And re Obama's health plan . . .

[defendandprotect]

“Senator Obama, you have often spoken about your health insurance plan as a way to reduce costs. Yet you do not discuss three major cost reduction opportunities. The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, estimates that ten percent of the entire health expenditures in this country go down the drain due to computerized billing fraud and abuse. This year, that amounts to $220 billion.

“Under a single payer plan, administrative expenses would be cut by about two-thirds. That would amount to hundreds of billions of dollars a year in savings. And the Harvard School of Public Health study estimates about 80,000 people die every year from medical malpractice in hospitals, estimating costs years ago of $60 billion a year. These are large savings in a $2.2 trillion a year health care industry.

“Do you agree and, if so, why have you ignored proposing practical actions in these areas?”



http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/02/6801/

[Skittles]

1. LOL

he will never answer any of those questions

[dmosh42]

2. Only "corporate-friendly " questions please! n/t

[sandnsea]

3. He hasn't, Ralph Nader talks out his ass again

Obama will invest $10 billion a year over the next five years to move the U.S. health care system to broad adoption of standards-based electronic health information systems, including electronic health records, and will phase in requirements for full implementation of health IT.

Barack Obama will prevent companies from abusing their monopoly power through unjustified price increases. His plan will force insurers to pay out a reasonable share of their premiums for patient care instead of keeping exorbitant amounts for profits and administration.

Obama will require hospitals and providers to collect and publicly report measures of health care costs and quality, including data on preventable medical errors, nurse staffing ratios, hospital-acquired infections, and disparities in care. Health plans will also be required to disclose the percentage of premiums that go to patient care as opposed to administrative costs.

Obama will require providers to report preventable medical errors and support hospital and physician practice improvement to prevent future occurrences.

Both public and private insurers tend to pay providers based on the volume of services provided, rather than the quality or effectiveness of care. Providers who see patients enrolled in the new public plan, the National Health Insurance Exchange, Medicare and FEHBP will be rewarded for achieving performance thresholds on outcome measures

[defendandprotect]

4. In other words, Obama has a crappy health insurance plan ---

[defendandprotect]

5. The most practical solution is to extend MEDICARE to everyone ----

[Tyler Durden]

6. I want either candidate to answer that one.

Either one. Ain't happening.