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StumbleLETTER TO THE EDITOR:
Sorting through the health care hyperbole
Saturday, Aug. 8, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.
Every day we are inundated with newspaper, TV and radio ads for or against health care reform, which includes a single-payer option. With the support of the powerful HMO lobby, the Republican National Committee and conservative media outlets have been constantly spewing horror stories, exaggerations, gross and cruel distortions — including talk of euthanasia — without contributing anything constructive. The main talking points of the “Party of No” are “it’s too expansive” and “it’s too expensive.”
The costs of our country’s health care system now are the highest in the world. Costs exceed $2 trillion annually and have been going up 6 percent a year. The result of doing nothing would raise the cost to $3 trillion and will double to more than $4 trillion in 12 years.
The government is paying for health care through emergency rooms, Medicare, Medicaid, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan and Veterans Affairs. With single-payer universal health care, we will be able to save money and reduce deficits.
Do we trust these insurance companies more than a patient’s personal physician? The only concern of these HMOs is the “bottom line” and with the RNC, it is larger campaign contributions from these HMOs.
Fixing this country’s health care system will be a long road. Come join us in this difficult journey or stay out of the way.
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Joe Beltran says as if it is a FACT that "With single-payer universal health care, we will be able to save money and reduce deficits."
Joe would like us to "Sorting through the health care hyperbole"
Yet there is no proof of Joe's "FACT"
There is a clear difference between a single --payer system and a co-operative or private system.
The way insurance works is that risk to paying out is determined and money is obtained and the risk is covered by a reserve fund.
For a private insurer or a co-op the money is collected ahead of the risk need and real money is held in an account for payout.
The Federal government does not work that way. The Federal government on an annual "pay as you go" basis try to ascertain what the payouts will be and then sets about to levy taxes to collect what they want.
In the case of "pay as you go" Federal Programs like Social Security and Medicare the government does not keep pace with the cost. Just saying they will reduce cost does not reduce cost. This is why Medicare is in a $40 trillion dollar deficit.
If we are to experiment in health care we should take the low risk on regional and state co-operatives where we have little to lose both in taxpayer cost and healthcare service.
It is best to start with a low risk plan ( like the Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program) that has high potential of success, rather than jumping into the government paid public option that has an extremely high risk of cannibalizing the private plans.
We can afford several years of developing different co-operative model until we reach a productive system. With the public plan which is championed as the single payer Trojan horse there is only one chance to put it in place and you get what you get forever -- like Medicare and other failures.
The Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program provides Federal employees, retirees and their survivors the widest selection of health plans in the country.
You can choose from among Consumer-Driven and High Deductible plans that offer catastrophic risk protection with higher deductibles, health savings/reimbursable accounts and lower premiums, or Fee-for-Service (FFS) plans, and their Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO), or Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) if you live (or sometimes if you work) within the area serviced by the plan.
http://www.opm.gov/INSURE/HEALTH/
Carriers include only "private insurance companies" such Blue Cross and Blue Shield Service Benefit Plan, APWU Health Plan, GEHA High Deductible Health Plan, NALC, SAMBA, Aetna HealthFund (CDHP/HDHP), Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company, Inc. (CDHP/HDHP),
Any attempt by the Obama administration and the Democrat controlled Congress to force on the American people a health reform plan that does not take into account the will of the People will mean political suicide in the 2010 and 2012 elections. When 68% of Americans are currently satisfied with their health coverage any major change in such coverage, which is forced on the American people, would be highly unpopular,politically insane and morally wrong.
The main fact that both the administration and the Democrat controlled Congress should recognize is that their proposed health care plan is not popular with an overriding number of Americans. Instead the administration, together with a number of key Democrat congressional representatives, is stubbornly adhering to a "group think" mentality which leads them to perceive the broad based outrage and opposition to their plan as being only by small organized "mobs" of far right extremists. They adhere to this group think mentality at their own political peril.
Instead of promoting a "government option" with major cuts in Medicare to pay for it, any reform package should focus on a private option with reform legislation that will eliminate pre existing conditions restrictions, make insurance plans portable, permit interstate competition between insurance carriers, and provide subsidies for eligible Americans who are currently uninsured and cannot afford coverage.
Joe is an idiot of the largest magnitude. He is complaining about HMO care and yet is a proponent of single payer govt healthcare which would put us ALL into the largest and poorest run HMO. Only someone who favors HMO care with limitations on personal choice of physicians, specialist, and prescription meds to kee down costs and services, should be pushing for universal healthcare. He doesn't even understand this concept which is very sad and typical of the uneducated voters that Obama courted.
