Tuesday, September 24, 2013

The Young Won't Buy ObamaCare

Media outlets lately have emphasized the challenge of enticing healthy young adults to sign up for ObamaCare, "exactly the type of person insurance plans, states and the federal government are counting on to make health reform work," as the L.A. Times put it. These pieces are useful as far as they go, but miss a key point that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito managed to convey in many fewer words during last year's Supreme Court argument on ObamaCare.

Mr. Alito pointed out that young, healthy adults today spend an average of $854 a year on health care. ObamaCare would require them to buy insurance policies expected to cost roughly $5,800. The law, then, isn't just asking them to pay for "the services that they are going to consume," he continued. "The mandate is forcing these people to provide a huge subsidy to the insurance companies . . . to subsidize services that will be received by somebody else."

Since he puts it that way, why would they sign up for ObamaCare, especially since the alleged penalties will be negligible and likely unenforced?

Journalism celebrates the "five Ws" but a secret of our profession is that many of us disdain the fifth W—"why"—as if accurate analysis is somehow woolly and inferior to accurate transcription of simple facts like "who," "what," "when" and "where."

Here's another example. For 30 years, journalists have been "investigating" hospital pricing, which is neither competitive nor closely related to cost, invariably throwing up their hands and saying government must fix matters. Yet any reasoned analysis shows that government policy is why we have such a byzantine payment system in the first place, in which an ever-inflating health-care bill is allocated among "payer" groups via opaque political bargaining.

Why isn't the same mess seen in other realms of the economy? In the automobile market, dealers publish prices on their websites and in ads that are always lower than the sticker prices. Why?

Independent websites like Edmunds.com, AutoTrader.com and Kelley Blue Book publish detailed pricing information for consumers and do so for free. Why?

The answer is obvious. Consumers want such information and businesses see opportunity in providing it, even for free, in order to attract eyeballs for advertising.

Such information doesn't exist in health care because consumers don't demand it, because somebody else is almost always paying for our health care. Those of us who aren't subsidized directly by Medicaid, Medicare and the Veterans Administration are subsidized through the tax code to channel all our aches and pains through a third-party payment mill, disguised as employer-provided "insurance."

Not being able to analyze "why" also leads to all kinds of anomalous conclusions.

The uninsured are painted as the payer group getting the worst deal from the health-care system since they don't enjoy insurer discounts. But judging by the 6% of hospital costs written off as uncollectable, the uninsured are actually getting the best deal (in a sense). A 2011 government study found that even relatively affluent families pay just 37% of their hospital bills in full.

Medicare is portrayed as getting the best deal from the system because Medicare pays less per service. But remember how the system works. Who's to say Medicare doesn't pay less per procedure because it's being billed for many more procedures, because that's how providers are allowed to maximize their revenues from the payer known as Medicare?

In fact, plenty of evidence suggests this is exactly how Medicare operates. And Congress understands as much, hence the 25% cut in physician reimbursements it keeps threatening to impose is informed partly by expectations that physicians could maintain their incomes by charging for more services.

The media's refusal to accumulate any wisdom on the "whys" of our health-care system is also behind the willingness of so many to credit a recent moderation in health-care spending to ObamaCare, though that moderation began before ObamaCare was enacted.

The spending moderation is actually not dissimilar to that seen during the heyday of managed care in the 1990s and again during the 2000s as employers rolled out sharply higher deductibles, co-pays and health savings accounts. The moderation is not dissimilar to that seen in every economic downturn when companies chuck insured workers off their payrolls and fellow workers curb their health spending out of fear of losing their jobs.

Employers are stuck constantly trying to combat the inflationary forces that government policy fosters. That's our best explanation of why health-care inflation waxes and wanes, though never to the point of falling in real terms. And it's probably true now too.

If this big picture is news to you, blame the disrespect in which the fifth W is held by the media profession.

A version of this article appeared June 19, 2013, on page A13 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: The Young Won't Buy ObamaCare.


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Ray LaHood

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Ray LaHood became the 16th Secretary of Transportation on January 23, 2009.

In nominating him, President-elect Obama said, “Few understand our infrastructure challenge better than the outstanding public servant that I’m asking to lead the Department of Transportation.” However, Obama's proclamation was misplaced as the United States is engaging in a high speed rail boondoogle.[1][2]

Before becoming Secretary of Transportation, LaHood served for 14 years in the U.S. House of Representatives from the 18th District of Illinois (from 1995-2009) as a Republican. During that time he served on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and, after that, on the House Appropriations Committee. Prior to his election to the House, he served as Chief of Staff to U.S. Congressman Robert Michel, whom he succeeded in representing the 18th District, and as District Administrative Assistant to Congressman Thomas Railsback. He also served in the Illinois State Legislature.

Before his career in government, Secretary LaHood was a junior high school teacher, having received his degree from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. He was also director of the Rock Island County Youth Services Bureau and Chief planner for the Bi-States Metropolitan Planning Commission in Illinois.

