by Bill O'Connell on April 28, 2011
It wasn’t long after the Paul Ryan budget was released that the disinformation Democrats began trumpeting seniors being starved, being unable to afford health care, and the usual demogogic scare tactics. But doctors are dropping coverage, the key slices of the pie above are growing much faster than inflation, and the Democrats have no plan other than the age old cut benefits (reimburse doctors less) and increase taxes, just enough to kick the can down the road for someone else to deal with. Congressman Ryan had the guts to come up with a plan to actually fix the system by giving seniors a choice and they seem to like the idea. Why?
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by Bill O'Connell on December 10, 2009
Today Barack Obama received his Nobel Peace Prize in Norway for his accomplishments in the area of …..? Well, nothing actually. It was called anticipatory, in other words, he got the prize for what they hoped he would accomplish. There’s that hope thing again. I hope he stops burying this country in debt.
TR and Woodrow Wilson
In some puzzling way, President Obama’s acolytes like to make comparisons to two other presidents who won the Nobel Peace prize. But they actually accomplished something or introduced a concept that eventually prevailed. In 1905, Teddy Roosevelt successfully negotiated the end of the Russo-Japanese War, and that peace actually stuck. Woodrow Wilson created the League of Nations which, although it failed survive, it was the forerunner of the United Nations. Gentlemen, take a bow. As for President Obama, I guess we’ll have to keep holding our breath and hoping.
Damaged Goods
However noble, the Nobel Peace Prize might have been, it has been reduced to a sad joke. Let’s look at some past recipients:
- 2007 – Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Al Gore won the Peace prize for his deeply flawed documentary, which by the way two members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have called for him to return the Oscars he won for the same film. He didn’t win the Nobel Prize in Physics or Chemistry. Meanwhile the IPCC is embroiled in the midst of Climategate. Who lost out to these two? A woman who smuggled approximately 2,500 Jews, mostly small children, out of the Warsaw ghetto before the Nazi’s could exterminate them.
- 2005 – Mohamed El Baradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way” . While investigating Iran El Baradei “opposed the publication of a secret report generated by his own agency, one which indicated Iran was using its civilian program as a cover to make weapons. And why did he oppose publication?” {more} Do you feel blissfully peaceful now when you ponder Iran?
- 2002 – Jimmy Carter – “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development”. Well he must have gotten tired as he mused about how any opposition to President Obama’s policies being racially motivated for the most part.
- 2001 – The United Nations and Kofi Annan – for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world. It seems they wanted to wait until the UN was nearly irrelevant in world affairs and Kofi Annan’s son was ripping off the UN’s Oil for Food program. Hmmm, that must have come from the “better organized” part.
- 1994 – Yassir Arafat, Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Rabin – for their efforts to create peace in the Middle East. How’s that working out?
Notably Absent
So where are the Nobel Peace prizes for Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, for ending the Cold War without firing a shot? That wasn’t just peaceful that was miraculous. But then again, they were conservatives and therefore they don’t qualify for the Nobel Peace Prize.
by Bill O'Connell on August 12, 2009
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.
