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John Galt John Galt is offline
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Default Obama's Top Five Health Care Lies from Forbes :: Rep Joe Wilsonwas correct, Obama is a liar about health care!

Allan wrote:
> On Sep 14, 11:51 am, Michael Coburn > wrote:
>> On Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:18:47 -0700, Sure,Not wrote:
>>>> AND ALL OF THIS IS A MARVELOUS ILLUSTRATION OF THE BENEFITS OF ALLOWING
>>>> THE PRIVATE INSURANCE INDUSTRY TO FAIL DUE TO ITS OWN LIMITATIONS.
>>>> GOVERNMENT DOES A BETTER JOB OF SOCIAL INSURANCE THAN THE PRIVATE
>>>> SECTOR AND WE HAVE JUST SEEN A LOT OF WHY THAT IS SO.
>>> Ok. Let's try this. Why does the gov't do a better job? They can
>>> print money?

>> 1. Government carries a much bigger hammer than all the different
>> insurance companies when it comes to controlling prices.

>
> The government writes laws that fix prices.
>
>
>> 2. Government does not need to make a profit and does not actually need a
>> "pool of money" to protect itself from fluctuations in claims.

>
> The government never includes a cost of capital or opportunity cost in
> their calculations of "overhead". That is deceptive because they
> certainly incur those costs. Medicare Advantage is an example how the
> government transfers risk for utilization. And yes, Medicare needs a
> pool of money - that's where the 1.45% of your income goes if you are
> still employed.
>
>> 3. Government does not need to advertise and sell its policies and to pay
>> a board of directors, a CEO , a bunch of VP's and executives,

>
> Yes, they do (see the website for starters) and yes they do have execs
> - but many of the top employees salaries are paid by the DHHS, not
> Medicare.
>
>> pay bonuses to people who figure out how to screw the policy holders out
>> of their benefits.

>
> Now that was way too funny!
>
>> The Social Security Administration and Medicare
>> Administrators maintain very good on line facilities and phone access
>> lines that provide for "customer" interface, and they do it quite well at
>> a low cost.
>>
>> 4. Medicare also processes claims from providers more efficiently than
>> does the private insurance sector.

>
> And this is just plain wrong. Medicare does not process claims at all
> - it is outsourced to the Blues.
>
>> And there is no reason for
>> profit motives to exist in such a system.

>
> It's called "cost of capital" and in the absence of normal profits
> (even "non-profits make normal profits) they don't survive in the long
> term.
>
>> Every aspect of insurance on a
>> scale as large as the population of the USA is pure statistics.
>> Statisticians do not cost a lot of money nor do the statistics change so
>> quickly that it takes an army of them to keep up. It is a VERY
>> PEDESTRIAN AFFAIR when done properly

>
> You have provided an interesting insight regarding your naivete. It
> is interesting to see the similarity between that and what is
> happening in Washington on the Dems side of the aisle.
>
> allan


It's the level of "scholarship" that Coburn brings to every discussion.

JG