There are a few facts that our President and his giddy health advisers seem to refuse to acknowledge.  First, with the aging population, more health related costs are going to be incurred. Unless you decide to ask the elderly to simply crawl away and die (and I have NO DOUBT that some of the bean counters out there think that way), that is a fact that cannot be changed. Second, as you find ways (and we have outlined some simple ones) to increase access to health insurance, more folks are going to access health related services.  It is simply a market dynamic.  Therefore, overall costs will go up on that count also.  In summary, looking at OVERALL health care costs as an isolated statistic is not helpful and in most cases, is detrimental to an intellectually and morally legitimate discussion . . . obi jo

President Barack Obama’s first budget will seek $634 billion over 10 years as a down payment on healthcare reform, a senior administration official said.  The $634 billion Obama wants to set aside for healthcare would be almost evenly divided between spending reductions and tax increases.  Obama’s plan would also trim $316 billion from Medicare over 10 years. Some of the savings would come from scaling back payments to private insurance plans that serve older Americans, which many analysts believe to be inflated. Other proposals include charging upper-income beneficiaries a higher premium for Medicare’s prescription drug coverage.

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