In 2017 my Website was migrated to the clouds and reduced in size.
Hence some links below are broken.
One thing to try if a “www” link is broken is to substitute “faculty” for “www”
For example a broken link
http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
can be changed to corrected link
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm
However in some cases files had to be removed to reduce the size of my Website
Contact me at 
rjensen@trinity.edu if you really need to file that is missing

Tidbits Political Quotations
To Accompany the December 28, 2017 edition of Tidbits
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbits/2017/tidbits122817.htm            
Bob Jensen at
Trinity University




USA Debt Clock --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ ubl

In September 2017 the USA National Debt exceeded $20 trillion for the first time ---
http://www.statedatalab.org/news/detail/national-debt-surpasses-20-trillion-for-the-first-time-in-us-history

How Your Federal Tax Dollars are Spent ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4eab53ef01b7c8ee6392970b-popup

To Whom Does the USA Federal Government Owe Money (the booked obligation of $20+ trillion) ---
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/politicalcalculations/2016/05/25/spring-2016-to-whom-does-the-us-government-owe-money-n2168161?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
The US Debt Clock in Real Time --- http://www.usdebtclock.org/ 
Remember the Jane Fonda Movie called "Rollover" --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rollover_(film)
One worry is that nations holding trillions of dollars invested in USA debt are dependent upon sales of oil and gas to sustain those investments.

To Whom Does the USA Federal Government Owe Money (the unbooked obligation of $100 trillion and unknown more in contracted entitlements) ---
http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/15/news/economy/entitlement-benefits/
The biggest worry of the entitlements obligations is enormous obligation for the future under the Medicare and Medicaid programs that are now deemed totally unsustainable ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm

How Americans Get Health Insurance ---
http://ritholtz.com/2017/08/americans-get-health-insurance/

 

Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side because it's been fertilized with more bullshit.
Anonomous

 

Shoot for the space in between, because that's where the real mystery lies.
Vera Rubin
https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/12/28/remebering-vera-rubin/?utm_source=Brain+Pickings&utm_campaign=f053a9c4e2-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_01_07&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_179ffa2629-f053a9c4e2-234390133

 

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
T.S. Eliot

There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen

Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.
Margaret Wheatley
Even conversations that are not politically correct.

Why, we grow rusty and you catch us at the very point of decadence --- by this time tomorrow we may have forgotten everything we ever knew. That's a thought isn't it? We'd be back to where we started --- improvising.
Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Act I)

It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.

Babe Ruth, Historic Home Run Hitter
What's sad is to witness what Syria has become because nobody will give up.

And "because they're nonstate actors, it's hard for us to get the satisfaction of [Gen.] MacArthur and the [Japanese] Emperor [Hirohito] meeting and the war officially being over," Obama observed, referencing the end of World War II. 
President Barack Obama when asked if the USA of the future will be perpetually engaged in war.
http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-on-americans-being-resigned-to-live-in-a-perpetual-war-2016-7

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. 
Joseph Campbell

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking. 
George S. Patton

If you don't know where you're going, you might not get there.
Yogi Berra

Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.
Henry David Thoreau

DeVos on GOP's Higher Education Act Rewrite ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/12/15/devos-gops-higher-education-act-rewrite?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=7a857a8230-DNU20171215&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-7a857a8230-197565045&mc_cid=7a857a8230&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

The (London) Times:  Trump is Better for Europe Than Obama ---
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/trump-is-better-for-europe-than-obama-bcr82cr8p

Illegal Immigration Levels Took a Surprising Turn in November ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2017/12/15/illegal-immigration-numbers-november-n2423228?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Vapid Cuban Documentarian Unwittingly Stumbles into Country’s Despairs ---
http://reason.com/archives/2017/12/15/vapid-cuban-documentarian-unwittingly-st

Most of the $3 Trillion in Overseas Holdings Is Already in the U.S. ---
https://www.thestreet.com/story/14367746/1/repatriation-tax-economy.html

The IRS Scandal, Day 1681: Robert Mueller And Lois Lerner ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2017/12/the-irs-scandal-day-1671-robert-muller-and-lois-lerner.html

Newsweek
Robert Reich: The Three Big Lies About Trump’s Tax Plan
The tax cuts will reduce demand, widen inequality and increase the national debt by at least $1.5 trillion
---
http://www.newsweek.com/robert-reich-three-big-lies-about-trumps-tax-plan-750616

Newsweek
Putin is Preparing for World War III --- is Trump?
http://www.newsweek.com/2017/12/22/putin-preparing-world-war-iii-trump-746988.html

Connecticut has the most underfunded pension system in the nation, amassing more than $127.7 billion in liabilities ---
http://www.yankeeinstitute.org/2017/12/connecticut-pension-system-worst-in-the-nation-according-to-new-study/
Jensen Comment
This does not mean it was the most fraudulent. I think California and Illinois share top honors for pension fraud.

