Medicare: Great Success of American Socialism?

So now we have all reached agreement that, whether you support the philosophy of the program or not, Social Security provides an example of a major federal government program that has been well run for the past 70 years despite warnings in the 30's that it was socialism and would lead to the downfall of the American system as we then knew it. The fact that there is currently a demographic challenge facing the program doesn’t repudiate the past successes realized by the beneficiaries. 13 million seniors and 1 million children are not living in poverty today as a direct result of the program. And, I for one, think Noona and Ompa have earned the right to retire with some dignity after 40-50 years of working service to America rather than having to labor until they drop into their graves. (But yes, they can work if they want to. “Welcome to Walmart.”)

Now lets turn to another great success of American socialism (one that I am sure we can all agree on), the single-payer medical system for seniors - medicare. I am going to look at the program’s success from 3 areas, guaranteed access to medical care and providers, improved quality of life for seniors, and administrative efficiency and cost containment. Prior to medicare only half of American seniors had health insurance. The private insurance industry was either unable to provide coverage, or unwilling to accept the risk of insuring seniors in an affordable manner. And, worse, the greater the need (the sicker grandma was) the more unaffordable was the insurance. The federal government, through the guarantee of Medicare coverage, established protections for all seniors that ensure that everyone –including those battling costly illnesses– have access to covered services. Medicare also reduced the disparities in access to care among racial and ethnic groups, disparities which were widespread prior to enactment. With the financial burden of healthcare removed, studies show that seniors are far more likely to have a regular doctor and receive preventive care than the population at large, they are less likely to go without necessary prescriptions, and far less likely to postpone care until they are forced to go to a far more costly emergency room.

Medicare has also been instrumental in improving quality of life for seniors. Seniors are now living longer life spans as a result of medicare, and far more of those years are higher in quality as a result of regular preventative care. Medicare has also been another factor in reducing poverty since much of the expense of health care, especially insurance premiums and costs associated with serious illness, has been eliminated. The great debt that can often follow the death of life partner in the form of medical bills has been eliminated. The result is one less major area of worries for Nana and Papa.

Cost containment and efficiency is one area of medicare success that is rarely pointed out. Medicare has proved to be more successful than private insurance in controlling the growth rate of health care spending per enrollee. Average annual costs under medicare per patient has grown by 9.6% compared to 11.1% for private insurance companies between 1970 and the year 2000. A comparison of cumulative growth in per enrollee payments for personal health care between Medicare and private insurance shows that private insurers’ costs grew 44 percent more than Medicare from 1970 to 2000. In addition, the private health insurance sector administrative costs – 9.5 percent of total costs – significantly exceed Medicare’s 2 to 3 percent administrative spending. And you won’t believe this, but the farther away from the private market in health care, the better the financial performance. Original Medicare also outperforms Medicare health plans – for example, on average, Medicare Advantage plans spend 15 percent of their revenue on administrative costs, while some Medicare Advantage plans spend as much as 32 percent on administration.

A final indicator that Medicare is another great success of American Socialism is the tremendous popularity the program has among its beneficiaries. Just ask any politician if they want to mess with medicare benefits. Medicare stepped in where the free market refused or was unable to go. Despite the challenges of providing health care for the most needy, vulnerable segment of the population in healthcare terms, Medicare has financially outperformed the health insurance industry in the provision of care. This is why we need to support a single payer system for all Americans like most of the first world has today, including the elderly in this great country.

http://www.kff.org/medicare/index.cfm
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/collection/medicare

Tremendous Success of Social Security

Given the alarms raised by so many about another social program (health care) that will be an enormous drain on national resources and create another enormous bureaucracy destined for failure like all of the others, I thought it would be useful to cut through all of the vague “talking point” so-called-analysis of these other programs like medicare, medicaid, and social security. Are they the failures that critics say they are? Or do they deliver as promised?

