Another Way To Punish Doctors…And Patients

More unintended consequences. For doctors who offer payment plans for patients who can’t afford to pay up front, a new regulation by the government. It’s designed to “fix” problems, don’t you know:

Our new ad below. Learn more at StopTheCFPA.com.

“Of course I allow my patients to pay in installments. They couldn’t afford orthodontics otherwise. Does that make me a financial company?”

Legislation that has passed the House and is pending in the Senate would create a new regulatory agency with the power to regulate a small business that allows its customers to pay in more than four installments or applies late fees –Senate Bill § 1027(a)(2)(B)(iii)– This is the wrong way to fix financial regulation and the wrong way to protect consumers. Let’s get it right by working together on a commonsense solution without creating a new $410 million big government bureaucracy with powers to regulate businesses that had nothing to do with the financial crisis.

Posted in Capitalism, Democrats, Economy | No Comments »

May We Call President Obama A Socialist Now?

I don’t know why Democrats are so touchy about the description. Well, some, like Al Sharpton isn’t. Their motivation is “fairness” which means to take from one person and give to another who hasn’t earned it. From the New York Times:

A big chunk of the money to pay for the bill comes from lifting payroll taxes on households making more than $250,000. On average, the annual tax bill for households making more than $1 million a year will rise by $46,000 in 2013, according to the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research group. Another major piece of financing would cut Medicare subsidies for private insurers, ultimately affecting their executives and shareholders.

The benefits, meanwhile, flow mostly to households making less than four times the poverty level — $88,200 for a family of four people. Those without insurance in this group will become eligible to receive subsidies or to join Medicaid. (Many of the poor are already covered by Medicaid.) Insurance costs are also likely to drop for higher-income workers at small companies.

Finally, the bill will also reduce a different kind of inequality. In the broadest sense, insurance is meant to spread the costs of an individual’s misfortune — illness, death, fire, flood — across society. Since the late 1970s, though, the share of Americans with health insurance has shrunk. As a result, the gap between the economic well-being of the sick and the healthy has been growing, at virtually every level of the income distribution.

The health reform bill will reverse that trend. By 2019, 95 percent of people are projected to be covered, up from 85 percent today (and about 90 percent in the late 1970s). Even affluent families ineligible for subsidies will benefit if they lose their insurance, by being able to buy a plan that can no longer charge more for pre-existing conditions. In effect, healthy families will be picking up most of the bill — and their insurance will be somewhat more expensive than it otherwise would have been.

Each according to his need. Enforced fairness.

What is the natural consequence of such actions? The rich make sure they are no longer rich. By any means necessary, they will make sure their income falls below the taxation threshold. A whole new industry will pop up to help rich people. And rich people will go buy health care somewhere else. They can afford to travel to Mexico after all, to get cheaper health care. And the cost of health care in America will rise from this legislation.

And then, the government will have to force people to pay more taxes, which is why the President is considering a VAT tax. This whole issue will spiral. Costs will increase, tax revenue will decline. The black market for everything will flourish.

The incentives are all wrong. Why should people quit smoking and eat right? Pay the fine for not having insurance and then buy insurance when you get sick.

Socialism never works because it fundamentally operates against human nature. It reinforces bad behavior and extinguishes good behavior.

But it’s “fair.”

Posted in America, Democrats, Economy, Socialism | No Comments »

Health Care Reform: About Doctors

My last post focused on jobs generally. Now, what about Doctors? Everyone wants to know about doctors because it’s already tough to get a doctor if you’re on Medicaid or Medicare.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, it’s going to get worse:

Physician Support of Health Reform in General
• 62.7% of physicians feel that health reform is needed but should be implemented in a more targeted, gradual way, as opposed to the sweeping overhaul that is in legislation. [NOTE: I think this reflects the American public, too. No one is saying to do nothing. This bill is just not the "something" that needs to be done.]
• 28.7% of physicians are in favor of a public option.
• 3.6% of physicians prefer the “status quo” and feel that the U.S. health care system is best “as is.

Health Reform and Primary Care Physicians
• 46.3% of primary care physicians (family medicine and internal medicine) feel that the passing of health reform will either force them out of medicine or make them want to leave medicine.

Health Reform, Public Option, and Practice Revenue/Physician Income
• 41% of physicians feel that income and practice revenue will “decline or worsen dramatically” with a public option.
• 30% feel income will “decline or worsen somewhat” with a public option.
• 9% feel income will “improve somewhat” with a public option, and 0.8% feel income will “improve dramatically” with a public option.

Health Reform, Public Option, and Physician Supply
• 72% of physicians feel that a public option would have a negative impact on physician supply, with 45% feeling it will “decline or worsen dramatically” and 27% predicting it will “decline or worsen somewhat. [NOTE: This is the part that is most concerning. What will then happen is that the United States will recruit less-qualified drones to fill the jobs. As the role of physician becomes commoditized, the person seeking that job will change.]
• 24% of physicians think they will try to retire early if a public option is implemented.
• 21% of physicians would try to leave medicine if a public option is implemented, even if not near retirement age at the time.