Washington Post:  Even After 2017 Wins, Democrats Are Still Divided ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2017/12/18/wapo-even-after-2017-wins-democrats-are-as-divided-as-ever-n2421010?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=

The House Ethics Committee is broken — particularly when it comes to sexual harassment ---
https://www.vox.com/2017/12/19/16748108/house-ethics-committee-harassment

The Near Future of Electric Cars: Many Models, Few Buyers ---
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-12-19/the-near-future-of-electric-cars-many-models-few-buyers?cmpid=BBD121917_BIZ&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=171219&utm_campaign=bloombergdaily

City Colleges in Chicago Fudged Graduation Numbers ---
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/12/20/report-city-colleges-chicago-fudged-graduation-numbers?utm_source=Inside+Higher+Ed&utm_campaign=e69b9d8a17-DNU20171220&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1fcbc04421-e69b9d8a17-197565045&mc_cid=e69b9d8a17&mc_eid=1e78f7c952

The Royal Nowhere:  But there are a Few Royal Rubber Duckies?
Cutbacks leave Britain with no major warships overseas ---
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/cutbacks-leave-britain-with-no-major-warships-overseas-nkqlsgfc7
More butter and fewer guns

Democracy in Action
A Single Vote Changed the Balance of Power in Virginia ---
http://time.com/5072721/virginia-house-of-delegates-one-vote/?utm_source=time.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-brief&utm_content=2017122011am&xid=newsletter-brief
Jensen Comment
This probably would not happen in New Hampshire where Democrats can turn the valve to let as many liberals residing in Massachusetts and Vermont vote in NH elections. Senator Hassan had the help of over 5,000 out-of-state voters to win her U.S. Senate seat.

GOP's Corporate Tax Cut May Not Be as Big as It Looks ---
http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2017/12/the-gops-corporate-tax-cut-may-not-be-as-big-as-it-looks.html

Think You Know What Type of College Would Accept Charles Koch Foundation Money? Think Again ---
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Think-You-Know-What-Type-of/242103?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en&elqTrackId=4e23c93351c849739240950c07d6e068&elq=c7aab6381b784b429e934396b2cbc970&elqaid=17242&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=7489

Twitter today starts enforcing new rules around violence and hate ---
https://techcrunch.com/2017/12/18/twitter-today-starts-enforcing-new-rules-around-violence-and-hate/

Apple confirmed a longtime conspiracy theory — and gave regular customers a big reason to distrust it ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-battery-throttling-gives-customers-reason-to-distrust-2017-12

Trump grants clemency to an Iowa meatpacking exec convicted in a fraud case (in a rare agreement Nancy Pelosi applauds) ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-commutes-sholom-rubashkin-sentence-2017-12

A crucial House district race in Virginia could be decided by drawing names out of a bowl ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/virginia-election-who-won-decision-2017-12

The GOP tax plan will allow Apple to bring back its $252 billion in foreign cash without a big hit ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/gop-tax-plan-allows-apple-to-bring-back-252-billion-in-foreign-cash-2017-12

A Danish MP has called for all refugees, even those with jobs, to be deported from the country once their home nations are deemed “safe” ---
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/denmark-refugees-deported-sent-home-even-jobs-immigration-official-marcus-knuth-a8117576.html

Wealthy Homeowners in Blue States and in New York and San Francisco Specifically Will Be Hit Hardest by the GOP Tax Bill Awaiting Trump’s Signature ---
http://investmentwatchblog.com/wealthy-homeowners-in-blue-states-and-in-new-york-and-san-francisco-specifically-will-be-hit-hardest-by-the-gop-tax-bill-awaiting-trumps-signature/

New Swedish Consent Laws Could Require Written Permission For Sexual Relations ---
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/12/20/new-swedish-consent-laws-require-written-permission-sexual-relations/
Jensen Comment
Not to worry. Sweden also has some of the world's most lax enforcement laws and punishments for rape, especially in no-go zones where the police fear to venture.

