-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Sen. Steve Stadelman, medical debt is different from other debt? How about you enslave all medical doctors and medical professionals and force them to work for free? How about dat?
For most people without insurance medical debt can easily be accumulated in a very short time. Hospital costs even for simple tests are outrageous. Now for people with insurance the bills are paid by someone else and the costs are spread out via all the insured and the companies still make a boatload of money. Liver transplants can cost upwards of $750K so how many can afford the procedure without insurance? This is why we have insurance but we don’t have ins for property taxes. We have insurance for property/autos/liability/life which pays for most of the bills incurred.
And why is this the medical profession’s problem? They send the patient a bill and they should pay it. Do you expect them to work for free? Because that’s really the end game here, either you expect doctors to work for free, or, you regulate how much they can earn, and deal with the problems that come from that.
Doctors always over bill for every procedure and in many cases they get a fraction of what was billed. They are regulated to some degree. In managed care like a Humana plan they only pay a set amount regardless of the doctors bill. Many doctors are trying to get away from managed care due to having to have every procedure to be approved but many are denied. Supplement plans are better since Medicare is the primary and say Blue Cross is the supplement to pay for out of pocket expenses. My wife is a nurse who dealt with patients trying… Read more »