Health Reform and Recommending Medicine to Others as a Career
• 36% of physicians would not recommend medicine as a career, regardless of health reform.
• 27% would recommend medicine as a career but not if health reform passes.
• 25% of physicians would recommend medicine as a career regardless of health reform.
• 12% would not recommend medicine as a career now but feel that they would recommend it as a career if health reform passes

Source: The Medicus Firm “Physician Survey: Health Reform’s Impact on Physician Supply and Quality of Medical Care,”
The Medicus Firm, www.TheMedicusFirm.com

This does NOT bode well for the future of American medicine. More importantly, it harms the care Americans will receive.

By the way, Democrats know this. This bill is NOT about health care. It’s about transitioning costs away from the unions and the ballooning aging Boomer population to the younger, healthier people.

Health care reform is a tax plan.

Posted in Barack Obama, Body, Economy | No Comments »

Up To 700,000 Lose Jobs Due To Health Care Reform

Health care reform will be a disaster for Americans. We already know this. What we are having trouble quantifying is HOW bad health care reform will be for the country.

Americans for Tax Reform the Beacon Hill Institute share a study using the assumptions of the CBO and Center for American Progress and the results are stunning. From ATR’s website:

From the Executive Summary:

Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, has urged passage of the massive health reform plan moving through Congress as a way to create up to 400,000 jobs. Speaker Pelosi bases her claim on a report by the Center for American Progress (CAP) in which the Center estimates that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) would create 250,000 to 400,000 jobs per year over 10 years.

This estimate by CAP amounts to a hurried effort to add academic heft to the claim that national health care reform offers a collateral benefit in the form of an economic “stimulus.” It turns out, however, that its methodology, stripped of unsupportable claims about savings in health care costs, shows just the opposite of what CAP intended. PPACA is a job killer, not a job creator.

The result is a loss of between 119,000 and 698,000 jobs between enactment of the bill this year and 2019.

There is much more data at the link.

Far from being the job creator the left would like to imagine this bill being, the legislation is going to kill jobs overall.

And as extensive as this study is, it doesn’t include the losses, specifically from doctors leaving the profession.

A commenter on my site asked how this bill would affect innovation and growth in the American economy. He said this:

If a bill were passed, it would not create new and talented doctors.
It would not create more medical teachers, or degree-granting
institutions. These professions are already at or near full
employment. If the government did go through the effort of increasing
the number of doctors over a period of years, what professions do you
suppose would people not enter, and what would society lack? One
isn’t likely to be a practicing physician and invent an ipod and
design a water treatment plant and write software, etc. In a sense,
for the federal government to favor one profession with grants,
subsidies, etc., is to punish another.

Well, the problem here, again, is that with the government monkeying with business, the results are likely to be incentive based. That is, if doctors get reimbursed less, but work harder, but have more security, the person seeking this job will change. Ditto health related research and development, etc.

Where will incentives lay with health care reform? Well, government workers will increase to try to lower costs from the private sector.

And the incentives in private industry, during a time of economic stress, will be to cut workers. Workers will cost businesses more money, so head count will become increasingly important.

I can see many tiny businesses being set up, to keep the number of employees/business smaller. Also, more workers will be contract workers because businesses won’t want to take on the liability.

All in all, though, this bill will not help business. It will stifle business. It will make it harder to do business.

I’m guessing that 700,000 jobs lost is being generous. I suspect far more workers will lose employment.

More at HotAir.com

Posted in Economy | 2 Comments »

If Broadband Is A Right, Then A Car Is A Right

Why do leftists insist on making everything a right? Why can’t they let the market do its thing?

Here’s the deal: When people say that broadband is a right, what they mean is that the United States should pay for the world’s internet access.

Posted in Capitalism, Economy, Liberals, Socialism | 2 Comments »

Oh, Come ON NBC, Just Say It: Barack Obama Is The Problem With Consumer Confidence

So consumer confidence shocked everyone again yesterday. It’s a shock a minute in the media these days. Anyway, so in the NBC article about miserable Americans, NBC gives this pearl of insight:

Some economists pointed to one more possible source of angst: Congress.

“We suspect the absolute gridlock in Washington also depressed consumers,” said Bernard Baumohl, chief economist at the Economic Outlook Group in Princeton, N.J..

“Rather than seek some common ground on health care and financial reforms, both political parties demonstrated legislative incompetence and ideological rigidity. The constant bickering and lack of progress in the nation’s capital doesn’t engender much optimism among households.”

That voters are unhappy with Congress is well documented. The latest monthly Gallup poll showed just 18 percent of Americans approved of how Congress was doing its job, down from 24 percent in January and the lowest reading in the 13 months since President Barack Obama took office.

Since the $787 billion stimulus bill enacted a year ago, Congress has struggled to pass any of the major legislation Obama had put on his priority list, including health care and regulatory reform.

What utter b.s. My feeling is that the American people relaxed during the government-stopping snow storms. It’s not the gridlock that’s making people nervous.

The President of the United States Barack Hussein Obama causes the uncertainty.