California sued over poor literacy rates among its students ---
https://calwatchdog.com/2017/12/11/california-sued-poor-literacy-rates-among-students/

How the Catholic Church’s hierarchy makes it difficult to punish sexual abusers ---
https://theconversation.com/how-the-catholic-churchs-hierarchy-makes-it-difficult-to-punish-sexual-abusers-89477

Democrats Are Fooling Themselves About Tax Reform's Unpopularity ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/davidharsanyi/2017/12/22/democrats-are-fooling-themselves-about-tax-reforms-unpopularity-n2425913?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Trump Effect? The Dow Jones Made Its Biggest Annual Gain Ever This Year ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2017/12/22/trump-effect-the-dow-jones-made-its-biggest-annual-gain-ever-this-year-n2426073

Why millions of children are left to raise themselves in the Chinese countryside ---
https://aeon.co/videos/why-millions-of-children-are-left-to-raise-themselves-in-the-chinese-countryside?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=0125b3026b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_12_18&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-0125b3026b-68951505

The Most Obnoxious Quotes of 2017
https://townhall.com/columnists/johnhawkins/2017/12/23/the-25-most-obnoxious-quotes-of-2017-14th-annual-n2426436?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

States Ranked by Rate of Growth:  And the Loser is Badly-Managed and Fraud-Ridden Illinois (three former governors went to prison)
http://reason.com/blog/2017/12/21/illinois-decline-bumps-it-down-state-pop

Under coverture, married English women had no rights to their property, even though unmarried women did, making for a unique system in Europe.---
https://daily.jstor.org/how-17th-century-unmarried-women-helped-shape-capitalism/

Horror Show: The VA Hired Health Care Workers With Revoked Medical Licenses For Years ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2017/12/23/horror-show-the-va-hired-health-care-workers-with-revoked-medical-licenses-for-ye-n2426403?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

It is worth questioning what proportion of the news this year, what imperceptible fraction, was devoted to the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded for the landmark detection of gravitational waves — the single most significant astrophysical discovery since Galileo. After centuries of knowing the universe only by sight, only by looking, we can now listen to it and hear echoes of events that took place billions of lightyears away, billions of years ago — events that made the stardust that made us. ---
https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/12/21/reflection/?utm_source=Brain+Pickings&utm_campaign=a0ca5edc9c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_12_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_179ffa2629-a0ca5edc9c-234390133&mc_cid=a0ca5edc9c&mc_eid=4d2bd13843
Jensen Comment
Did CNN or MSNBC or Fox News even mention the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics as they fell over themselves reporting ad nauseoum on one failed political meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and the Russian Ambassader+-

Navy gives 48,000 sailors ‘fitness pardon’ who can’t meet fitness demands ---
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2017/12/navy-gives-48000-sailors-fitness-pardon-who-cant-meet-fitness-demands/?utm_source=guardianofvalor&utm_campaign=alt&utm_medium=facebook

The German Navy's Only Ship can't meet the fitness test ---
http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/17185/the-german-navy-has-decided-to-return-their-new-frigate-to-the-ship-store-this-christmas

Denver just decriminalized public defecation in order to make life easier for immigrants and the homeless ---
https://joeforamerica.com/2017/12/now-legal-defecate-urinate-denver-sidewalks/
It's only illegal when your dog does it.

Meanwhile in Florida
Seventy-year-old Robert L. Brady has until Jan. 11 to give up Bane, the mixed-breed sidekick that his psychologist deemed as an emotional support dog. His Conway-area condominium association won an arbitration order Dec. 12 requiring the Vietnam veteran to surrender the 4-year-old dog because it exceeds the community’s 35-pound weight limit for pets. Bane weighs about 41 pounds.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/classified/realestate/os-bz-support-dog-condo-20171223-story.html
 

The US Department of Justice will investigate claims that the Obama administration shielded the Lebanon-based Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah from criminal prosecution for its drug-trafficking and gun-running operations, as part of an effort to curry favor with Hezbollah’s patron, Iran.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/239756
It's only illegal if some other criminal group does it that's not building nukes.

A passenger on a flight from Houston to Washington D.C. has accused United Airlines of giving her first-class seat to U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. D-Houston, and then threatening to remove her from the plane for complaining and snapping a photo of the Houston congresswoman.
http://www.chron.com/news/politics/article/Woman-accuses-United-of-giving-her-seat-to-Rep-12452258.php 

The (London) Times:  Voucher plan to help pay for elderly care ---
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/voucher-plan-to-help-pay-for-elderly-care-q2gxv7r3c

CBS News:  Bernie Sanders: Yes, It’s A Good Thing Americans Are Getting A Tax Cut, But The GOP Bill Didn’t Go Far Enough ---
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2017/12/24/sanders-yes-its-a-good-thing-americans-are-getting-a-tax-cut-but-the-gop-bill-n2426770?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=
Jensen Comment
During his entire history in the USA Senate, did Bernie Sanders ever vote for a tax cut?

