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Conrad Demands Health Care Proposal Meet Stricter Budget Demands
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT)
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In what is likely an effort to bolster the health care bill he helped design, Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND)--chair of the Budget Committee, and member of the "gang of six"--has seen to it that health care proposals in the House and Senate be analyzed by the Congressional Budget Office over a 20 year window, instead of the usual 10.
CBO chief Doug Elmendorf worked closely with the Finance Committee during the drafting of the proposal, and seems likely to project greater long-term cost savings from it than from the others. And if that happens, his findings are sure to be used as a political weapon by both Republicans and spending-conscious Democrats.
Meanwhile, the Institute of Medicine--an organization that's part of the National Academies--is about to release a new study which confirms the view that the CBO's projections are stingy and that current reform proposals will likely yield hundreds of billions of dollars in savings that the CBO didn't account for.
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Indie Pro
September 15, 2009 6:31 PM
an intersting compromise was brought up by Miles Mogulescu:
No good public option, then:
1. Regulate Insurance rates
2. Put a trigger on implementing individual mandates until insurance premiums are affordable
3. Give Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices
4. Ensue tht Dennis Kucinich's ammendment allowing individual states to experiment with a single payer system stays in the final legislation
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miles-mogulescu/admit-it--a-robust-public_b_287702.html
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mans_best_friend
September 15, 2009 6:31 PM
Wait. Did you lift this from The Onion? Scoring over 20 years? Why the hell not a hundred years? They can't reliably project NEXT YEAR.
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Stroszek
September 15, 2009 8:07 PM
Can we please stop referring to Conrad as "budget conscious" as if that were an objective fact?
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The Commenter Formerly Known as NCSteve
September 16, 2009 10:21 AM in reply to Stroszek
Hey, it's as much an "objective fact" as CBO projections on the costs of healthcare legislation.
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fkaZk0sm0
September 15, 2009 8:18 PM
over how many years would the CBO need to score a bill in order for conrad's friends in the healthcare industry to claim the bill will cost a quadrillion dollars?
conrad is a douche. bought and paid for by DaVita, Inc and Amgen (who buy the way, have no discernible presence in conrad's state of north fucking middle of nowhere and nobody lives there dakota). oh and then there's his other top donor, health insurance lawyers Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi whose clients include... Blue Cross.
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fkaZk0sm0
September 15, 2009 8:19 PM in reply to fkaZk0sm0
ha. 'buy' the way. oops. well, if it fits....
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trblmkr
September 15, 2009 8:46 PM
Coming from an industry (equity research sales) in which literally millions of dollars and thousands of hours are put into creating growth estimates for companies and national economies, I can tell you that anything beyond 2 years is pretty much like throwing a dart while blindfolded. 5 years, 10 years, 20 years? Fuhgedaboutit!
After eight years of politization hanky panky, I'd take a good look at who the career people at CBO are...
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markg8
September 16, 2009 4:19 PM
This might be an unintended good move on Conrad's part. If he thinks costs will balloon in years 10 thru 20 then we need stronger reform now. Get rid of fee for service payments to providers and go to proven models the rest of the world, Mayo and Cleveland Clinics and Kaiser Permanente use. Right now HR 3200 only includes study groups and demonstration projects, the "53 new government bureaucracies" the GOP lies about. Implement them now and we'll have a lot more savings.
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