I will start with Social Security because I recently read that more people believe in UFO’s than that social security will be around when they are ready to retire. There are two primary groups who are the targets of social security benefits, children and the elderly. The statistics regarding the impact on children surprised me. 5.3 million children under the age of 18 live in families receiving some form of social security payments, either survivor benefits, disability benefits, or retiree benefits to someone else in the house. After the earned income tax credit Social security lifted more children out of poverty that any other program, responsible for getting 1 million children out of poverty. In Alabama, for example, the poverty rate among families with children would have been 16.9% instead of 14.6% if there were no social security benefits. For New York the poverty rate for the same group was 15.3% instead of 16.8%, and here in Florida, 14.3% instead of 15.6%. This doesn’t even explore the impact social security benefits for children has had on reducing the severity of poverty or in paying for college or other important outcomes, but only on the direct poverty rate.

The picture for seniors is far more startling. Census data shows that nationwide, Social Security benefits lift nearly 13 million seniors age 65 and older above the poverty line. These figures reflect a three-year average for the period from 2000 through 2002. The data indicate:

• Leaving aside Social Security income, nearly one of every two elderly people — 46.8 percent — has income below the poverty line.
• Once Social Security benefits are taken into account, just one in twelve — 8.7 percent — is poor.

In other words, without social security, half of the seniors in America, the greatest country in the world, would be living in poverty. This analysis looks at disposable income (which, as with children, includes any other type of public transfer payment – food stamps for example - or private income) and compares it with the federal poverty line, which is now $9,060 for a single elderly individual, or $11,418 for an elderly couple. So it’s not as though grandma is exactly living high on the hog with her monthly check. In Alabama the poverty rate among seniors would be 53.1% without social security instead of 13.2%. In New York, without social security the poverty rate would have been 44.4% instead of 8.4%, and here in Florida, 50.2% instead of 8.7%. How do you spell success?

But wait just a minute there Robby, all that may be fine and good, but Social Security is facing a catastrophic shortfall that will bankrupt us all and undermine the US economy forever, leaving the Chinese and French to pick over our bones, won’t it? Actually Bubba, that’s not quite the case. The most recent Social Security trustees’ report estimates that Social Security faces a total shortfall over the next 75 years of 0.56 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is slightly less than the estimated cost over that same period of extending the 2001 and 2003 (Bush) tax cuts just for the top 1 percent of households: 0.6 percent of GDP. (Currently, households in the top 1 percent make more than $450,000 per year.) Extending all of the tax cuts (not just those for the top 1 percent) would cost 1.95 percent of GDP over the next 75 years, if their cost is not offset through spending cuts or other revenue increases. That is three and one-half times the size of the Social Security shortfall over that period. And of course, it must be pointed out that the projected shortfall is not, in any way, the result of mismanagement by the “bureaucracy” but rather, a result of all of our parents getting “jiggy with it” after the war. If not for the demographic imbalance resulting from the baby-boom there would be no concern about the financial future of social security whatsoever.

So, if one is looking for an example of government failure and bureaucratic abyss-ness, one had better look elsewhere. When it comes to lifting children and seniors out of poverty, social security has been a spectacular success.

Disgusting Racism

I posted this picture (from last weeks 9/12 demonstrations) here because I wanted a reminder why slime balls like Lintball, and Slantity, and Beck (doesn't even rate a nickname) are so dishonest and revolting. They have been screaming all week with outrage that if anyone dare criticize President Obama they are unfairly tagged as racists. Lou Dobbs, frustrated at being called racist, even asked, "Is America ready for a black President?" They see these images, they know this is happening, and they promote this attitude. Clearly, not everyone who disagrees with Obama is a racist. In fact, I am quite certain that an overwhelming majority of Obama critics are not racist at all. But when they stand side by side with these people and say or do nothing, even to the point of denying this vile hatred exists, then their inaction and silence is tacit endorsement. And then their arguments lose all moral standing. Reject the bull shit story-line that the left is a movement of hatred. This image is hatred. This image is disgusting. Real Americans will not allow this to continue.

This is a great article. Please read it all.

By Ashley Fantz
CNN

(CNN) -- Posters portraying President Obama as a witch doctor may be racist, organizers of Tea Party protests say, but they reflect anger about where he is leading the country.

A Tea Party rally protester holds a sign with President Obama depicted as a witch doctor.

The posters, showing Obama wearing a feather headdress and a bone through his nose, have been popping up in e-mails, on Web sites and at Tea Party protests for weeks.

