My favorite quote about liberalism is from Lionel Trilling: (“We must be aware of the dangers which lie in our most generous wishes. Some paradox of our nature leads us, when once we have made our fellow men the objects of our enlightened interest, to go on to make them the objects of our pity, then of our wisdom, ultimately of our coercion.”)
Thus stands the clueless observation of Drew Altman who maintains that by such time in the future the annual cost of health care will be $30k a year:
For the worker share of the premium alone, the average amount paid by families increased from $1,543 in 1999 to $3,354 in 2008.
But that's according to the Book of Kaiser which believes that all health care coverage should include all the benefits and first dollar amounts that the Kaiser Foundation social engineers deem ok. Which is why the Baucus bill eliminates choice of any coverage other than the most expensive Kaiser model
Meanwhile, consumer expenditure data shows that Americans on average spent $945 a year on health insurance premiums in 1999 or two percent of the average pretax income. In 2007 the average was $1545 a person or a whopping 3 percent of pretax income. In both cases, that amount was less than what a person spent, on average, for dining out or entertainment.
Drew tells us that... the average cost of a family health insurance policy in 2009: $13,375....premiums in 2019 will average a whopping $30,803, a very scary number.
Let's set aside the mythical nature of that number, how it reflects pretax wage increases on the one hand and a one size fits all benefit package replete with mandated services on the other. Let's set aside the fact that the average yearly family premium in the individual health market with a $2000 deductible with the same benefits Drew drools for is $4500. SOURCE: eHealth, Inc.
Instead, let's focus on Drew's solution for making the scary number go away:
"One obvious implication is that we need to get more serious about reaching agreement on ways to slow the rate of increase in health care costs. But consensus on measures that would put a real dent in the health cost trajectory has been hard to achieve. Even simple first steps, such as comparative effectiveness research to collect data on what works and what does not in medical practice, have proven controversial, requiring language in draft legislation disavowing that they will ever be linked to payment."
www.kff.org/pullingittogether/091509_altman.cfm
Poor Drew. America lacks the will to require government to ration care explicitly. But he should take heart that much of Congress has bought into to the element of the liberal vision: a one size fits all, overpriced health plan that will be hard to pay for and three times as expensive as what most of us would choose if we actually had the choice.
It's not about cost. It is about coercion.
Thus stands the clueless observation of Drew Altman who maintains that by such time in the future the annual cost of health care will be $30k a year:
For the worker share of the premium alone, the average amount paid by families increased from $1,543 in 1999 to $3,354 in 2008.
But that's according to the Book of Kaiser which believes that all health care coverage should include all the benefits and first dollar amounts that the Kaiser Foundation social engineers deem ok. Which is why the Baucus bill eliminates choice of any coverage other than the most expensive Kaiser model
Meanwhile, consumer expenditure data shows that Americans on average spent $945 a year on health insurance premiums in 1999 or two percent of the average pretax income. In 2007 the average was $1545 a person or a whopping 3 percent of pretax income. In both cases, that amount was less than what a person spent, on average, for dining out or entertainment.
Drew tells us that... the average cost of a family health insurance policy in 2009: $13,375....premiums in 2019 will average a whopping $30,803, a very scary number.
Let's set aside the mythical nature of that number, how it reflects pretax wage increases on the one hand and a one size fits all benefit package replete with mandated services on the other. Let's set aside the fact that the average yearly family premium in the individual health market with a $2000 deductible with the same benefits Drew drools for is $4500. SOURCE: eHealth, Inc.
Instead, let's focus on Drew's solution for making the scary number go away:
"One obvious implication is that we need to get more serious about reaching agreement on ways to slow the rate of increase in health care costs. But consensus on measures that would put a real dent in the health cost trajectory has been hard to achieve. Even simple first steps, such as comparative effectiveness research to collect data on what works and what does not in medical practice, have proven controversial, requiring language in draft legislation disavowing that they will ever be linked to payment."
www.kff.org/pullingittogether/091509_altman.cfm
Poor Drew. America lacks the will to require government to ration care explicitly. But he should take heart that much of Congress has bought into to the element of the liberal vision: a one size fits all, overpriced health plan that will be hard to pay for and three times as expensive as what most of us would choose if we actually had the choice.
It's not about cost. It is about coercion.