The Baltimore Ravens sent a letter this week to season-ticket holders, suite holders and sponsors about the number of no-shows at M&T Bank Stadium this season, citing a protest during the national anthem as one potential reason ---
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/21846807/baltimore-ravens-send-letter-fans-noticeable-no-shows-home-games

The (London) Times:  Universities warned over free speech by Jo Johnson
Universities must “open minds, not close them” and face tough new penalties if they do not promote freedom of speech . . . 
---
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/universities-warned-over-free-speech-by-jo-johnson-bqp2d5np0

Dead coal mines everywhere are being reincarnated as solar farms ---
https://qz.com/1153672/from-anhui-to-appalachia-dead-coal-mines-are-being-reincarnated-as-solar-farms/

Hundreds of thousands of women sexually harassed and assaulted on French public transport ---
https://voiceofeurope.com/2017/12/hundreds-of-thousands-of-women-sexually-harassed-and-assaulted-on-french-public-transport/
Jensen Comment
Japanese trains have special cars for women who do not want to get their butts pinched and breasts rubbed.

Low-Wage Workers Aren't Getting Justice for Sexual Harrassment ---
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/12/low-wage-workers-sexual-harassment/549158/

Deadly violence in Mexico is at record levels, and new crime data adds to the ugly picture ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-record-homicides-new-data-crime-numbers-2017-12

 




 

The New York Times Interactive Tax Calculator
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/17/upshot/tax-calculator.html

Jensen Comment
This is an example where averages can be misleading. For example, because my wife and I have relatively large medical deductions the NYT Calculator is seriously incorrect. It will be even more incorrect for those having long-term care nursing expenses (fortunately not us, yet) ---
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-latest-trump-predicts-monumental-tax-bill-will-pass/2017/12/15/b982d956-e1aa-11e7-b2e9-8c636f076c76_story.html?utm_term=.a44a56e4bcc4
In fairness the NYT article mentions many of the misleading aspects of its calculator.


 

The State of K-12 USA Education for 2017 in 10 Charts ---
https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/us-education-in-2017-in-10-charts.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news2&M=58320161&U=2290378

Jensen Comment
The first chart showing Wyoming and much of New England ahead of the other states in the USA confuses me somewhat. It's not exactly a Red versus Blue state issue since Blue states of Vermont and Massachusetts come out high along with Wyoming. I don't count New Hampshire as a Blue state since it is only Blue because it allows residents of Vermont and Massachusetts to vote in NH elections. The key issue is not a large versus small population issue according to this initial chart since Vermont and New Hampshire are small but Massachusetts has a lot of people. Reasons could be somewhat racial in nature, but this is a cloudy factor given outcomes in such states as Maine, Rhode Island, Utah, Idaho, and Montana. My conclusion is that any serious explanation of the first chart will have to be quite complicated.

2017’s Top 10 Quotes on Education Issues ---
https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/2017s-top-10-quotes-on-education-issues.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news2&M=58320161&U=2290378

Education Performance by State ---
https://www.edweek.org/ew/section/multimedia/us-education-in-2017-in-10-charts.html?cmp=eml-enl-eu-news2&M=58320161&U=2290378

Teacher Pay by States ---
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2017/02/which_states_pay_teachers_the_.html?cmp=eml-eb-popyear17+12212017&M=58321116&U=2290378

Jensen Comment on Education Performance versus Teacher Pay
At first blush when comparing the above links it would seem that higher teacher pay is not getting much bang for the buck in terms of education performance. However, data comparisons are not so simple.

Firstly, cost of living differences must be factored in when comparing most anything to pay. California housing, for example, is out of sight when compared to Wyoming and rural New England states like Vermont and New Hampshire. California and New York taxes are out of sight when compared to New Hampshire.

Secondly, education performance gets more complicated in states that are more racially and culturally mixed (think all states on the border with Mexico) versus Wyoming and New England.

Thirdly, think population, especially states with huge metropolitan areas like California, Illinois, and New York versus Wyoming, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Huge metropolitan areas present enormous problems (think turf wars, gangs, and language mixes) that uniquely exist for K-12 schools in these metropolises.

I don't have all the answers when comparing K-12 education performance with teacher pay scales. What I do know is not to draw oversimplistic conclusions when comparing performance charts with pay charts. Then again maybe our kids are just smarter than your kids no matter what you pay your teachers. Yeah! That's it!


Monopsony --- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopsony

How Widespread Is Labor Monopsony? Some New Results Suggest It’s Pervasive ---
http://rooseveltinstitute.org/how-widespread-labor-monopsony-some-new-results-suggest-its-pervasive/

Jensen Comment
Since I lean in favor of capitalism I generally oppose monopoly and monopsony powers. However, I have a little trouble sometimes with the ethics of strategies and tactics in this context. For example, one time on the AECM listserv a respondent claimed that employers like Harley Davidson in Milwaukee helped keep welders' wages low by funding and otherwise supporting local welding school training programs. Is it unethical for employers to expand their base of suppliers in such a manner?


Here are the 18 biggest bankruptcies of the 'retail apocalypse' of 2017 ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/retailers-bankruptcy-filings2017-9

Jensen Comment
In the case of retail chains, many stores close in bankruptcy but some stores often remain (possibly with new owners).

