Fucking NY Times editorial today. They need to hear from droves of us!!

[tpsbmam]

<snips of this bullshit editorial>

Health Care and the Deficit

Here is a basic truth about the deficit: In the long run, it cannot be fixed, without reining in spending on Medicare and Medicaid.

This year, Medicare, Medicaid and a related children’s health insurance program will account for more than 20 percent of all federal spending — higher than Social Security or defense. Unless there are big changes, by 2035 federal health care spending — driven by rising medical costs and an aging population — is projected to account for almost 40 percent of the budget.

Two bipartisan commissions have issued recommendations to sharply reduce annual deficits, in part through bold changes — some sound, others dubious — in the way health care is paid for. Here are some of the issues that Congress will need to evaluate:

COST-SHIFTING The most disturbing element of both reports is that, in their efforts to show quick savings, they shift much of the burden from the federal budget to individuals or, in some cases, to states. That may make the federal deficit look better, but it is a shell game that produces no real reduction in the cost of health care.

These are just the leading paragraphs at this POS editorial. Way more at link.



***********CONTACT INFORMATION**************:

Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Chairman & Publisher:
[e-mail].

Scott H. Heekin-Canedy, President, General Manager
[e-mail].

The Editors
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

# LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
E-mail to [e-mail].

And just in case anyone here is feeling ambitious and might actually stand a chance of getting an Op-Ed published:

# OP-ED/EDITORIAL
For information on Op-Ed submissions, call [phone] or send article to [e-mail]. To write to the editorial page editor, send to [e-mail].

[trumad]

1. Who wrote this? Judith Miller?

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. While that is true

the biggest spending item in the budget is defense

Second biggest is health care... and this one could be controlled and reduced with a public option... which makes it far more efficient.

Be sure to tell them this a PUBLIC OPTION had the best savings long term according to the GAO

[Hello_Kitty]

4. The P.O and drug negotiation/reimportation.

What we got instead was excise tax magic and an MLR that is riddled with loopholes.

[OnlinePoker]

5. Don't count on it.

B.C. spends 42% of its annual budget on health and its still not enough to drop wait lists down to a reasonable level (an average of 18.8 weeks for all services in 2010).

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. And the US has 50 million people who don't have access to ONE waiting list

save the ER maybe.

[Dennis Donovan]

10. The Military Industrial Complex will NEVER allow spending cuts...

They'd just assassinate the leader. It's not like they haven't done it before...

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Empires do not live forever

Rome learned that, the Spanish leaned that, the English, the French, and so we are about to.

[Enthusiast]

20. But before that happens

the elderly actually will be eating cat food and living in a box. Because empire isn't something given up lightly.

[unhappycamper]

27. Correcto Mundo

For the 2011 national non-discretionary budget:

the military gets 58% of non-discretionary funds
interest on the national debt eats up another 7% of non-discretionary funds

In contrast, Education gets 4% of non-discretionary funds.

[Hello_Kitty]

3. I agree with it re: cost shifting to individuals and states.

The so-called cost curve bending of the HCR plan relies largely on what Jon Walker of FDL (I don't care what you think of the source, Walker has done an outstanding job analyzing HCR) calls "economagic". They took more effective cost cutting measures off the table in favor of the excise tax. Which is supposed to make us all "savvier consumers" or something. Code for pay more out of pocket or use less health care.

[tpsbmam]

7. You agree with making those on Medicare and Medicaid pay "higher premiums

and co-insurance?"

You would agree with Simpson & Bowles? Very sad to read this from a DUer. Here's what you're endorsing. Millions who have to forgo even more medical care than now will have you, Bowles, Simpson & others of their ilk to thank if this happens.

The White House commission, headed by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, proposes to wring nearly $400 billion from health care spending between 2012 and 2020, of which the biggest single element — $110 billion — would come from increased cost-sharing by Medicare beneficiaries. The second commission, an independent panel headed by Pete Domenici and Alice Rivlin, seeks to save $137 billion from Medicare cost-sharing.

Forcing beneficiaries to pay more is a reasonable way to get them to think twice before undergoing an expensive test that may not be critically necessary. But there is a big risk that people on modest incomes might forgo needed care. Beneficiaries might have to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars more out of pocket.

It makes me incredibly sad and more than a little pissed off to see DUers endorsing this.

