BTM: What Battlestar Galactica Taught Me About Healthcare “Reform”…
New Report from the Congressional Budget Office:
* Enacting this proposal would result in a net increase in federal budget deficits of about $1.0 trillion
* According to the CBO, this legislation will leave at least 36 million Americans uninsured
* It will force at least 23 million Americans to give up the health coverage they have.
* There would be no change from current law regarding Medicaid or the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
CONTACT YOUR REPS:
http://www.downsizedc.org/etp/campaig…From DownsizeDC.org:
The government already pays for nearly half of all health care. This means we’re half-socialized already.Starting with depression era wage and price controls, and continuing with government tax policies, the politicians have made Americans dependent on their jobs to get health insurance.
State government policies have made insurance too expensive by piling on special interest mandates dictating specific types of coverage.
Medicare and Medicaid have fixed the prices we pay for health care, causing the extraordinary paradox of both price inflation and shortages in areas like primary care.
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Yep the Gaius Baltar of Healthcare is TOTUS agree! Support the Wyden Benett Health Care Plan!
Update: David Brooks and le wrath di khan…Health Insurance Update: Kent Conrad on his Compromise Plan…
Update: David Brooks agrees with MiM on Wyden Bennett option, oh noes! Someone check my brain for those bore worm things from Wrath of Khan!
If I am agreeing with Brooks something must be very very wrong….
Now you might think that in these circumstances someone might take a second look at the ideas incorporated in the Wyden-Bennett plan, which already has a good C.B.O. score, bipartisan support and a recipe for fundamental reform.
If you did think that, you are mistaking the Senate for a rational organism. For while there are brewing efforts to incorporate a few Wyden-Bennett ideas, there is stiff resistance to the aspects that fundamentally change incentives.
From the presser, more Trek talk as Jake Tapper nailed TOTUS down on the misleading claim that Americans could keep their coverage, not likely with employers dumping it to pay a govt fine instead:
…TAPPER: Is the public plan non-negotiable? And, while I appreciate your Spock-like language** about the logic of the health care plan and the public plan, it does seem logical to a lot of people that if the government is offering a cheaper health care plan, then lots of employers will want to have their employees covered by that cheaper plan, which will not have to be for-profit, unlike private plans, and may, possibly, benefit from some government subsidies, who knows. And then their employees would be signed up for this public plan, which would violate what you’re promising the American people, that they will not have to change health care plans if they like the plan they have. So…
OBAMA: OK. You’re pitching; I’m catching.
TAPPER: OK.
(LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: I got the question. First of all, was the reference to Spock, is that a crack on my ears?
(LAUGHTER)
TAPPER: No.
OBAMA: All right. I just wanted to make sure. No?
TAPPER: I would never make fun of your ears, sir.
-snip-
TAPPER: I’m sorry, but what about keeping your promise to the American people that they won’t have to change plans even if employers…
(CROSSTALK)
OBAMA: Well, all right — when I say if you have your plan and you like it, and your doctor has a plan — or you have a doctor and you like your doctor, that you don’t have to change plans, what I’m saying is the government is not going to make you change plans under health reform. Now, are there going to be employers right now, assuming we don’t do anything — let’s say that we take the advice of some folks who are out there and say, “Oh, this is not the time to do health care. We can’t afford it. It’s too complicated. Let’s take our time,” et cetera.
So let’s assume that nothing happened. I can guarantee you that there’s the possibility for a whole lot of Americans out there that they’re not going to end up having the same health care they have. Because what’s going to happen is, as costs keep on going up, employers are going to start making decisions. We’ve got to raise premiums on our employees. In some cases, we can’t provide health insurance at all. And so there are going to be a whole set of changes out there. That’s exactly why health reform is so important.
REPOST: Call your Critters on the health care plan!!!! That CBS poll was designed to make them feel like tey had cover to vote for a public option, let them know how you feel before the votes go down….MiM is supporting the Wyden-Bennett plan…
Conrad has a lot to do with the purse strings so he is worth watching as health care debate unfolds:
Courtesy of Bloomberg
Republicans outline health plan – Alex Isenstadt – POLITICO.com
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Update: Scroll Down for update: Megyn Kelly Shouts Down Bernie Sanders On Dem-Only Nationalized Healthcare Plan…0 GOP invited to summit
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Clip courtesy of mghoft:
“Megyn Kelly and Bill Hemmer reported on the Democrat-only meeting with President Obama on the nationalized healthcare plan they are planning on ramming through Congress.”
Bernie is VERY CONCERNED that he be ABSOLUTELY CLEAR that there is NO PLAN.
this is part of Daschles book on how to ram through health care with no debate or dissent, dont reveal the plan until the vote, HA! frakkers..
I want my pap smear, NEVER thought I would have to demand a pap smear, sheesh am I right ladies, least favorite thing about being a woman? pap smears and mammograms
but ya know UK wont pay for them the way we do as part of routine care, cost control….
Hey nitwits on the Hill! You cant work we GEN Xers until we are 85 unless you give us our damned hip replacements- Bernie I am talking to you!
