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 […]
obamacare
Posted inNews
New Yorkers think we’re interesting!
Maybe those damn Yankees find it interesting that our state has one of the nation’s most dismal percentages Credit: Brad Gregg of citizens lacking health insurance. Perhaps those highfalutin elitists think it’s ironic that most Oklahomans despise Obamacare almost as much as they despise vegetables and cedar trees. Whatever the reason, The New York Times […]
Posted inNews
Pricey Medicaid expansion
Tiffee assumes that the money collected from hospitals in the form of a 2-percent provider fee will not be passed on to those using non-Medicaid forms of payment for hospital services. This assumption is ridiculous. Of course the hospitals will pass it on to their paying customers. Tiffee and those who support his position believe […]
Posted inNews
Happy Canadians
Brake doesn’t mention that the Canadian dog will have to come up with thousands of dollars for the hip replacement while the human hip replacement is covered by the government program. Overall, the average Canadian is quite happy with the Canadian system. Brake could also have told us that every year thousands of Americans go […]
Posted inNews
Why we need health care reform
There were more than 30 million Americans without health insurance of any kind. We spend more per capita on health care than any country on earth. The World Health Organization ranked the U.S. 37th in access/affordability/quality of health care among the nations of the world. We spend 25 percent more per capita than the country […]
Posted inNews
Oklahoma needs the Affordable Care Act
Sound familiar? Under the Affordable Care Act, states will be given an opportunity to opt into an expanded provision of Medicaid, effective 2014. This provision in the ACA is of vital interest for Oklahoma. It means 200,000 more Oklahomans will be eligible, if they enroll, to receive health insurance (about 29 percent of Oklahomans are […]
Posted inNews
Don’t tread on us
Credit: Brad Gregg A July 29 Post article focused on Oklahoma’s conservatism “with an independent streak and a disdain for the strong arm of government,” noting that “the state cannot even get residents to comply with car insurance laws.” As the story noted, around a quarter of all Oklahoma drivers don’t carry car insurance, while […]
Posted inNews
Disaster is ahead for Obamacare
It will cost more than predicted. Despite 20 new taxes totaling $575 billion, the Congressional Budget Office has now projected total Obamacare costs through 2022 at $1.76 trillion, about twice the initial 10-year estimate. And that is still an optimistic figure. Medicare is instructive here: In 1965 when it was first passed, Medicare hospital insurance […]
Posted inNews
Medicaid expansion vital
According to Mike Fogarty, CEO of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, the uncompensated cost of treating the uninsured in Oklahoma exceeds $1 billion annually, most of it paid for by shifting the cost to insured families, while bad debt and charity care costs hospitals $365 million a year. Fogarty estimates that the $1 billion in […]
Posted inNews
State of health
Perhaps not coincidentally, it is among the bottom tier of states for health coverage. Families USA, a health care consumer advocacy group, lists Oklahoma as among the top 10 states “dying for health coverage.” According to Gallup, about 22 percent of all Oklahomans are uninsured, making it the 47th worst state in the nation, in […]