Still No Real Information on healthcare.gov

Walter Russell Mead thinks healthcare.gov will be working more or less well on December 1.  But he doesn't know for sure.  In fact, no one outside of government has any idea how well it will be running.  Why is that?  There must be dozens if not hundreds of technical staff working on this, not to mention all the government bureaucrats involved.  Why hasn't some enterprising journalist published an article with the inside scoop?  There are now less than five days, is the Obama admin that good at preventing leaks?

One in Five Americans Receive Medicaid?

In a letter to Pres. Obama, Sen. Rockefeller and 36 other Senate Democrats wrote...

We are unwilling to allow the federal government to walk away from Medicaid’s 68 million beneficiaries, the providers that serve them and the urban and rural communities in which they live.

This was sent in response to the Republican proposal to turn Medicaid into a block grant program, which would end the Federal match for state Medicaid spending and distribute the Federal subsidy as a defined amount. It's an interesting debate, but what caught my attention was the "68 million beneficiaries."

According to this website, the current U.S. population estimate is approximately 311 million. If there are really 68 million Medicaid beneficiaries, that means approximately 21% of the U.S. population is currently receiving Medicaid benefits.

Huh?! One in five Americans are currently on Medicaid? Really?

I figured the Senate Democrats had to be exaggerating the number, so I did a search for the "real" number. That led me to this website, which says that as of May 2010 there are 48 million Medicare beneficiaries. Medicare and Medicaid are not the same thing. But I'm pretty sure there aren't as many Medicaid beneficiaries as there are for Medicare. So I kept searching.

And found this, posted at cms.gov, which appears to be a division of the Department of Health and Human Services. It says that as of June 30, 2009, there were over 50 million Medicaid enrollees. Un. Bee. Lee. Vuh. Bull. That's 16% of U.S. population, or one in six.

So yeah, it looks like the Senate Democrats' number is wrong. But not by as much as I thought.

(via Peter Suderman via Insta.)

Insurance Anti-Trust Legislation, Addendum

If this keeps up, Nancy Pelosi will soon propose compensation caps for tort lawyers!

Insurance Anti-Trust Legislation

What an amazing opening for Republicans who want insurance companies to be able to compete across state lines. The approach writes itself: Democrats want to repeal anti-trust protection for insurance companies? Great! While we're at it, let's eliminate state regulation and open up the playing field so insurance companies can truly compete nationwide. Now we're talking real health insurance reform!

7-year Old Girl Gets Her Organs Back

USA Today reports the surgery took 23 hours.

Would national health insurance pay for this? Would it really? The McNamaras had to search long and far to find Dr. Kato. Every other doctor told them the tumor was inoperable. On its face, the operation had to be incredibly risky (and expensive).

If national health insurance would pay for this kind of procedure, how would that reduce the cost of health care? Can you reduce health care costs and still keep the miracles?

(h/t Althouse)

"Down Payment" on Universal Health Care

Pres. Obama proposes $634 billion for health care reform. No details in this particular article.

This is gonna be tough to oppose. He's ramming it all together as a single budget. If Republicans balk at the whole bill, they'll be accused of obstructionism and undercutting the economy. If they try to excise the most offensive spending (in particular the so-called health care reform), they risk having two or more Senators peeled off as they were for the stimulus.