I suspect that many of the people who oppose President Obama’s health care reform plan do so because the CBO has projected that the plan will cost $1 trillion over ten years. They see reform as bankrupting this nation. What they fail to realize is that there will be no bankrupting deficits from health care reform because reform is designed to be deficit neutral. That means that savings in other areas will pay for the cost of health care reform.
President Obama has pointed-out that failure to pass health care reform will be far more costly to America than any reform bill. Speaking before the American Medical Association's annual meeting, President Obama said: "(Failing) to reform our healthcare system in a way that genuinely reduces cost growth will cost us trillions of dollars more in lost economic growth and lower wages."
A study by the Urban Institute, a Washington D.C. think-tank that conducts policy research, has shown that if we fail to enact health care reform it will cause catastrophic financial devastation in America over the next decade and cost the government far more than anything caused by health care reform. There will be an increasing strain on business owners and their employees due to the rising cost of health care and health insurance. Businesses by the thousands will drop health insurance for their employees and tens of millions more people will become uninsured. There will be dramatic growth in Medicaid/CHIP enrollment and spending, and increased spending on uncompensated health care. There will be a tremendous increase in bankruptcies due to health care costs.
President Obama stressed that health care reform would be deficit-neutral over the next decade, explaining how the price tag would be covered. In his budget for fiscal year 2010 the President has already obtained $635 billion for the Health Reserve Fund to pay for health care reform over the next ten years. Most of that amount will come from revenue-raising efforts such as limiting tax deductions for the wealthiest Americans.
The President also explained other means by which the price tag for health care reform would be covered. Estimated savings over 10 years include: Removing subsidies and introducing competitive bidding into the Medical Advantage program, $177 billion; Using Medicare reimbursements to help reduce preventable re-admissions, $25 billion; Introducing generic drugs into the marketplace, $30 billion; more efficient purchasing of prescription drugs, $75 billion; "rooting out waste, abuse and fraud" throughout the healthcare system, $1 billion; adjusting Medicare payments to reflect advances and productivity gains in the economy, $109 billion.
The House health care reform bill provides that any public option will have to be self-sustaining through participants’ payment of premiums. This will be possible even if the premiums are substantially lower than those for private health insurance because a public option will not incur the gigantic administrative costs incurred by private insurance.
One huge benefit of cost savings built into the health care reform bill will be reduction and eventual elimination of the “doughnut hole” in the Medicare Part D drug benefit program. The “doughnut hole” was demanded by the health insurance industry when the Republicans in Congress knuckled-under and enacted Part D. Today, most seniors find that after six or more months their Part D benefits run-out and they have to pay the full cost of their medications. Those costs can be cruelly high, and for some, too high to pay. Now it will be possible for all medications to be covered by the program.
If you are worried about the cost of health care reform, you should be terrified at the prospect of no reform. I can assure you that without reform, you will eventually either lose your health insurance or wind-up paying far far more for less and less coverage.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
What They Deserve
All of those people who have been showing-up at town halls and tea parties in order to protest President Obama’s plan for health care reform deserve one thing—to win. I wish it was possible to enact health care reform with a public option and exclude from its benefits all of those screaming right-wingers who so vociferously oppose it.
I wish such people could be required to go on as before with higher and higher premiums, co-pays, and deductibles for private health insurance; continued rationing and denial of coverage for prior health conditions; continued withdrawal of coverage in the middle of serious medical emergencies; continued annual and lifetime limits on benefits; continued high costs for medication; and continuation of the huge “doughnut holes” for elderly Medicare recipients. Yes—it would be nice to let them continue in the morass we presently have, while the rest of us got decent coverage under a new national health care plan.
Unfortunately, it will not work that way. If health care reform goes down to defeat all of us, not just the screamers, will lose.
If health care reform with a public option is passed, the screamers will say: “We fought the good fight, but now that it is possible to get health insurance at lower cost, with coverage for prior conditions, no annual or lifetime limits, and preventive medical coverage for things like pap smears, colonoscopies, mammograms, chest X-Rays, PSA tests, and blood tests, why not take advantage of it”? They will break their necks signing-up for the public option, and a few years down the road they will fight to keep their new governmental health coverage from being diminished.
But sadly, if health care reform is defeated, thousands of people will continue to die from lack of health insurance. It is estimated that at least 18,000 people die every year because of lack of health insurance. Millions of people who have lost their jobs during the Bush recession will not be able to get health insurance coverage. Millions of seniors will continue to empty their little savings accounts to pay for medications during the “doughnut holes.” Millions of people who have prior medical conditions will be unable to get coverage.
On Wednesday, September 9, President Obama gave a ringing call to America to move ahead with health care reform. He noted that the same kind of people who oppose this reform also opposed Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. He demolished some of the outrageous distortions being put-out not only by talk radio and Fox News hosts, but also by Republican politicians.
