Local residents square off on healthcare

The healthcare issue is important to all walks of life. The Cedar Creek Pilot asked two local residents to give their point of views on the issue. This is the opinion of the writers.

By JERRY PHILLIPS

Guest columnist

I was disappointed at not being able to find out actually how many proposed health care plans are being discussed, even if I had, that would lead to questioning how many amendments each has.

Regardless of what bill emerges from the house and senate and how much it cost, a major concern I have is the old slippery slope argument. (What’s at the bottom of the slope? Total government control, socialized medicine?) Giving Mr. Obama benefit of the doubt and assuming he is sincere when he says, “he will not sign a bill that adds 1 dime to the deficit now or in the future. And to prove that I'm serious, there will be a provision in this plan that requires us to come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promised don't materialize." We can save paper on that one, because it would be redundant to an existing law called the, Sustainable Growth Rate formula enacted to constrain out-of-control Medicare spending. Every year since 2003, Congress has waived those cuts. Ref. (Texas Medical Association)

President Obama pushed hard for congress to pass a health care bill before they went on August recess, an old saying (Haste makes waste) the house threw a bill together and passed it, the senate did not. That gave the public time to glance over what the house bill looked like. That’s when the ---- hit the fan in the town-hall meetings, after that we who are against Government health care were branded, mobsters, Nazi's, racists and a few other choice words by some prominent Democrats and their friends in the main-stream media.

Some say that the republicans are standing in the way of a health care bill (FALSE) Democrats have a large majority in the house, (256 D—178R) and they passed the bill that created the Town Hall controversies, The Senate has 58 democrats + two independents who vote with liberals 90% of the time and majority leader Reid has said he will use the nuclear option if needed, 51 votes will pass any bill brought forward in the Senate if Democrats want it. (Nuclear option eliminates filibusters)

The 4 items below have been in every Democrat bill I have seen, I am against all of them!!!

(1) Government control or at least a pathway to Government control later down the road. (Obama, "As recently as 2007, he suggested that employer coverage could be eliminated in the long-term"). And in 2003, he said a single-payer system was his ultimate goal. Barney Frank (D-Mass) July 27 this year (I think that if we get a good public option, it could lead to single payer, and that’s the best way to reach single payer).

(2) Mandates—Everyone will be REQUIRED to buy “qualified” insurance, If you don’t, a 2 ½% tax will be added to adjusted gross income. Ref: hr3200 and Senate Baucus plan.

The Baucus senate plan “Calls for a $123 billion cut from Medicare Advantage".

Health insurance providers, drug companies, and Clinical labs, collectively would pay an annual fee of over $12 billion starting in 2010. Ref: Baucus senate bill (2) (3) (Do you have any of these companies in your 401K plan?)

Are these fees of over $12 billion annually intended to make a level playing field with Co-Op’s who are non-profit, government funded business?

(3) Government option Or Co-Op, No difference, both would be funded by Government and follow Government rules.

(4) All plans that I have seen will take $500 billion out of Medicare to help pay for the plan. (Of course no cuts in benefits or services) (give me a break) ref: Cybercast News Service- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said today that Congress will pay for half of the $1 trillion health care reform by “squeezing” Medicare

Say the Health Care Plan works out and we welcome the 30+ million uninsured into the fold. Has anyone given thought to where we would get the necessary Doctors to provide the care?

A simplified way to lower health care.

(1) Give each person a deduction from adjusted gross income (long form-short form) all medical bills including health insurance, co-pays, medication, all out of pocket expenses including transportation expenses back and forth for medical services (15% bracket-save 15%--25% bracket cut 25% off medical bills.)

(2)Tort reform--NONE of the democrat's plans have this in it (Trial lawyers' donations amounted to $636,000 to democrats campaigns VS $5,000 to republicans.) liability reforms would reduce defensive medicine practices, leading to a 5 to 9 percent reduction in medical expenditures. Texas Gov. Rick Perry noted that, after his state enacted tort reform measures, the number of doctors applying to practice medicine in Texas “skyrocketed by 57 percent. There can be no true health care reform without legal reform.

(3) Allow insurance companies to sell across state lines.

(4) Allow purchasers to pick policy coverage “Cafeteria style” allowing selection of coverage you want and avoid paying for coverage you don’t need.

Mr. Obama has stated that the time for talk is over, now is the time for action, health care is in crisis, no time to waste. I am sure I have heard that line before, remember the stimulus bill, the economy is in crisis, no time to waste, we have got to pass the stimulus bill now or the unemployment rate will go to 8% (6% at that time 10% now?)

By DAN MADRANO

Guest columnist

I believe that most people can agree on several basic points: we have the most expensive healthcare system in the world yet we rank well down the list in many key measurements (life expectation and infant mortality to name but two) and that we have far too many uninsured and just as many underinsured. Our country spends 16% of our GDP on healthcare yet the other industrialized countries (and we are the only one that does not have universal coverage) spend less than half as much.

It is estimated that if we don’t reform our healthcare and healthcare insurance system that by 2012 we will spend over 20% of our GDP on healthcare. So most experts in healthcare and economics (and, at least according to most polls, a majority of ‘we the people’) agree that something must be done. The only questions are ‘what’ and ‘how’.

Some want a universal single payer system (Medicare for everybody). Others want only to ‘reform’ the insurance regulations and the tort claims system. All the various bills now being considered by Congress fall somewhere in between these two extremes.

However, it is clear that we must do something to expand the ‘safety net’ for health issues. Nobody should have to go bankrupt because of their health. Nobody should become uninsured because they lose their job or because their employer drops their coverage (and this will happen more and more as premiums continue to rise at a rate much greater than inflation). A recent report showed that over 45,000 people die each year because they don’t have insurance and cannot afford care. This is a disgrace for the greatest country in the world!

I happen to have excellent coverage and will soon (3 years) be covered by Medicare. But I strongly believe that all my fellow citizens should have the ability to have coverage and I am willing to pay a bit more if necessary for my own coverage in order to bring this about. It is called being a good citizen and I hardly believe that I am the only one that believes in this concept.

Dan Madrano spent 35 years in healthcare administration both in the private and public sectors. He retired in 2007 from the Indian Health Service, the most comprehensive healthcare delivery system in the country.