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bxgrl,
studies I have seen reveal that most americans are actually satisfied with their healthcare plan. I am with mine, which I pay for with automatic deductions from my paycheck (pre-tax for now). The plan is a well known new york plan.
again, we are talking about insuring those who need insurance. let’s identify those who need insurance, set guidelines for contributions by the individual or society and cover those using the current system which most people feel provides the best care in the world. There is a huge difference between getting healthcare and getting good healthcare.
The president could just sign an executive order and mandate all the hospitals receiving federal aid to enroll the uninsured. this would cover everyone but promptly lead to hospital closures and angry mobs of poorly treated patients and zombie like doctors overworked and ready to quit. we have to be smarter and target the solution to the problem. Everyone may be covered in Canada, but I know for a fact that many also have a private insurance plan which they pay for themselves.
The vacancy rate for rental apartments in the U.S. is now 7.8% and climbing, says the Wall Street Journal. This is the highest vacancy rate in 23 years.
Worse, the vacancy rate is expected to keep climbing through the winter, ultimately hitting the highest rate on record.
This is good news for renters and bad news for landlords. It’s also bad news for anyone who owns and would like to sell a house.
Why are rising rental vacancies bad news for homeowners?
Because rising vacancies put pressure on rents, as landlords have to cut prices to woo a smaller pool of tenants. As rents drop, meanwhile, one of the key measures of house-price value–the price-to-rent ratio–also changes, and not for the good.
All else being equal, when rents drop, the “Housing P/E ratio” — price to rent — increases as rents decrease. This is the same thing that would happen to the P/E ratio of a stock if the company’s earnings began to shrink.
The more the rent/earnings shrink, the more expensive the house or company is as a multiple of the rent/earnings.
Will people suddenly refuse to pay as much for houses because the price-to-rent ratio rises a bit? No. But they may decide to rent instead of buy, which will remove some demand from the housing market. And, this, in turn, will put pressure on house prices.
The chart below from Calculated Risk illustrates the price-to-rent ratio over the past 15 years. As you can see, it got way out of whack during the peak bubble years and has now fallen back within the realm of normal. As rents fall, however, the ratio will start rising again.
That is, unless house prices fall, too, which is the more likely scenario.
Thanks for the primer on Socialism. I asked what you considered socialized medicine as you seemed to distinguish medicare as not being socialized medicine on the basis that people were mandatorily paying for it rather than that the government was involved. Now you seem to be taking a different tack. Regardless, why does a government run healthcare OPTION virally lead to the downfall and takeover of the whole shebang? My diagnosis: hyperbole.
what we have to keep in mind in the discussion of healthcare is not to let fear take over,
we are talking insurance here,
the truth is that most people are healthy between the ages of 10-50.
keeping that in mind, we should be thinking about structuring a system which emphasized maintaining good health with a “safety net” such as major medical which may or may not be paid into by the individual or the society at large for those who cannot afford it.
keeping in place the structures already in place for the seniors, the retired, the children and the indigent.
Legion, in general I don’t find much to argue with you on that- but my experience has been that private enterprises care first and foremost for themselves and they will do so at the expense of those they claim to serve. How do you hold their feet to the fire to make them improve and be affordable? And there is talk of adding tort reform (I agree- badly needed). I still think you can’t look away from all the studies that show countries offering health care are doing it well and better than the US. I mean, the idea of comparing a country that makes sure all of its citizens have access to health care, as compared to a country that has millions who can’t afford it, or will bankrupt even those that do- what reasonable comparison could there be? Not only do Americans pay for health care, but they then have to fight for treatment. I know people whose insurance would not cover the most basic medications they needed. Managed health care has become a joke- you can save a dollar or save a life but not both?
mopar,
doctor’s have to work with patients on solving problems for patient’s on an individual basis.
diabetes meds can be expensive, they can also be inexpensive. depends on what prescriptions the doctors are giving patients.
take antibiotics for example; a look at the Target 4$ list shows many of the basic prescription antibiotics that might be needed
including
-penicillins
-cephalosporins
and even meds like Cipro, which is the one if you will recall,used against anthrax.
same goes for diabetes meds, asking the doctor if he/she is doing their best to limit cost is not asking too much. especially if you are paying.
Re healthcare, I and many people I know are tied to a staff job so they can have healthcare.
Those doctor visit plans Legion mentioned sound good, but a plan that will cover you if you get cancer, diabetes, etc., runs at least $300 and up per person on the East Coast. And then they can drop you anyway.
Even staff health care doesn’t cover everything. My dad had to pay $30,000 out of pocket one year because of his wife’s diabetes medications and what not. That’s enough to bankrupt the average person.
dittoburg,
socialism; a system of social organization that advocates the vesting of OWNERSHIP and CONTROL of production, distribution and management of capital, land,(healthcare), etc. , in the community as a whole.
as it applies to President Obama’s plan, it is the takeover of our private healthcare industry by default with the implementation of a “government option” which will have the effect of a virus in undermining the competing and sinking the better run private healthcare plans. Remember what I said about the predicted insolvency of the Medicare system by the congressional budget office. Don’t even get me started on Medicaid which is already on bailout money in new york state.
bxgrl,
studies I have seen reveal that most americans are actually satisfied with their healthcare plan. I am with mine, which I pay for with automatic deductions from my paycheck (pre-tax for now). The plan is a well known new york plan.
again, we are talking about insuring those who need insurance. let’s identify those who need insurance, set guidelines for contributions by the individual or society and cover those using the current system which most people feel provides the best care in the world. There is a huge difference between getting healthcare and getting good healthcare.