While the President spoke, the Republicans sat stonily. Our local guy, House Minority Gasbag John Boehner, looked like a well-tanned corpse. The crude and ill mannered outburst by Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina represented not only the people of that state and its leaders, Senator DeMint and Governor Sanford, but also the attitude of the Republicans in Congress who have allowed their party to be seized by ultra conservatives
Meanwhile the Republican senators and congressmen who plan to vote against health care reform will go on living under the umbrella of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP); the finest health insurance benefits available anywhere. During President Obama’s speech on health care reform, he called for compromise, but those Republicans are not the least bit interested in compromise.
For the ordinary citizens who opposed health care reform because of their concern with other issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, guns, immigration, gay rights, and the president’s race, it is a case of biting off your nose to spite your face. They will get what they deserve if health care reform goes down to defeat. For the senators and congressmen who vote against health care reform, their health insurance should be taken away.
I wish such people could be required to go on as before with higher and higher premiums, co-pays, and deductibles for private health insurance; continued rationing and denial of coverage for prior health conditions; continued withdrawal of coverage in the middle of serious medical emergencies; continued annual and lifetime limits on benefits; continued high costs for medication; and continuation of the huge “doughnut holes” for elderly Medicare recipients. Yes—it would be nice to let them continue in the morass we presently have, while the rest of us got decent coverage under a new national health care plan.
Unfortunately, it will not work that way. If health care reform goes down to defeat all of us, not just the screamers, will lose.
If health care reform with a public option is passed, the screamers will say: “We fought the good fight, but now that it is possible to get health insurance at lower cost, with coverage for prior conditions, no annual or lifetime limits, and preventive medical coverage for things like pap smears, colonoscopies, mammograms, chest X-Rays, PSA tests, and blood tests, why not take advantage of it”? They will break their necks signing-up for the public option, and a few years down the road they will fight to keep their new governmental health coverage from being diminished.
But sadly, if health care reform is defeated, thousands of people will continue to die from lack of health insurance. It is estimated that at least 18,000 people die every year because of lack of health insurance. Millions of people who have lost their jobs during the Bush recession will not be able to get health insurance coverage. Millions of seniors will continue to empty their little savings accounts to pay for medications during the “doughnut holes.” Millions of people who have prior medical conditions will be unable to get coverage.
On Wednesday, September 9, President Obama gave a ringing call to America to move ahead with health care reform. He noted that the same kind of people who oppose this reform also opposed Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. He demolished some of the outrageous distortions being put-out not only by talk radio and Fox News hosts, but also by Republican politicians.
While the President spoke, the Republicans sat stonily. Our local guy, House Minority Gasbag John Boehner, looked like a well-tanned corpse. The crude and ill mannered outburst by Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina represented not only the people of that state and its leaders, Senator DeMint and Governor Sanford, but also the attitude of the Republicans in Congress who have allowed their party to be seized by ultra conservatives
Meanwhile the Republican senators and congressmen who plan to vote against health care reform will go on living under the umbrella of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP); the finest health insurance benefits available anywhere. During President Obama’s speech on health care reform, he called for compromise, but those Republicans are not the least bit interested in compromise.
For the ordinary citizens who opposed health care reform because of their concern with other issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, guns, immigration, gay rights, and the president’s race, it is a case of biting off your nose to spite your face. They will get what they deserve if health care reform goes down to defeat. For the senators and congressmen who vote against health care reform, their health insurance should be taken away.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
No Cuts in Medicare Benefits
Mitch McConnell and the other Republican allies of the health insurance industry have been arguing that President Obama’s health care reform bill will cut benefits from Medicare in order to pay for reform. This lie is seriously scaring senior citizens. It is regrettable that politics drives these politicians to engage in such distortions. Why can’t they oppose health care reforms without lying?
The truth is that under the President’s plan for health care reform there will be no reduction in Medicare benefits and people will continue to have the same coverage that they have always had. The President has been repeatedly questioned about this at forums he has held around the country. People want to know how he is going to cut the cost of Medicare without cutting benefits. "Nobody is talking about trying to change Medicare benefits," he said. "What we do want is to eliminate some of the waste that is being paid for out of the Medicare trust fund." He cited $177 billion of government subsidies paid to insurance companies participating in Medicare Advantage, a Medicare benefits program run by private insurance companies.
Medicare Advantage is a hugely wasteful Medicare-type program of private insurance that is, for some reason, subsidized by the federal government. It was installed when the Republicans controlled congress. They did it in the belief that private enterprise could run Medicare better than the government. They turned-out to be dead wrong. It costs 17 percent more, on average, to cover a beneficiary under Medicare Advantage than under regular Medicare. Because the program is run by private insurance companies, nearly half of its excess payments go to administrative costs, marketing, and profits, rather than to additional health benefits to enrollees
If Medicare Advantage was eliminated, participants would lose nothing. They would simply go on regular Medicare which provides the same coverage for billions less in taxpayer funds. With an extra $177 billion, the government will be able to strengthen Medicare and its benefits, not cut it.
