-- 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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“What Illinois faces if congressional Republicans slash Medicaid”…Armageddon?
“On a typical day at his Sinai Chicago clinic, Dr. Michael Malone sees patients with chronic health problems — diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, congestive heart failure and asthma. A majority of them are on Medicaid.”
OF COURSE THEY ARE. They get free medical care, why wouldn’t they abuse their health in return? Maybe if they had to pay for their own health care they’d take a little better care of themselves.
It’s a bit like that story about how during England’s colonization of India, they had a bad snake problem. So the English offered a bounty for each dead snake. What ended up happening is that people began breeding snakes so they could kill them and then get the bounty from the government, leading to a situation where there were ultimately more snakes after the mandate than before. That’s what we have with medicaid. We are giving away free medical care to the poorest people with the worth health habits most likely to use the free medical care, and oh boy,… Read more »
You bring up some interesting historical analogies! Also, I agree that people receiving free medical care might strive to have healthier lifestyles if they paid the health care costs we do.
Accountability?
Quite a “Chicken Little the Sky is Falling” article from Crain’s but it seemed to have missed an aspect that I was interested in namely “How much of the Medicaid is attributable to Pritzker’s immigrants?” Oh well reporting on that figure might raise Pritzker’s ire and we know how the Illinois press is about that.
Spending a BILLION a year giving free healthcare to ILLEGALS but my 27 year old can’t afford the insurance and is SOL. She would be much better to claim to be an illegal and get free healthcare.
While I don’t think Illegals should be allowed in our country nor should we pay for their health care, your claim that you daughter would be better off getting health care if she claimed she was illegal doesn’t make any sense. Illegals don’t get free healthcare because they are illegal but rather because they have no income and no ability to earn any income. Pretty sure the majority of people reading this don’t want to change that any time soon. Your daughter is no different. If she makes 22.5k or less she would qualify for medicaid or a silver plan… Read more »
The poster said that illegals get “free healthcare” while his daughter has difficulty paying for insurance. Like everything, this is nuanced. First of all, the subsidized marketplace health insurance is barely insurance at all. It’s more like a high deductible catastrophic plan that will pay for major injuries or diseases, and sometimes not even then. It’s little more than a card you keep in your wallet that says you have insurance, but they don’t actually provide much coverage. I know people in health care – specifically billing – and that’s consensus. The worst insurance of all are the healthcare marketplaces.… Read more »
There are plenty of doctors in the western burbs of middle eastern descent taking Medicaid. No idea how good of doctors they are.
My point is they are getting it because they qualify for the income parameters not because they are illegal. If his daughter earned the same income she would also qualify for Medicaid. “The poster said that illegals get “free healthcare” while his daughter has difficulty paying for insurance. Like everything, this is nuanced.” I guess it’s nuanced if you leave out the rest of his comment. “She would be much better to claim to be an illegal and get free healthcare.” The poster said his daughter would be better off to “claim” she is illegal to get free healthcare when… Read more »