 


 


 


 


 

Compare Teaching Pay With Teaching Outcomes

Teaching Pay ---
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2017/02/which_states_pay_teachers_the_.html?cmp=eml-eb-popyear17+12212017&M=58321116&U=2290378

Teaching Outcomes
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




Bob Jensen's health care messaging --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm

Democrats:  Are You Sure You Want Medicare (plus universal "free" nursing care) for All?
http://reason.com/archives/2017/09/12/are-you-sure-you-want-medicare-for-all
Jensen Comment
If done well it will cost more than the entire USA Federal budget with exploding future inflation expenses.

Data USA (community demographics, such as Medicare reimbursements by county) --- https://datausa.io/
Deloitte played a major role in developing this database on poverty, health, and many other data categories


Canadians Wait — and Wait — to See the Doctor ---
https://townhall.com/columnists/jeffjacoby/2017/12/20/canadians-wait--and-wait--to-see-the-doctor-n2425374?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

Jensen Comment
In the USA a lot of patients also wait to see doctors in emergency rooms except in bona fide emergencies.

According to emergency room physicians Obamacare made it much worse for emergency rooms.
American College of Emergency Room Physicians
The Uninsured: Access to Medical Care Fact Sheet ---
http://newsroom.acep.org/fact_sheets?item=30032

Nationalized healthcare is not all it's cracked up to be ---
http://www.businessinsider.com/nationalized-healthcare-is-not-all-its-cracked-up-to-be-2016-9

. . .

Back home, though, Canadians seem far more critical of the system. If you follow the internal Canadian debate, you’ll hear the word “crisis.” In fact, many Canadian healthcare economists warn that their system is headed for a major collapse. The aging population has continued to stress an already fragile system. This is the same system that many proponents of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, pointed to as a model.

Another model of national health care cited by fans of the ACA is the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). Like the Canadian system, there seems to be one attitude for export and another for domestic consumption. You may recall the odd tribute to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) in the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics. The NHS was portrayed as a sea of Mary Poppins bliss. At home, though, Brits had reason to complain. The UK was rated as having the worst patient care and lowest cancer survival rates in the Western World.

The NHS is in even worse shape now, and complaints are growing louder. According to the committee that represents UK hospitals, the NHS is on the verge of collapse. The former health minister Paul Burstow warned of this outcome two years ago. At the time, increases in the NIH budget were limited to the rate of inflation. But that did not allow for the increased cost of a growing elderly population. The NIH effort to find £30 billion in “efficiency savings” was already putting enormous strains on the system.

When a healthcare system is overloaded, it’s not just the aged who suffer. A Lancashire man operated on himself when he was put on a long waitlist for a surgery that he badly needed. With waitlists growing, the Royal College of Surgeons reports that financially challenged clinical groups are denying services to patients who are obese or smoke. Often, delayed treatment will increase medical costs in the long run.  

So it shouldn’t be surprising that the Affordable Care Act, which was inspired by the Canadian and British systems, is in deep trouble. Though I predicted it, it is worrisome when the act’s biggest supporters, including The New York Times, admit the program’s flaws.

The growing aged population is a huge financial burden

Obamacare doesn’t deal with the real source of rising healthcare costs: the increase in age-related diseases due to a growing elderly population. It is mathematically impossible to cut societal medical costs while at the same time providing adequate healthcare to a growing and increasingly expensive older population.

This is not just a problem with health care. Social Security and pension funds are running deficits, which will also worsen. Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, recently said that he has lost the optimism that he has long been known for. The reason is that “we have a 9 percent annual rate of increase in entitlements, which is mandated by law.  It has got nothing to do with the economy. It has got to do with age and health and the like.”

Greenspan points out that politicians refuse to deal with the “third rail” of entitlements. I agree, but I think there’s a solution. Politicians claim that voters won’t accept delayed retirement. But the evidence shows that most people would like to work longer and save more to pay their own way. Zoya Financial reports that almost two thirds of Americans have to retire earlier than planned, largely due to problems with their own health or a spouse’s.

Anti-aging biotechnologies are in labs right now that could lengthen health spans and working careers. This would allow us to save our entitlement systems. But economists and politicians still have no clue about the biotechnological progress that has marked the start of the 21st century. This will change because it must… but I hope it happens soon


The (London) Times:  Voucher plan to help pay for elderly care ---
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/voucher-plan-to-help-pay-for-elderly-care-q2gxv7r3c

Tax-free vouchers like those used by parents to pay for childcare should be offered to encourage people to save towards long-term care costs, a company has proposed.

Eldercare vouchers could be used to build up a pot of savings to pay care home fees in later life or for domiciliary care at home under the plan.

