Healthcare Costs and the Ballooning Federal Deficit

[James]

Healthcare is the topic that any fiscal conservative should be passionate to propose solutions and is an area that requires innovate solutions. Healthcare entitlement programs, primarily Medicare and Medicaid, account for 20.1% of the federal spending budget in 2008 and are sixteen percent of our GDP. As a comparision, social security is 20.8% and defense discretionary is 20.5%. (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/09msr.pdf)

Healthcare spending in 2007 rose 6.9% which is twice inflation during that year and is expected to continue growing at this rate for the next decade. As our entitlement programs grow, it is clear that our ability to spend on defense, education, or any other category becomes more limited, and a laissez-faire attitude on this topic would be irresponsible for any conservative.

Solutions to reduce Medicare and Medicaid expenditures are difficult as the baby-boom generation ages and expects a payback from their years paying into our entitlement system.

Since our government is the primary purchaser of healthcare through Medicare and Medicaid, sometimes hidden through HMO's and PPO's (Medicare Advantage), a major solution to this mess is removing our government and lobbyist interest from pricing decisions.

[Josh Branson]

From Bloomberg.com this week, an article about the correlation between increased generic use and decreased spending gr....

At the same time, the federal deficit is expected to climb to 8% in 2009.

The challenge will be to explain why decreased spending due to more generics isn't necessarily a good thing, and how increasing government spending on health care is a bad move on a macroeconomic scale. I may try to write up something soon about the topic of generic use and its effect on spending and innovation. Plenty of opportunity for discussion.

[James]

The Republicans finally recognize publically the effect that quickly growing healthcare costs have on the economy. It would be nice to think they have taken a minute to read posts on this group.

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/2009/01/12/senate-republicans-p...

[Marlene H. Klim]

As of 1 January, I find that my 'out of pocket' healthcare costs have doubled. Nothing has changed, only the cost. The health insurance increased though not a huge amount. The cost of the prescriptions stayed the same, copays went up by 50%.

All the posts I see on this discussion cite relatively minor increases. However the costcreep is constant and never ending.

Josh Branson says the federal deficit is expected to climb to 8% in 2009. I believe his numbers are off. We've probably exceeded that figure already. We're 3 months into the 2009 fiscal year. We've already added a trillion to the deficit and the incomers have another trillion on the table. He's stated repeatedly the intent is to DOUBLE THE NATIONAL DEBT IN THE FIRST 2 YEARS. That is unsustainable. That is BEFORE spending ONE DIME on HEALTHCARE.

[Josh Branson]

The battle is underway, and we're already losing. SCHIP was expanded in the House today. See what I wrote about this, and the probable fight for Medicare Advantage. Links to the roll call vote and some news reports are included there. SCHIP expansion is a major victory for the universal health care advocates.

[Marlene H. Klim]

We now know what results from a housing bubble when it bursts as all bubbles must at some point.

So now the idiots in charge are working on building a healthcare bubble. Anybody want to guess what happens when this bubble bursts? And, how quickly it will burst? This is a very fragile bubble built out of thin air. It shouldn't take long. Hell, the Medicare/medicaid bubble is threatening to burst already. Adding more to it will certainly result in a rupture.