Last edited on Sat Nov 8th, 2008 03:43 pm by AGCS

Last edited on Wed Oct 29th, 2008 12:42 pm by OkeeNarnie

Alaska's largest newspaper endorses Obama

The Daily News said since the economic crisis has emerged, Republican presidential candidate John McCain has "stumbled and fumbled badly" in dealing with it.


"Of the two candidates, Sen. Obama better understands the mortgage meltdown's root causes and has the judgment and intelligence to shape a solution, as well as the leadership to rally the country behind it," the paper said.

The Daily News said Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has shown the country why she is a success as governor. But the paper said few would argue that Palin is truly ready to step into the job of being president despite her passion, charisma and strong work ethic.

 
"Gov. Palin's nomination clearly alters the landscape for Alaskans as we survey this race for the presidency — but it does not overwhelm all other judgment. The election, after all is said and done, is not about Sarah Palin, and our sober view is that her running mate, Sen. John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation," the paper said.

"Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time," the paper concluded.

Last edited on Mon Oct 27th, 2008 02:27 am by okeegator

• 
  
By PEGGY NOONAN

• Obama has accepted more than $213,000 from individuals who work for companies in the oil and gas industry and their spouses.
  
  
• Two of Obama's bundlers are top executives at oil companies and are listed on his Web site as raising between $50,000 and $100,000 for the presidential hopeful.

• Obama cites a RAND study that found widespread use of electronic health records could save up to $77 billion a year in overall health care spending. But the study says that level of savings won’t be reached until 2019, when it projects 90 percent of hospitals and doctors would be using electronic records systems.
  
  
• Much could be done to speed up the adoption of electronic record-keeping. But experts, including the lead researcher on the RAND study, are extremely doubtful the U.S. could see widespread adoption in the first term of an Obama presidency, or even a second term. Even a campaign adviser acknowledges Obama’s plan likely won’t reach the full savings potential until five years into implementation, by which time Obama could be out of office.
  
  
• Obama says he’ll "lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year” by investing in electronic health records as well as other efforts. But his adviser tells us that $2,500 figure includes savings to government and employers that could, theoretically, lead to lower taxes or higher wages for families – so we shouldn't necessarily expect insurance premiums that are "lower" by that amount.
  
  
• The RAND study on which the campaign partly bases its estimates is one of the only reports available on possible cost savings. It may well be correct – no one knows for sure. But it looks at potential savings in an ideal situation and recently has faced criticism.

Obama (Bristol, Va., June 5): In an Obama administration, we’ll lower premiums by up to $2,500 for a typical family per year. And we’ll do it by investing in disease prevention, not just disease management; by investing in a paperless health care system to reduce administrative costs; and by covering every single American and making sure that they can take their health care with them if they lose their job. ... And we won’t do all this twenty years from now, or ten years from now. We’ll do it by the end of my first term as president of the United States.

In One Term? Unlikely.

RAND study: At 90 percent adoption, we estimate that the potential HIT-enabled efficiency savings for both inpatient and outpatient care could average more than $77 billion per year (an average annual savings of $42 billion during the adoption period).

When Will IT Happen?

Show Me the Savings

Carrots and Sticks

Money in Whose Pocket?

Questioning RAND

Even if Obama can beat the odds and implement widespread health IT in less than four years, it's unclear whether savings can reach $77 billion a year, as RAND said. Some have found RAND's figures to be optimistic. "There's definitely been a lot of rumbling about the RAND study," says Desroches, who adds she's skeptical of the dollar amounts. "I'm not sure we're going to see enormous savings."

In late May, the Congressional Budget Office published a report that was highly critical of the RAND study. It cited three main points:

• First, it says, RAND measures the potential impact of health information technology, rather than the likely impact. The RAND study looked at what would happen if 90 percent of doctors and hospitals had adopted health IT and implemented and used it perfectly. CBO points out that there are many factors impeding widespread adoption and limiting efficient use. These have to be figured into any truly realistic calculation of costs and savings.
  
  
• Second, CBO points out that RAND based its conclusions only on studies that found positive effects of health information technology, throwing out data that showed negative effects. The study acknowledges that “we chose to interpret reported evidence of negative or no effect of HIT as likely being attributable to ineffective or not-yet-effective implementation.” Hillestad told FactCheck.org that the researchers assumed electronic records systems that had led to increased errors would be fixed or wouldn't be adopted by other health care providers.
  
  
• Finally, CBO says, the RAND researchers were estimating the savings based on the actual level of adoption in 2004, not the possible level of adoption – even without any changes in policy – in the years covered by the study. That means RAND was using an inaccurate baseline, one that doesn't account for the doctors and hospitals that would have implemented health IT systems from year to year.
  

Last edited on Mon Oct 6th, 2008 09:58 pm by The Republican

Last edited on Mon Oct 6th, 2008 09:56 pm by The Republican