Solving the Health Care Crisis Requires No Change of Law

Another pundit I love reading is Karl Denninger. I've mentioned him before I think. He's a little bit older than me, and is a long time expert in the business of network computing. 

But the subject I read him for his amazing clarity on the subject of the health care crisis in America. He long harped on the idea that most people completely misunderstand what is going on, and are offering horrible solutions. Above all, he's a numbers guy, i.e., mathematics doesn't lie. He's convinced that the health care industry, in particular the health insurance industry, is deeply corrupt, and, with the cooperation of both parties in the federal government, is royally "screwing" the rest of everyone else in violation of the law, and should be treated as criminals.

Here's a great recent starter regarding his opinions, which have coalesced over time to the idea that unless Donald Trump takes the steps he suggests, the health care crisis will overwhelm his presidency (as it would anyone who was president right now).

President Trump, you simply have to come to grips with where the problem lies in health care. It's not access to insurance...
Health insurance accessibility is, at its core, all about the price of the underlying service.  And let's cut the crap, eh -- that price has no market force or discovery mechanism available to the common man today, and hasn't for 30+ years.  That is why -- and is in fact the only reason why -- health care is so damned expensive and health "insurance" is what people are "falling back on."

In his latest series of articles, he explains why the current health are insurance law is disastrous for businesses and is a great incentive to hiring anyone

..."mandatory" health insurance imposed a large contingent cost on employers that didn't appear to be there right up until someone who has a pre-existing condition shows up and wants to be hired.  Remember that as soon as that happens it screws everyone who already works there and what's worse the employer is forced to conspire with the applicant since (1) he can't ask about said condition and (2) if he figures it out he can't discriminate either or he will get sued and lose. 

He thinks that the POTUS has the power, through the Attorney General, to simply force existing anti-trust law to applied in the health care industry (instead of blatantly disregarded), then health care costs would drop like a stone across the board, so that health insurance would hardly be necessary for most medical expenses (the way it used to be), and would be much cheaper for the categories of expenses (catastrophic, etc.) for which it would remain necessary.

Of course Denninger realizes this would trash an entire sector of the economy.

I get it that if you take this on using existing law, which certainly appears fully adequate to put a stop to all of this, and demand (1) price lists be posted publicly for everything, (2) everyone pays the same price for the same good or service no matter whether they have insurance or not, who it's through or how they're paying, (3) that consent on an individual and priced basis is required for anyone able to give it; if you're unable due to unconsciousness or similar "drive by" and similar types of charges are deemed felonious and (4) the United States demands and enforces "most favored nation" for pricing of drugs and devices with any firm that refuses loses all its US patent protections and US licensing that we'd have a deep and immediate recession since roughly 15% of GDP would disappear in a puff of smoke in an afternoon. All those facilities built with debt -- which is most of them, as I'm sure you know -- would be bankrupted immediately.

But that would mean health care would be much cheaper for everyone across the board.

But that's good, not bad.  Someone would buy that bankrupt hospital the next day for 5% or 10% of what it cost to build, and the lights would remain on.  Costs would plunge like a stone thrown off one of your high-rise buildings; in fact, they'd fall by up to 90%.  Telling "practitioners" that Jeff Sessions will be as rough on them as you want him to be with dope dealers with maximum charges for peddling known lies when it comes to disorders such as Type II diabetes -- that one should "chase" their fast carbs with drugs instead of not eating the damn things in the first place would go a long way toward resolving not only the cost issues in health care but the underlying diseases themselves.

The Reasons the Israeli-Saudi Alliance Has Worked

As Thomas Wichtor sees it, one of the key factors behind the success of the quiet Saudi-Israeli alliance has been the development of a new generation of tactical weapons and munitions, developed by the Israelis and financed by Arab money.

These weapons specifically are drone-related reconnaissance and munitions-carrying drone weapons capable of isolating, observing and attacking targets within the close urban environments of Middle Eastern warfare against insurgents.

The Americans didn't develop these weapons because they didn't need them, and they have concentrated more on longer-range drone warfare on a strategic level.

By contrast the Israelis (and increasingly the Gulf Arabs) realize that in the Youtube age especially, they must play by a different set of rules in urban warfare, where there cannot be flagrant civilian causalities as a side-effect of an operation, one that can be spread virally across the Internet within hours.

If they want to eliminate the Iranian backed subversives, they will need to do it a smart way, they realized.