LaHood and his wife, Kathy, have four children (Darin, Amy, Sam, and Sara) and nine grandchildren. [3]


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Johnny Isakson

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Johnny Isakson, born December 28, 1944 (age 68), is a Republican United States Senator from Georgia. He is a member of six Senate committees that have jurisdiction over education, healthcare, transportation, environment, ports, foreign policy, veterans’ affairs, jobs and small businesses.


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Göring's syndrome

(Difference between revisions)The definition of Göring's syndrome is based on claim attributed to Luftwaffe chief [[Hermann Göring]] who, being criticized for shielding a Jew, quoted Karl Lueger, the anti-Semitic mayor of Vienna at the turn of the 19th century{{cite book |title=Strangers at Home and Abroad: Recollections of Austrian Jews Who Escaped Hitler|author=Adolf Wimmer|publisher=McFarland |year=2000|pages=6|isbn=9780786406685|url=hhttp://books.google.com/books?id=Ariu3hG3EnMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Strangers+at+Home+and+Abroad:+Recollections+of+Austrian+Jews+Who+Escaped+Hitler&hl=en&sa=X&ei=R3DFUdCHMKjk4QTllID4Bw&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&q=I%20decide&f=false}}: ''“I decide who is a Jew and who is not”'' (In German: ''"Wer Jude ist, bestimme ich"''). Although some sources regard this story for anecdotal, author and journalist F. Sanello maintains that this took place after the Gestapo looked into allegations that father of Göring's friend and protégé Erhard Milch, Luftwaffe Field Marshal, was Jewish.{{cite web |title=Nazi Germany's Jewish General|author=Frank Sanello|publisher=The Red Room Writers Society|url=http://redroom.com/member/frank-sanello/writing/nazi-germanys-jewish-general-0|accessdate=June 21, 2013}} Göring suppressed the investigation and forged a document attesting Milch’s Aryan purity.{{cite book |title=Witness to Nuremberg|author=Richard W. Sonnenfeldt|publisher=Arcade Publishing|year=2006|pages=28|isbn=9781559708166|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=EEeuWfM1K6EC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=Goring+I+decide+who+is+a+jew&source=bl&ots=-9LPTyifHn&sig=qpmEJD41PJvmoO0Q1A4xt4oAjN8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=W2TFUbPJFOen4ATf94D4Dg&ved=0CGAQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Goring%20I%20decide%20who%20is%20a%20jew&f=false}}The definition of Göring's syndrome is based on claim attributed to Luftwaffe chief [[Hermann Göring]] who, being criticized for shielding a Jew, quoted Karl Lueger, the anti-Semitic mayor of Vienna at the turn of the 19th century{{cite book |title=Strangers at Home and Abroad: Recollections of Austrian Jews Who Escaped Hitler|author=Adolf Wimmer|publisher=McFarland |year=2000|pages=6|isbn=9780786406685|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Ariu3hG3EnMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Strangers+at+Home+and+Abroad:+Recollections+of+Austrian+Jews+Who+Escaped+Hitler&hl=en&sa=X&ei=R3DFUdCHMKjk4QTllID4Bw&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&q=I%20decide&f=false}}: ''“I decide who is a Jew and who is not”'' (In German: ''"Wer Jude ist, bestimme ich"''). Although some sources regard this story for anecdotal, author and journalist F. Sanello maintains that this took place after the Gestapo looked into allegations that father of Göring's friend and protégé Erhard Milch, Luftwaffe Field Marshal, was Jewish.{{cite web |title=Nazi Germany's Jewish General|author=Frank Sanello|publisher=The Red Room Writers Society|url=http://redroom.com/member/frank-sanello/writing/nazi-germanys-jewish-general-0|accessdate=June 21, 2013}} Göring suppressed the investigation and forged a document attesting Milch’s Aryan purity.{{cite book |title=Witness to Nuremberg|author=Richard W. Sonnenfeldt|publisher=Arcade Publishing|year=2006|pages=28|isbn=9781559708166|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=EEeuWfM1K6EC&pg=PA28&lpg=PA28&dq=Goring+I+decide+who+is+a+jew&source=bl&ots=-9LPTyifHn&sig=qpmEJD41PJvmoO0Q1A4xt4oAjN8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=W2TFUbPJFOen4ATf94D4Dg&ved=0CGAQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=Goring%20I%20decide%20who%20is%20a%20jew&f=false}}Nowadays adherents of [[LGBT]] ideology often declare when facing cases of individuals abandoning the homosexual lifestyle that these individuals were not 'true' homosexuals but rather bisexuals or mistaken heterosexuals. This approach of subjective selection and categorization who is a homosexual and who is not suiting one's [[homosexual agenda|agenda]] testifies how shallow, unobjective and flexible the criterion for classifying a person into alleged heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual or possibly "paedophile [[sexual orientation theory|sexual orientation]]" is. Intriguingly, the very same adherents of LGBT ideology tend to assert that homosexuals and pedophiles "do not change their sexual orientation"{{quote web |title=40th Parliament, 3rd Session, Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights|publisher=Parliament of Canada |date=February 14, 2011|url=http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=4959361&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=3#Int-3742116 |accessdate=June 21, 2013 |quote=Mr. Marc Lemay: Should [the pedophilia] therefore be compared to homosexuality? Dr. Hubert Van Gijseghem: Yes, or heterosexuality. If, for instance, you were living in a society where heterosexuality is proscribed or prohibited and you were told that you had to get therapy to change your sexual orientation, you would probably say that that is slightly crazy. In other words, you would not accept that at all. I use this analogy to say that, yes indeed, pedophiles do not change their sexual orientation.}} while at the same time try to establish the very existence of homosexuality as biologically determined phenomenon by declaring that non-homosexuals would have hard time even just to imagine the sexual relation with the person of the same sex.   Nowadays adherents of [[LGBT]] ideology often declare when facing cases of individuals abandoning the homosexual lifestyle that these individuals were not 'true' homosexuals but rather bisexuals or mistaken heterosexuals. This approach of subjective selection and categorization who is a homosexual and who is not suiting one's [[homosexual agenda|agenda]] testifies how shallow, unobjective and flexible the criterion for classifying a person into alleged heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual or possibly "paedophile [[sexual orientation theory|sexual orientation]]" is. Intriguingly, the very same adherents of LGBT ideology tend to assert that homosexuals and pedophiles "do not change their sexual orientation"{{cite web |title=40th Parliament, 3rd Session, Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights|publisher=Parliament of Canada |date=February 14, 2011 |url=http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=4959361&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=3#Int-3742116 |accessdate=June 21, 2013 |quote=Mr. Marc Lemay: Should [the pedophilia] therefore be compared to homosexuality? Dr. Hubert Van Gijseghem: Yes, or heterosexuality. If, for instance, you were living in a society where heterosexuality is proscribed or prohibited and you were told that you had to get therapy to change your sexual orientation, you would probably say that that is slightly crazy. In other words, you would not accept that at all. I use this analogy to say that, yes indeed, pedophiles do not change their sexual orientation.}} while at the same time try to establish the very existence of homosexuality as biologically determined phenomenon by declaring that non-homosexuals would have hard time even just to imagine the sexual relation with the person of the same sex.   

