View Full Version : Medicare "drifting towards disaster"
Gee....I wonder if the govt. didn't give out Medicare to ALL the Illegals here in the country, that DON'T put anything back into the system.....would that help some ???? :confused: :rolleyes:
Medicare "drifting towards disaster" : U.S. Official
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Medicare is lurching toward disaster and it is too late for the Bush Administration and Congress to do anything about it, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said on Tuesday.
He said the next administration will have to act to stop rising costs and get control of the $400 billion federal health insurance plan for the elderly, which now covers 44 million people.
"Higher and higher costs are being borne by fewer and fewer people. Sooner or later, this formula implodes," Leavitt said in a speech to the right-leaning Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute think-tanks.
"There is serious danger here," he added. "Medicare is drifting towards disaster."
Leavitt's speech echoes repeated warnings from other federal government officials who have noted that Medicare spending is projected to be 3.3 percent of gross domestic product in 2009.
A separate report released on Tuesday from the National Cancer Institute estimated that Medicare spent $21 billion on cancer alone between 1999 and 2003.
"The disaster is not inevitable. If we act now, we can change the outcome. In health care, the core problem is that costs are rising significantly faster than costs in the economy as a whole," Leavitt said.
But the administration of President George W. Bush and the current Congress are out of time, Leavitt said.
"So, given the strong possibility this won't get fixed in the next 266 days, I would like to add some general advice on the creation of a political construct for action and a general strategy to solve the problem," Leavitt said, saying he was speaking as a Medicare Trustee and not as a government official.
Leavitt said paying for each medical action separately is wasteful and "it often results in bad referral decisions, sloppy hand-offs, duplications, fraud, and poor quality of care. The result is inappropriate care and unnecessary cost."
Last week the Government Accountability Office blamed HHS in part for this, saying the agency had not used its powers to force hospitals to provide better care and less waste.
"It troubles me that this matter is not receiving more attention in the presidential candidates' discussions. The next president will have to deal with this in significant part," he said.
Gee....I wonder if the govt. didn't give out Medicare to ALL the Illegals here in the country, that DON'T put anything back into the system.....would that help some ???? :confused: :rolleyes:
I'm sure it would help a lot.
I suspect that a lot of people want the cheap labor illegals represent; so they will pay the politicians to continue looking the other way.
ZonieDiver
05-08-2008, 20:40
I'm sure it would help a lot.
I suspect that a lot of people want the cheap labor illegals represent; so they will pay the politicians to continue looking the other way.
Demographics probably dooms Medicare quicker than it does Social Security. There are too many of us damned "boomers" who didn't have enough 'productive' kids.
Illegals amplify what is already an actuarial nightmare.
Demographics probably dooms Medicare quicker than it does Social Security. There are too many of us damned "boomers" who didn't have enough 'productive' kids.
Illegals amplify what is already an actuarial nightmare.
You make a good point. I seem to recall that some contend the illegals help balance the demographic problem, since they are (generally) relatively young. And there is some chance they will pay for benefits but not collect.
The Reaper
05-09-2008, 05:14
You make a good point. I seem to recall that some contend the illegals help balance the demographic problem, since they are (generally) relatively young. And there is some chance they will pay for benefits but not collect.
Go to any public hospital ER waiting room in NC, and that fantasy goes right out the window.:rolleyes:
TR
82ndtrooper
05-09-2008, 05:30
Go to any public hospital ER waiting room in NC, and that fantasy goes right out the window.:rolleyes:
TR
I had Humana Health when I dislocated my right shoulder about 6 years ago. when I entered the ER, they immediatley triaged me and sent me back in a wheel chair. Some Mexican woman, without insurance, with her child, who had a cold raised so much shit that they threw her out of the ER with security helping her along the way. She was apparently given ample warning to calm down, but just couldn't keep her trap shut. She was apparently a weekend visitor for her childrens primary care. :rolleyes:
Go to any public hospital ER waiting room in NC, and that fantasy goes right out the window.:rolleyes:
TR
Yes, Sir. You can, perhaps, imagine the problem in San Antonio. In addition to a large number of illegals, our city also has a great many who use the ER for primary care. Those who can generally use other options - in our case, Texas MedClinic works well. For anything short of major trauma, they can provide quick, capable service.
Some years ago, an illegal jumped off a train and landed badly, losing both arms in the process (as I recall). The county taxpayers covered the entire cost. After a decade, he's still here....
I noticed a local news item - seemingly with national implications. Perhaps the Federal Government is about to address the illegal alien problem to a somewhat greater degree.
Please understand that the article is somewhat slanted against enforcement. I apologize for that. It is probably a consequence of the demographics of San Antonio.
It seems to me that persuading employers not to hire illegals is a worthwhile part of a broad effort to regain control of our borders.
David Hendricks: U.S. immigration raids are about to get ugly
Web Posted: 05/06/2008 09:20 PM CDT
Letters listing millions of Social Security “no-match” workers are ready to mail to employers.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency personnel are trained and ready. Buses and vans are standing by for raids. Detention facilities have expanded.
All that is lacking is clearance from the courts.
Employers should be prepared in the coming months for immigration raids on scales never before staged by the federal government. The stakes for employers will be especially high if the courts give a green light to the mailing of Social Security no-match letters.
ICE already has stepped up its worksite enforcement program in recent years, even without the new kind of no- match letters that were held up by a court injunction last fall.
