Mattress Answer Man Speaks |

Some of the information in this article came from 2000 which is very important to the discussion today. The first thing you will notice is that for the next eight years this problem while still growing was ignored by the government. You will also notice that the very things the Republicans are telling us to do were shown not to work in the report they had compiled. These are the same group of politicians that are considered the party better at national defense. Before I go into the main purpose of this I would like to digress to a short article in the Air Force Times that shows a side of this discussion that has been ignored.

Today the Republicans offered their health plan. Waiting until the Labor Day break was over so there wouldn’t be the same uproar at their town hall meetings.(At least some of the Republicans had town hall meetings like Senator Grassley of Utah who allowed his to be televised while others took cover of with one sided statements and questions for the participants like representative Gerhart from Pa). They have been telling the American public that we shouldn’t rush this that we have to get it right. This study was presented in 2001 and has been going on since. Tonight the Republicans accused the Democrats of play politics while not looking at the future. After reading this whole report and some of its references  I would like to say they are right about not looking forward and playing politics but they have the wrong party.

I would like to also clear up a few things about their accusations. The post office and the railroads are not failures. For that matter neither is Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack. In the private sector many businesses run at a loss while still earning money. Those losses are a result of fluctuations in the economy or even fluctuations by season. When these companies need money they either borrow it or the sell stock. The Government sponsored companies have to go to congress for money not the banks. These companies are not free to raise prices and in some cases they can’t change products or services without approval. Their wages for management are controlled and rarely do they get the best talent. These entities would be ok if the Republicans would try and make them work instead of under funding them while they are in power. Even worse is the fact that the Board of Directors (which is congress) haven’t done their job of overseeing for over eight years. These were also not set up as businesses having to show a profit or even break even. President Obama wanted the Government option to pay for itself therefore being set up very different from the others. The conservatives would have you believe that because these entities need an influx of money from time to time that they run different from other types of business. Let me pose this question. How much do you think Brown would charge to deliver your mail? Here is another If we cut off the subsidies to Amtrak Which helps the East Coast should we do the same for the farmers of the Midwest?

The first thing I believe the conservatives get wrong is the premise of choice when it pertains to insurance. The basic is that the well pay for the sick so that when the well become sick they are covered are covered by the ever changing group. In a sense you are saving for the future buy buying it when you are fit. The first problem is for profit health insurance because the pool of money is lessened buy the removal of profit. If you eliminate the profit motive you automatically can either reduce cost or expand coverage. They try and use auto insurance as an example. Most state require auto insurance as a prerequisite to being able to drive. Your choice then is to buy insurance or use other methods of transportation. Using this logic the choice becomes simple for anyone who is not rich, buy health insurance and live. Don’t buy the insurance and die.
The next misconception is that of choice under the present system. You get to choose your insurance if you own the company or are an officer of a company otherwise your choice is made by your employer. The (terrible) unions negotiated health benefits and forced other employers to offer insurance to compete. At one time in our history labor was the scarce resource in our country and benefits(non taxable income) were the drawing card. The excess of these benefits in the long run made our products less competitive in the world market. Corporations do not care about anything but profit  so they move their production to areas where they don’t have to offer benefits and can keep the money to themselves not sharing it with workers.
So protecting the free market someday will mean protecting no market but that is another topic. The fact is that companies will for the most part purchase what is best for them not necessarily what is best for you.
The next post will break down the republican program showing its strong points and weaknesses.

Today on C-Span another of those Heritage Foundation thinkers talked out of both sides of his mouth to try and prove a point that doesn’t exist. Dennis G. Smith is the Senior Fellow in Health Care Reform at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Health Policy Studies. Just like most of his comrades from this organization, he makes Anne Rand seem like a liberal. This gentleman’s expertise is Medicaid. He has written papers on health care but if you read them they aren’t based on Medicare but on  Medicaid. One program is is welfare and the other is a paid program. While I will agree they both need fine tuning both are well liked by the majority of the public. These health care plans are both government run. As with all of the conservative decenters to a Public Plan he never mentions that you have to pay for the Public Plan and it isn’t free.

This gentleman is even more dangerous he believes in Co ops but not one large one. He wants many little ones. How transparent can you be and still sound intelligent. He also uses examples of Co ops that started small and grew that really aren’t true co ops. Sam’s Club is a co op look alike owned buy that non profit American product retailer Walmart that found a way to make money without selling anything. Mutual of  Omaha is another of his examples. The last time I looked it was on the stock market.

Mr Smith has decided that insurance is only for catastrophic events even though our health system is built to cover even prevention. Once he changes the common definition or decides that “blue Shield” is all there is and “Blue Cross” doesn’t exist his arguments almost sound correct. You see we are not only wrong about wanting good inexpensive health care, but even the poor situation we have is too much. He never said this but if you accept his definition then the other becomes true.

His theory of smaller co ops is a smack in the face of any rational thinker. The larger the group and the more age groups it covers will drive the costs down. Even the insurance companies agree that covering everyone is better. Mr Smith you received a master’s degree in public administration from George Mason University in 1990. In 1978, he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Illinois State University. Neither of these studies make you an expert in any of the skills needed to design, or even speak to the economics of a pay for insurance plan. If you wish to use your experience with Medicaid then I wouldn’t even show my face based on your own assertion that it is failing. Anyone knows the larger the group the stronger the negotiating power, and in the case of insurance the further the risk is spread.

