Comments on: GOP Senators Seek Investigation of $10B Medicare Innovation Center under Affordable Care Act

By: doctorhog

doctorhog — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 05:30:19 +0000

Actually, it might not be a bad idea to inquire about how they plan to spend $10BILLION$ on “innovation”. Doesn’t seem like innovation should cost that much. There are a lot of ideas already out there that are free. Google “health care innovation” and you get 61 million results. And what have they been doing with the $80BILLION$ a year already being spent in the HHS discretionary budget? No innovation money in there? Maybe they shouldn’t say they are spending $10BILLION$ on innovation. Instead call it an “investment” to “save” money. Like when my wife recently invested in a Vera Wang dress that was on sale and saved us $400. I asked her why she didn’t buy ten dresses. We coulda gone to Hawaii.

By: Ransome

Ransome — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 05:21:34 +0000

They haven’t spent the money and I have no objections to requesting a progress report. Even more, I would want a project plan with milestones. For this detail requires larger government, not less. If you want money spent effectively, it requires oversight that costs money. This is why outsourcing is not cost effective over a well managed employee. Contractors are buffers and specialty service providers.

We know several things about health care. It is frequently corporately abused because of monopolistic practices. The cost of labor is flat so look elsewhere for systematic cost increases. American corporations are remarkably inefficient because of defective self-interested management that bribe politicians to protect them rather than performing. The very highest executives are not smart, they are connected.

By: Pat Tousignat

Pat Tousignat — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 04:25:17 +0000

Sounds like this [CMMI] program is the kind of innovative creative thinking we need in this country….Do you suppose they do not want the genius of American thinking – when the politicians can get all that Lobbiest moola to keep doing the same old things that keep them in office and millions of our own – the living – without access to health care they need.

By: Thinksbeforeyou type

Thinksbeforeyou type — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 03:54:44 +0000

OR maybe instead of just reading and following lockstep with worn out politcal slogans you might stop and think. just because you spend 10 billion on a program for heathcare does not mean its the best way to spend the money many many heathcare programs would be much better off if they got 10 billion dollars of funding ie cancer reseach,sids alzheimer’s ect ect

By: Ransome

Ransome — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 03:47:19 +0000

The GOP is in a Catch 22 position, watch them squirm. They want to reduce government health care expenditures without reducing the cost of health care because that would reduce corporate profits. The GOP wants to increase corporate profits. The only way is to cost shift from the government to the patient. This is the foundation of the voucher program. It will fail because people just don’t have the money.

By: DrDoctor

DrDoctor — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 03:46:52 +0000

If you ain’t got a job, it’s your own fault. If you can’t pay for health care, please die quick. That’s the GOP policy.

By: doctorhog

doctorhog — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 03:46:51 +0000

Those CMMI programs sound so good. Are they creating thousands of green jobs too? Actually, for that amount of money it would only be in the hundreds. Anyway, what’s another $10BILLION$ here, or there. The Repubs and their GAO stooges need to keep their noses out of this and let the dough flow. The farmers and the WIC babymommas are getting theirs.

By the way, very objective article. Keep ‘em coming. How much longer do you think it will take, before we can all get on the government payroll?

By: Nurse RN

Nurse RN — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 02:34:48 +0000

Right on, Doctordawg! You have it right.

By: Doctordawg

Doctordawg — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 01:17:43 +0000

These heartless corporate shills are concerned about preserving the “fiscal health of the U.S. government” at the expense of the actual health of American citizens. Yet they still support spending billions of dollars for warmaking against phantom enemies. More people die from cancers and heart attacks than al Qaida, yet $10 billion is too much for health while trillions of dollars spent on fake wars is essential for our “security.”

Unbelievable.