Also there is a recognition that all the uniformed forces must be seeming to be Arab. This is to create a proud, honor-bound command of Arab special forces with the higher ethic of the great (benevolent_ warrior model of the American, British, and other western special forces.  The idea---an old one---is a powerful warrior tends to be a humane warrior.

How Peace is Coming to the Middle East

The Saudi-Israeli alliance in its current form dates from 2006 (the two nations had been cooperating via their intelligence services for many years before that).

In 2006, however, the Saudis and Israelis created a new military alliance that was meant to fulfill longterm stability needs in the Middle East, in an era going forward in which Americans would eventually withdraw a large number of their forces.

The alliance was not well-publicized in the West, but neither was it hidden. But it was ignored in the American press and media. This is because it was taken as a direct threat to the power base of certain segments of the U.S. government, for whom the status quo of the Middle East---low grade warfare involving both regular armies and guerrilla factions, was in fact necessary for the continuation these segments of the government in holding power. This most directly involved the U.S. State Department.

The effort of the U.S. State Department to keep itself as the center of the Middle East balance of power is paramount to the State Department.

In the meantime the Saudi-Israeli backbone of the new security alliance evolved in what became called the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The GCC as an alliance involves other Arab states, including in particular Iraq, where the GCC has been instrumental in creating an effective new Iraqi Army that---with American special forces training and Israeli-designed new generation aerial weapons, has virtually annihilated ISIS and other guerrilla forces in Iraq.

This has happened rather quietly, and (once again) ignored by the U.S. media.  All of these efforts by the Saudis and Israelis to create a stable, peaceful Middle East have been bitterly opposed by the U.S. State Department, which sided with Iran, the archenemy of both Israel and Saudi Arabia.

All Trump has done is get out of the way, and let this happen. That's why they treated him like a conqueror.

Going forward the U.S. help in the Middle East will be quiet, and largely in support of the GCC through training, weapons, and intelligence.

The most pressing task is the winding down of the ultra-corrupt Assad regime in Syria.  Assad has mostly been a pawn of Iran for years, and in control of nothing inside in his country except the capital. Everything else has been the Iranians propping him up.

The night after Trump slammed the airway with the Tomahawks, the flights from Damascus to Teheran were packed with Iranians leaving the country.

The missile strike essentially destroyed the airplanes while letting the GCC use the airfield as it quietly invades Syria, takes it over, and transitions the kingdom to a constitutional restoration.

Many people have learned many lessons from many mistakes. What we are seeing play out right now is the fruit of those bitter mistakes.

The final act of the drama will be the downfall of Iran. This will not happen by military invasion but by the overthrow of the mullahs by their own people. The Islamic Republic will be overthrown. Women in Teheran will throw off their hijabs in joy. This is going to confuse lots of people in Europe and North America.

It's OK to be confused now. It will make sense as time goes by.

Trump Astride History

Today was an amazing today, with Trump's arrival in reception in Saudi Arabia. It is probably the biggest paradigm-shattering moment in world history since Reagan.

You probably don't realize that, I suppose, if you have been following the mainstream media, or even most bloggers. Thankfully I've been following one of the few clear voices with a rational understanding of recent events, a fellow named Thomas Wictor on Twitter (@ThomasWictor). Without his insights, I'd probably be flailing in my understanding as well, but I was lucky to stumble across his account at just the right time, a couple months ago.

I could write a lot about this, suffice it to say that Wictor is of the opinion that Trump is one of the most transitional figures in American history, and that most of his supporters "don't deserve him" because they are too fearful, and take too many things at face value (e.g. all the BS about leaks and "Trump being in trouble," etc.). Trump is firm control of things. He is playing the media for chumps and nearly all the leaks are coming from him, ultimately to destroy the media by showing them for fools.

But all this pales in comparison to the end of the Middle East wars, which are we are now approaching. Among Wictor's specific talents is an ability to dig deep into the study of Middle Eastern munitions and the order of battle of the wars raging there. He has convinced me and others through persistence that we are the threshold of amazing change there, of an era of peace that few could have foreseen even a year ago. If you want to know more, check out his Twitter.

I find myself in a curious position, as someone who long ago came to the conclusion that the leadership of the Saudi kingdom was in cahoots with the attack on 9/11. But there is new leadership there. Among other things, the kingdom was reeling. We beat them in the oil war through fracking. This is Glasnost all over again. This is victory.