Author Topic: The Catyclysm of CA  (Read 423 times)

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sirs

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The Catyclysm of CA
« on: January 16, 2012, 02:17:26 AM »
Bad enough the terminally set up districts have been made in such a way to largely guarantee the status quo of the same party to maintain its district seat....
Bad enough we have the worst business climate in the nation.....
Bad enough we have nearly the highest taxed state in the nation.....
Bad enough that taxpayers on the hook to feed the state union pension beast,
Bad enough that the CA Finals solutuon act does nothing but drive busnesses out of state or facilitate their bankruptcy,
Bad enough that the recently passed dream act for illegial immigrants, providing tax payer dollars for college
Bad enough that tax payers are on the hook for the bullet train from Bakersfield to nowhere.....

and now the left thinks it has its perfect storm to introduce......SB 810
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State-run health insurance reemerges in California
A pending bill would establish the California Healthcare System, administered by another new band of bureaucrats, the California Healthcare Agency.
By MARK LANDSBAUM


A pending bill would establish the California Healthcare System, administered by another new band of bureaucrats, the California Healthcare Agency.

Demagogues know how to exploit our weaknesses. To gain control over us they slyly appeal to our genuine yearnings. They promise to relieve our universal sufferings. Too often they succeed in persuading many of us who should know better, and too many of us who have yet to learn better.

Universal health care is a particularly vile form of this demagoguery. Decades ago Americans were persuaded they could have their slightest sniffles and most critical illnesses treated into perpetuity, essentially on someone else's dime.

Who wouldn't want the best medical care for himself and loved ones if all it cost was a fraction of the real price?

The same deception has worked in countless other arenas.
Buy a house without a down payment. The government will assume your risk.
Get an education for a pittance. The government will foot the bill.

But these Ponzi schemes work only so long. Sooner or later we discover the government is ourselves. We meet the enemy, and his appetite is insatiable. We are the profligates running up the tab! And, inevitably, we cannot afford it.

California seems always in the vanguard of such self-deceptions. Have it all, for next to nothing. The government will provide.

There is yet another such scheme pending in the Legislature, a proposal for state-run universal health care. As if the mission of Senate Bill 810 were not foolish enough, proponents resorted to a mock funeral on the steps of the Capitol last week to dramatize deaths supposedly resulting from lack of medical care.

The fact is, it is extremely difficult to not be treated for medical problems in California, even if you don't pay. The law prohibits hospitals from turning away even illegal immigrants freshly arrived in the country. People without money have Medi-Cal and private charities that donate services, again, someone else picking up the bill.

But often it is not the 100-percent free-riders, but those who don't wish to pay the full cost of the medical care who complain the loudest. This attitude is inculcated by decades of being told the real cost doesn't matter: someone else will pay it.

We all are guilty of this. "How much is that co-pay?!"

Let's be clear. Devastating medical expenses bankrupt people and wipe out lifetime savings. The costs can be astronomical.

Let's also be clear on this: No one has a right to demand that someone else pay for his devastating problems.


That's tough medicine to swallow in these days of entitlement, as so many exceptions play out, such as tax-subsidized mortgages and tuitions.

Proponents of SB810, authored by the very leftist San Francisco Democrat Mark Leno, promise not only to feel your pain, they promise to relieve it. The government will provide.

It's interesting that to put this utopian-minded plan into action, the state will need the utopian-minded Obama administration to grant California a waiver. SB810 wants to go where (at least for now) even Obamacare dare not tread.

The bill would establish the California Healthcare System, administered by another new band of bureaucrats, the California Healthcare Agency, "under the control of a Healthcare Commissioner appointed by the governor and subject to confirmation by the Senate."

If you aren't getting a warm and comforting feeling with the prospect of politicians and bureaucrats in charge of your health care, good for you. You shouldn't.

All California residents would be included in a single-payer system, where the government will, "negotiate for or set fees for health care services." Are you feeling warm and comfy yet?

Despite centuries of experience that proves otherwise, the utopian-minded persist in believing that if government sets prices and wages, economic systems will hum along merrily. That has never happened, and never will.

What government management of economies results in are illusions like our own Medicare system. Granted, you will find many older people who praise Medicare for its coverage of needed treatments. These folks are akin to the early investors in Ponzi schemes, benefitting from contributions of later investors. Check back in 10 years and see how pleased Medicare recipients are when they nearly outnumber the new "investors" who must support them.

By benefitting from this bad system, we have encouraged more of it. We've dug the hole we now struggle to climb out of.

Here's an interesting tidbit about SB810. Section 140400 says, "All California residents shall be eligible for the system. Residency shall be based upon physical presence in the state with the intent to reside."
Free health care. All you have to do is live here.

That shouldn't attract much of a crowd, do you think? We suspect the equivalent of Ponzi-scheme early investors may discover sooner rather than later what overwhelming effects demand have on supply.
We mentioned above that the impetus for this problem was created decades ago. That was when the government began the shell game of health care insurance.

During World War II, when the government imposed wage controls, companies were permitted instead to provide employees remuneration in the form of health care insurance. Third-party spending was born in a big way, and remains the principle culprit in health care's escalating prices. When someone else pays, demand ratchets up unreasonably. In this case, companies paid the bulk of premiums because government permitted that expense to be deducted from their tax liabilities. "The government will pick it up," was the message. It stuck.

In his book "The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care," Dr. David Gratzer characterized reliance on third-party spending to be "a formula for more."

