watchdog

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

TOWN HALL HEALTH CARE MEETING


My wife and I went to the town hall meeting last Saturday put on by Representative Steve Cohen. It was well attended and very interesting.

It was obvious that the majority of people attending and the majority of doctors who spoke all had grave doubts about the house proposed plans, three of which are working their way through the baloney making process in Congress.

A number of questions were asked and answered (kind of) but the real knee slappers were the following.

  • You will be able to keep you present insurance that you like
  • Illegal aliens will not be covered
  • Congress will be forced to take the same plan that finally develops for the citizens
  • No one will make a decision to deny you treatment when you are old
  • Your waiting time after adding 47 million new people and no new doctors will not be increased
  • The house plan will be revenue neutral

There were many others that got raucous laughter but the above came to mind. One interesting sign behind where I set read "83% love single payer plan". When I asked where she got the sign, she said "MOVEON . ORG".

One question that I wanted to ask but did not get to was this. "What is the unfunded liability of medicare and social security"? I looked up an answer from the Wall Street Journal.

"According to the trustees, Medicare's unfunded liability is $74 trillion -- five times that of Social Security. According to the Congressional Budget Office, health-care spending is on a course that could crowd out all other government programs. Clearly the time has come for fundamental reform." (February 28, 2008).

Clearly Medicare and Social Security need reform. The Obama plan is not it. There was an article in yesterday's Commercial Appeal by the smartest national writer in the country, Charles Krauthammer. Here is what he said.

(1) Tort reform: As I wrote recently, our crazy system of casino malpractice suits results in massive and random settlements that raise everyone's insurance premiums and creates an epidemic of defensive medicine that does no medical good, yet costs a fortune.

An authoritative Massachusetts Medical Society study found that five out of six doctors admitted they order tests, procedures and referrals -- amounting to about 25 percent of the total -- solely as protection from lawsuits. Defensive medicine, estimates the libertarian/conservative Pacific Research Institute, wastes more than $200 billion a year. Just half that sum could provide a $5,000 health insurance grant -- $20,000 for a family of four -- to the uninsured poor (U.S. citizens ineligible for other government health assistance).

What to do? Abolish the entire medical-malpractice system. Create a new social pool from which people injured in medical errors or accidents can draw. The adjudication would be done by medical experts, not lay juries giving away lottery prizes at the behest of the liquid-tongued John Edwardses who pocket a third of the proceeds.

The pool would be funded by a relatively small tax on all health-insurance premiums. Socialize the risk; cut out the trial lawyers. Would that immunize doctors from carelessness or negligence? No. The penalty would be losing your medical license. There is no more serious deterrent then forfeiting a decade of intensive medical training and the livelihood that comes with it.

(2) Real health insurance reform: Tax employer-provided health care benefits and return the money to the employee with a government check to buy his own medical insurance, just as he buys his own car or home insurance.

There is no logical reason to get health insurance through your employer. This entire system is an accident of World War II wage and price controls. It's economically senseless. It makes people stay in jobs they hate, decreasing labor mobility and therefore overall productivity. And it needlessly increases the anxiety of losing your job by raising the additional specter of going bankrupt through illness.

The health care benefit exemption is the largest tax break in the entire U.S. budget, costing the government a quarter-trillion dollars annually. It hinders health-insurance security and portability as well as personal independence. If we additionally eliminated the prohibition on buying personal health insurance across state lines, that would inject new and powerful competition that would lower costs for everyone.

Will this sensible solution happen? Not likely with this Administration but keep up your letters, emails and telephone calls because this crazy Obama care needs to be stopped and real reform put in its place.

I have attached a picture of Cohen. He ran a good meeting. I wish there was another choice than Cohen or Herenton.



 


Click here to see Rep Cohen at the recent town hall health care meeting

Saturday, August 01, 2009

August 1, 2009

MY THOUGHT ON MAYOR HERENTON

My thoughts on Mayor Herenton are many but I think the following are the most important after almost 5 years of research on local government and open records access.
• He is the poster child for the value of term limits. His first two terms were reasonably good. After that it has all been downhill. It takes about two terms or less for politicians to get a handle on power. After that, it is all arrogance and entitlement. Look at Washington DC and the need for term limits.
• His administration is all about jobs, not about governmental operational efficiency in the spending of taxpayers’ money. This is how politicians maintain power, by their ability to hand out jobs. This is also true of the school system and to a lesser extent our County government.
• I don’t expect anything to change, regardless of who wins the election. Until someone addresses reform of pensions, OPEB and benefits, nothing will change and our City and County will continue to decline.

Regards, Joe Saino, memphiswatchdog.org and shelbywatchdog.blogspot.com