The CBO actually reduced its estimated net
cost to $1.1 trillion, “about $50 billion less than the agencies’ March
2011 estimate.” The initial estimate ($940 billion) covers 2010-2019,
while the $1.76 trillion gross cost is for the 11-year period from
2012-2022, which includes three more years of full program costs (that
start in 2014). For the overlapping period of 2012-2019, the CBO
estimate is actually $5 billion lower; the CBO still asserts that
Obamacare will reduce the deficit by $210 billion.
Brake
claims that “all nations with federalized health care have extensive
delays and waiting lists.” Like Medicare? A Commonwealth Fund survey
ranked U.S. patients second (20.5 days) to federalized Germany in wait
times to see a specialist (it’s four weeks in Canada, not the bogus 18.3
weeks that Mike claims) Only 47 percent of U.S. patients could get a
same- or next-day appointment for a medical problem, second worst among
the world’s eight wealthiest nations.
Brake’s
statistics for five-year breast cancer survival rates are outdated; a
2012 Commonwealth Fund study puts the current rates at 89 percent in the
U.S., 87 percent in Canada and Norway, and 81 percent in Britain (41
percent of U.S. patients are first diagnosed after age 64, so the
survival rate is partly due to federalized Medicare).
For
cervical cancer, the U.S. survival rate is 64 percent versus the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) median of
66 percent (Canada is at 69 percent).
Where we fail
miserably compared to federalized systems is in preventive care,
especially diseases related to modifiable risk factors such as diet,
lifestyle, weight and blood pressure.
U.S. mortality
rates for heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and bacterial infection are
the highest of 15 wealthy nations at 96 per 100,000 population (Britain
is at 83; France is lowest at 55). We have the ninth highest mortality
rate (of 192 nations) for lung cancer and Parkinson’s, third for
Alzheimer’s, 12th for multiple sclerosis, 14th for hepatitis. 27th for
leukemia and 58th for overall cancer.
One primary
reason U.S. health costs per capita are $7,960 compared to the OECD
median of $3,182 ($4,363 in Canada) is that private insurance costs
substantially more than federalized Medicare.
The CBO’s
analysis of Paul Ryan’s deranged Medicare scam concluded it would cost
seniors $6,358.97 a year more than Medicare for the same benefits
because Medicare (by 2022) will be 36 percent cheaper than private
insurance.
Conservative dogma trumps common sense.
—D.W. Tiffee, Norman