[Hello_Kitty]

11. Did I say that? I said they made one good point about cost shifting. eom

[CTyankee]

17. I don't disagree with the concept of people using the system in some unnecessary ways.

I was guilty myself. Because at the time I had a pretty "rich" health care plan (under spouse's union contract) I went to a specialist (cardiologist) to consult with him about my high blood pressure. But at my regular annual checkup my primary care provider (who is a liberal)told me that I didn't need the care of a cardiologist since I did not have heart disease. A pcp, he said, is perfectly qualified to treat hypertension and there was really no reason for me to seek a specialist, absent any other symptoms, family history, etc. Since I respect this doctor I decided that I didn't need the cardiologist, just because I COULD under my health insurance, and that it would be less of a stress on the health care system if I kept my blood pressure control with my pcp. There has been no further problem.

My pcp is the first to refer me to a specialist when he feels it is necessary. I think he is right. I should not have jumped over him to a specialist without more of a medical need...

[reformist2]

6. No mention of letting MMS negotiate prices, of course.

[silver10]

9. If it's wrong to pick peace and helping people over entering and continuing wars for profit...

Then call me guilty.

Why is it that killing and maiming people for no good reason - just to serve war mongers and profiteers, and continuing a massive bloated defense budget is not even on the table, but Medicare, Medicaid, and children's health program spending is? Why should they be the easy sacrifices, because there's no rich people they help, who will spend millions on top PR firms to spread propaganda?

[Rex]

12. Why would I waste my precious brain on a rag I wouldn't use to

ya you know what to my posterior? Fuck them and their lack of journalistic integrity!

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Sadly the NYT is actually a good paper

when compared to my local fish wrap...

It is a matter of perspective...

[tpsbmam]

19. And like it or not, the NY Times is still considered the "newspaper of record" and

it has the 3rd highest circulation (Wall St. Journal is first & USA Today is second; I suspect the later is second due to copies in most motels, etc). And none of this counts online access. I can tell you that the first newspapers I consult each morning are the NY Times and WaPo. When I'm in a hurry, I'll race through the NY Times and that's it. I don't know about web traffic, but I can tell you that I don't know anyone (in my 3-D life) who stays up on the news who doesn't go to the NY Times at least once a day.

[Le Taz Hot]

26. You just met one.

:shrug:

[Rex]

23. Any organization that would defend fascism over freedom of press

is crap...might as well be owned by Moon.

[SOS]

33. It is like have having two different papers

They cover some topics well.
They give information not found elsewhere and can be quite useful.

BUT - They are a neoliberal rag in most aspects.
The lies of Judy Miller on Iraq.
The corporate propaganda of Gina Kolata.
The absurd, biased reporting of Simon Romero on Venezuela.
The pro-Wall Street, anti-labor bias.
The slanted coverage of Obama. Terrible pictures of him every time. (When he vetoed the robosigning bill (his first) it was buried in the B section.)

They have Frank Rich, Gretchen Morgenson, Paul Krugman, Joe Nocera etc.

But overall they reside on Wall Street, not Main Street.

[Initech]

15. You know what really drives up the deficit? Military spending!!!

I just read something the other day - the pukes will not put even $7 billion in to keep medicare / medicaid going but they'll gladly spend $320 billion on new fighter jets. So what is excessive government spending again?

[Rhiannon12866]

25. +1000!

:(

[Warren DeMontague]

16. Right. Because we couldn't do unthinkable things like cut the military in half or end the drug war.

Legalize, regulate, tax marijuana. Unthinkable.

Better to kick old people off the curb, for sure.

[Speck Tater]

18. EVERYTHING about Western Civilization is unsustainable.

It's doomed and there's no way to save it.

[and-justice-for-all]

21. Well luckily it is in the 'opinion'section of the paper...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/opinion/12sun1.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

and with no author attached...hmmmmm???

[melm00se]

28. I am not 100% sure

but in my experience, rarely, if ever, is a specific author attached to a newspaper's editorials. Perhaps because it's an editorial it is drafted by the editor and/or his staff, hence the name editorial

[and-justice-for-all]

32. Well not here,

all things submitted and published in the local paper have an author attached, even if it is the editor.

[krispos42]

22. And what happened after 2035? Won't the Baby Boomers begin dying off rapidly?

At some point they'll be largely extinct, and not that long after 2035.

[Oilwellian]

24. Extinct?

Are you fucking kidding me? Are you always so uncouth?

[krispos42]

29. excuse me

What would you prefer? "Die off"? "Faded away"?

"Faded away" is pretty gentle, I guess.

[Better Believe It]

30. More of President Obama's health care "reform" on the agenda. Big cuts in Medicare/Medicaid

[blindpig]

31. The ruling class speaks through it's most prominent mouthpiece.

They agree on the basics, will squabble over the details and call the results 'a great compromise for the American people'.

Nothing but massive and continual presence in the street has a chance of stopping this and then maybe not, but at least the it will be a beginning of what we must do to oppose what they are doing to us. Forget the political class, we are on our on.