Free Republic

Between 1960 and 2014, healthcare spending in the United States increased: from an average of $146/person per year to $9,532 (by 65 times). from an inflation-adjusted average of $1,172/person per year to $9,544 (by 8 times). from 5.0% of the nation’s economy (gross domestic product) to 17.5% (by 3.5 times).[1] * In 1942, the price for a maternity room at Christ Hospital in Jersey City, NJ was $7.00 per day.[3] Adjusting for inflation, this amounts to $97.29 in 2011 dollars.[4] In 2011, the price for a maternity room at the same hospital was $1,360 per day.[5] * In 1980, the...

As much as I hate these people, on some level I’m starting to feel sorry for them. They remind me of Communists in the Gulags who still think Stalin cares about them. Or abuse victims who keep defending their abuser. The latest comes from the New York Times.

Health Costs: Americans were promised that ObamaCare would make their health care more affordable. But a pair of studies show the new system has done nothing to lower health costs and will sharply raise them. Between 2009 and 2011, U.S. health spending rose just 3.9% a year, the lowest annual gains in decades. The Obama administration was quick to claim credit for the slowdown, with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius saying ObamaCare had "contributed to the slowest sustained growth in health spending in 50 years." But two new studies make it clear that ObamaCare wasn't behind the slowdown...

Remember when President Barack Obama assured everyone: “If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan. Period. No one will take it away, no matter what.” How’d that work out? . . . Remember when Obama said, over and over, that ObamaCare would lower annual family health-insurance premiums by $2,500 before the end of his first term as president? How’d that work out? . . .

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/02/15/time-for-a-new-approach-to-alcohol/ "Material from independent.co.uk cannot be posted to FR per publisher’s copyright complaint," but see link. In Firefox you can select url and right click choose "Open in new tab." It is very relevant to the Nat. health care mandate

Oops, another Obamacare myth gets thrown out the window. We were promised by the President and his Democratic Party lemmings, a government takeover of health care would lower our insurance premiums. Not so fast says the "non partisan" Congressional Budget Office. "CBO and JCT estimate that the average premium per person covered (including dependents) for new nongroup policies would be about 10 percent to 13 percent higher in 2016 than the average premium for nongroup coverage in that same year under current law. About half of those enrollees would receive government subsidies that would reduce their costs well below the...

As a president of Krause Co., I have two primary responsibilities - a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders for best return on their capital, and the health and safety of our employees and families (approximately 600 in total). I have control over our financial performance and should be held accountable, and fortunately we are doing well. In regard to the safety of our direct employees, we too have control and accountability. Krause spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on safety training, equipment, process and procedures. I am proud of our people who take their safety and their peers'...

Health Care: A government task force has decided that women need fewer mammograms and later in life. Shouldn't that be between patient and physician? We have seen the future of health care, and it doesn't work. We have warned repeatedly that the net results of health care bills before Congress will be higher demand, fewer doctors, more cost control, all leading to rationing. New recommendations issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) regarding breast cancer and the necessity for early and frequent mammograms do not convince us otherwise. Just six months ago, the panel, which works under the...

Okay we have now gotten into this health care debate and as we go more into the two competing bills in Congress we find more and more things that are absolutely insidious, vauge, and certainly open to any interpretation that the Government would like. Now we know health costs have been rising for any number of years. The key question is just when did health care start to get out of control? I am a baby boomer and growing up I don't really remember my father having a lot of health insurance, what he did have was rather inexpensive and...

A state commission is recommending that California's state and local governments begin setting aside money to pay unfunded retiree health benefits that will total at least $118 billion over the next 30 years. That is on top of $63.5 billion in unfunded pension benefits facing state and local agencies. California's public pension systems have set aside money to cover 89 percent of their pension obligations. Otherwise, the $63.5 billion figure would be larger, the Public Employee Post-Employment Commission said Monday. But the commission says governments are just beginning to deal with the costs of retirees' health benefits. Just 22 percent...

Ford has confirmed that it expects to follow General Motors' (GM) lead and sign a similar deal with unions to reduce its retiree healthcare costs. GM said on Monday that it had secured an initial deal with the United Auto Workers, America's main carworkers' labour organisation. "We expect comparable changes," Ford's chief operating officer Jim Padilla said from the Tokyo Motor Show. Chrysler has already said that it hopes to follow GM's move. Tough trading GM is aiming to cut its retiree healthcare costs by about $15bn (£9bn). Mr Padilla also admitted to reporters that the car market remained "very...

No one really likes it when a product increases at a price that's twice the rate of inflation. This quickly puts that product out of the reach of the average consumer. Predictably, the mourners will sing about how it is all unfair. This has been especially true in the case of health care costs. Health care costs in this nation are going up at double the rate of inflation and now cost $600 billion a year or a debilitating 11.5% of our gross national product. By comparison, Canada spends 8.5% of its gross national product on health care; Japan 6.7%...

Fund to pay hospital bills for immigrants By JULIE DAFFERN Laredo Morning Times Webb County hospitals will get some relief this spring from the pressure of unpaid medical service provided to illegal immigrants, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison said at the Mr. South Texas luncheon Saturday. "The entire Laredo community will benefit from this positive development," Hutchison said. "The funds will ease the pressure on local taxpayers and will lower costs for those who are able to pay for their healthcare needs." The reimbursement program, included in the Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act, was mandated by law to begin Sept....

I want to introduce a new perspective to the ongoing debate on prescription drug prices. I believe in capitalism. I am aware that drug companies exist to make profit, and not to play Santa Claus to our seniors or to anyone else. I'll say this. If a drug company paid 100 percent of the costs of research and development, in helping to produce a new drug and bring it to the market, then they deserve to make as much money as they can from their product. If a drug corporation decides to charge the same high price for their medications,...

By GAVIN McCORMICK Associated Press Writer Four West Virginia hospitals cut staff hours and transferred more patients Thursday because of a surgeons' walkout to protest malpractice costs. State officials planned to announce an emergency program Thursday afternoon to ensure medical service to patients in the state's northern panhandle. More than two dozen orthopedic, general and heart surgeons in the area began 30-day leaves of absence Wednesday or planned to begin leaves in the next few days to protest medical malpractice costs. They want the state to make it harder to file malpractice lawsuits, which they say would eventually lower their...

<p>For the first time in more than 50 years, entrepreneurs are failing to lead the United States out of recession, government data suggest.</p> <p>The impact is broad. Experts say flagging entrepreneurship might partly explain the wobbly rebound: Fewer start-ups mean fewer new jobs and innovations.</p>