Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Good News/Bad News

Here's a surprising and puzzling story, that may seem to the untrained eye like unmitigated good news! But if you'd been around as long as I have, you'd know better! Inexplicably, health care cost inflation has decreasing and is well below projected levels over the last several years. The good news is that this will reduce Medicaid and Medicare costs, helping reduce the federal budget deficit. But the bad news is that this good news could reduced momentum towards a bipartisan budget compromise that will slash entitlement benefits! Remember, it isn't enough to just reduce costs; you have to cut benefits too! I fear that this good news will keep us from getting the bipartisan entitlement reforms that we so desperately desperately desperately need.

10 comments:

  1. So, what specific entitlements are to be reduced? Just saying we need to cut entitlements is not good enough. Tell us details. Stop with the glittering generalities. This is the problem with all who extol the virtue of cutting entitlements, they don't take it to the next level and provide the details. This is why nothing has been done in Congress, when details are provided there are never enough votes to pass. For the far right there are never enough cuts for all others the cuts are too painful. Either give us a real plan or can the "cut entitlements" verbiage. It means nothing.

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    1. I agree with you, Mr. Viering! We should no longer accept glittering generalities from politicians and journalists! We don't need talk; we need action! We don't need generalities; we need specifics! We don't need promises; we need results! We don't need rhetoric; we need . . . whatever the opposite of rhetoric is.

      And while I don't have time to read the articles that I linked to in the above post (I'm a busy man!), I understand that they're by distinguished economists, and therefore I'm sure that they are filled with specifics about ways to slash government spending in a bipartisan manner.

      My role as a humble journalist is to provide the unbiased information and analysis that can help YOU become a better informed citizen so that YOU can demand that the President and Congress come together on a bipartisan basis to implement deficit reduction measure that will be deeply painful to ordinary people. Will the middle class rise up to demand such measures? For the sake of our fiscal situation, we must hope that they do.

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    2. What sort of journalist --- however humble and busy he might be --- cites articles he has never read?

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    3. I've got news for you Ben- EVERY SINGLE TOP JOURNALIST DOES IT!! Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is the place where I keep it real!

      By the way, I bet YOU didn't read the links either, did you? HA!

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  2. I'm not sure it's so inexplicable. There's lots in the Affordable Care Act that sought to slow cost growth by changing incentives, encouraging more coordinated care, and reforming health care delivery and payment. Private forces as well have been moving in this direction. This is really good news, and not just for the federal budget. It helps employers. too, who have been burdened for decades by rising health care costs as well as workers, who have seen any increase in compensation absorbed by rising health insurance costs.

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    1. Mr Dorn-- I take it you don't watch the news, so let me bring you up to date. OBAMACARE IS FAILING!! So I don't see how what you say could be true.

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    2. I'm disappointed to see a well-known journalist display such ignorance of the Affordable Care Act. The well-publicized fiascos with the web site and people losing their coverage relate to only the portions of the law that created the health care exchanges and mandated minimum employer benefits. Even if you agree that these coverage-related aspects of the law are failing, they have nothing to do with the payment and care coordination initiaves in the law that Mr. Dorn addresses.

      Mr. Blitzer, I know you're a very busy man, but you might want to take some time to educate yourself about the ACA before making any more sweeping generalizations about it.

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    3. What gives you the right to patronize me, Anonymous! I'm freaking Wolfgang Amadeus Blitzer, the news prodigy! So I'll leave it to you, Poindexter, to blather on about "care coordination initiatives" and "mandated minimum" blah de blah. I've got important polls to cover!

      And to everyone who's giving me advice about "educating myself" and "reading the references I cite," YOU PEOPLE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE A TV JOURNALIST! I don't even have enough time to brush my teeth! I'm typing this under the table while I'm interviewing John McCain on air, right now! So give me a break! You don't know from busy!

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  3. Mr. Blitzer, your public appreciates your taking the time to weigh in on these weighty matters! Please continue to keep us informed.

    --mamacatx5

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  4. Thank you mamacatx5! Your words give me strength (and I'm already incredibly strong)!

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