The House health care reform bill actually gives Medicare an additional $340 billion over the next decade to provide improved care so that seniors do not have to be readmitted to the hospital to correct mistakes. To save money, the bill lowers the amount of subsidies to hospitals for such readmissions and lowers the automatic annual increases to hospitals. None of this will result in cuts in benefits, and readmitted seniors will still receive full coverage, but it will provide better care to seniors while saving the Medicare Trust Fund billions of dollars.
Although the AARP has not specifically endorsed any of the health reform bills in Congress, one of AARP’s new print ads reads: “Special interest groups are trying to block progress on health care reform using myths and scare tactics. The opponents of reform will stop at nothing to derail the process and protect their own vested interests—even if it means misleading older Americans”
In a recent press release, the AARP said: “AARP’s advertising campaign will bust the myths some are spreading to frighten Americans, including false assertions that fixing the health care system will lead to rationed health care, a government takeover, or even euthanasia. We won’t stand idle when opponents of health care reform attempt to scare or mislead the American people—and older Americans in particular—about what fixing the system really means. The truth is we need to fix health care, whether it’s ensuring affordable coverage for Americans age 50 to 64 or improving benefits for people in Medicare. It’s time for the public to get the real facts.”
Shame on the insurance companies and congressional Republicans for trying to scare senior citizens! Shame on them for claiming that under health care reform there will be cuts in Medicare benefits.
The truth is that under the President’s plan for health care reform there will be no reduction in Medicare benefits and people will continue to have the same coverage that they have always had. The President has been repeatedly questioned about this at forums he has held around the country. People want to know how he is going to cut the cost of Medicare without cutting benefits. "Nobody is talking about trying to change Medicare benefits," he said. "What we do want is to eliminate some of the waste that is being paid for out of the Medicare trust fund." He cited $177 billion of government subsidies paid to insurance companies participating in Medicare Advantage, a Medicare benefits program run by private insurance companies.
Medicare Advantage is a hugely wasteful Medicare-type program of private insurance that is, for some reason, subsidized by the federal government. It was installed when the Republicans controlled congress. They did it in the belief that private enterprise could run Medicare better than the government. They turned-out to be dead wrong. It costs 17 percent more, on average, to cover a beneficiary under Medicare Advantage than under regular Medicare. Because the program is run by private insurance companies, nearly half of its excess payments go to administrative costs, marketing, and profits, rather than to additional health benefits to enrollees
If Medicare Advantage was eliminated, participants would lose nothing. They would simply go on regular Medicare which provides the same coverage for billions less in taxpayer funds. With an extra $177 billion, the government will be able to strengthen Medicare and its benefits, not cut it.
The House health care reform bill actually gives Medicare an additional $340 billion over the next decade to provide improved care so that seniors do not have to be readmitted to the hospital to correct mistakes. To save money, the bill lowers the amount of subsidies to hospitals for such readmissions and lowers the automatic annual increases to hospitals. None of this will result in cuts in benefits, and readmitted seniors will still receive full coverage, but it will provide better care to seniors while saving the Medicare Trust Fund billions of dollars.
Although the AARP has not specifically endorsed any of the health reform bills in Congress, one of AARP’s new print ads reads: “Special interest groups are trying to block progress on health care reform using myths and scare tactics. The opponents of reform will stop at nothing to derail the process and protect their own vested interests—even if it means misleading older Americans”
In a recent press release, the AARP said: “AARP’s advertising campaign will bust the myths some are spreading to frighten Americans, including false assertions that fixing the health care system will lead to rationed health care, a government takeover, or even euthanasia. We won’t stand idle when opponents of health care reform attempt to scare or mislead the American people—and older Americans in particular—about what fixing the system really means. The truth is we need to fix health care, whether it’s ensuring affordable coverage for Americans age 50 to 64 or improving benefits for people in Medicare. It’s time for the public to get the real facts.”
Shame on the insurance companies and congressional Republicans for trying to scare senior citizens! Shame on them for claiming that under health care reform there will be cuts in Medicare benefits.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Armed Idiots
There is a new and growing tactic by right-wing thugs opposed to the policies of President Obama. They show-up at forums where the President is speaking and have guns strapped to their sides or slung over their shoulders. One idiot, with a 9 mm pistol strapped to his leg, held up a sign outside President Obama's health-care town hall in Portsmouth, N.H. The sign read, "It's time to water the tree of liberty." That's a reference to Thomas Jefferson’s declaration that the tree "must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." That was also a favorite slogan of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber.