The image has stoked debate and cast attention on the rallies, which have drawn people Tea Party organizers describe as on the fringe and not representative of the overall movement. Their general viewpoint, leaders say, is that there's been too much federal government intervention, particularly concerning health care and taxes.

The witch doctor imagery is blatantly racist, critics contend.

Others remind that presidents get made fun off all the time, and the election of a black president has only made racially charged political satire more sensitive.

While not denying the crudeness of the image, Tea Party organizers stressed that those who carry the signs are a few "bad apples."

"That [witch doctor] image is not representative at all of what this movement is about," said Joe Wierzbicki, a coordinator of the Tea Party Express, a three-week series of protests across the country.

The anger the image portrays, however, "says to me that a lot of people in this country are angry about the direction that the administration and Congress are taking us," he said.

"And you're going to see a wide expanse of those people," he continued. "Some are going to be more extreme. Most of them are going to be in the mainstream of American politics, as evidenced by Obama's falling poll numbers."

An incendiary image such as witch doctor detracts from any hope for a cohesive message at the rallies, where many appear not to be associated directly with either the Republican or Democratic parties, said W. Joseph Campbell, a media professor at American University.

And previous infringements of good taste don't make it acceptable to Photoshop the president into a witch doctor.

"It's true that presidents before have had to endure some rough stuff, and there's nothing wrong with satire," Campbell said. "President Bush was morphed into Hitler. That was not excusable either. Just because it's happened in the past doesn't mean there isn't a line and it can't be crossed."

As a politics and African-American studies professor at Princeton University, Melissa Harris-Lacewell typically advocates discussion about the racist overtones in images or language bandied in public discourse.

"But I'm concerned in the age of Obama, too many of our public conversations about policy have been limited to a kind of investigative effort to determine whether opposition to him is based on race or substantive disagreement," she told CNN. "The problem is, it can be both."

Harris-Lacewell points out that Obama made his African father a part of his campaign narrative. Now his critics are trying to mock that heritage.

"This witch doctor image is racist in a very specific way because of his proximity to Africa," she said. "You can imagine there would have easily been a time when [Jewish New York Mayor Michael] Bloomberg would have been portrayed in anti-Semitic ways. You can go back to political cartoons when Irish Democrats were mocked, Italians were lampooned."

Spelman College history professor William Jelani Cobb, who has written extensively about race and politics, points out the original Boston Tea Party was driven by colonists who frequently declared that they had been "enslaved" by the king of England. The men who led that revolt dressed up as Native Americans when they dumped the tea into Boston Harbor in 1773.

Hard to pin down and a seeming catch-all for general anger at the government, the modern Tea Party movement is grounded the belief that the federal government should stay out of state business. But "states' rights is also an argument with a history tied to racial segregation during the civil rights' era," Harris-Lacewell said. And so it comes full circle.

Cobb said Obama's election has also rekindled the historic rancor some whites feel against successful blacks.

"There is lots of connective tissue here," said Cobb. "The Atlanta race riot of 1906 was partly about this. The upsurge of riots at the beginning of the 20th century was driven in part by the fact that blacks were perceived to be moving up in society -- at the expense of whites.

The Atlanta race riot, which left 25 black people and two white people dead, was sparked by a series of false news reports about black people committing crimes, inciteful rhetoric from white politicians and an overall fear by whites that blacks were starting to make progress socially and politically in the south.

"Now we have a black president, which means, on its most basic level, that a black man has more power than any single white citizen in this country," Cobb said. "Whether people want to admit it or not, I suspect the Tea Party crowd believes that the currency of whiteness has been devalued."

There's another wrinkle to the witch doctor controversy. Obama was mocked by some critics as the "magical negro" during the campaign because he was perceived to be a solve-all to nation's problems.

"This is an echo of the theme during the campaign when his opponents would ask 'Who is Barack Obama?" Cobb said.

"At that point, it was part of a somewhat cynical attempt to depict him as vaguely foreign and unknown," Cobb said. "But now that he has control over actual policies, those views appear to have hardened, metastasized into something more vitriolic.

"Caricature is part of politics, but racist stereotyping isn't."

Say What?

