Solving the Healthcare Social Marketplace Puzzle

There is a relatively simple and 'American solution' to our healthcare social marketplace woes rather than pushing another gubermint burrocratic take over of the healthcare social marketplace down our throats -- just let providers deduct the unreimbursed cost of charity care from their income.

Overnight there would be a stampede of clinics in all health professions stepping up with sliding scale fee structures to provide top notch charity care. Additionally, there would be a natural check and balance to this care -- to make it work, one would have to real income from paying patients to deduct from.

Clinics could develop these plans according to the needs and situations of their own communities, rather than being forced to accept some top down edicts from some DC bureaucrats about how you are supposed to do things.

Having control of their costs and care, Clinics could easily implement stable broad reaching preventive programs for those of limited means.

The unspoken reality of much gubermint Medicaid and Medicare care is it frequently pays doctors and clinics 30 percent or less of their regular fees -- which is about the same as if the care were tax deductible, only with lots of ever changing red tape that reduce the quality of care provided. Microsoft might donate $1M in software to schools, it's tax deductible; a grocery store might donate $1k of food to a food bank, it's tax deductible; but a doctor can't donate their time to save a life, it's not tax deductible.

Sure, one might find out that a lot of health care providers would be paying little income taxes -- but then there would also be a huge reduction, if not elimination, in Medicare and Medicaid expenses.

This care would all be subject to marketplace rules -- if someone can do it better for less, that's where the market may go. Currently, with so much paid for by third parties and gubermint, there's little market incentives to find the most cost effective care options.

In summary, providers, NOT politicians, provide health care. This shouldn't be overlooked. Way too many people have developed an unhealthy faith in politicians, burrocrats and gubermint to solve their woes. In the case of health care, it's doctors, nurses and providers of all sorts that choose to provide whatever care is given, even in the face of barely being paid for their time or overhead. If folks start to appreciate this part of the healthcare link, they may start showing up for appointments, following provider instructions, and improving their own health by developing a healthy long term relationship with their providers -- instead of the entitled demand "Make me healthy now for free so I can get back to my couch, laptop, Xbox and TV remote with soda and chips..."

Virtually all of the so called health care woes people face can be directly tied to misdirected politics of one sort or another -- some well meaning, some naive, typically with a lot of 'unintended consequences', and virtually all mostly to buy votes and power rather than to provide quality affordable health care. Government is the problem, not solution...

Get government out of the way by a few minor changes in the tax code and let the marketplace solve the health care problem.

SocialMarketplace Foolery

Here we go again with another misguided push for sales tax on internet sales as a way to help states short on cash raise revenue. Come on folks, we live in a global marketplace that will self adjust to an internet sales tax amongst the States by moving internet business out of the country — and killing more jobs in the process.

Sure, initially some additional revenue might come into States, but that will just have to be spent on increased unemployment and welfare support for internet businesses that lose market share out of the country and have to either close or scale back their operations (lay off workers, close stores, and more). Might as well toss in loss of more jobs by American manufacturing that will now be done elsewhere because it makes even less sense to make something in the HIGH TAX US, ship it out of the country and back in to avoid taxation.

Taxing internet sales is basically like putting a bandaid over the cancer of politically centralized Social MarketPlace (SoMP) run amok.

The answer to weak government revenue to pay for more politically driven SOMPs isn’t more taxes, it’s promoting less centralization and politicization of the SoMPs. It’s out of control government run SoMPs that are driving out of control spending that is leading the push for more taxes… More taxes is akin to pouring gasoline on a fire.

The solution isn’t squeezing the flourishing internet sales market with more taxes, rather it’s opening up the politicized SoMPs so they are more individually driven rather than politically driven. Yes, this requires thinking out of the box -- a new paradigm if you will. Sadly, thinking out of the box is also something that the LOSERship of both parties are very weak at -- their solution for a a square peg and a round hole is to just pound harder, and charge the markets for all the pounding they did to 'solve' the problem until the cancer of Politicized SoMPs outgrows their bandaid and more pounding is required. Never mind that the "square pegs" of commerce and entrepreneurship are figuring out that moving operations out of the US is an increasing viable solution to achieving global marketplace success.

Marketplace Reality Check -- Politically driven SoMPs are inherently inefficient, costly, and insensitive to normal marketplace evolution — good or bad, programs grow and grow. Individually driven SoMPs are inherently efficient, cost effective, and very sensitive to normal marketplace evolution — good ones prosper, bad ones fade.