The fact that you don’t know whether it is going to be pay for service or a giant HMO is good. You state however that the legislation gives great power to one person to decide. Which of the five bills are you talking about, or did you only read one? Your final statement was unbelievable. If this turns into a cartel we will be in trouble. The oil cartel has done just fine for the oil companies and the oil producing nations. An Insurance cartel of purchasers should only work half as well.

more about “C-SPAN Video Player – Washington Jour…“, posted with vodpod

The Republicans want tort reform. They say the reason it is not considered is because of the Democrats ties with the bar associations. Once again even if they are right their solution is wrong. It seems that these politicians still forget that the free market is a dream. They need to not have tort reform they need to pass laws that would penalize outrageous acts performed by the medical society. They need an over site group that can really police this market.

Senator Grassley said on national television just a few days ago that 250,000 dollars should be a ceiling for malpractice Torts. I think he should read some of the reports his staff gets. While I’m sure he would use the following report to show the weakness of government health care, the real information would pass him by. There isn’t a report on this from the present watch group,AMA (Avoid Making Accusations), for non governmental procedures.

After reading he might realize that he has now set a price of 250,000 on human life.

The report entitled PREVALENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS OF NONPHYSICIANS WHO PERFORMED MEDICARE PHYSICIAN SERVICES (click to read) written by the Office  of the Inspector General said that:

Unqualified nonp hysicians performed 21 percent of the services that physicians did not perform personally. In the first three months of 2007, Medicare allowed $12.6 million for approximately 210,000 services performed by unqualified nonphysicians. These nonphysicians did not possess the necessary licenses or certifications, had no verifiable credentials, or lacked the training to perform the service. Nonphysicians with inappropriate qualifications performed 7 percent of the invasive services that physicians did not perform.

Now I personally don’t think these doctors should just be sued that allowed this. I think

they should not only have to pay back the over payments and incur a fine for stealing. I think they should also be prosecuted for endangerment based on the type of invasive service.

I’m not a fan of frivolous lawsuits. There must be a way to reduce these. Putting a cap on the amount the wrong doer can loose is not the way. Maybe if that person had to pay a portion like a mandated percentage or amount before any insurance could kick in. Maybe a tort grand jury of sorts for civil lawsuits to throw them out or approve them before going to trial.

Senate republicans take note. Quit saying the government can’t run anything and start passing laws that will punish the thieves in our society. Then and only then will our system work.

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If your done watching the trio, Rush,Glen and Bill scare the life out of you. If  Senator Grassley has finished telling you about that Canadian that got refused coverage. If one more Republican says” how can you trust government with your health care” (translation: If the rest of these people are half as incompetent as I am I sure don’t want them in charge.)

If your done listening to Nancy and Waxman who think they are the only saviors and everybody else is wrong.  Please quit picking on Dodd he was the only one who tried to run a true bipartisan committee. then listen to what I have to say.

These experts on both sides are telling us that it was the housing crisis that ruined our economy. It wasn’t!!!!  The thing that ruined our economy was Greed untethered greed. Look around, health care has been escalating at five times our inflation. Oil prices almost doubled last year. Your cable company got into the phone business your phone company got into the cable business. The Pharmaceutical companies are buying up each other because they need more product to sell(do you pay those high prices for development or so these companies can become larger (systemic). It was greed that made the financial institutions take the bad loans. It was greed that had the American oil companies sell their oil at the outlandish world prices, lets let them have more land so they can overprice more supply, the big oil companies will just cut back production to keep the prices up. Now we get to health care. The doctors are monitored by the AMA or in other words their not. Pharmaceutical companies spend hundreds of million on politics and hundreds more making you the doctor with their ads on TV. The doctors office is no longer small business they are owned by the hospitals who want them to prescribe more tests, once you get the test the the hospital wants you to take it again before they will admit you. The doctors are on a time schedule usually five to seven minutes. Who owns many of the hospitals yep! the insurance companies.

Does your Medical plan tell you if you can have a procedure? Does your medical plan tell you what drugs you can have? Please don’t tell me about those Canadians who can’t get covered while there are thousands of Americans with insurance that can’t get covered. While your listening to the horror stories the Insurance companies are making sure you hear, think of the ones you have been hearing about for the last tw

enty years right here. Listen to them tell you that people with cancer live longer here but forget to tell you that other people live longer in general. Why aren’t the politicians talking about Japan who has centralized heath care and their people live as an average a lot longer.  Here’s a better one, while older people live longer here than in many countries, younger people have a higher morality rate. See don’t worry about passing the debt on to your children, they may not live to pay it.

“They just want to pass health care so we have to pay for the illegals. ” I haven’t seen either party tackle this problem but I sure hope we cover them if they are here.  Lets let them all die of the swine flu, or might they just cause or increase an epidemic. About that no taxes thing, many pay payroll taxes that they never can collect on. (do you know how much money American banks are making transfer money being sent back?)

Health care costs about three trillion dollars a year now and well over four in ten years at present rate of cost increases. So if the government plan costs that one trillion dollars over the next ten years and we keep the costs where we are we are dead even.

Lets suppose however we pass a medicare plan for everyone does anyone think the insurance companies will come up with a supplemental plan?

My suggestion is that you call your local politicians. Tell them you want a government plan that cuts out the 25% profit the insurance companies are syphoning off and when they tell you the doctors won’t take the government insurance you tell them no government insurance no license. Tell your local politicians that they had better start working with the other side to come up with a good plan. Tell them this either your plan or mine attitude in congress today will not get them reelected. Tell them you are tired of being afraid and their scare tactics are becoming the reason the country can’t rebound. Tell them to start finding ways to end our passion for greed.