The president could just sign an executive order and mandate all the hospitals receiving federal aid to enroll the uninsured. this would cover everyone but promptly lead to hospital closures and angry mobs of poorly treated patients and zombie like doctors overworked and ready to quit. we have to be smarter and target the solution to the problem. Everyone may be covered in Canada, but I know for a fact that many also have a private insurance plan which they pay for themselves.
In the spirit of ‘The What’…
Dropping Rents Will Drag House Prices Down with Them
Posted Oct 06, 2009 12:14pm EDT by Henry Blodget [yahoo finance]
http://tinyurl.com/ycfk6z8
The vacancy rate for rental apartments in the U.S. is now 7.8% and climbing, says the Wall Street Journal. This is the highest vacancy rate in 23 years.
Worse, the vacancy rate is expected to keep climbing through the winter, ultimately hitting the highest rate on record.
This is good news for renters and bad news for landlords. It’s also bad news for anyone who owns and would like to sell a house.
Why are rising rental vacancies bad news for homeowners?
Because rising vacancies put pressure on rents, as landlords have to cut prices to woo a smaller pool of tenants. As rents drop, meanwhile, one of the key measures of house-price value–the price-to-rent ratio–also changes, and not for the good.
All else being equal, when rents drop, the “Housing P/E ratio” — price to rent — increases as rents decrease. This is the same thing that would happen to the P/E ratio of a stock if the company’s earnings began to shrink.
The more the rent/earnings shrink, the more expensive the house or company is as a multiple of the rent/earnings.
Will people suddenly refuse to pay as much for houses because the price-to-rent ratio rises a bit? No. But they may decide to rent instead of buy, which will remove some demand from the housing market. And, this, in turn, will put pressure on house prices.
The chart below from Calculated Risk illustrates the price-to-rent ratio over the past 15 years. As you can see, it got way out of whack during the peak bubble years and has now fallen back within the realm of normal. As rents fall, however, the ratio will start rising again.
That is, unless house prices fall, too, which is the more likely scenario.
***Bid half off peak comps***
Thanks for the primer on Socialism. I asked what you considered socialized medicine as you seemed to distinguish medicare as not being socialized medicine on the basis that people were mandatorily paying for it rather than that the government was involved. Now you seem to be taking a different tack. Regardless, why does a government run healthcare OPTION virally lead to the downfall and takeover of the whole shebang? My diagnosis: hyperbole.
what we have to keep in mind in the discussion of healthcare is not to let fear take over,
we are talking insurance here,
the truth is that most people are healthy between the ages of 10-50.
keeping that in mind, we should be thinking about structuring a system which emphasized maintaining good health with a “safety net” such as major medical which may or may not be paid into by the individual or the society at large for those who cannot afford it.
keeping in place the structures already in place for the seniors, the retired, the children and the indigent.
Legion, in general I don’t find much to argue with you on that- but my experience has been that private enterprises care first and foremost for themselves and they will do so at the expense of those they claim to serve. How do you hold their feet to the fire to make them improve and be affordable? And there is talk of adding tort reform (I agree- badly needed). I still think you can’t look away from all the studies that show countries offering health care are doing it well and better than the US. I mean, the idea of comparing a country that makes sure all of its citizens have access to health care, as compared to a country that has millions who can’t afford it, or will bankrupt even those that do- what reasonable comparison could there be? Not only do Americans pay for health care, but they then have to fight for treatment. I know people whose insurance would not cover the most basic medications they needed. Managed health care has become a joke- you can save a dollar or save a life but not both?
mopar,
doctor’s have to work with patients on solving problems for patient’s on an individual basis.
diabetes meds can be expensive, they can also be inexpensive. depends on what prescriptions the doctors are giving patients.
take antibiotics for example; a look at the Target 4$ list shows many of the basic prescription antibiotics that might be needed
including
-penicillins
-cephalosporins
and even meds like Cipro, which is the one if you will recall,used against anthrax.
same goes for diabetes meds, asking the doctor if he/she is doing their best to limit cost is not asking too much. especially if you are paying.
Re healthcare, I and many people I know are tied to a staff job so they can have healthcare.
Those doctor visit plans Legion mentioned sound good, but a plan that will cover you if you get cancer, diabetes, etc., runs at least $300 and up per person on the East Coast. And then they can drop you anyway.
Even staff health care doesn’t cover everything. My dad had to pay $30,000 out of pocket one year because of his wife’s diabetes medications and what not. That’s enough to bankrupt the average person.
I figured it wasn’t all that cheap.
dittoburg,
socialism; a system of social organization that advocates the vesting of OWNERSHIP and CONTROL of production, distribution and management of capital, land,(healthcare), etc. , in the community as a whole.
as it applies to President Obama’s plan, it is the takeover of our private healthcare industry by default with the implementation of a “government option” which will have the effect of a virus in undermining the competing and sinking the better run private healthcare plans. Remember what I said about the predicted insolvency of the Medicare system by the congressional budget office. Don’t even get me started on Medicaid which is already on bailout money in new york state.