Health Finance Ho-Hum

Today's Senate vote on the health finance bill leaves me completely ambivalent about the outcome. The massive lobbying, wholesale misinformation and political expediency have combined to produce legislation that that falls far short of universal access and meaningful cost control. The rough beast now slouching toward passage does nothing to reduce the overhead costs—profit and administration—of health care in the US. It adds complexity and perverse incentives to a system that already has plenty of both. The likely results offer little reason for enthusiasm.

What hope I do retain is that maybe this year’s legislation will be a step toward a better system. TR Reid, in Healing America, builds his model of the “best health care system in the world” on a unified system that leverages collective purchasing power bargaining. Something along those lines would be a considerable improvement over what is likely to emerge from Congress this year.

But that’s in the future. Maybe. For now all we have are HR 3962 and the blended Senate bill. Weak as these may be, they still face further compromise so that that final result may not differ greatly from the system that it will supposedly improve. It will certainly be no simpler, nor is it likely to relieve most Americans of the prospect of choosing between medical care and bankruptcy. Its lack of universal coverage leaves the costs of uncompensated care unresolved. This year’s effort leaves much to be desired.

Forty-plus years ago, Medicare was hailed as a first step toward universal care. Few would have predicted then that, well into the next century, America would have the most expensive and least effective health care model among developed nations. Yet, here we are, still waiting to take that next step, even with four decades’ experience with a single payer system that works. The performance of my congress and president do not give me much confidence that our political system can enact any truly effective reform that the moneyed classes do not like.

This is hardly a surprising conclusion. It’s not like this hasn’t happened before (health care ’93) or in other issues (perpetual war). Lack of surprise notwithstanding, I’m still disappointed. Maybe it’s because this kind of systemic failure shows how far America has moved from the idea of “the general Welfare” so prominently written into the US Constitution.

Reason enough to be disappointed.

Weather News Revisited

A few days ago, I published verbatim the NOAA forecast discussion for the Puget Sound area. That post was the 1,000th post for this humble blog and the choice of subject was no accident. You see, back in my co-blogging days at the now defunct Mockingbird's Medley I posted something very similar there just to be silly. Turns out I stole the 1,000th post from Jim Yeager, the head Mockingbird. That was an accident but it dawned on me that it would be altogether fitting to mark my own similar milestone in the same way. In the end, it's probably as intelligent or significant as anything else I've posted in this space in the 1,994 days since I started this blog.

It's been a long, strange trip and I don't expect it to be any less strange in the future.

postscript

In a recent comment,Jim opined that the grim possiblity of this year's elections might compel him back into the blogging fray. Turns out that he's back.

The political discourse is getting better already.

Dollars and Sense

I love it even more when someone talks like this.

Only professional liars could cite concern about debt as reason to oppose a health care bill reducing the debt -- and then vote for debt-expanding defense budgets. Unfortunately, professional liars are the norm in today's politics, not the exception -- and they're leading America off the fiscal cliff.

Weather News

I love it when they talk this way.

WARM FRONT TODAY AND STALLED BAROCLINIC ZONE OVER THE AREA TNGT THRU MON NITE. A PLUME OF WET +4C AIR IN SW FLOW ARND 50KT AT 850MB AIMED AT THE OLYMPICS...AND THE FLOW WILL BACK TO MORE SLY THRU MONDAY KEEPING HEAVY RAIN IN THE OLYMPICS. THE LOWLANDS MIGHT BE WETTER TODAY THAN ON MON...BUT THEN BECOMING WINDIER THRU MON. THE NAM FOR EXAMPLE HAS RAIN OVER THE REGION TODAY BUT CREATES LARGE DRY AREAS IN THE PRECIP FCST OVER THE LOWLANDS MONDAY...WHILE KEEPING THE HVY RAIN GOING IN THE OLYMPICS AND NORTH CASCADES. I THINK THE POPS ARE PROBABLY TOO HIGH MONDAY FOR THE LOWLANDS AND THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE OF BEING IN THE DRIER WARM SECTOR OF THE SYSTEM FOR A PERIOD. FAIRLY CERTAIN IS THAT THE WINDIEST SPOTS WILL BE THE COAST AND NORTH INTERIOR NORTH OF EVERETT...AND A WIND ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED SHORTLY FOR THE NORTH INTERIOR/ISLANDS/ADMIRALTY INLET AREA. .