Alternatively, employees could use vouchers to contribute towards current care costs for an elderly parent or another member of their family. Siblings could also pool their vouchers to pay care bills for one or both of their parents.

The plan has been suggested by Busy Bees, Britain’s largest group of nurseries, which developed the idea of childcare vouchers in the 1990s that was later adopted by the government.

The key difference with eldercare vouchers would be the ability for an employee to save up vouchers in a personal account over a long period.

 

The company has suggested a maximum contribution of £100 a week, meaning that an individual who put aside the largest amount permitted over 20 years could accrue a pot worth just over £100,000.

It could only be spent with a registered care provider and, as a non-taxable benefit. If an employee withdrew their money for any other purpose they would have to pay income tax on the sum.

If someone died without using the account, the money would pass to their estate and to their heirs after inheritance tax was paid.

John Woodward, chief executive of Busy Bees, who was heavily involved in the design of childcare vouchers and administered the scheme in his nurseries, developed the idea after arranging care for his mother, who died aged 93.

“I am lucky. I could afford to pay for her care,” he said. “It certainly highlighted to me the massive issue that there is and need for some encouragement for people to do it with some type of tax break.

“This is a proposal based on an operation we have been involved with before and something that we very simply see as practical and part of a bigger answer.

“It won’t solve everything but is something we know has worked in the past. We know it is popular, it is simple, not open to fraud easily and would work.”

The scheme would only benefit working people who are tax payers, who could choose to forgo part of their salary to buy vouchers. Mr Woodward said it would be popular with employers as a staff benefit, and for reducing slightly their national insurance bill.

He added that the government would lose tax in the short term but benefit from higher private contributions for social care in the longer term as, on average, people would save £1 for care costs for every 35p in lost tax.

Busy Bees has submitted the idea to ministers ahead of the government’s consultation on social care, which is due to report by next summer. One former government adviser said many people were reluctant to contribute towards something they may not benefit from, although Baroness Altmann, the former pensions minister, is a keen supporter. The care sector also backs the idea.

Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, which represents independent care providers, said: “The proposal for a voucher scheme is something that I welcome because it will give citizens the opportunity to save for their long-term care needs, and be supported to do this with some tax allowances.

“If we are going to meet the challenges of the future, we need to encourage people to save for their long-term care and the government needs to incentivise people to make provisions for the future.”

Continued in article


50% of health and social-care funding is spent on 4% of people . . . About 25% of all hospital inpatient spending during a person’s lifetime occurs in the final three months.
"The (British) National Health Care Service is a Mess," The Economist, September 10, 2016, pp. 48-49 ---
http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21706563-nhs-mess-reformers-believe-new-models-health-care-many-pioneered

. . .

Like health-care systems around the world, the National Health Service (NHS) is struggling to provide good care at low cost for patients such as Mrs Evans (not her real name). Its business model has not kept up with the changing burden of disease. For as more people enter and live longer in their dotage, demand increases for two costly types of care. The first is looking after the dying. About 25% of all hospital inpatient spending during a person’s lifetime occurs in the final three months. The second is caring for those with more than one chronic condition. About 70% of NHS spending goes on long-term illnesses. More than half of over-70s have at least two and a quarter have at least three. In south Somerset 50% of health and social-care funding is spent on 4% of people.

. . .

If one fallacy about the NHS is that it is the envy of the world, as its devotees claim, another is that it is a single organisation. In fact it is a series of interlocking systems. Public health, hospitals, general practitioners (or GPs, the family doctors who provide basic care outside hospitals) and mental-health services all have separate funding and incentives. Social care, which includes old-folks’ homes and the like, is run by local councils, not the NHS

. . .

So the NHS must do more with what it already spends. A sign of inefficiency is the 6,000 patients in English hospitals who are ready to go home but not yet discharged, up from 4,000 in 2013. They cost the service hundreds of millions of pounds per year and obstruct others from treatment. The bed-blockers themselves are harmed, too. Elderly patients lose up to 5% of muscle strength for every day they are laid up in hospital. Some delays are the result of council cuts: about 400,000 fewer old people receive social care than in 2010, meaning that hospitals are sometimes used as expensive alternatives to care homes. But most are due to how hospitals are run.

. . .

On average, the framework made GPs some of the highest-paid family doctors in the world when it was introduced in 2004. But since then it has become less generous. GPs’ real-terms income has fallen by one-fifth. This, and poor planning, has led to a shortage of them. England needs 5,000 more in the next five years. The NHS is mulling a deal with Apollo, whereby the Indian health-care firm supplies enough doctors to fill the gap.

. . .

