Ted Oehmke's Blog

Ted Oehmke Commented on Newsmax Distances Itself From Columnist, Says We Believe In Constitutional Gov't by Rachel Slajda

2009-09-30T16:53:09Z

I wonder what Mr. Perry could tell us about the domestic platform of our new would-be rulers? Where do they stand on healthcare? Will they also have death panels? Will they offer tougher regulations on the big banks? Will red state christian freakazoids finally be able to forget about evolution and get to teaching their creationist "truth"? What about "Don't Ask Don't Tell"? Will they discard the current design of the American flag and replace it with a bald eagle and the christian cross? Who are the real Nazis here?

Somebody find these wingnuts a good therapist. Maybe that same someone could start a recovery program: Wingnuts Anonymous

Ted Oehmke Commented on The Bureaucrat between 50 million Americans and Health Care by Ted Oehmke

2009-07-03T18:10:21Z

Hey Hoppy and Amike: The base closings commission seemed like the best way to deal with a necessary wind-down when it came to the military.

With so many interests that profit from a healthcare system as inefficient as the US system is, we will need to find a way to spread the pain when it comes to deciding who will get cut out.

Here is how Obama put it in a letter to Congress back in early June. (link at end).

To identify and achieve additional savings, I am also open to your ideas about giving special consideration to the recommendations of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), a commission created by a Republican Congress. Under this approach, MedPAC's recommendations on cost reductions would be adopted unless opposed by a joint resolution of the Congress. This is similar to a process that has been used effectively by a commission charged with closing military bases, and could be a valuable tool to help achieve health care reform in a fiscally responsible way.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Letter-from-President-Obama-to-Chairmen-Edward-M-Kennedy-and-Max-Baucus/

Ted Oehmke Commented on The Bureaucrat between 50 million Americans and Health Care by Ted Oehmke

2009-07-03T02:13:24Z

The OECD chart is not as clear as it could be. It does say that Norway has close to one year of "parental leave" which is mostly paid, plus six weeks of paid "paternity leave" for the father. The only chart on which the US appears is the one labeled "maternity leave" which says that the US offers 12 weeks of unpaid leave.

Ted Oehmke recommended The Bureaucrat between 50 million Americans and Health Care by Ted Oehmke

2009-07-02T19:06:22Z

Ted Oehmke Commented on The Bureaucrat between 50 million Americans and Health Care by Ted Oehmke

2009-07-03T01:39:51Z

Thank you for your comments. Yes cost is the big issue. The larger conclusion of the McKinsey study was that it costs the US $650 billion more than it should given the better performance at lower cost of the systems of other advanced countries. The gap between where we could be and where we are is $650 billion dollars wide.

While you point out that some of this cost gap results from "consumer appetite for expensive drugs", most of it comes as a result of the way our system is organized. (One of the reasons we have an appetite for certain drugs, and partly why they are so expensive, is that Big Pharma spends big money for prime time TV advertising to spur that appetite). If the free market is the most efficient way of running a system, why does our system not measure up? Has the "free market" failed to live up to it's billing as the star model of economic efficiency in the case of US health care?

Those who cry "socialism" at the mention of the single payer plan (used by such "socialist" heathens as the UK, Japan and Canada) or the public option now bouncing around DC, ought to admit they are defending market failure.

Ted Oehmke Commented on The Bureaucrat between 50 million Americans and Health Care by Ted Oehmke

2009-07-03T00:42:51Z

The US has the least generous family leave policy of any OECD country except for Australia.

On page three of this OECD publication, there is a chart that shows how the US compares.

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/45/26/37864482.pdf

So much for family values.

Ted Oehmke recommended I would tell you, but I'd have to kill you... by Ted Oehmke

2009-04-20T19:40:17Z