How is Medicare "saving Money" by reducing payments in the Service Provider Reimbursement Schedule for Doctors, nurses, hospitals, and other providers.
Have you asked why do 9 out of 10 elderly have to buy a private plan supplement to cover gaps in Medicare coverage
Today Medicare is paying Doctors 70% of their per visit service cost.
The doctors must then make up the lost revenue by "Cost Shifting" to private insurers.
Did you know that if you have a private Medicare supplement that the government bills the private supplement first?
If "all" healthcare is single-payer government paid then how is the gap in cost and payment made up? This means either rationing or less service or both, in a zero sum scenario.
The Obama "Medicare Payment Advisory Commission" is both a wage and price control board and a rationing board. The new law will prevent Congress from having any say in the annual rates.
Will "wage and price control" stop innovation and deter people from going into medicine? Slashing reimbursements is a quality of life issue.
Again!!!!!! Another lib writer who is totally clueless on what Obama Care is.
"single-payer universal health care, we will be able to save money and reduce deficits."
Obama says he is not pushing single payer (I guess this writer is calling him a liar.)
Obama says he program will not be universal.
This just shows that the libs are lost in the woods.
Their leader is not leading.
"The Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program provides Federal employees, retirees and their survivors the widest selection of health plans in the country.
You can choose from among Consumer-Driven and High Deductible plans that offer catastrophic risk protection with higher deductibles, health savings/reimbursable accounts and lower premiums, or Fee-for-Service (FFS) plans, and their Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO), or Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) if you live (or sometimes if you work) within the area serviced by the plan."
http://www.opm.gov/INSURE/HEALTH/
Carriers include only "private insurance companies" such Blue Cross and Blue Shield Service Benefit Plan, APWU Health Plan, GEHA High Deductible Health Plan, NALC, SAMBA, Aetna HealthFund (CDHP/HDHP), Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company, Inc. (CDHP/HDHP),
Thanks, By Future, you accurately describe the goal of the public option in the intended healthcare reform legislation. The private insurance companies are the ones who will offer the plans citizens have to choose among, not the government. The government owns no healthcare companies. There is and will be no socialist healthcare in the U.S. Socialist healthcare means the government would own healthcare companies, and it doesn't and has no plans to do so. People would have more than one or two plans to choose from, the market economy would survive, the insurance companies would still be able to compete for customers. I would like for all Americans to have the choices that I have as a government retiree. I can choose from among 10 plans, and I only pay $100/mo. I am covered by UnitedHealthCare. I have a $30 co-pay, $10 generic prescriptions, $30 for brand name prescriptions and 90%/10% costs. UHC pays 90%. I pay 10%. The only thing I would change about my plan would be the pre-existing and lifetime limits portions of it. I still must choose from a list of approved providers, medications, and get prior approval for certain procedures. Healthcare reform would remove the lifetime limits so that if you get sick and your care exceeds a certain dollar amount, you'd continue to be treated. Those who lose their jobs wouldn't lose their coverage. If you or a relative has a pre-existing condition you could get coverage instead of being denied coverage, and if you are healthy and become ill, the insurance companies could not rescind your coverage, leaving you without a way to be treated for your illness. HC reform is healthcare and financial security for Americans. You would no longer lose your home, be forced to file bankruptcy if you couldn't pay thousands of dollars because of unforeseen illness. We will still be paying private companies for coverage. That will not change.
When insurance companies are forced to compete with the goverment they will fall. When that happens we will all be forced to be on goverment ran healthcare as it will be the only option left! I think we need health insurance reform not this deathplan socialist health reform plan from obama!
"you accurately describe the goal of the public option in the intended healthcare reform legislation. The private insurance companies are the ones who will offer the plans citizens have to choose among, not the government.
Not true the government public option will "define" the plans "coverage, rules, and reimburments" and money reserve will flow from taxpayers to the government then to the insurers based on annual budget appropriations.
In this case the private companies are just administrators of the payouts - they do not carry the risk.
The government is self-insured.
What do you think the trillions of dollar are for.
With a single payer the government is the insurer - the government holds the risk and the reserve.
The Democrat's stated objective of the "public option" is to get to a single payer system by cannibalizing the private plans.
"When insurance companies are forced to compete with the goverment they will fall."
