Brandoncare

I did a little research on healthcare and this is what I found. The references are found at the end.


Brandon’s Health Care Plan

(aka Brandoncare)


Medicare costs were $440 billion, Medicaid costs were $181 billion, and SCHIP costs were $6 billion in 2007. That is a total of $627 billion spent in 2007. That cost covered 83 million people. So, per person that is a cost of about $7554 per person covered.


According to the census there are 46 million people uninsured in America. However, 9.6 million of those people are not citizens. So, I say the number of uninsured Americans is 36 million. A 2003 study by Blue Cross showed that 14 million people qualified for coverage by one of the federal programs, but had never signed up. So, I say the number goes to 22 million.


If nothing changed then to cover those 22 million Americans it would cost about $166 billion. That would represent a 26.5% increase in spending for federal medical programs. Again, this is based on numbers from 2007 and accepting that the costs remain the same.


A part of me wonders if we couldn’t outsource those 22 million Americans medical coverage. I wonder if we could go to the top 3 insurance companies and have them bid for the contract. Could we get them to put in bids and get the cost down to $5000-$6000 per person? I bet we could. If the average healthcare premium for a family of 4 is $13,000, that comes to $3250 per person per year. If an insurance company can make money with $3250 per year couldn’t they make money off of $5000 per year per person?


So, if we got the bids to $5000 it would cost about $110 billion. About a 17.5% increase in spending. There are an estimated 304 million people in America. So, it would cost each American about $362 per year. My family would be paying nearly $2500 per year and that is bad. Can we trim $110 billion out of the budget to cover this so no cost is passed to the tax payer? Again, I would say yes. I bet the President and Congress could cut that much in spending in a day and still have time for a round of golf and a massage.


Heck, I even wonder if we couldn’t outsource SCHIP, Medicare, and Medicaid. Could we get that cost below $7554 per person? How much would that save just on the cost? How much could we save by not having all of the government employees and infrastructure that are needed to administer those programs? Could that save us $110 billion or more?


So, this is the Brandon Health Care Plan. I am sending it to my Senators and Representatives. It is simple, covers everyone, saves money, puts more money into the private sector, and decreases the size of government. Everyone is happy. So, let’s do it!



References

The Census Bureau reports that the number of people lacking health insurance rose to 46.3 million in 2008.

-http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090910/ap_on_re_us/us_census_uninsured


Overall, the number of people covered by government programs rose to 83 million in 2007, up from 80.3 million in 2006. The number of people on Medicaid, the government health insurance program for low-income residents, increased to 39.6 million from 38.3 million.

-http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/27/business/fi-census27



# of people with Medicare 65 & older or under 65 & disabled 44.8 million projected for 2008
43.1 million - 2006 ACTUAL


-http://www.medicareadvocacy.org/FAQ_QuickStats.htm



For starters, the statistic does not mean that there are "46 million uninsured Americans," as the New York Times reported in a recent story on health care, and as is echoed throughout the media. Just a quick look inside the Census Bureau data shows that 9.7 million of the uninsured are not citizens of the United States. -http://spectator.org/archives/2009/03/20/the-myth-of-the-46-million


Another problem with citing the 46-million figure is that many of those who are identified as uninsured are actually eligible for existing government programs but simply never bothered to enroll. In 2003, a BlueCross BlueShield Association study estimated that about 14 million of the uninsured were eligible for Medicaid and SCHIP. These people would be signed up for government insurance if they ever made it to the emergency room.

-http://spectator.org/archives/2009/03/20/the-myth-of-the-46-million


When all of these factors are put together, the 2003 BlueCross BlueShield study determined that 8.2 million Americans are actually without coverage for the long haul, because they are too poor to purchase health care but earn too much to qualify for government assistance. Even being without insurance still doesn't mean they won't have access to care, because federal law forbids hospitals from denying treatment to patients who show up at the emergency rooms.

-http://spectator.org/archives/2009/03/20/the-myth-of-the-46-million


Total Medicare spending reached $440 billion for fiscal year 2007

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_(United_States)


New data from the Treasury Department show that federal outlays for Medicaid were lower in fiscal year 2006 than in 2005 even in nominal dollars (i.e., even without adjusting for inflation). Federal Medicaid expenditures were $180.6 billion in 2006, as compared to $181.7 billion in 2007

-http://centeronbudget.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=824


SCHIP costs in 2007 $6.3 billion

-http://www.allhealth.org/BriefingMaterials/SCHIPFinancialStructure-534.pdf


The average employer-sponsored premium for a family of four costs close to $13,000 a year

-http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml

Pliers can make a lovely faucet handle

A friend a work emailed me a few nice pictures titled "OK, it's fixed already!" Below are some of the pictures.


















The scary part is that the picture of the sink with the pliers reminded me of my tub. We lost one of the handles so I quickly found a pair of pliers and ta da it was fixed. Then I got this email. Well, I have now purchased a new set of handles and will be installing them soon!