Health care BOHICA
By JR Hoeft | Friday, July 24th, 2009 | PolicyI couldn’t help but be struck by the rhetoric of the president, his administration, and U.S. House Democrats this past week. It seems that they are more interested in self-promotion and self-image than doing the right thing.
“The time for talk is through,” the president said. “Now is the time for us to go ahead and act.” – Washington Post
“I think we will have a bill by the end of the year for the president to sign on healthcare reform that controls costs, expands coverage and provides choice,” Emanuel told National Public Radio. – New York Times
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., expressed confidence in the ultimate outcome. “We will take the bill to the floor when it is ready, and when it is ready, we will have the votes to pass it,” she said. – AP
These representative samples clearly indicate its all about political football for the Democrats. It’s all about moving the ball down the field without really worrying or wondering about costs, benefits, and outcomes of this massive 1000-plus page bill that is being ramrodded through committees…just like the lack-of-stimulus plan and just like the national energy tax.
It’s all about ignoring the the ramifications of reducing choice and compettion on small businesses and jobs in the midst of the nation facing a 9.5% unemployment rate and trillions of dollars in debt
In the meantime, heaven forbid the GOP ideas be considered.
“Unfortunately they’ve taken very little of our ideas and incorporated them in their bill,” said Republican Leader John Boehner.
This despite several good ideas out there from Rep. Paul Ryan and Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Jindal has proposed:
“That one of the seven ideas for reforming health care should include pooling for small businesses, the self-employed, and others. He’d like to see people free to purchase their health coverage without tax penalty through their employer, church, union, etc. He says individuals should benefit from the economies of scale currently available to those working for large employers. We all would like the chance to buy the least-expensive, highest-quality insurance available.” – Wall Street Journal
Right now, it’s apparent that Democrats don’t actually care about ideas and helping the American people…it’s all a big game to them.
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JR HoeftConservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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3 Responses to "Health care BOHICA"
Jim -
I don’t disagree with your initial point, I think the Dems have been talking in soundbites, where we diverge is in your belief that this is a partisan difference. The GOP has been just as guilty of touting catch phrases for political purposes – I would recommend taking a look at Michael Steele’s recent speech at the National Press Club, or any interview which he Boehner or any other GOP leader has given, just a few examples: how this is an “experiment,” “obamacare,” “government-run healthcare,” “socialized medicine,” etc.
The sad thing is, is that the GOP will probably get its way and delay the creation of a new system. Americans are, as usual, more afraid of the devil they don’t know than the one the do. In the meantime nearly 50,000,000 Americans will go without healthcare, our healthcare costs will continue growing at an unsustainable rate, and Americans will continue suffering from the worst life-expectancy rates in the Western World.
Mark,
I don’t disagree with you either…but how come Medicare and Medicaid can’t be reformed? How come HMOs can’t be regulated? How come healthy-living can’t be incentivized?
Why do Democrats have to default to higher taxes and government mandates every single time as an answer to our problems?
Why can’t we encourage innovation and free market solutions? Why is that so anathema to so many?
I mean, that’s how our country was built, right? If we go towards government solutions to everything, we really aren’t America anymore.
I don’t entirely disagree – I think the issue is not that we can’t have a market based solution, rather that the government needs to create a playing field for the market.
The companies thta make up the market have every incentive to have a playing field that they, not the consumer, controls. Why would they want to insure someone who might actually get sick? What I would like to see is an elimination of any health care check-up or pre-existing conditions as methods by which the insurance companies can decide not to insure. If an insurance company wants to participate in the market then they need to take each and every American consumer as they are. Additionally, there must be a government mandate that the individual either carry some kind of insurance – even if it just catastrophic – or be subject to a small penalty.
My thought is that this should be the initial solution, though I would combine it with some kind of financial support for the folks at the financial level where they are making just enough to not qualify for medicaid.
Finally, I would like to see a government commission to investigate some medical practices and make recommendations. There are too many tests, etc that are ordered without any medical benefit, the result being simply compounded dangers for the patient and additional costs for the insurance companies/ medicare/ medicaid. Specifically, I’m referring to the kind of tests that are ordered for the very elderly – as an example My 96 year old grandfather’s doctor gave him a PSA test (to test for prostate cancer) and had been doing so annually for years – then when it came back positive, he want to biopsy my grandfather’s prostate. When asked why – because my grandfather was too old to endure either surgery or chemo – the doctor didn’t have a response.
Simply having an educated comsumer ask “why” in that context saved medicare litterally thousands of dollars – and more importantly – my grandfather needless discomfort in his last months.
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