CO-04 (Special Election)
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(R) Greg Lopez
(R) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
President (To Win Colorado)
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(D) Joe Biden*
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%↓
CO-01 (Denver)
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(D) Diana DeGette*
90%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
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(D) Joe Neguse*
90%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
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(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
(R) Ron Hanks
40%
30%
20%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
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(R) Lauren Boebert
(R) Deborah Flora
(R) J. Sonnenberg
30%↑
15%↑
10%↓
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
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(R) Dave Williams
(R) Jeff Crank
50%↓
50%↑
CO-06 (Aurora)
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(D) Jason Crow*
90%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
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(D) Brittany Pettersen
85%↑
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
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(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
(R) Janak Joshi
60%↑
35%↓
30%↑
State Senate Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
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DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
July 07, 2012 08:29 PM UTC
13 Comments
I think that would make a pretty good bumper sticker summing up the GOP’s priorities and vision for the future.
and I pray I can make it to 65 before any of my minor infirmities become major ones.
As I mentioned in another thread, my wife and I have made a significant contribution to the salary fund of the United Health Care CEO. He makes about $75,000,000 per year. That’s why my health care am sooooooo good.
they gave the last guy a couple of billion to go away. Yes, an exaggeration, no, not by much.
get away with billions of dollars in Medicare fraud, not once, but twice (cough*former head of Senate*cough and cough*current governor of retirement central*cough, cough). . . Yeah, there are major problems, but the Congresscritters are not going to address those problems.
Medicare is expensive. Let’s just give seniors cents-off coupons for health care instead. Another great idea brought to you by Paul (who needs a social net for the poor anyway) Ryan.
Having better oversight on fraud and allowing the government to negotiate drug prices would help; however, neither of these would solve the cost problem by themselves.
Truly addressing cost-containment is going to requiring answering some hard questions that few people, when push comes to shove, want to answer-namely how to address long-term care and end of life care.
Presumably (or maybe not), the reforms from ACA — outcome-based compensation, collaborative patient care, access to comprehensive medical records to prevent treatment mistakes (ie. we don’t need less access to file malpractice suits, we just need less malpractice) — will be incorporated into Medicare. That would significantly cut costs.
The entire health care industry is a target-rich environment for finding efficiencies and lowering overhead — something you’d think “business-friendly” Republicans would support. Odd that they don’t.
(1) I don’t disagree that fee for service needs to go.
(2) Malpractice reform is a red-herring. Most studies that I’ve seen have concluded that limiting damages has little or no impact on the costs of insurance; malpractice insurance rates tend to keep rising even after legislation limits the amount someone can win in a malpractice suit.
I’ve read about studies where it’s less than one half of one percent of costs.
Obviously there are far greater savings to be had otherwise since our health care costs are about 17% of GDP while other industrialized countries with single payer universal coverage are at about 10% to 12% of their GDP’s.
No healthcare system, public or private, can afford to pay for everything. Subsequently, the question becomes: how to we decide what procedures should be covered and what should be left to be paid for out of pocket, in the most equitable possible?
It’s a pretty good bet that the one of the main reasons other countries spend less than the U.S. is that they’ve answered the question of what should be covered and what shouldn’t be. Another main reason other countries are able to spend less is that they’ve addressed the issue of keeping end of life and long-term care sustainable. I imagine preventative care plays an important role in keeping healthcare costs down in the rest of the developed world.
I remain somewhat pessimistic that we’ll ever get a viable health system like the rest of the developed world has because the moment anybody in the U.S. tries to address any of these difficult, but necessary, questions, some talking head screams “Death Panels!”; “They’re going to kill Grandma!”, or lies about how “The government is going to tell you what you can and can’t eat.”
And I really am in the “Don’t Get Sick’ plan. Lost insurance in the recession (housing business) and at my age can’t afford it with what they want to charge.
So I’m proactive about my health, don’t smoke or drink, workout, eat a semi-vegetarian diet (no junk or processed food). I backpack and climb 14’ers (quit skiing because could not afford to blow out a knee). Had the flu 8 years ago and not even a cold since then.
BUT what if a major illness occurs? I think of Dave Misner, Pat Steadman’s partner who has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at age 45. That would wipe me out.
So just hoping I can stay healthy next several years. And congrats on making it on Medicare madmike.
I recently have been having quite a bit of pain centered around my tailbone. When my doctor took a look, he noticed an irritated spot that looked like a cyst. He wanted to have a ultrasound done to confirm the diagnosis.
Sounds simple, right? Nope. My insurance company required that he do blood tests first. Then, in order to have the ultrasound, my insurance company required an x-ray. Both my doctor and the technician performing the test stated that an x-ray wouldn’t show a damned thing. Amazingly, the x-ray didn’t show anything.
So we did an ultrasound which clearly showed a cyst. But America apparently has the best healthcare system in the world.
….and perhaps another $50K that AAFLAC paid. (I’m sure they were jubilant when he died.)
This, to extend his life 2 1/2 more years. To be fair, the initial treatments for his colon cancer were effective and in relative terms, lower cost.
But it had metastized to his liver and although the results were promising at first, they had to keep ramping up the attempt with more and more expensive, experimental chemos. Some cost $5,000 a dose.
Meanwhile, his primary care giver – moi! – had to go to The Local Indigent Care Clinic for the little care he/I needed.
What’s wrong with THAT picture?
I’m glad I had more time with Dad, it was great. But he is just as dead today as he would have been in 2008.
Yes, we need to ration health care. (Which we do today via ability to pay……or not.)