Vice President Cheney would have Americans believe there is a direct link between the insurance premiums doctors pay and rising health-care costs. Not so. Last year, Weiss Ratings, Inc., an independent financial services analysis company, issued a comprehensive study showing that in 19 states with malpractice caps, physicians suffered a 48.2 percent jump in their premiums. Meanwhile, in 32 states without caps, premiums rose by only 35.9 percent.
Instead, the premium problem comes from insurance industry pricing practices that gouge doctors. While malpractice payouts actually went down by 8.2 percent between 2001 and 2002, there was no corresponding decrease in doctors' premiums, meaning the insurance industry pocketed the difference. The Des Moines Register points out, "There's simply no correlation between lawsuits and insurance rates. Rather, insurance rates are tied to the climate of the stock and bond market, where insurance companies invest much of their money."
Since 2000, the industry has donated over $67 million to President Bush and his allies in Congress, twice as much as they've contributed on the other side of the aisle.
....
Last Friday, four days after Vice President Cheney informed Americans that "wages have been rising," the Bureau of Labor Statistics "reported that hourly earnings of production workers - nonmanagement workers ranging from nurses and teachers to hamburger flippers and assembly-line workers - fell 1.1 percent in June, after accounting for inflation. The June drop, the steepest decline since the depths of recession in mid-1991," represents the second straight month there has been a significant decline. Real hourly earnings fell 0.8 percent in May.
President Bush says "Higher growth and higher productivity are leading to better-paying jobs across America," but once again his claim is not backed up by the facts. Economists indicate growth has occurred in "largely lower-paying jobs," whose substandard quality "appears to be putting downward pressure on wage growth."
Instead, the premium problem comes from insurance industry pricing practices that gouge doctors. While malpractice payouts actually went down by 8.2 percent between 2001 and 2002, there was no corresponding decrease in doctors' premiums, meaning the insurance industry pocketed the difference. The Des Moines Register points out, "There's simply no correlation between lawsuits and insurance rates. Rather, insurance rates are tied to the climate of the stock and bond market, where insurance companies invest much of their money."
Since 2000, the industry has donated over $67 million to President Bush and his allies in Congress, twice as much as they've contributed on the other side of the aisle.
....
Last Friday, four days after Vice President Cheney informed Americans that "wages have been rising," the Bureau of Labor Statistics "reported that hourly earnings of production workers - nonmanagement workers ranging from nurses and teachers to hamburger flippers and assembly-line workers - fell 1.1 percent in June, after accounting for inflation. The June drop, the steepest decline since the depths of recession in mid-1991," represents the second straight month there has been a significant decline. Real hourly earnings fell 0.8 percent in May.
President Bush says "Higher growth and higher productivity are leading to better-paying jobs across America," but once again his claim is not backed up by the facts. Economists indicate growth has occurred in "largely lower-paying jobs," whose substandard quality "appears to be putting downward pressure on wage growth."
That's good, though. It makes the Army look like a good alternative.
Source: Progress Report
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