Romney picks Paul Ryan as his running mate **official thread**

[pbrower2a]

Marston, let me be more blunt. Under Obamacare regulations medical services are going to be rationed to death as it were. The basket will shrink. There is no escape.

Medical services are already rationed, and not only due to cost. Sheer futility rules out some operations... like liver transplants for current heavy drinkers with deep cirrhosis. Maybe a family that mistakenly ate some bad mushrooms gets them instead.

If medical costs keep rising and incomes fail to keep up then we can expect people to be priced literally into the grave instead of the hospital ward. Our current paradigm depends upon the idea that the way to perfect something is to ensure the maximum profit in the business -- competition and people priced out of a monopolized market be damned.

The blank check to hospitals, insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies may prove unsupportable. As it is... medicine remains a highly-desirable career, and medical research is a good way of making a living.  Don't forget that the tax structure in the US is physician-friendly.       

Having said the above, it would be interesting to see what folks think the cost ramp up for Obamacare will be over time, both per its official numbers (which have lost most if not all of their credibility), and what outside analysts say. Is it more than 3%? 

Cost containment will be necessary for medicine that serves people. Physicians may have to devolve much of what is now 'their' turf to others who can do routine medical practices.

[Gravis Marketing]

Sarah Palin responded by bookending a very long criticism of Obama with mentions of Ryan's name.

https://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin/posts/10151109537628588

[anvi]

Ah, the piece Torie linked to says that Romney supports the Ryan-Wyden plan, not the original Ryan plan offered in his budget.  That moves a few of the goalposts, of course.  Ryan-Wyden limits patient out-of-of-pocket costs, implements more means-testing in determining premium supports, it gives Congress more negotiating tools if Medicare spending exceeds GDP + 1% before necessarily jacking up beneficiary contributions, it leaves the IPAB agency featured in Obamacare in place, and it does not block-grant Medicaid to states.  

[Senator Sbane]

Yes, the Ryan-Wyden plan is much more palatable. I still don't see the need for the competition between insurers since Medicare currently can get better rates from providers than individual insurers can due to their higher buying power. Indeed the rate Medicare pays is the starting point of insurers when negotiating with hospitals about reimbursement. And depending on size they pay a little more or a lot more than Medicare. By fragmenting the system further, we increase the power of providers to charge higher rates.

[Torie]

Yes, the Ryan-Wyden plan is much more palatable. I still don't see the need for the competition between insurers since Medicare currently can get better rates from providers than individual insurers can due to their higher buying power. Indeed the rate Medicare pays is the starting point of insurers when negotiating with Hospitals about reimbursement. And depending on size they pay a little more or a lot more than Medicare. By fragmenting the system further, we increase the power of providers to charge higher rates.

Yes, except docs rip Medicare off. We need price policing by consumers. One little anecdote about this. I asked a doc in BH who supposedly did telephone appointments for a blood pressure meds prescription renewal, but he demanded to see me. Why, when I just want to renew my little blood pressure medicine prescription, and I have my blood pressure taken by a whole array of specialized docs on a seemingly monthly basis between the assorted and sundry gang. Well, I do more than that. I do a cardio exam. A cardio exam? You mean an EKG just to renew a blood pressure pill prescription? Yes, he said. I said that is ludicrous, and no, that won't be happening. You can imagine what it's like under Medicare. So plan B is to hit up my sex doctor for a lisinopril pill prescription renewal. Medicare needs folks like me around as a price and over-treatment avoidance policeman. I'm very good at it!  Lawyers are not afraid of doctors. It is just not in our genes.

[Senator Sbane]

Wow that's ridiculous. Since he is based in BH, he is just milking his patient population. Especially for something like blood pressure medication, which once you get on you usually keep taking it for life. All it should take is a simple electronic refill renewal request from your pharmacy.....

[Torie]

Wow that's ridiculous. Since he is based in BH, he is just milking his patient population. Especially for something like blood pressure medication, which once you get on you usually keep taking it for life. All it should take is a simple electronic refill renewal request from your pharmacy.....

It doesn't work that way my friend. Docs want a fee to get your refill ticket punched, and they want to add some other tickets to the pile, and it takes some guts to just say no, I understand I am not following your advice, and accept the consequences, and frankly I think you are just wrong, and I disagree with your opinion, and won't be following it, thank you.  In this case, the doc if he thought I was dissembling, could have asked that I fax over the lab/med sheets showing my blood pressure takings. But no, of course not! (Yes, I always demand a copy on the spot of whatever the docs write on those sheets that are never read again, in the land of Oz where computers are for space aliens.) Our system is broken, totally. Who knew?  

No, it is not a BH problem. Indeed if you don't pay much of anything for your medical care out of pocket - it is all covered by Medicare or your insurance, where you have but a nominal copay, just why would you give an F anyway, how many tickets the doc puts on the pile, other than it wastes your time?

