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February 13, 2012
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David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
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Menachem Wecker: Though Controversial, LL.M.'s Can Lead to Specialized Legal Jobs
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Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
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Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
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Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
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Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
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January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
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Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
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Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
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Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
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January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
Warren Richey: Supreme Court says no to new rule on eyewitness testimony
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Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
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January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
May 20, 2009
/ 26 Iyar 5769
Death as a cost-cutter
By
Jack Kelly
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Hey, old farts. Hurry up and die!
That, in a nutshell, is how President Obama hopes to save large sums of
money through health care "reform."
But that isn't how the president advertises it.
Mr. Obama summoned a dozen health care industry groups to the White
House May 10 to discuss ways to slow the rise of health care costs.
"Leading groups in the health care industry have offered to squeeze $2
trillion in savings from projected increases over the next decade, White
House officials said," the Washington Post reported.
The health care groups pledged to trim the rise in health care costs by
1.5 percent a year, administration officials said.
"Within ten years, the savings would 'virtually eliminate' the nation's
budget deficit," those officials told the Post.
The president misrepresented what the groups proposed, said Richard
Pollack, executive vice president of the American Hospital Association.
They didn't pledge to reduce health care costs by 1.5 percent a year.
That figure is the target the industry hopes to reach at the end of ten
years. The administration exaggerated the potential savings by nearly
1,000 percent.
That the White House number was fishy should have been obvious to anyone
who can do arithmetic, which, alas, few journalists can. Currently we
spend about $2 trillion a year on health care. How plausible is it that
we could save the entire amount we're currently spending on health care
in just a decade chiefly through trimming paperwork, as the
administration claims?
"Without the savings it thought the industry groups were talking about,
the government projects that health costs will rise at an average of 6.2
percent annually over the next ten years," said the newsletter BNET
Healthcare. "That means it will hit $4.4 trillion in 2018."
The costs very well may be much more than that, because most experts
estimate the cost of President Obama's plan to provide health insurance
to Americans who currently don't have it at upwards of $150 billion a
year.
Americans want the best health care in the world. We want it right now.
And we want someone else to pay for it. But quality care is expensive.
We can save some money by streamlining paperwork and limiting lawsuits.
But there are only two ways to save large amounts of money. We can
ration by price, or we can ration by queue. Currently, we do neither,
which is chiefly why health care costs are soaring.
In countries, like England and Canada, where health care is "free,"
rationing is by queue. In England, expensive procedures are forbidden
to many of the elderly. Canada doesn't formally deny old people
expensive operations, but they have to wait so long to get them many die
before the surgery can be performed.
The president wants to make our system more like Canada's. But to do
this, and to save the big bucks he wants to save, Mr. Obama has to deny
a host of expensive procedures to the elderly and the infirm. (In an
interview with the New York Times magazine published April 14, the
president mused about whether his grandmother should have been permitted
to have a hip replacement.)
We need to get a grip on the high cost of dying. We'll spend between a
third and half of all the money we spend on health care in the last six
months of our lives. But it seems pretty cold to deny a potentially life
saving procedure to someone just because he or she has reached a certain
age.
The president knows most Americans don't want the government deciding
what health care they can or cannot have, so he isn't talking about
rationing yet.
"The Obama team hopes that by enacting the expansions of coverage but
not the needed cost-controls this year, they can create unalterable
facts on the ground without having a real debate about rationing," wrote
James Capretta and Yuval Levin. "Then in a year or two they will come
back… and insist on stricter controls in the name of protecting the
Treasury."
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment by clicking here.
JWR contributor Jack Kelly, a former Marine and Green Beret, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration.
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© 2009, Jack Kelly
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