Posted by
peripheral on Friday, March 06, 2009 7:16:31 AM
From My Perspective - - -
One of the several goals of the new administration in Washington, DC
pertains to a form of Universal Healthcare. The suggestion is that 47
million people are without Health Coverage and the Government must
assume the responsibility to provide coverage for all residing within
our borders. That coverage will very likely provide coverage for those
who are not yet citizens, as well as for those who are illegal aliens.
In the address President Obama presented before the Joint Session
Congress and to the nation made reference to the following: “The cost
of health care now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds.” Is this true or is this a mischaracterization?
The
issue rests upon extrapolation versus interpolation. The explanation
and rationale for this can be found in The American Heritage
explanation regarding Extrapolation and Interpolation. They are, “A
mathematical procedure which estimates values of a function
for certain desired inputs given values for known inputs. If the
desired input is outside the range of the known values this is called
EXTRAPOLATION, if it is inside then it is called INTERPOLATION. The
method works by fitting a curve to two or more given points and then
applying this function to the required input.” Gary Langer is Director
of Polling at ABC News. He observes the following in his report
entitled, “The Numbers”! In that article on March 05, 2009, he notes the following: “Medical Bankruptcies: A Data-Check (responses from the lead author of the Harvard study, Dr. David Himmelstein, are included) “President
Obama’s kicking off his health care reform today in the worst possible
way: with a mischaracterization of data. The cost of health care now
causes a bankruptcy in America
every thirty seconds, Obama said at the opening of his White House
forum on health care reform. The problem: That claim, based on a 2001
survey, is simply unsupportable. The figure comes from a 2005 Harvard University study
saying that 54 percent of bankruptcies in 2001 were caused by health
expenses. We reviewed it internally and knocked it down at the time; an
academic reviewer did the same in 2006. Recalculating Harvard’s own
data, he came up with a far lower figure – 17 percent. A more recent study by
another group, approaching it another way, indicates that in 2007 about
eight-tenths of one percent of Americans lived in families that filed
for bankruptcy as a result of medical costs. That rings a little less
loudly than “one every 30 seconds.”
The
ABC News article continues with these observations: “A good part of the
problem is definitional. The Harvard report claims to measure the
extent to which medical costs are ‘the cause’ of bankruptcies. In
reality its survey asked if these costs were “a reason” – potentially
one of many – for such bankruptcies. Beyond
those who gave medical costs as “a reason,” the Harvard researchers
chose to add in any bankruptcy filers who had at least $1,000 in
unreimbursed medical expenses in the previous two years. Given
deductibles and co-pays, that’s a heck of a lot of people. Moreover,
Harvard’s definition of “medical” expenses includes situations that
aren’t necessarily medical in common parlance, e.g., a gambling
problem, or the death of a family member. If your main wage-earning
spouse gets hit by a bus and dies, and you have to file, that’s
included as a “medical bankruptcy.” When I asked the lead author, Dr.
David Himmelstein, about his definitions of medical bankruptcy back in
2005, he said, “It’s a judgment call,” and added that any death, for
example, “to our mind is a medical event.” A last problem was sampling:
The Harvard researchers surveyed bankruptcy filers in five federal
court districts accounting for 14 percent of bankruptcies nationally;
projecting this to the other 86 percent is sketchy. Said Himmelstein:
“Obviously the extrapolation is rough.”
Consider
these things with me - - - Truth is vital and basic for every
interpersonal relationship and for all government. Ephesians 4:25 [The
Message] summarizes it this way: “What
this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell
your neighbor the truth. In Christ's body we're all connected to each
other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to
yourself.” This is as plain and simple as it gets, and if avoided – it
is to one’s own peril – personally or governmentally!