No, I won't tell you about my MRI cf, arising from a vertigo incident, which the neurologist never read or got back to me about. But I looked at my own little brain scan with the technician, and she said I looked great "for an old man," and my neurologist pal,  now a famous finance commentator and adviser and author, told me the technicians can read them better than the MD's. He also told me it was a total waste. That cost about 4K, of which I had to pay about 1.5K. F, just F!  Do you now understand just why I am so dyspeptic about this stuff?

You can trust your lawyer far more than your MD, and that's a fact.

[You kip if you want to...]

Mitt's face in this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm_6NVB3TR0&feature=g-all-u

[Mr. Morden]

Romney family urged Mitt to go with his gut and pick Ryan, while his campaign advisors expressed skepticism:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/the-romney-family-takes-charge

[You kip if you want to...]

Romney family urged Mitt to go with his gut and pick Ryan, while his campaign advisors expressed skepticism:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/the-romney-family-takes-charge

To be fair, we saw what happened to McCain when he went with his advisors' pick.

[RedPrometheus]

Romney family urged Mitt to go with his gut and pick Ryan, while his campaign advisors expressed skepticism:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/the-romney-family-takes-charge

To be fair, we saw what happened to McCain when he went with his advisors' pick.

That's true. Though in their situation I might have proposed Palin as well.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Romney family urged Mitt to go with his gut and pick Ryan, while his campaign advisors expressed skepticism:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/the-romney-family-takes-charge

To be fair, we saw what happened to McCain when he went with his advisors' pick.

Yeah, but McCain's gut agreed with his advisors.

[Mr. Morden]

Romney family urged Mitt to go with his gut and pick Ryan, while his campaign advisors expressed skepticism:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/the-romney-family-takes-charge

To be fair, we saw what happened to McCain when he went with his advisors' pick.

Most of McCain's advisors wanted to play it "safe" and pick Pawlenty, and he overruled them.

[Politico]

Romney family urged Mitt to go with his gut and pick Ryan, while his campaign advisors expressed skepticism:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/the-romney-family-takes-charge

To be fair, we saw what happened to McCain when he went with his advisors' pick.

Most of McCain's advisors wanted to play it "safe" and pick Pawlenty, and he overruled them.

Yes, but it was my understanding that McCain's favorite advisor recommended Palin as a "game changer."

Of course, Mitt's favorite advisor is Ann.

[opebo]

Mitt's face in this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm_6NVB3TR0&feature=g-all-u

He's thinking - this guy is my ticket to finally getting the White House.  A truer look of love never passed between aristocrat and squire before.

[Progressive Realist]

Romney family urged Mitt to go with his gut and pick Ryan, while his campaign advisors expressed skepticism:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/the-romney-family-takes-charge

"Go with his gut."

Hmm, who does that remind me of?


Oh yeah:

[Lief]

Mitt's face in this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm_6NVB3TR0&feature=g-all-u

Ugh, even his shirts are like two inches too big in the neck.

[Vosem]

McCain's gut wanted Lieberman, and his advisors wanted Pawlenty. But everybody liked Palin, so that's who he went with.

[J. J.]

It is interesting.  A week ago all the buzz was about Ryan getting on the ticket, what a terrible choice he was, and if he'd be dropped.

In the past week, all the buzz has been about Biden being dropped from the ticket, what a terrible choice he is.

Ryan is out campaigning and Biden is getting a time out in Delaware. 

A week bis an eternity in politics.

[Gravis Marketing]

all the buzz has been about Biden being dropped from the ticket, what a terrible choice he is.

Um, no.

[J. J.]

all the buzz has been about Biden being dropped from the ticket, what a terrible choice he is.

Um, no.

Ah, yes.  There is even a thread on it.

[Landslide Lyndon]

all the buzz has been about Biden being dropped from the ticket, what a terrible choice he is.

Um, no.

Ah, yes.  There is even a thread on it.

Of course, there is no more clear indication that something is trending in US politics than someone opening a thread about it on Atlas Forum.

Eat our dust Drudge!

[Gravis Marketing]

all the buzz has been about Biden being dropped from the ticket, what a terrible choice he is.

Um, no.

Ah, yes.  There is even a thread on it.

Yeah. J.J., you responding to Winfield responding to Politico on the Atlas Forum does not consititute "buzz about Joe Biden."
Of course, there is no more clear indication that something is trending in US politics than someone opening a thread about it on Atlas Forum.

Eat our dust Drudge!

[J. J.]

all the buzz has been about Biden being dropped from the ticket, what a terrible choice he is.

Um, no.

Ah, yes.  There is even a thread on it.

Of course, there is no more clear indication that something is trending in US politics than someone opening a thread about it on Atlas Forum.

Eat our dust Drudge!

We've been hearing about it all week.  I'm not saying it will be happening, but obviously that has been the story.

[J. J.]

Oh, and here:  http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_08/so_much_easier_to_spin_in_fact039297.php

I don't expect this to happen, but it has been the story of the week.