dagblog - Comments for "Obama's Budget Speech: Live Stream and Peanut Gallery"

I tried the Firefox, that

Preston Dental — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:55:18 +0000

In reply to I take it back; can't cut and

I tried the Firefox, that didn't work either , sort of same problem for me!!!

I thought he looked good too!

Richard Day — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 05:28:56 +0000

In reply to So nice to see the President

I thought he looked good too! Sounded good too!

A lot of evil comin at him and us!

Yes, thank you!

EmmaZahn — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 04:17:36 +0000

In reply to Sorry. Better now?

Yes, thank you!

Sorry. Better now?

Michael Wolraich — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 02:42:45 +0000

In reply to Now that the

Sorry. Better now?

Krugman, @ The Budget Speech

artappraiser — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 01:35:03 +0000

In reply to Interesting. I was wondering

Krugman, @ The Budget Speech on his blog, sez:

...The main thing, though, is the strengthened role of and target for the Independent Payment Advisory Board. This can sound like hocus-pocus — but it’s not.

As I understand it, it would force the board to come up with ways to put Medicare on what amounts to a budget — growing no faster than GDP + 0.5 — and would force Congress to specifically overrule those proposed savings. That’s what cost-control looks like! You have people who actually know about health care and health costs setting priorities for spending, within a budget; in effect, you have an institutional setup which forces Medicare to find ways to say no.

And when people start screaming about death panels again, remember: you can always buy whatever health care you want; the question is what taxpayers should pay for. And compare this with a voucher system, in which you have insurance company executives, rather than health-care professionals, deciding which care won’t be paid for....

My bold. That is also, mho, what needs to be done to start moving away from the problem of "money driven medicine" that is causing medical costs to rise so rapidly (worldwide in some cases.) The "we'll cover anything a consumer decides in consultation with a single doctor that he wants" nature of fee-for-service Medicare is the main thing driving that.