Had You Ever Thought of it This Way?
Peter Robinson ·
Sep 28, 2011 at 4:05pm
Q: What's as big as the economy of China and growing as fast as the economy of India?
A: The American health care industry.
When my colleague here at the Hoover Institution, John Cogan, put it like that the other day, even Congressman Paul Ryan, who has, to put it mildly, given health care a lot of thought, looked startled. The sheer magnitude of the human undertaking--the investments, the talent, the involvement of millions of people performing tens of thousands of jobs--the sheer magnitude of the undertaking that the current incumbent of the White House is intent upon bringing under federal supervision--of socializing--is just staggering.
ObamaCare delenda est.
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Re: Had You Ever Thought of it This Way?
And most of our time--I'm a healthcare entrepreneur for those of you new to this space-- was spent in protracted interactions with regulators before the passage of the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act [sic].
ObamaCare delenda est.
May '10
Re: Had You Ever Thought of it This Way?
I know this comment is more of VDH's territory but I look forward to Peter Robinson ending every post and Uncommon Knowledge with ObamaCare delenda est.
Jun '10
Re: Had You Ever Thought of it This Way?
...and an incredible percentage of it has absolutely nothing to do with biology, anatomy, or chemistry. It's billing and accounting and typing the same information over and over again into a computer network. By the amount of paper most hospitals produce, you'd think they were in the publishing business.
Re: Had You Ever Thought of it This Way?
Tim Groseclose links to this in his post earlier today "Bending the Cost Curve on Healthcare." Gee, I wonder what happened in the last year to set health care costs skyrocketing?
Jun '10
Re: Had You Ever Thought of it This Way?
I've often wondered why Republicans never point out the 10's of millions of jobs put in jeopardy when Obama demonizes the insurance, health care, and energy industries. The man is a walking, talking job killer.
Jul '10
Re: Had You Ever Thought of it This Way?
Peter Robinson
I hadn't ever thought of it that way.
Peter Robinson
ObamaCare delenda est. ·
This though... this I've been thinking about almost compulsively. This is the stake in 2012.
If we win, we sow the ACPPA's corpse with salt, sear it to a tasty crisp, and tell all the meddling nannies: we'll handle dinner for ourselves, thanks.
Dec '10
Re: Had You Ever Thought of it This Way?
Cue Wagner, "The Ride of the Valkyries"
ObamaCare delenda est.
Edited on Sep 28, 2011 at 5:00pmMay '11
Re: Had You Ever Thought of it This Way?
How is Cogan defing large? Healtcare is usually said to be 18% of the US economy but I think China's GDP is at least 60% of our GDP.
May '11
Re: Had You Ever Thought of it This Way?
Oops. I should have googled before posting. Based on GDP China's economy is 25% of ours, but that is still somewhat larger than our healthcare industry. Nonetheless it is way too big and important to be left under government control.
Mar '11
Re: Had You Ever Thought of it This Way?
I look forward to the day when such an imprecation is no longer necessary.
Jul '10
Re: Had You Ever Thought of it This Way?
Let it go, he's on a roll. (Thank you Senator Blutarsky, wherever you are.)
Mar '11
Re: Had You Ever Thought of it This Way?
Err, yes, but I come from the UK, where, as Mr Steyn points out, the National Health Service is one of the biggest employers on the planet.
Jan '11
Re: Had You Ever Thought of it This Way?
If healthcare is only measured in terms of immediate cost, then maybe we can settle for the "one-sixth of the economy" claim. But healthcare is multiplier; it has an impact far beyond immediate cost. It affects hiring decisions, therefore expansion decisions, therefore the whole business plan.
Considering how slapdash the whole Obamacare process was, it literally scares me that we would turn healthcare over to such a poorly planned bureaucracy. Obama didn't even plan the thing himself; he tossed it off to Congress, who tossed it off to the staffers, plenty of whom are freshly minted idealistic graduates with zero experience in the medical or insurance world. They concocted the whole thing out of half-baked schemes that would embarrass Ralph Kramden.
ObamaCare delenda est.
Nov '10
Re: Had You Ever Thought of it This Way?
I would love to have an estimate of what percentage of that health care cost is spent on regulatory compliance of one sort or another.
My mother is in a nursing facility. My father points out that there are two or three LPNs to one medical assistant (no RNs at all, unless some top administrator is an RN). The medical assistant provides all the real patient care; the LPNs spend all their time at the front desk filling out paperwork.
Mar '11
Re: Had You Ever Thought of it This Way?
...and we subsidize the rest of the world in new technologies which we use until they become less expensive and then pay more for perpetuity, covering drug costs for the rest of the world, bear a regulatory burden which is already one of the worst in the U.S. and subsidize the trial lawyers as well.
Pretty soon I will need a beauracrat in my office to help me with the regulations instead of an MA. As far as percentile, I would say it would be about 20% as a guestimate. The Doctors work is only about 35-40% of the healthcare dollar, the rest is overhead and regulation. since overhead should not be any more than equal to the physician I that would be 40/40/20.