President Obama's Extended Health Care Chat on ABC

So in order to compete they need to make no income which seems kinda hard to do. The income they make really has little to do with the cost/gdp of healthcare.

 

No - they simply need to be more efficient than a non-profit driven system, which everyone claims they would be. Are you saying a profit-driven system wouldn't be more efficient than a gov't-run one?

The income they make is directly connected to the cost of healthcare. The profit is part of the total cost of health care. If the company wants to generate $10 billion in profits, then that's $10 billion in additional premiums over cost that need to be collected from customers.

 

And it is 10 billion in GDP which negates the cost/gdp which I originally said.

 

Agreed.

Except the idea of the non-profit public option is that it's self-sustaining just as any non-profit would be - that the plan is paid for by the premiums collected. There are other types of public options that have been discussed which are more gov't-linked, but I think those are less likely to be implemented at this point. I would agree that those types would have a competitive advantage.

 

No it doesn't. It's basic math. You don't increase GDP there. You just take it away from people spending on something else. If my insurance costs $200 instead of $100, that's not $100 in new money created. That's $100 less spent elsewhere. It increases the both the total dollars and the % of money being spent on healthcare.

 

That just isn't accurate.

 

so you keep the CaseyH and fmullegun accounts simultaneously open for situations like this one, so that if one gets banned you swap into the other?

 

Actually, it is.

There's no way to argue that increasing health insurance costs doesn't change the cost of health care in relation to GDP. None. Nice, bizarre attempt though. I'd love to see the math used.

 

Please explain why is that inaccurate?

more and more money for health care is less and less money for other industries like auto, retail, food, etc.

 

Does the profit of the insurance companies increase the GDP?

When you take those profits away how can you assume all of those will be replaced?

 

probably I will take my money I save and go to China on vacation. How does that replace the lost profits to the GDP?

 

How much of the money is taken out of the United States?

It is projected medical cost will be more than 25% of GDP in about 10-15 years. What does that do to the rest of the economy? What happens when it reach 30% 40%? Insurance cost is a big part of the cost equation.

If Insurance comapnies are so efficient, they should have no problem compete against the bloated inefficient government insurance even if they are not paying taxes. If they cannot compete it means that are not that much more efficient.

 

Uhh, right. Because that's what the average American spends their money on. If they didn't have such high health care costs, they would all fly abroad and spend their money there.

Besides which, I assume you plan to buy a plane ticket to China, right? Or do you plan to row a boat there?

 

LOL, since this argument now turns on your trip to China, rather than say the Grand Canyon - you've already realized that you've said something incredibly stupid and lost.

 

Yes.

Because that's how the system works. Even if you only spend half of it, it still reduces the cost of health care vs. GDP. Again, do the math.

 

No, the way this argument is going, I'm pretty sure fmullegun/casey is going to come back with "Well, I'm going to book my ticket while in Toronto, using a chinese travel agency, using a foreign airline, riding an Airbus. While at the airport I will only eat imported truffles purchased at a duty free store, and I will ensure that the Jet/A used to fuel the plane comes from Citgo"

 

I can do algebra and reducing both sides of the equation by the same amount does not change the ratio. I am not sure what math you are trying to do.

 

I was actually going to counter with buying my casio G-shock off of Yahoo.jp but that will also work.

Care to comment on the cost/gdp argument major is making?

 

Just talk about that math for a second.

GDP = 1000 Health Care = 200 HC/GDP = 20%

GDP = 1000-100 Health Care = 200-100 HC/GDP = 1/9. Is that what you mean?

 

Not really to comment, other than to observe that you don't seem to understand the concept of marginal cost.