He won’t let health care reform die, so it still occupies everyone’s mind. He won’t turn down the volume on his business-hating rhetoric. He won’t say a word to encourage the private sector. He’s ideological. He’s combative.

He is making people nervous.

Well, he’s making everyone nervous, aka UN-confident, and the media refuses to see the obvious.

Sure, the Congress is flopping around but Democrats are in charge of everything. The country feels like its being led by a children. It is.

NBC just demonstrates their obvious bias once again by not noting Obama’s words and actions. While everyone hates Congress, that’s almost a constant in American political sentiment. The President, though, is the communicator. And he’s an able one. What The One communicates, though, is very upsetting.

Unsettled people, nervous people, scared people are not confident people. There’s a reason consumer confidence is plummeting “unexpectedly”…look to the leader.

Posted in Barack Obama, Capitalism, Economy | 3 Comments »

Harry Reid: Jobless Men Abuse More

Oops, Reid did it again:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) suggested Monday that domestic violence by men has increased due to U.S. joblessness.

Reid, speaking in the midst of a Senate debate over whether to pass a $15 billion package meant to spur job creation, appeared to argue that joblessness would lead to more domestic violence.

“I met with some people while I was home dealing with domestic abuse. It has gotten out of hand,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “Why? Men don’t have jobs.”

Jim Gerhaty via Twitter says: “Reelect Senator Harry Reid, for the health and safety of Mrs. Reid.”

I’m sorry, Mrs. Reid. Become a Republican. Buy a gun.

Posted in Democrats, Economy | 1 Comment »

Monumental Man-Made Scientific Scandal Climategate Described As “Missteps By Scientists” By WaPo

Could the WaPo undersell the man-made scientific disaster that is the Global Warming hoax any more? I think not. Tom Maguire takes WaPo down.

As AJ Strata notes today,”I see an avalanche of bad news coming for the alarmists.” [He has a all the details, go read it.] AJ concludes:

So what have we learned since climategate? We have learned that the current warm period is not only stalled but has been cooling. We have learned that statistically it is no warmer now than a 70 years ago, before the huge increase in human CO2 production. And thanks to Dr Phil Jones finally being honest about the science, we know there is no scientific proof today is any warmer than the two previous warm periods (Medieval and Roman) that have been established science for a couple hundred years now.

So the data is bogus. The data was manipulated to be more bogus. And the manipulated bogus data was used to form a theory that would remake society as we know it.

The whole goal: control human behavior to “save the world” is more like a cult. Remember, “Global Warming is a Moral Issue.“

Posted in Economy, Environmentalism | 5 Comments »

Going Galt: New Jersey

When taxes get so egregious, the rich just leave. And when taxes get too punitive in America, rich Americans will leave America. They’ll have no state to escape to.

From CBS:

A study by the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College was commissioned by the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.

While other studies have examined migration of people with high incomes, this is the first to look at wealth.

It finds that between 1998 and 2003, there was a net gain in state wealth of $98 billion. Between 2004 and 2008, there was a net loss of $70 billion due to the affluent moving away.

Chamber of Commerce chairman Dennis Bone says the study shows that taxes that have risen for high earners in recent years are driving some of them away.

The study finds the migration of money hurts charitable giving and state tax revenue.

You don’t say….

Posted in Economy | 2 Comments »

Joblessness: Bad News Is Unexpected News

When bad things happen during the Obama administration it’s always so “unexpected”. The latest round of unexpectedly unexpected news was in the jobs arena. The AP reports:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of newly laid-off workers filing initial claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, evidence that layoffs are continuing and jobs remain scarce.

The rise is the fourth in the past five weeks. Most economists hoped that claims would resume a downward trend that was evident in the fall and early winter.

The Labor Department said Thursday that new claims for unemployment insurance rose by 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 480,000. Wall Street economists had expected a drop to 460,000, according to Thomson Reuters.

The four-week average, which smooths fluctuations, rose for the third straight week to 468,750.

The figure is the highest in the past two months. Initial claims dropped sharply in late December, raising hopes among economists that layoffs were nearing an end and the economy would soon start generating net gains in jobs.

Why one might think that the easing of joblessness in December (people STILL lost jobs) was due to seasonal hirings and that now, those people and many, many more don’t have jobs.

One would think that, if they weren’t a press person who had their heads so far up the administration’s financial guru’s rear that he too was blinded by Obama’s light.

The American people find this “unexpected” news laughable. It’s what they see all around them. And they don’t expect things to get better any time soon.

If this was the Bush administration, the recession would be called The 2nd Great Depression.

The jobless numbers are disheartening. There are reasons they’ll continue to get worse. And it will continue to be unexpected because any bad news surrounding the Obama administration is unexpected.

It’s going to get worse, morons. There are so many reasons in the underlying economy (commercial mortgage loan resets, increasing home defaults, scaling back work force–many companies cut salaries, not employees, etc.) for bad, not good, things to happen.

Layer on to the actual economy the administration’s mixed messages and outright hostility toward business, and you have an EXPECTEDLY unstable economic environment.

The jobless woes should surprise no one.

Posted in America, Barack Obama, Bias, Economy | 2 Comments »