I thought people like you believed government can't run anything?
Explain to me how, if your belief government is incompetent is true, a government-run health care plan is going to kill private insurance?
The government can't run anything as they are too stupid. They will offer overpriced shoddy health care which will be heavily subsudized by the government but costs one third as much. If you get seriously ill you will need to go to Mexico where a lot of our doctors are going. Governemt's motto "worthless stuff no matter how much it costs".
jlb:
That didn't answer my question.
All you said was that "government care sucks" and "government can't run anything". Which I've heard enough that I swear it'll start appearing in my dreams.
But even if it is heavily subsidized, even if it sucks, Obama doesn't want single-payer. He's made that as clear as day.
So again - how will government-run care kill private insurance if the central point of your argument is that the government is incompetent?
The government can and will dictate what prices it pays to providers, as it does with Medicare. Private insurers will have to pay higher prices to providers as costs not recouped from the government "insurance" is shifted to the private insurers. The government will not have to price a profit into its premiums, and will also pay no taxes. The playing field will not even be close to level.
All of this will make premiums for private insurance materially higher than for the public option, so employees will opt for the public plan, reducing revenues to private insurers, making it virtually impossible to stay in business. In addition, employers will have a choice of paying for a health plan or paying a fine. The fine will be much less than the cost of a health plan, so many of them will simply pay the fine, and all their employees will go on the public plan. Private insurers will thus be driven out of business, leaving the government as the only provider of health "insurance." At that point, it will only "make sense" to turn the "insurance" into a single-payer system.
Obama is on record saying that if he could build the health care system from the ground up, he would make it single-payer. There's too much resistance against single-payer to do it all at once, so he devised this "public option," which, to the uninformed and the gullible, appears to be in their interest. He understands the scenario I described above, and knows it will eventually lead to single-payer.
While Joe is clearly lacking factual evidence, his downfall is telling us "to stay out of the way". NEVER!! It is a basic Constitutional right to speak out against any issue I am at odds with. Just as it was the right of the people to speak out against the war(s) on terror, so it is also the right to speak out against a health care plan we disagree with. I will also not "stop talking" as Obama commands the right to do.
If you wish to call out Mr. Beltran on the facts, I challenge one and all to read my latest post, with citations. In short, for the 2008 and upcoming 2010 election cycles, the Dems, in both chambers, received more donations from HMO's than did the Reps. In fact, a Democrat was the highest recipient in all four scenarios.
http://nevadapoliticsbydan.blogspot.com/...
"It is a basic Constitutional right to speak out against any issue I am at odds with."
Speaking out is fine.
Hanging congressmen in effigy (Maryland), shouting down congressmen who are trying to respond to your questions (Michigan, Florida and Missouri), and sending death threats to congressmen (North Carolina) is not.
Free speech is not a license to act like a thug. And before you say "liberals do it too" ask yourself how many of those liberals were arrested or forcibly ejected from events for doing it. The answer would be, oh, ALL OF THEM.
Lets talk about the union thugs and the Acorn thugs that the democrats are stuffing the town hall meetings and not allowing folks in unless they agree with their position - is this free speech or democratic thugery? Is that a word? Anyway, how about our president saying that if don't agree with his plan shut your mouth and let him clean up the mess - real Presidential. No one said anything about the dems when they were calling Bush a liar and a woar monger - it OK to shout and drown out a speaker when hes a republican. Lets have an equal platform so all parties can be heard.
Brown:
Yes, there were liberals who shouted down Republican speakers. And they were ejected and arrested for it. The Minneapolis RNC was full of protesters who were arrested for what they MIGHT do. President Bush's town halls were carefully managed and anyone who had an opposing view was swiftly and decisively ejected.
Union thugs? The SEIU is getting DEATH THREATS. SEIU members have been ARRESTED for altercations with protestors. How many right-wing protesters have been arrested for their behavior?
And again with the right's favorite bugaboo - ACORN. I've been following the meetings closely, and if ACORN is there they're invisible or something. I see people yelling, screaming, booing, refusing to let the people trying to speak get a word in edgewise. Explain to me how that is "free speech".
There were people who brought guns to a town hall today. Now tell me why ANYONE needs to bring a pistol to a town hall meeting? Are they afraid one of these "union thugs" is going to kill them?
jajma -- While it sounds like you're enrolled in a good plan, courtesy of your past employer & it's generous retirement benefits program, how much do they contribute ("they" being the US taxpayer)?
