In yet more disappointing news for Democrats pushing for health care reform, Douglas W. Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, offered a skeptical view Friday of the cost savings that could result from preventive care — an area that President Obama and congressional Democrats repeatedly had emphasized as a way health care reform would be less expensive in the long term.
“Although different types of preventive care have different effects on spending, the evidence suggests that for most preventive services, expanded utilization leads to higher, not lower, medical spending overall,” Elmendorf wrote. “That result may seem counterintuitive.
“For example, many observers point to cases in which a simple medical test, if given early enough, can reveal a condition that is treatable at a fraction of the cost of treating that same illness after it has progressed. In such cases, an ounce of prevention improves health and reduces spending — for that individual,” Elmendorf wrote. “But when analyzing the effects of preventive care on total spending for health care, it is important to recognize that doctors do not know beforehand which patients are going to develop costly illnesses. To avert one case of acute illness, it is usually necessary to provide preventive care to many patients, most of whom would not have suffered that illness anyway. … Researchers who have examined the effects of preventive care generally find that the added costs of widespread use of preventive services tend to exceed the savings from averted illness.”
Elmendorf offered this assessment in a letter (you can read it HERE) to Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr., D-N.J., Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., and Joe Barton, R-Texas, were cc’ed.
In their continuing struggles with CBO, Democrats from President Obama on down have expressed frustration that Elmendorf doesn’t give Democrats’ health care reform proposals sufficient credit for cost cutting through preventive care.
“One of the things that’s disappointing about CBO — and frustrating — is all the work … done on prevention” that the CBO doesn’t factor in, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., co-author of the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee legislation, recently griped.
“You don’t get the benefit in CBO of cost-savings with prevention programs,” Dodd said. They’ll tell you how much an anti-smoking program may cost. They don’t tell you the benefit occurs when a number of people stop smoking.”
During the health care town hall meeting, President Obama said, “the Congressional Budget Office, the CBO, which sort of polices what all various programs cost, they’re not willing to credit us with those savings. They say, ‘That may be nice, that may save a lot of money, but we can’t be certain.’ So we expect that not only are we going to pay for health care reform in a deficit-neutral way, but that’s it also going to achieve big savings across the system — including in the private sector where the Congressional Budget Office never gives us any credit — but if hospitals and doctors are starting to operate in a smarter way, that’s going to help you even if you’re not involved in a government system.”
I’m starting to lose any hope that the American people can put a stop to this madness. Just heard today that the big pharmaceuticals have just gotten in bed with Obama, some kind of backroom deal financially for them.
My prediction … Chicago thuggery will win in the end. But not before we see Islam show its ugly head in America once again while Obamessiah continues threatening and laughing at the American people, some who even voted for the idiot. Oh, yeah, and let’s not forget about his continuous, day-to-day campaigning. I sure wish someone would tell him he won and he’s the President of the United States!
ObamaPreventiveCare would result in a huge data base of citizen medical records that could be used to deny healthcare procedures years later, for example someone told they are overweight. Years later in life they have issues their obesity may have contributed to. Now a bureaucrat says “Hey, you didn’t follow our instructions; back of the line!” A Government that promises everything, can deny everything.
No need to worry about the Obamacare debate any longer!!!
Obama is all set to distract the American people from his disastrous agneda:
Report: Holder Poised to Appoint Prosecutor for CIA Probe
Ah yes, Alinsky would be proud.
The Obamacare debate will die down as the wacko liberals foam at the mouth drudging up the Bush years.
It’s all they’ve got left you know. I’m already looking forward to the investigation into the Obama administration when he’s evicted in 2012. He has no idea what he’s about to start.
Remember your own posting, Sis, in which your former senator told us that, were he elected president, we would be forced to go to the doctor, for our own good, doncha know?
The more government assumes the costs for our treatment, the more the government must take steps to regulate our lives. John Edwards, thankfully, didn’t win the election, but he was simply expressing, in a rare moment of candor, what the Obama Administration must at least be considering.
I’m NOT paying for the 25% of Americans who are obese and cost this country billions of taxpayer dollars.
I’m NOT paying for the 10% of Americans who live on anti-depressants and cost this country billions of taxpayer dollars.
I’m NOT paying for the 25% of Americans who are addicted to drugs and/or alcohol and cost this country billions of taxpayer dollars.
I REFUSE. If people won’t take care of themselves, then I REFUSE also. These 60% of Americans have absolutely NO right to demand any type of health care.
So, Americans can’t be trusted to take responsibility for paying their mortgage and making good decisions, they can’t take responsibility for their vehicles, they can’t take responsibility for investing in their own future, and they can’t even take responsibility for their own bodies. I REFUSE to take care of a nation of adolescents with a new massive government run health care program. No ! Time to grow up, America.
ObamaPreventCare is a good name for this whole fiasco.
Ya know, if I was CEO of a huge corporation and needed to cut down on health care expenses (and of course the lawyers were my primary clients), the first thing I’d do to save money is start denying over-the-line care. You know, the “experimental” stuff (already approved by outrageous FDA rules, but not with 2-5 years of “practical” experience with the public). Next I’d unilaterally change the contract with my workers to tighten who was covered, with the elderly going first.
Last, I’d tell all workers that all medical expenses must be pre-approved by management, with a long and arduous appeals process.
I wouldn’t even consider going after the real reasons costs were increasing because they’d be my clients (similar, say, to campaign donors.)
Does any of this sound the least bit familiar?
At this point I don’t think even His Hollowness is dumb enough to fire Elmendorf, but I’d also certainly hope that none of his family suffers a sudden, tragic occurrence. Just sayin’.
DaveinPheonix, I’m afraid you already do pay for all of these people via high medical and insurance costs and under Obamacare, they, the sacred cows of the Democratic party–the ‘poor’, downtrodden, discriminated against, minorities, illegal aliens–will receive preferential care while you and I, Dave, will be punished for our medical histories and having worked all of our lives. Around here in the good ole south, our ER’s are filled with rednecks and ‘poor minorities’ who started smoking in the crib, live on fast food, abuse drugs and live sedentary lives of leisure on the public dole–oh, and don’t forget the prisoners with boils on their butts that the state is required to march in for mandatory exams for any slight complaint. And like Carlos, I fear we won’t stop the Socialistic, Chicago-thug takeover of the country.