people in the last year of life, which consumes more than a quarter of the program’s budget.

No one wants to lose an aging parent. And with price out of the equation, it’s natural for patients and their families to try every treatment, regardless of expense or efficacy. But that imposes an enormous societal cost that few other nations have been willing to bear. Many countries whose health care systems are regularly extolled — including Canada, Australia and New Zealand — have systems for rationing care.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/opinion/health-care-reform-beyond-obamacare.html?_r=3&

[pansypoo53219]

1. i am so on board w/ death panels.

our PBS had a doc/show on more prudent use of medical care + were talking about the difference between a high cost hospital in CA + a low cost one in utah. talking about over treatment in prostate + breast cancer. the elderly being kept alive past their due date. if i ever got diagnoses w/ AZ, i am trying to figure out the best way to kill myself.

[JNelson6563]

2. Ok so a while back you

couldn't imagine any other way to save public health care (like medicare) than to raise premiums. I mean it was just beyond your imagination.

But today death-panels/care-rationing are all the rage.

WTF?

[dkf]

3. We probably need both.

I would have to see the numbers though.

Canada has higher taxes than we do with a rationed health care system.

[taught_me_patience]

4. Completely agree with this

But to advocate any such reasonable solution would be political suicide to the google power.

[dkf]

5. Any solution to our bigger budget problems is political suicide.

That is why we probably won't change things til we are in Greece's situation with no one wanting to fund us.

At that point watch for spiraling printing of money and possible collapse of the currency or cuts galore. Not very pretty.