Update: In the clip, Bernie makes a lot out of the high administrative cost of benefits in CA, staying it is a rip off. Maybe he should consult with an insurer before he makes these invalid assumptions. no doubt they were briefed by the SEIU at the ‘summit’ lol.
As someone who spent 20 years in various aspects of medical insurance, the bulk of it in claims processing, let me attest to the fact that the reason it is much more expensive to adjudicate medical claims for CA insureds is the incredible number of state mandates on benefits in CA.
For example, I have worked in situations where we had to set the software up to kick out virtually every CA claim for manual adjudication, because the software cannot handle the multiple state mandates, eligibility and timely processing edits on auto adjudication.
It is a well known pearl of wisdom among health insurance workers who are in the know, to live in CA if you plan to have a baby since their maternity leave is the best, the same thing is true of their state mandates for health care and benefits. A person has to manually look at most of their claims, well woman exams are different there, pregnancy is different there, pre existing is different there, anything they could think of to legislate they did and continue to do
No doubt that is one reason why CA is broke…do they not realize the same economic motivations that would impel a business or a person to move in to or out of a state, ie tax rates, regulation, ALSO impel people to move to a state for better Nanny benefits? again no doubt why CA has such a large drain on its social services..it is basic economic theory and human behavior…
To quote Field of Dreams, If you cover them, they will come…
Update: The GOP Plan: Rep. Paul Ryan: House GOP Health Care Plan: Patients’ Choice Act
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Update: RCP The GOP Plan presented by Coburn, Burr, Ryan and Nunes:
Frankly I really like it and I am damned picky about health care reform:, Think what an amazing day it is when the GOP is proposing health care reform that incorporates the basic tenets to ensure consistent coverage with automatic enrollment and access to Congress’ plan as well as bypassing the dreaded McCarran Ferguson Act which prevents interstate federal regulation, allowing interstate policy purchases woohoo competition baby
and they eliminate the dreaded pre ex limitations. We have won a major battle to get coverage expanded by virtue of this proposal itself and frankly in our current financial situation this plan covers the immediate needs and does not cost us trillions of dollars we simply do not have….and anyone who thinks Dems in Congress and TOTUS will put thrpugh a public option are smokin rope, they will kill it; trading it away for nothing at the last minute, and say they tried!! boohoo, leaving us with the private carriers getting a bunch of new enrollees and premiums and a govt panel to run it all like an HMO-
Remember the stories on 20/20 the HORROR of patients in HMOs denied an MRI and dying, denied EXPERIMENTAL NON FDA APPROVED treatments and people were outraged, now our own govt is preparing to act as an HMO and deny us coverage,
go Google that new Colonoscopy Scan they have that Medicare just denied coverage for…now that procedure will not be done in volume, and progress will not happen, the price will not drop, the technology will not be pursued, the cost containment method of funding health care expansion as proposed by Team TOTUS will kill genetic single person cure developments etc..
Highlights of the GOP Legislation – Patients’ Choice Act (if you like it Call your Congress Critters):
- We have introduced a comprehensive health care reform bill, the Patients’ Choice Act that, we believe, will bring us far closer to the goal of universal coverage than the Obama plan. Our bill, in specific legislative language, does the following:
- we would shift health care tax benefits to individuals and families in the form of a “Medi-Choice” tax rebate worth about $2,200 for individuals and $5,700 for families. Under our plan, if you like the health care you have, you can keep it – but you’ll have more money in your pocket because you will still receive a tax rebate.
- The Patients’ Choice Act lowers health care costs and insurance premiums by more sensibly caring for those with chronic illnesses and those deemed “uninsurable.”
- In addition to innovative prevention initiatives, our plan utilizes risk adjustment mechanisms and other options at the State level – such as reinsurance and risk pools – to extend coverage to those with chronic medical conditions.
- we recognize that markets can’t solve all problems. That’s why our bill prevents cherry picking – when insurance companies choose to cover only healthy patients – by equalizing risk across insurance companies and reversing the perverse incentives that leave those most vulnerable with the fewest options.
- Our bill creates voluntary state-based solutions – state health exchanges – that will offer health insurance benefits using the same standard used for Members of Congress. Every American would have guaranteed access to coverage and care under this plan, regardless of patient age or health history.
- And to ensure that states get to design the solutions their patients need, states would have the freedom to form voluntary pooling arrangements with other state exchanges to diversify risk pools, ease administrative burdens and cover costs for insurance.
- We also provide simple new opportunities for automatic enrollment to help people who need coverage
- We remove the stigma from Medicaid recipients and give them the ability to purchase the health coverage and care they need from any provider. We preserve Medicaid for the blind, aged, and disabled and we eliminate widespread fraud in the programs. We do all this and still save states and the federal government about $1.3 trillion over the next 10 years.
COSTS excerpt: our bill accomplishes these goals without spending any new federal money, or raising taxes. If this sounds too good to be true, we would note that the problem in health care is not that we don’t spend enough, but that Americans aren’t getting enough value for their dollars. On a per capita basis, America spends nearly twice what other industrialized nations spend on health care yet we are hardly twice as healthy.
House GOP leaders to unveil alternative health care plan
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*Rascals courtesy of conkyjoe:
Moderate in the Middle 