Coveting Hell

I think Obama is confusing his buddy Rev Jeremiah Wright with MLK. Rev Wright could be a keynote speaker for this crowd, and probably will be if there is a OWS in October 2012 as part of Obama’s reelection bid.

Obama’s comments also show how little he understands and believes in Christian philosophy and religious beliefs.

One of the ten commandments is all about not coveting your neighbor’s wealth — Yet promoting the taking of your neighbors wealth is what the OWS crowd and the Obamacrat’s Class Warfare is all about. We’ve already got a very progressive tax code that is all about taking from your neighbor to pay for health care, house, food and more. Just how is that working for everyone? Could it be if you follow the devil, you're likely to live in hell?

Cain has it right — He was taught not to covet his neighbor’s Cadillac, he was taught to work hard to buy his own…

If only the average religious social conservative were only as vehement about protecting this commandment against Class Warfare and jealousy as they are about protecting the unborn. Is there an eleventh commandment about how it's acceptable to choose and pick what commandments you wish to follow?

Big versus Small Government ignorance

Conservatives continue to be misguided in promoting the goal that small government is the solution to the nation’s woes.

Small government is the result of promoting dynamic individually driven social marketplaces. Just having a small government doesn’t mean one necessarily has dynamic individually driven social marketplaces. However, any society with dynamic individually driven social marketplaces will have a small government footprint.

Conversely, big government is the result of promoting collectivist politically driven social marketplaces. In this regard Pelosi is correct : Small government, without vibrant individually driven social marketplaces that provides access to care for those of limited means, may allow women to die on the floor.

Conservatives should expect this sort of nonsense to continue to gush out of liberals mouths so long as conservative leaders continue to promote small government as their primary goal, rather than first promoting vibrant individually driven social marketplaces.

Translation — Conservatives will continue to look stupid to many of the electorate as conservatives just don’t get the importance of properly designed and operated big or little social marketplaces.

Fine print — RINOs and most of the GOP LOSERship don’t get the individually driven social marketplace concept any more than liberals -- they haven't figured out how to leverage individually driven social marketplaces to promote their power.

VAT Solioquy

To VAT or not to VAT,
that is the question,
Whether tis nobler
to suffer the confusion and political panderings
of a bloated incomprehensible tax code,
or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them.
To put them into permanent sleep,
Perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off these mortal flaws,
Must give us pause of prosperity possible,
thru a simpler, fairer burden that all shall carry...

But alas, not to be,

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,...
============

A VAT based world might work just fine, if it could totally replace the income tax, in it's various forms. However, there are too many unwilling to make the leap from our current system, no matter how corrupt and flawed, to another world. Just be glad these aren't the same self limiting folks that were around during the time of the Revolution.

Nightmare on Pennsylvania Street

The Obamacrats are running scared and searching for a way to add some enthusiasm to their base.

As evidence to what’s possibly coming around the corner, last night, I got a short robo phone poll call that asked should Obama have Hillary or Biden as VP in the coming election. As I recall the only other questions were about party affiliation, race and my age. Short and sweet, no asking for donation$, no person to talk to, just listen to the prerecorded message and push a button according to my response.

So don’t be surprised if pretty soon (July 2012?), there’s some more feelers out there about dumping Biden and adding Hillary to the ticket as a means to create some enthusiasm beyond their extreme Blue/Green base. My guess is this may start with the PRESSSSident reporting on some new gaff that Joe makes to start the process of pushing Joe under the bus -- this might take at least a couple hours of following Joe around...

This also means that Obama’s Class Warfare strategy has wrapped up the Blue/Green base so no Democrat (aka Hillary) can run a primary challenge to the One. After O’s recent campaign sweeps, the extreme Blue/Green bucks are pretty much totally committed to Obama, there’s simply no left wing money left…

Go figure, this is also why, outside of the extreme Blue/Green base, there’s also not much enthusiasm left to spread around. It’s like rank & file Dems are all being forced to give up a nice Sunday Football afternoon to line up at the local theater to watch the sequel to a really bad movie (Nightmare on Pennsylvania Street) — as if changing some names on the marquee will actually fix the Nightmare’s sequel when everyone knows the plot is just more of the same… Go figure why the rank & file Democrat probably feels they’ve got something else better to do -- In addition to watching some football, they'll may check to make sure the honeydew list includes taking out the trash should the POTUS show up at halftime to disrupt their game…

Always Right

Always Right -- well most of the time.