President Obama is trying to walk back from the war he started with Catholics by trying to cram down their throats his dictates that go against their core beliefs. His administration says they are open to work something out. I am glad to hear that. The fix is simple.
Health Care
In their pledge of openness and transparency in government the House of Representatives takes some pride in putting the health care bill online for 72 hours before voting on it. Sounds like a good step, no? Well… that is until you to the math. If the bill they are voting on is 2,500 pages long you would only have 1.7 minutes to read each page provided you did not eat, sleep, rest your eyes, use the restroom for three straight days!
We have Nancy Pelosi’s famous cry for support, “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it”. Turn one-sixth of the economy over to the government, first, then find out what’s behind door number 1, door number 2, or door number 3. If you remember from that game show, what was behind one of the doors was a real stinker. The problem here is we got all three doors.
AT&T reports that they are writing off $1 billion to pay for compliance with the new health care bill. Guess where they are going to get that $1 billion? That’s right watch your phone bill. You are going to be paying for this health care monster in places you never imagined. Caterpillar announced they were writing off $100 million, John Deere $150 million, and AK Steel $31 million. So look for more expensive roads, farm equipment (food), and more expensive cars. This is from companies that have figured this out in less than a week. It will take time for thousands of other companies to tally up the cost.
Henry Waxman to the Rescue
But don’t worry folks, Congressman Henry Waxman is riding to the rescue:
Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California and chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, said he would hold a hearing next month to investigate the effects of the law on big companies. He asked the chief executives of Caterpillar, Deere & Company and Verizon for financial data to document the projected impact of the law on their companies, and he asked them to explain their accounting methods.
“The new law is designed to expand coverage and bring down costs,” Mr. Waxman said, adding that he would be concerned if it drove up costs.
I’m sorry to have to say this, but he has to be the dumbest man in the House of Representatives. Members of the House are supposed to REPRESENT the people. The people have been screaming their opposition to this for months. Obama dared his opposition to campaign on repealing his prized piece of…er, work. Here’s news for you Mr. President, according to a Rasmussen poll 55% of Americans favor repealing this monstrosity.
But let me get back to Mr. Waxman, who is surprised that health care costs could actually increase. Listen to the American people:
Most voters still believe cost is the biggest problem with health care in America today, but most also think passage of the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats will drive costs even higher.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 54% rate cost as the biggest problem, a finding that has been consistent for months.
If Mr. Waxman got his head out of the sand or wherever else he conveniently parks it, and out into the fresh air, he might have realized that he is among the very few who actually believe this was going to lower costs, because there is nothing in this bill that addresses costs. It’s all about tweaking reimbursements to health care providers, which will accomplish nothing but drive doctors and other providers out of business, ration health, and expand government control. Oh, but wait, that is the Democrats plan.
The Silver Lining
But there is a silver lining. Communist dictator Fidel Castro loves it!
Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro on Thursday declared passage of American health care reform “a miracle” and a major victory for Obama’s presidency
Bill O’Reilly, do you still think President Obama is not a socialist?
The December jobs report was a disappointment for this Administration. They expected a mere decline of 10,000 jobs and were hit with an 85,000 loss. They will, of course, downplay the numbers and say how many jobs they “saved” even though that is a statistic no one can measure. But what are this administration’s priorities?
Upside Down Priorities
Let’s look at the priorities of this administration:
- Bailouts
- Health care
- Cap and Trade
- Jobs
- National Security
Leaving aside that the top three are questionable as being within the constitutional authority of the president, what does it mean to job growth?
The Little Engine That Can’t
The engines of job growth in this country are small businesses. If you run a small business and you don’t know what your expenses are going to be, you will be very cautious about hiring. In the list of items above, the first four have this administration on a spending binge that can only result in higher taxes because despite the rhetoric, that’s what statists do. They will claim they only tax the rich, but many small business owners will fit into that definition of rich without having the cash to pay the taxes because their income is plowed back into their businesses. So until they know how big the tax bill will be, they cannot afford to commit any cash to increased payroll. They are more likely to use overtime rather than hiring to tide them over because they can just as quickly turn off that spigot. While that might mean more economic activity, it doesn’t translate into new jobs.
Health Care is another looming question mark. Since no one in the administration nor Congress seems to care about reading the bills they are voting on, it carries enormous risks to small businesses when the bureaucrats start crafting regulations based on any approved regulations. If a small businesswoman doesn’t know what the impact will be on the cost of her existing workforce, she is certainly not going to hire new workers until she knows if the impact on her bottom line will be positive or negative.
Cap and trade is another potential whack to the small business bottom line. Either through new taxes or carbon credits, who can tell a small businessman what this is going to cost? When in doubt, stand pat.