I was watching 'Meet the Press' this morning and saw this image on a clip recorded before or during the New Hampshire town hall meeting held by President Obama. Host David Gregory, normally a wimp on that show, asked the two republicans on his panel, former Congressman Dick Armey and Senator Tom Coburn, if the threats and fear mongering were getting out of hand. Both insisted that we need to understand where people like these protesters are coming from. Neither condemned the violence called for by this sign.

How is it possible that political debate has gotten to the point where prominent national political leaders would accept this behavior without condemnation? Whether it is from the far left or the far right, can't we all agree to condemn this kind of behavior? If we can say "it's time for bloodshed" isn't it a matter of time until there is?

God Bless America.

There's a Whole lotta Bumping Going On!

Finally somebody has explained having babies. In a society where everybody is an addict (Hi, my name is Rob and I am addicted to blogging.) and nobody likes children, there had to be a better explanation for my family than just plain insanity. (Sue has 8 children and 8(?) grandchildren, Pam has three children, I have 4 children, Joann has 10 children, and Stephen has 2 - hello Stephs?) Now I understand. We are in fact insane, quite apparent. But also, women get pregnant over and over again because they want attention. They're addicts.

"Some women may like being pregnant a little too much, often driven to rapidly reproduce out of insecurity, a craving for attention, or feelings of abandonment by their own parents." (Mom, it was all your fault!)

"Boston psychiatrist and Fox News consultant Keith Ablow, M.D., says some women seem to view having more children as an alternative to addressing their own personal problems. "Bearing another child can sometimes provide a substitute for deciding on a career path, making a marriage work, or even wrestling with questions of self-worth," Ablow says." (Oh Joann, you must have a lot of problems you are avoiding - not to mention the 10 kids you need to avoid.)

'People smile at you, throw you baby showers, buy you lots of gifts. And the rounder your belly gets, the more space you take up in the world, and the more people take notice of you. In many respects, you become impossible to ignore. (Couldn't ignore Debbie. Just wouldn't be prudent.)

Spouses and partners dote on you, gladly delivering soup at 10 a.m. or antacids at 11 p.m. "My husband constantly rubbed and coddled me, and I ate it all up," says Liz Bustamante, a 39-year-old financial advisor from Forest Hills, N.Y., who has one child and is currently planning for the next. "And for the first time in my life, instead of feeling insecure about my body, I wanted to run around naked! I'd never felt sexier."' (Stephanie - keep your clothes on!)

Like this and have a need (craving? addiction?) for more? Here is the amazing link: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/32360929/ns/today-today_health/page/1/

Too busy getting pregnant to read? Here is the video link: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/32370437#32370437

And We Are Suppose to be Afraid of Government Bureaucrats

They authorized back surgery but denied his $148,000 claim

chicagotribune.com — Michael Napientek of Clarendon Hills was in excruciating pain and needed back surgery. His wife has worked in the health-care field for 30 years and thought she knew how to navigate the insurance bureaucracy.

Resigns Sarah Palin She Did You Know. Ducks?

Like what do you think of the news you know that Sarah we are like on a first name basis already she doesn't know but do think about her resigning as governor of Alaska and not like she is moving to Russia or anything and she sure did show them a thing or two about and her kids you know they shouldn't have done that that is just wrong and two million dollars nothing so you know she had to but it was a senseless baseless attack and then her children it just has to be a point she looks good don't you think and the four people were watching her I was horrified they didn't even react what language do they speak in Alaska you know so it was time for the point guard to take the ball by the horns and make the call do you know her number so you know now she will have time there was two years left in her term but for the kids and Tigger so now she doesn't know you know what she will do but the lower forty can give her time to make to contributions eight this moment in time what time zone is Alaska are those ducks and geese in the background someone get my gun and now she will have the flexibility to wasn't she a cheerleader you know do all the things that need to be done now this moment because she can do a back flip and those are just lame ducks so I won't need my gun you know so never mind and so you know should all lame ducks just resign so there are no more politicians as usual or politics either because she can make a difference this moment in time this is her moment and the point guard can't dribble it all away especially if she's lame so you know this is a good thing not looking back no time you know this is the moment in time that she was looking forward to now and then before so her friends shouldn't feel bad her kids you know what they did so this is a great time for the country.