Social Security will not provide ICE with a list of employers receiving the possible new round of no-match letters. The letters would establish new grounds to nail employers with criminal charges.
Austin lawyers Kevin Lashus and Robert Loughran compare the federal government's preparations for increased worksite enforcement to an army practicing for battle.
“The government expects a massive disruption of the work force,” Loughran said. “A climate of fear is the strategy of this administration.”
Employers receiving the new no-match letters would have 93 days to resolve discrepancies, said Lashus and Loughran of Tindall & Foster's Austin office.
Employers could find themselves trapped by federal laws that on the one hand prohibit unauthorized workers and, on the other hand, ban discrimination. Employers cannot look beyond the employees' documents. If they do, they face federal discrimination lawsuits. If employers have not followed steps listed in the no-match letters or are determined to knowingly employ unauthorized workers, they will face criminal charges.
Lashus, a former ICE official, has been involved in some of the agency's previous workplace raids. Loughran is a longtime specialist in employer sanctions law.
Whereas ICE has routinely conducted about 10 raids a month, the lawyers expect the pace to rise significantly once the Social Security Administration mails the letters. ICE could strike workplaces 20 to 30 at a time in any given city. The agency would pause to process the cases, then begin new rounds of raids, Lashus said.
Homeland Security wanted to implement its plan last fall, but a U.S. district judge blocked Social Security's no-match letters after labor unions and other organizations contended the plan would disrupt companies and harm innocent workers.
Social Security's own inspector general already estimates that about 17.8 million of 435 million records contain errors that could generate a no-match letter. An estimated 70 percent of the erroneous records belong to U.S. citizens.
Homeland Security appealed the judge's decision but in March proposed to go ahead on its plan. Any day now, the Arizona judge must decide whether to lift the injunction or make it permanent.
If the injunction becomes permanent, Social Security will hold the letters while Homeland Security again appeals. If the injunction is lifted, the no-match letters could be mailed within days.
“The government is deadly serious about these cases,” Loughran said. “The difference is that the federal government is eager to enforce the laws now, whereas they couldn't be bothered 15 years ago.”
Especially vulnerable would be businesses 10 to 15 years old that haven't strictly monitored their new employees' documentation. “They have no understanding where the lines are,” Loughran said.
The damage would go beyond that. A sudden explosion of enforcement could victimize legal workers, either directly or indirectly. Businesses would close, throwing innocent workers out of work amid a weak economy. Families would be torn apart.
It could end up being an ugly chapter in American history.
LINK (http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/columnists/dhendricks/stories/MYSA.050708.1D.hendricks.3287f84.html)
Although I really do not like illegals who get all the benefits without paying into the system, and think that needs to be reformed, could it be said that most people inadverdently want illegal immigrant labor?
I ask because everyone seems to be raising hell about the increase in food prices (which is partially due to the ethanol scam and rising oil prices), however with these problems, wouldn't getting rid of the illegals actually yank the price of food up even further?
I think so. We seek the lowest price, and - with a few exceptions, duly noted - we don't care how we get it. If the strawberries in one store are cheaper than those in a different store, we'll buy the least expensive ones. We don't know, and don't seek to know, where they came from.
In such cases as the roofing crews that don't speak a word of English, or the kitchen crews in quite a few restaurants, I think we have a strong suspicion - but don't permit ourselves to think about it too much.
Where this gets interesting (in my opinion) is that illegal immigrant behavior increases the supply of one class of labor - and, although it may not be entirely accurate to say so, let's call it unskilled labor. Increased supply for a given demand should drive prices down, right? But there is, perhaps, a side effect. When we drive wages down for some fraction of the labor market, we also drive down tax revenue for Medicare and Social Security. So the payments into the fund are reduced by some increment - thus making the system less stable. We enjoy cheaper prices on a host of things (food included), but perhaps at the cost of stressing (maybe breaking?) some of the existing social programs such as Medicare.
Not only could food go up without illegal immigrant labor - everything might go up.
For an example, here's an article about illegal immigrant labor being used in the rebuilding of New Orleans: LINK (http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2005-11/2005-11-10-voa80.cfm)
We seek the lowest price, and - with a few exceptions, duly noted - we don't care how we get it.
Well I guess I really screwed up recently. I had construction work done in my basement, and in the process of reviewing bids I chose the contractor that charged the most for the work. Why? Because of his decades of experience, the fact that he used the same subs he's used for over 15 years (since he moved out here), he listened to what we wanted done and drew up the plans accordingly (unlike the several other contractors, who presented plans showing what they wanted rather than what we asked for), and had impeccable references.
What did I get for the extra money? The contractor worked with us throughout the entire process, making changes on the fly as we asked for them. His subs did excellent work (his trim guy even made coping cuts on trim corners!). He was on-site daily, often doing nug work himself (despite having a few projects going at the same time). He handled any issues that arose quickly and professionally. Most importantly, we are very, very pleased with the end result.
Did it end up costing us more using this guy? Yep, by a noteworthy amount. It was worth every damned penny, because we got what we paid for.
Did it end up costing us more using this guy? Yep, by a noteworthy amount. It was worth every damned penny, because we got what we paid for.
Sir, if more Americans followed the path you did, I firmly believe we would be economically stronger and far happier. I hope the excellent contractor you found continues to prosper.