The move from “volume to value”—that is, from paying providers for the procedures they carry out to paying them for the outcomes they achieve—has helped to stem the cost of Medicare, the American health system for pensioners. The expansion of ACOs as part of Obamacare led to reduced mortality rates and savings for providers of about 1-2%. But Dan Northam Jones, a visiting fellow at Harvard, warns that the potential for savings is greater in systems like Medicare, where there is no cap on spending.

And yet ACOs reflect a growing belief that if you want radically to improve health care you have to change how you pay for it. They will not solve all the problems of the NHS, some of which are inherent in its taxpayer-funded model. But perhaps its business model may yet catch up with how illness is changing. The NHS should forget being the envy of the world, and instead learn from it.

On November 22, 2009 CBS Sixty Minutes aired a video featuring experts (including physicians) explaining how the single largest drain on the Medicare insurance fund is keeping dying people hopelessly alive who could otherwise be allowed to die quicker and painlessly without artificially prolonging life on ICU machines.
"The Cost of Dying," CBS Sixty Minutes Video, November 22, 2009 ---
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-cost-of-dying-end-of-life-care/

"Germany Is Exporting Its Grandmas (to Poland)," by Naomi, Kresge, Bloomberg Business Week, September 26, 2013 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-26/germany-exports-its-seniors-to-nursing-homes-abroad

"Government Medicine vs. the Elderly:  In Britain in 2007-08, 16.5% of deaths came after 'terminal sedation," by Rupert Darwall, The Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2009 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203917304574412680569936844.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

Rarely has the Atlantic seemed as wide as when America's health-care debate provoked a near unanimous response from British politicians boasting of the superiority of their country's National Health Service. Prime Minister Gordon Brown used Twitter to tell the world that the NHS can mean the difference between life and death. His wife added, "we love the NHS." Opposition leader David Cameron tweeted back that his plans to outspend Labour showed the Conservatives were more committed to the NHS than Labour.

This outbreak of NHS jingoism was brought to an abrupt halt by the Patients Association, an independent charity. In a report, the association presented a catalogue of end-of-life cases that demonstrated, in its words, "a consistent pattern of shocking standards of care." It provided details of what it described as "appalling treatment," which could be found across the NHS.

A few days later, a group of senior doctors and health-care experts wrote to a national newspaper expressing their concern about the Liverpool Care Pathway, a palliative program being rolled out across the NHS involving the withdrawal of fluids and nourishment for patients thought to be dying. Noting that in 2007-08, 16.5% of deaths in the U.K. came after "terminal sedation," their letter concluded with the chilling observation that experienced doctors know that sometimes "when all but essential drugs are stopped, 'dying' patients get better" if they are allowed to.

The usual justification for socialized health care is to provide access to quality health care for the poor and disadvantaged. But this function can be more efficiently performed through the benefits system and the payment of refundable tax credits.

The real justification for socialized medicine is left unstated: Because health-care resources are assumed to be fixed, those resources should be prioritized for those who can benefit most from medical treatment. Thus the NHS acts as Britain's national triage service, deciding who is most likely to respond best to treatment and allocating health care accordingly.

It should therefore come as no surprise that the NHS is institutionally ageist. The elderly have fewer years left to them; why then should they get health-care resources that would benefit a younger person more? An analysis by a senior U.K.-based health-care expert earlier this decade found that in the U.S. health-care spending per capita goes up steeply for the elderly, while the U.K. didn't show the same pattern. The U.K.'s pattern of health-care spending by age had more in common with the former Soviet bloc.

A scarcity assumption similar to the British mentality underlies President Barack Obama's proposed health-care overhaul. "We spend one-and-a-half times more per person on health care than any other country, but we aren't any healthier for it," Mr. Obama claimed in his address to Congress last Wednesday, a situation that, he said, threatened America's economic competitiveness.

This assertion is seldom challenged. Yet what makes health care different from spending on, say, information technology—or any category of consumer service—such that spending on health care is uniquely bad for the American economy? Distortions like malpractice suits that lead to higher costs or the absence of consumer price consciousness do result in a misallocation of resources. That should be an argument for tackling those distortions. But if high health-care spending otherwise reflects the preferences of millions of consumers, why the fuss?

The case for ObamaCare, as with the NHS, rests on what might be termed the "lump of health care" fallacy. But in a market-based system triggering one person's contractual rights to health care does not invalidate someone else's health policy. Instead, increased demand for health care incentivizes new drugs, new therapies and better ways of delivering health care. Government-administered systems are so slow and clumsy that they turn the lump of health-care fallacy into a reality.

According to the 2002 Wanless report, used by Tony Blair's government to justify a large tax hike to fund the higher spending, the NHS is late to adopt and slow to diffuse new technology. Still, NHS spending more than doubled to £103 billion in 2009-10 from £40 billion in 1999-2000, equivalent to an average growth rate of over 7% a year after inflation.