The US doesn't need and can't afford Obamacare. Congress hasn't read it, and like most things they do, will probably exempt themselves from having to actually live with their own folly. (Ever notice how many of them enroll their kids in private schools? They'll do the same thing with private medicine.)
There are undoubtedly more efficient & effective ways to address lifetime limits, transportability, and enrolling people with pre-existing conditions (though I have to ask, why weren't they enrolled in a plan to begin with?) Newt (gasp!) Gingrich has some good ideas on his web site, ideas that most Republicans & Independents wil find more affordable & understandable than Obamacare.
What the majoriy is asking for is for the clowns in DC to at least read & understand the bill BEFORE they sign us up for another trillion or so in debt. Not regurgitate simple minded bumper sticker statements and slam protesters, and then wonder why no one's buying their bag of %$%&.
Most of the GOP is quite willing to discuss the issue. However, discussion isn't what the Dem's want. They want to ram this through as fast as they can -- like TARP -- even though most of them haven't read it, haven't taken the time to understand it, and certainly haven't taken the time to consider alternatives. They seem drunk with power & celebrity -- and like a bad Vegas movie, we're all going to wake up the morning after and wonder just who in the h**l we married!
"pre-existing conditions (though I have to ask, why weren't they enrolled in a plan to begin with?)"
A lot of people lost their health insurance when they lost their job. Not many people can afford to pay for COBRA coverage on an unemployment check if they want to also keep a roof over their head and some food on the table.
First of all its not Obamacare, that is a name created by Carl Rowes crew to disparage the health care plan. The Republican elite know there are a lot of ignorant people out there, that are scared of any change. These people that show up to town hall meetings are total cowards, scared to death of any change, and compensate for their fear by shouting out stupid garbage and disrupting meetings. A few of these coward bully's threaten violence at these events. Frankly they need a mob, and most wouldn't dare act like that if they were not in the mob of coward mentality. They have organized and there web sit, visit Tea Party, clearly states that is their agenda. You cant argue with people like jlb101, because not only are they ignorant of the facts, but have a lower then average intelligent level.
cpo, do you really think that unions don't bus people into these meetings?
I am still waiting for a member of the Lib brain trust to tell me exactly how the Republicans are holding up health care.
Republicans don't have enough votes to elect the grand pooba at the Elk's lodge let alone stall legislation.
If this Bill is so great why don't the Dems just push it through?
I will tell you why; the current Bill is a pig and the Dems don't want to be saddled with it. They want a Republican to vote so they can call it bipartisan when the shoe falls.
The only Change that is going to happen is when the Dems turn on their own this next election.
"Republicans don't have enough votes to elect the grand pooba at the Elk's lodge let alone stall legislation."
They do at the moment - Democrats are a couple bodies short due to Byrd and Kennedy both dealing with illnesses. Kennedy didn't even make it for the Sotomayor confirmation vote.
I have been one of your doctors here in Las Vegas for the past 20 years. I already limit the number of Medicare and Medicaid patients I see since the reimbursement is below my operating business costs, but, I will still see patients on an emergency basis or who have a life threatening problem that may worsen if they have a delay in their treatment plan because they have to look for another doctor who will accept Medicare or Medicaid. Currently, the negative profit margin is made up by the private health insurers payments who pay timely and accurate unlike the messed up medicare system. If more patients are put into a govt health plan like Medicare/Medicare, YOU, will lose access to care from physicians like me who have established practices that can survive without Medicare. The doctors, who don't have enough private patients will be the ones taking care of the govt healthcare patients. So Obama's health plan will make healthcare unequal, as the top notched experienced busy physicians will further limit their practice to private insurance patients and the govt plan patients will have to go to less experienced physicians. As a doctor, I feel this is horrible. As a business entity, this will be essential if Obama's health plan passes.
Douglas Democrat-I fail to see how you cannot understand how the government will finance their "Free Care for Freeloaders" program. I will pay my insurance bill then have to pay much higher taxes so the freeloaders on the dole will have to pay very little for the government plan. The freeloaders will not be paying their fair share. I will be paying most of it plus my own insurance. By the way If someone carried out some of the threats on SEIU it would not bother me very much.
"By the way If someone carried out some of the threats on SEIU it would not bother me very much."
You would not be bothered by someone MURDERING another person simply because of the organization they belong to?
You disgust me. Good day.