Göring's syndrome occurs when a person believes, purely based on personal interests or preferences, to have the rights and usurps them to decide whether a certain criterion is met without any attempt for objective evaluation and/or in spite of contrary evidence.

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The definition of Göring's syndrome is based on claim attributed to Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring who, being criticized for shielding a Jew, quoted Karl Lueger, the anti-Semitic mayor of Vienna at the turn of the 19th century[1]: “I decide who is a Jew and who is not” (In German: "Wer Jude ist, bestimme ich"). Although some sources regard this story for anecdotal, author and journalist F. Sanello maintains that this took place after the Gestapo looked into allegations that father of Göring's friend and protégé Erhard Milch, Luftwaffe Field Marshal, was Jewish.[2] Göring suppressed the investigation and forged a document attesting Milch’s Aryan purity.[3]

Nowadays adherents of LGBT ideology often declare when facing cases of individuals abandoning the homosexual lifestyle that these individuals were not 'true' homosexuals but rather bisexuals or mistaken heterosexuals. This approach of subjective selection and categorization who is a homosexual and who is not suiting one's agenda testifies how shallow, unobjective and flexible the criterion for classifying a person into alleged heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual or possibly "paedophile sexual orientation" is. Intriguingly, the very same adherents of LGBT ideology tend to assert that homosexuals and pedophiles "do not change their sexual orientation"[4] while at the same time try to establish the very existence of homosexuality as biologically determined phenomenon by declaring that non-homosexuals would have hard time even just to imagine the sexual relation with the person of the same sex.

? Adolf Wimmer (2000). Strangers at Home and Abroad: Recollections of Austrian Jews Who Escaped Hitler. McFarland, 6. ISBN 9780786406685. ? Frank Sanello. Nazi Germany's Jewish General. The Red Room Writers Society. Retrieved on June 21, 2013.? Richard W. Sonnenfeldt (2006). Witness to Nuremberg. Arcade Publishing, 28. ISBN 9781559708166. ? 40th Parliament, 3rd Session, Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights. Parliament of Canada (February 14, 2011). Retrieved on June 21, 2013. “Mr. Marc Lemay: Should [the pedophilia] therefore be compared to homosexuality? Dr. Hubert Van Gijseghem: Yes, or heterosexuality. If, for instance, you were living in a society where heterosexuality is proscribed or prohibited and you were told that you had to get therapy to change your sexual orientation, you would probably say that that is slightly crazy. In other words, you would not accept that at all. I use this analogy to say that, yes indeed, pedophiles do not change their sexual orientation.”

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