In 1965, economist (and future Nobel laureate) James Buchanan observed of the 17-year old NHS that "hospital facilities are overcrowded, and long delays in securing treatment, save for strictly emergency cases, are universally noted." Forty-four years later, matters are little improved. The Wanless report found that of the five countries it looked at, the U.S. was the only one to be both an early adopter and rapid diffuser of new medical techniques. It is the world's principal engine driving medical advance. If the U.S. gets health-care reform wrong, the rest of the world will suffer too.

Mr. Darwall, a London-based strategist, is currently writing a book on the history of global warming, to be published by Quartet Books in Spring 2010.

Jensen Plea
If and when I become gaga please sedate me to the max (meaning euthanize me)! I fear my wife, who is quite religious, will not allow that to happen.

Jensen Comment
In the USA a lot of patients also wait to see doctors in emergency rooms except in bona fide emergencies.

According to emergency room physicians Obamacare made it much worse for emergency rooms.
American College of Emergency Room Physicians
The Uninsured: Access to Medical Care Fact Sheet ---
http://newsroom.acep.org/fact_sheets?item=30032


As a Doctor, I’m Sick of All The Health Care Freeloaders ---
https://www.texasobserver.org/chip-doctor-texas-kids/
Jensen Comment
Many hospitals will not serve Medicaid patients or patients insured by Obamacare exchanges due to losing so much money on those patients. Those medical clinics that do serve such patients may be cutting costs by making those patients be served by physicians assistants who are not doctors. This is not ipso facto a bad thing for screening patients, but it becomes questionable when medications and other treatments are being given to patients without seeing more qualified medical service providers.

Major Chicago Hospitals Not In 2017 Obamacare Marketplace Plans ---
https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/major-chicago-hospitals-not-in-2017-obamacare-marketplace-plans/f55d6c23-d9b1-452f-8c75-73635bd83d07

Some of Chicago’s largest hospitals said they will not be part of any Cook County Affordable Care Act marketplace plans in 2017.

 

University of Chicago Medical Center and Rush University Medical Center both said they don’t plan to be in network for any Obamacare marketplace plans next year. 

 

 

The change means patients with doctors at those hospitals will either need to find a plan off the marketplace, and lose Obamacare subsides, or find a new doctor.

 

Northwestern Memorial Hospital said it will also be out of the marketplace, but will have exceptions for some of its partner hospitals.

Continued in article


According to emergency room physicians Obamacare made it much worse for emergency rooms.
American College of Emergency Room Physicians
The Uninsured: Access to Medical Care Fact Sheet ---
http://newsroom.acep.org/fact_sheets?item=30032


 

 


Bob Jensen's threads on health coverage are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Health.htm

United Kingdom:  Millions denied an NHS dentist ---
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/millions-denied-an-nhs-dentist-xfhbgzlz0

 

Bob Jensen's Tidbits Archives ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/tidbitsdirectory.htm 

Bob Jensen's Pictures and Stories
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Pictures.htm

Summary of Major Accounting Scandals --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accounting_scandals

Bob Jensen's threads on such scandals:

Bob Jensen's threads on audit firm litigation and negligence ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm

Current and past editions of my newsletter called Fraud Updates ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudUpdates.htm

Enron --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudEnron.htm

Rotten to the Core --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudRotten.htm

American History of Fraud --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudAmericanHistory.htm

Bob Jensen's fraud conclusions ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on auditor professionalism and independence are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001c.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on corporate governance are at
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/Fraud001.htm#Governance 

 

Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm

·     With a Rejoinder from the 2010 Senior Editor of The Accounting Review (TAR), Steven J. Kachelmeier

·     With Replies in Appendix 4 to Professor Kachemeier by Professors Jagdish Gangolly and Paul Williams

·     With Added Conjectures in Appendix 1 as to Why the Profession of Accountancy Ignores TAR

·     With Suggestions in Appendix 2 for Incorporating Accounting Research into Undergraduate Accounting Courses

Shielding Against Validity Challenges in Plato's Cave  --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/TheoryTAR.htm
By Bob Jensen

What went wrong in accounting/accountics research?  ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#WhatWentWrong

The Sad State of Accountancy Doctoral Programs That Do Not Appeal to Most Accountants ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms

AN ANALYSIS OF THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE ACCOUNTING REVIEW: 1926-2005 ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm#_msocom_1

Bob Jensen's threads on accounting theory ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/theory01.htm

Systemic problems of accountancy (especially the vegetable nutrition paradox) that probably will never be solved ---
http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/FraudConclusion.htm#BadNews

Bob Jensen's economic crisis messaging http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/2008Bailout.htm

Bob Jensen's threads --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm

Bob Jensen's Home Page --- http://faculty.trinity.edu/rjensen/