Righting the Ship
Until this administration jettison’s the useless cargo that is sinking this administration, their new top priority should be ”man the lifeboats!” If this administration hopes to avoid being a lame duck for two years, they need to come forward and say health care is dead, cap and trade is dead, bailouts are over. Don’t even say that they will take them up again when the economy recovers. Throw them over the side and start the pumps to empty the Treasury of IOUs. If they don’t do this, any recovery in the jobs area will be slow indeed.
It’s the Uncertainty, Stupid
Until the uncertainty is lifted, unemployment will remain stubbornly high. When Reagan came into office and boldly stated his goal to shrink government and cut taxes, small businesses could see immediately that the effect on them would only be positive. Less government and lower taxes meant more money on the bottom line and with more money on the bottom line they could start hiring and they did. The result? Twenty-five years of economic growth. Obama is following the Franklin Roosevelt model of spend, spend, spend. It didn’t work then. It’s not working now.
Barack Obama went off the teleprompter again yesterday. He gave the analogy that a public health care option would be like the Post Office. Yikes! Since 2000 the cost of a first class stamp has risen from 33 cents to 44 cents, a 33% increase. Is that health care you can believe in?
I believe the point he was trying to make is that there are private delivery options, which he named, UPS and FedEx, and they are doing just fine. This is true, but remember how they came about. It was because the postal service was such a dismal option. It was a government monopoly that didn’t care about service because it didn’t have to. When businesses got as fed up with that government option, they created a private one that has thrived. What President Obama wants to do is take a working private option and create an inefficient government bureaucracy, chock-a-block with heavily unionized workers, and accountable to us through whom? Our Congressional Representatives who cannot respond to a simple question other than by grabbing a poll tested, pre-packaged, talking points memo and sending it out. They are tone deaf. That is why they are so shocked at the angry crowds at their town hall meetings.
Real Reform
Here’s what we should really look at doing:
- Get the consumer of health care actively involved. How? It’s being done today with high deductible health care plans coupled with a Health Savings Accounts. The insurance company negotiates lower treatment costs and pays them only after a hefty deductible has been paid that year. The patient is then in a position of shopping for the best health care and deciding on what treatments and tests, in conjunction with their doctor they will or will not have. The Health Savings Account is where the patient can put funds, pre-tax, and then use those funds to pay the expenses not covered by the insurance.
- Tort Reforms. Get the Lawyers out of the Examining Room. Too many doctors, in my opinion, are practicing defensive medicine. They think of every possible test so that if something does not go perfectly with the treatment they won’t get sued for the test they didn’t perform. Let’s follow the British System — fixed fees for the attorneys instead of a percentage of the settlement, and loser pays. There are too many cases of people getting a $12 million settlement or judgment for something stupid (think of the woman at McDonalds who spilled coffee in her crotch and sued McDonalds because the coffee was too hot). In these cases the lawyers typically ask for no money unless they get a settlement and when they do they get 1/3 ($4 million in this example). And now Arlen Specter has introduced a bill to allow these same tort lawyers to get a tax break for their expenses while they wait for their ship to come in. It’s like buying a lottery ticket. Who wouldn’t take a free lottery ticket on a jackpot of millions? But who really pays for all these law suits and settlements? That’s right you and me in insurance premiums we cannot afford now.
- Increased Insurance Competition. Right now most insurance is regulated by the states and in many cases policies available in one state are not available in others. Let’s open up the competition. If we have more insurance companies competing for our business, we are likely to get better and more creative policy choices.
- More Tailored Insurance Policies If my wife and I are beyond the point of having children, then let me buy a policy that does not cover childbearing, birth control, well baby care. If I am young and starting out and I want those things, there are other coverages that pertain to older people that I may not want at this stage in my life. Let’s allowed tailored policies that reflect my actual insurance needs.
- Immigration Control. The same people who are pushing socialized medicine are, for the most part, the same people who favor open borders. However, where do all the illegals go for the health care needs including having babies (new citizens)? They go to the only health care provider they know, the local emergency room. This is also probably the most expensive form of health care delivery and since they are illegal, they’re not paying for it, the rest of us are. I think immigrants built this great country and almost each and every one of us can point to our forebears who came here as immigrants. I am in favor of immigration now and in the future. I believe these are hard working and basically good people. BUT, they have to come here legally and follow the process. If they are not here legally, they should be deported.
- Medicare Reform. You probably want to sit down for this one, but shocking as it may seem this massive government programs loses billions upon billions of dollars every year to fraud. Who pays? Right! You and me. In higher payroll taxes, and in higher health care costs as doctors and hospitals have to make up the shortfall somewhere else to stay in business.
Two Doctors Operating. A Lawyer, A Bureaucrat, and An Insurance Agent Oversee the Procedure
In the category, be careful what you wish for, Ted Kennedy should be careful about pushing through Universal Health Care reform. It has been reported that this effort has taken on a sense of urgency because of Mr. Kennedy’s brain cancer. But what if we already had national health care?
