Comments on: For Health Bills, A Year Makes a Big Difference

By: Bill Goy

Bill Goy — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:12:12 +0000

I’ve been reading a few posts and truly and enjoy your writing. I’m just setting up my own blog and only hope that I can write as well and provide the reader so much insight.

By: John Smith

John Smith — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:26:11 +0000

What I was trying to say is that these numbers don’t really mean anything because these bills fundamentally changes medical insurance and service industry. They will have huge unforeseen consequences and what ever budget these people came up with do not take these things in to consideration. Just as the consequences of the Medicare and Medicaid plans where not fully realized when they were first created.

By: Donald Marron

Donald Marron — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:21:50 +0000

Hi Bill: As the saying goes, you manage what you measure, and the number one measurement one hears is the ten-year budget window cost estimate. That measure has its uses, not least being that it bears on the President’s $900 billion target. But, as you say, it is very limited and can be heavily influenced by things like small timing differences. As you may know, the Actuaries at CMS are also doing evaluations of the bills. I haven’t had a chance to write about the CMS analysis of the House bill, but one nice feature is that it considers all national health expenditures, not just federal.

Hi John: Sorry if my piece is unclear, but I think I am making a non-kool aid point: The headline cost figure in the Senate bill appears 20% lower than in the House bill, but that’s primarily because the Senate bill starts a year later and not because it’s actually less expensive in an ongoing, fundamental sense.

By: John Smith

John Smith — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:39:26 +0000

I am sure that back when they created Medicare and Medicaid they had people like you explaining how this thing will not cost all that much. Now we have a 100 Trillion dollar unfunded liability because of it.

I guess you must have gotten an extra does of koolaid to be able type this out.

By: Bill Greenlaw

Bill Greenlaw — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:44:06 +0000

I wondered how the Senate bill managed to “cost” less.

Has anyone seen a comparison of the total (private, business and government) projected spending on health care? Seems like that is what we should be focused on.

I think we have the wrong metric.