Although one’s first instinct might be to have Congress pass a law forbidding such display of guns in the vicinity of the President, it has been pointed out that the Secret Service has the power to expand the perimeter around the President in order to insure his safety. Moreover, although these pitiful exhibitionists may be intent on intimidating the President and those who come out to see him, they are actually exposing their own vulnerabilities, insecurities, and ignorance. If they ever tried to use their little guns to attack the President or his supporters, the Secret Service would squash them like annoying insects.
It seems to be popular among right-wing loonies to cite the language of Jefferson about “time to water the tree of liberty.” It would be somewhat more serious if these people knew anything about the ideas of Jefferson or the history of our nation. They are, however, a group of dunderheads who wouldn’t know a history book if it fell out of a library and hit them on the head.
People who show-up at Presidential forums with guns strapped to their legs may wish to intimidate, but they face an insurmountable problem. They are poorly armed. They are armed only with their little pop-guns, and not with ideas. Ideas are far more powerful than guns.
The neo-fascist militia types, who are threatening armed revolution because they do not like the policies of our democratically-elected president, are not to be feared. They are to be pitied. If they ever actually started an armed revolt, which is highly unlikely, they would be confronting a President who commands the most powerful armed forces in the world. They would be snuffed-out in a moment, most likely by local and state police. For some reason, the obviousness of this does not seem to stop them from mouthing some of the dumbest rhetoric imaginable.
If these people had some ideas, any ideas, they would be far more dangerous. Ideas have power. Democracy is an idea. It has enabled modern man to avoid the violence and bloodshed of usurpations to overthrow tyrants. It recognizes the inalienable right of people to decide their own fate by means of elections. It insures the right of the majority to rule. It grants to mankind dignity, power, and freedom. Mankind can rid the world of tyrants by going to local polling places and casting ballots. In a democracy there is no need to take-up arms against a tyrant.
President Barack Obama is a duly elected chief executive. He stands for the liberal doctrines long pursued by the Democratic Party, including civil rights, workers rights, minimum wages, protecting the environment, and universal health care. He is an idealistic and visionary individual. He does not seek tyranny. He does not seek a communistic takeover of our lives by government. He seeks justice, charity, and decency. He reflects a brilliant mind, a warm and compassionate personality, leadership, and a remarkably fine character. I realize that I am too partisan to see any defects in him, but for the life of me I cannot understand the reasoning of those who hate him.
Although one’s first instinct might be to have Congress pass a law forbidding such display of guns in the vicinity of the President, it has been pointed out that the Secret Service has the power to expand the perimeter around the President in order to insure his safety. Moreover, although these pitiful exhibitionists may be intent on intimidating the President and those who come out to see him, they are actually exposing their own vulnerabilities, insecurities, and ignorance. If they ever tried to use their little guns to attack the President or his supporters, the Secret Service would squash them like annoying insects.
It seems to be popular among right-wing loonies to cite the language of Jefferson about “time to water the tree of liberty.” It would be somewhat more serious if these people knew anything about the ideas of Jefferson or the history of our nation. They are, however, a group of dunderheads who wouldn’t know a history book if it fell out of a library and hit them on the head.
People who show-up at Presidential forums with guns strapped to their legs may wish to intimidate, but they face an insurmountable problem. They are poorly armed. They are armed only with their little pop-guns, and not with ideas. Ideas are far more powerful than guns.
The neo-fascist militia types, who are threatening armed revolution because they do not like the policies of our democratically-elected president, are not to be feared. They are to be pitied. If they ever actually started an armed revolt, which is highly unlikely, they would be confronting a President who commands the most powerful armed forces in the world. They would be snuffed-out in a moment, most likely by local and state police. For some reason, the obviousness of this does not seem to stop them from mouthing some of the dumbest rhetoric imaginable.
If these people had some ideas, any ideas, they would be far more dangerous. Ideas have power. Democracy is an idea. It has enabled modern man to avoid the violence and bloodshed of usurpations to overthrow tyrants. It recognizes the inalienable right of people to decide their own fate by means of elections. It insures the right of the majority to rule. It grants to mankind dignity, power, and freedom. Mankind can rid the world of tyrants by going to local polling places and casting ballots. In a democracy there is no need to take-up arms against a tyrant.
President Barack Obama is a duly elected chief executive. He stands for the liberal doctrines long pursued by the Democratic Party, including civil rights, workers rights, minimum wages, protecting the environment, and universal health care. He is an idealistic and visionary individual. He does not seek tyranny. He does not seek a communistic takeover of our lives by government. He seeks justice, charity, and decency. He reflects a brilliant mind, a warm and compassionate personality, leadership, and a remarkably fine character. I realize that I am too partisan to see any defects in him, but for the life of me I cannot understand the reasoning of those who hate him.
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