Another Eleventh Hour

Health insurance stands as the real problem, and nothing seems to affect the outcome. According to this Slate article, somewhere around 30% of the Population is getting their health insurance from the Government now, with the Private Sector supplying about 47%. My own estimates(loosely based upon practically nothing) suggests that there would be about a 14% Savings with Single Payer negotiations, with an additional Cost Savings of 10% in labor at all ends by a limitation of detail information in the system. The interesting point from the last states that staff reductions may only constitute around 4% of that Cost, with a staff reduction of only about 20%. Doctors would devote a greater share of their labor to Patient Care, and Nurses could expand their Patient capacity; both a real component under the stress of a Ageing population. The real trouble comes in the intransigence of both current Health Care Providers and Patients, all of whom do not know How to Game the new system (which might itself possess a Cost Savings of around 7%).

Greg Mankiw might have provides this Post to hurt my feelings, though I have some doubts about that. I just finished eating a 14 oz. T-Bone Steak last Night, with Sides of Salads and Hash Browns; I was a true Trooper, though, in that I ordered only Water to drink. What is wrong with that Scenario? I would take the old Regulation route, and state that Restaurants pay a 10% Surtax collected along with Sales Tax, on any Meal served with has larger than a 8 oz. Meat portion. I would further state that Side portions, except for Salad bars, be limited to 4 oz. Portions as well. I believe that the greatest threat of obesity comes from Eating meals out of the home, where Meals are not balanced. Another simple venue might be a regulation that Restaurants charge for every item not with an overall price, but with a per ounce Price for Meat and Side. It might help if Customers could figure their Cost according to ounces consumed.

It might be time for Change, if the economy is in the midst of collapsing. Mish presents some detail. I won’t go into anything because of a Time constraint this morning, but economic Downsizing is the traditional time to search for better methods of business management. It is the time to revamp health care, it is time to reconstruct the Eatery establishments, and the time for Americans to ask How they do drastically over-spent themselves in the last decade. Something has to give, and do so fairly soon, else the mess will develop some permanent adverse elements. lgl