Would Kennedy Receive Treatment?
Ted Kennedy will be 77 on Sunday. I wish him well. However in an opinion piece by Betsy McCaughey, she quotes Tom Daschle, who nearly became the architect of health care reform before his tax problems derailed his nomination.
Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.
In other words, sorry Ted, since any treatment is not likely to significantly prolong your life such that the expense would be justified, no treatment will be paid for. You will just have to pay it yourself or die. I guess the good news is that Senator Kennedy, like Senator Dascle, and most of the ruling class who pass these commandments down from Mount Capital Hill, are rich enough to pay for private treatment, if it is allowed by law. If not, they are rich enough to take a “vacation” to, say, India and while on vacation wander into a facility their for treatment by American trained Indian doctors.
But what about you and me? Oh dear, you better get your affairs in order.
Health Care Reform You Can Believe In
As long as the treatment received by a patient is paid for by someone other than the patient, the patient really doesn’t care what it costs. The liberal solution is to have the government take it over, and a bunch of bureaucrats will “act on your/our behalf” and make those decisions. The outcome of which is that you better stay healthy. Because if you don’t, you may not get treatment until you wait a very long time for your turn, or you may not get treated at all, if the bureaucrats rule the resultant quality of life is just not worth it.
Here’s what we should really look at doing:
- Get the consumer of health care actively involved. How? It’s being done today with high deductible health care plans coupled with a Health Savings Accounts. The insurance company negotiates lower treatment costs and pays them only after a hefty deductible has been paid that year. The patient is then in a position of shopping for the best health care and deciding on what treatments and tests, in conjunction with their doctor they will or will not have. The Health Savings Account is where the patient can put funds, pre-tax, and then use those funds to pay the expenses not covered by the insurance.
- Tort Reforms. Get the Lawyers out of the Examining Room. Too many doctors, in my opinion, are practicing defensive medicine. They think of every possible test so that if something does not go perfectly with the treatment they won’t get sued for the test they didn’t perform. Let’s follow the British System — fixed fees for the attorneys instead of a percentage of the settlement, and loser pays. There are too many cases of people getting a $12 million settlement or judgment for something stupid (think of the woman at McDonalds who spilled coffee in her crotch and sued McDonalds because the coffee was too hot). In these cases the lawyers typically ask for no money unless they get a settlement and when they do they get 1/3 ($4 million in this example). It’s like buying a lottery ticket. Who wouldn’t take a free lottery ticket on a jackpot of millions? But who really pays for all these law suits and settlements? That’s right you and me in insurance premiums we cannot afford now.
- Increased Insurance Competition. Right now most insurance is regulated by the states and in many cases policies available in one state are not available in others. Let’s open up the competition. If we have more insurance companies competing for our business, we are likely to get better and more creative policy choices.
- More Tailored Insurance Policies If my wife and I are beyond the point of having children, then let me buy a policy that does not cover childbearing, birth control, well baby care. If I am young and starting out and I want those things, there are other coverages that pertain to older people that I may not want at this stage in my life. Let’s allowed tailored policies that reflect my actual insurance needs.
- Immigration Control. The same people who are pushing socialized medicine are, for the most part, the same people who favor open borders. However, where do all the illegals go for the health care needs including having babies (new citizens)? They go to the only health care provider they know, the local emergency room. This is also probably the most expensive form of health care delivery and since they are illegal, they’re not paying for it, the rest of us are. I think immigrants built this great country and almost each and everyone of us can point to our forebears who came here as immigrants. I am in favor of immigration now and in the future. I believe these are hard working and basically good people. BUT, they have to come here legally and follow the process. If they are not here legally, they should be deported.
- Medicare Reform. You probably want to sit down for this one, but shocking as it may seem this massive government programs loses billions upon billions of dollars every year to fraud. Who pays? Right! You and me. In higher payroll taxes, and in higher health care costs as doctors and hospitals have to make up the shortfall somewhere else to stay in business.
More Liberty Under Fire
The government in proposing universal health care wants to mandate that everyone must have health care coverage. You will not have the liberty to choose. The government demands that you comply:
“comprehensive health care legislation should include a requirement that every American carry insurance.”
That’s the requirement, now comes the heavy hand of government:
“The ideas discussed include a proposal to penalize people who fail to comply with the “individual obligation” to have insurance.”
You must obey! The government has spoken!
Here’s a novel idea. How about implementing the above points first and fix the broken system that we have before we throw it out and install another new, massive, government program. After all we can always go to the government solution in the end, confident in the knowledge that these programs work extremely well and efficiently. (e.g., Fannie Mae {bankrupt}, Freddie Mac{bankrupt} , Social Security {bankrupt}, Medicare {bankrupt}, US Postal Service {$6 billion deficit, while CEO get $850,00 salary}).
What Would the Founding Fathers Say?
A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. – John Adams