To wean ourselves from this addiction of relying on more federal and state taxes to pay ever-rising medical bills, we must break the ties that bind us to the government. Easier said than done.

Nevertheless, conditions like today provide the perfect opportunity. Alas, when we should be using this health care crisis to free the system from destructive government control, people like the backers of SB810 instead want more of the same.

But health care should be deregulated – not further regulated – so market forces can bring costs under control. It would be painful, thanks to the huge market distortions created by decades of third-party gratuities from insurance companies and the government. But as long as someone else continues to pay the real cost, people selling health care and people receiving health care always will demand more.
The answer isn't to goop up the system with more layers of subsidies and entitlements. The answer is to free it from government's clutches.


Otherwise, get ready for provisions like SB810's Section 140612(a), which says a government "patient advocate" will establish medical reviews of disputed health care services and coverage. That should go well, huh? SB810's backers say it will "ensure the system provides efficient, appropriate, high-quality health care, and that the system is responsive to enrollee disputes."

If you don't find that claim ludicrous now, you will, should this bill become law.

Costs can be reduced only by allowing supply and demand to work, and by people agreeing to assume the risk and responsibility for their own health care. Then, charitable solutions would have room to maneuver to handle the most costly exceptions.

The market may not easily accommodate all exceptions, such as coverage for those with pre-existing diseases. But the present system and, certainly, universal government health care, with their perverse incentives, are incapable of handling even routine care much longer. The Ponzi schemes are playing out.

Can't be made any clearer


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(addend.....sirs has no problem with a State proposing such an program, but such a massive mandate and tax burden to the citizenry, should be left to the voters of the state to pass it, and not at the whims of Government who simply thinks they know better)
"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal." -- Aristotle

sirs

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Re: The Catyclysm of CA
« Reply #1 on: January 16, 2012, 02:29:18 AM »
Would you trust Sacramento with your health?
Bill creating state ‘single-payer’ insurance system is back again. Would Brown sign it?
   
California never seems to pull the plug on bad ideas. That's why single-payer – government – medical insurance legislation is back on the operating table in Sacramento. Senate Bill 810 is authored by state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco.

On Jan. 9, union groups led rallies in front of the state Capitol in favor of the bill. The protest was called, "SB810 Rally Sacto – Jan 2012" Protest signs read, "Health Care Yes, Insurance Companies No" and "Healthcare for the 99%."

Supporters of the bill include powerful public-employee unions, chiefly the California Teachers Association and the California School Employees Association.

SB810 would replace the current system of competing insurance companies with a vast new California Healthcare System that would be run by a mammoth new bureaucracy, the California Healthcare Agency.

In the bill's language, it also, "[p]rohibits the sale of any private health care service plan or health insurance policy in the state, and makes the CHS the primary payer for health care services in California." Although private doctors and hospitals would still exist, they would operate under the thumb of the CHS and the CHA.

Voters in 1994 rejected Proposition 186, which would have imposed a similar single-payer scheme on the state, 73 percent to 27 percent. As recently as 2007, a similar initiative failed even to qualify for the ballot. And Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, although in general supporting more state government involvement in health care, twice vetoed bills similar to SB810.

Proponents claim SB810 would save Californians $8 billion a year on insurance premiums and medical costs. But when has a government program ever been cheaper than a private program?

"They're sticking their heads in the sand," Grace-Marie Turner told us; she's president of the Galen Institute, which promotes free-market ideas for medical reform. "In countries with single-payer systems, more people die because they can't get care. They're forced to jump through bureaucratic hoops. In every other area, people don't want a bunch of bureaucrats making decisions."

For example, dozens of private automobile companies compete for customers by producing hundreds of different models. But when government builds a car, it assembles the Yugo.

Another aspect is that it isn't clear how Obamacare would mesh with SB810. The U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing whether the federal health care law's mandate that every American buy approved health coverage is constitutional. A decision is expected in June.

We believe that better solutions to the high cost of health care involve reducing, not increasing, government involvement. For example, the state should allow people to buy medical insurance from companies in other states. That certainly would increase competition and reduce costs.

SB810 likely will pass in the Legislature. The question then is whether Gov. Jerry Brown will reverse Gov. Schwarzenegger's vetoes and sign the bill. If he does so, it would be another burden for businesses and citizens already sick from so many state regulations and mandates.

Op ed
"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal." -- Aristotle

sirs

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Re: The Catyclysm of CA
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2012, 07:52:19 PM »
And then there's the ignorance of the electorate that folks like Brown & Obama prey on, literally NEED, to facilitate the incoherent policies of the liberal left.  In CA, it appears that tipping point has been met, where there's likely half the population either working for or dependent on the Government, while fewer and fewer of "the rich" are paying for the Government to function

Ignorant case in point.....The state already has the highest average salaried teacher, we're already spending millions in education tax $$$, we already have one of the highest per-pupil spending on students, but our Governor is hoping, praying, that we'll all ignore that, and literally hold the schools hostage, in demanding even HIGHER taxes (to feed the Government monster), OR *gasp* we'll have to cut serious bucks to the schools/education, if he doesn't get it

ADD to that his insidious pushing for both more "green jobs" (like Solyndra) and the Bullet train to nowhere, (but with upwards of 200BILLION now to pay for what was originally promised only about 9Billion tax dollars)

And with all that, He IS the governor, elected by the citizens of CA, and Obama is the president, elected by the citizens of the U.S.

Ignorance is indeed bliss.......to the liberal left
"The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal." -- Aristotle