No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for August 18th, 2009

Physician, Heal Thyself!

by @ 16:23. Filed under Health Care Reform, Politics - National.

As the health care debate heats up, President Obama and other Democrats have identified a new villian; insurance companies.

At a press conference on July 22nd, President Obama said:

“You know, there had been reports just over the last couple of days of insurance companies making record profits. Right now, at the time when everybody’s getting hammered, they’re making record profits and premiums are going up.”

At the end of July, Nancy Pelosi identifiedthe new villains with:

“They are the villains. They have been part of the problem in a major way. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening.”

These comments coupled with a House plan that looks a lot like an expansion of Medicaid and Medicare to all, would cause one to think that we should have some empirical evidence that shows that a government run option is more cost effective.  One would think that with nearly 40 years of history, the fine government employees that provide oversight to Medicare and Medicaid, and would be dramatically expanded to support Obamacare, would have been able to squeeze every last penny of savings from the existing programs.  If so, wouldn’t we expect to see particularly Medicaid’s cost or rate of growth, to be lower than private insurance?

Yes we would but, no we don’t.

A study done by the Pacific Research Institute shows that rather than becoming more efficient than private insurance, Medicaid spending per person has outpaced private medical spending by 35% since 1970.  If that isn’t enough to question government efficiency, understand that this study understated total Medicaid costs and overstated private costs for the following reasons:

First, my analysis doesn’t adjust for cost-shifting from Medicaid to the Medicare prescription drug program. Medicaid used to cover many of the costs of drugs that have now been shifted to Medicare. As of 2005, just prior to the Medicare drug benefit’s full implementation, Medicaid’s per-patient costs had risen 53 percent (rather than 35 percent) more than per-patient NHE apart from Medicare and Medicaid.

Second, my analysis counts the Medicare prescription drug program’s expenditures as part of privately purchased care, rather than as a part of Medicare.9 Because my analysis compares Medicaid’s costs to NHE apart from Medicaid and Medicare, this benefits Medicaid.

Third, it removes everyone on Medicaid or Medicare from the pool of patients receiving privately purchased care, even though a significant share of Medicaid patients’ care is covered not by Medicaid but privately — and even though, as of 2000, 32 percent of Medicare patients’ overall care (including
their Medicare copayments and Medigap insurance) was paid for privately.10 My methodology counts health care purchased privately by Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries among the costs of private care, without counting its recipients among the people receiving private care. If privately purchased health
care costs are divided by the whole U.S. population, rather than by the population not enrolled in Medicaid or Medicare, then Medicaid’s per-patient costs have increased 54 percent
more than per-patient NHE apart from Medicare and Medicaid.

Fourth, it doesn’t adjust for any cost-shifting from Medicaid to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). When SCHIP began in 1998, many Medicaid beneficiaries were shifted into that program. Over time, this has saved Medicaid billions without representing any actual improvement in cost containment. From 1970 to 1997, immediately prior to the start of SCHIP, Medicaid’s costs rose 81 percent more than NHE apart from Medicare and Medicaid.

President Obama and the Democrats claim that by implementing the government option they will be able to drive savings and reduce the overall cost of health care.  The fact is that if Medicaid and Medicare had been held to a rate of growth equal that of private insurance, last year alone these programs would have cost $201 billion less, nearly a 25% reduction of what was actually spent.

Before government takes over private insurance, under the argument of cost savings and efficiency, we would be wise to suggest the old adage:

Physician, heal thyself!

Drill Here, Drill Now Tuesday (8/18/2009) part 2 – shale edition

by @ 7:39. Tags:
Filed under Energy.

(H/T – JiangxiDad)

I usually don’t do two of these in a week, but it’s not every day that we hear of East Coast shale. Investor’s Business Daily reports that New York Governor David Patterson (yes, he is a Dem) wants to go get the natural gas contained in the Marcellus Shale formation. This formation, which covers the souther portion of New York, the western part of Pennsylvania, almost the entirety of West Virginia, the eastern portion of Ohio, and portions of neighboring states, is estimated to hold as much as 1,300 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, or 65 years’ worth of domestic natural gas production.

Naturally, the envirowhackos that want to prevent this exploitation are whining that the method that would be used to get the natural gas, fracking, uses a lot of water, and could damage the aquifers that supply New York City with drinking water. IBD explodes both halves of that, pointing out that fracking has already been done in the area with no aquifer damage, and that fracking requires less water than ethanol production.

I echo IBD’s call to Gov. Patterson – “Drill, Patterson, drill.”

Drill Here, Drill Now Tuesday (8/18/2009) – offshore edition – UPDATE – With a Soros connection?

by @ 6:00. Tags:
Filed under Energy.

(H/T for the concept – Jessi Olson – H/T for the article – Carol Platt Liebau)

Long-term reader of this blog may remember a weekly series that I borrowed from Jessi Olson called “Drill Here, Drill Now Tuesday” in response to the ludicrously-high gas prices of last summer. We both called for increased domestic oil drilling.

The prices may not be quite as bad this summer, but it’s not for a lack of trying by the Obama administration. At every turn, from refusing to explore the possibility of offshore drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to a rescinding of existing permits to tap the oil shale out west, they have tried to squeeze the life out of the domestic oil industry. In fact, the Department of the Interior attempted to take a court-ordered ban of new drilling in Alaska and have that apply nationwide, only to be told by the court that it only applied to Alaska.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. Export-Import Bank has issued a $2 billion “preliminary committment” letter to Brazilian state-owned Petrobras so it can exploit the Tupi oil field. I have to wonder whether that is merely because it isn’t in American waters, it involves a state-owned enterprise, or both.

Revisions/extensions (4:36 pm 8/18/2009) – Ed Morrissey dug up a Bloomberg piece from Friday on The Left’s Moneybag George Soros changing to a higher-dividend position in Petrobras. Do remember that The Chicago Way involves rewarding one’s benefactors.

We’re Smarter Than You!

by @ 5:38. Filed under Politics - National.

It didn’t start with TARP.

It didn’t start with the Stimulus bill

It didn’t start with the budget that blew all previous budget deficits to shame

It didn’t start with Cap and Tax

It didn’t even start with health care reform.

No, the anger politicians in DC and elsewhere have been hearing in emails, phone calls and town halls has been growing for a while. 

The anger has not been caused by any one politician.  The anger hasn’t been caused by any one political party.  The anger hasn’t been caused by a certain president or control of Congress by one political party or the other.

The anger is not coming from a particular age group. The anger isn’t coming from a particular economic class.  The anger isn’t coming from those who voted for one particular political party or even from people with a common political perspective.

The anger politicians across America are hearing and seeing is because more and more Americans believe that the perspective of Representative Eric Massa (D-NY) is the perspective that most politicians have towards their constituents:

Read the transcript here.

Voters are upset, currently at the Democrats but it could just as easily swing towards Republicans, with politicians who believe that being a public servant means “I don’t care what you think is right.  I don’t care what the Constitution says.  I’m smarter than you.  You’re lucky to have me!”

Um, not so much.  And many of you “smart folks” are going to be joining the unemployment ranks at the next election.

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