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Washington Post

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says President Obama’s support for a government-run — or public — insurance option has not changed. Here is a sampling of what the president has said about the public option.

March 26 And to say we are going to allow anybody to get health insurance — and if you’ve got a preexisting condition you’re not going to be excluded, but you’re going to be able to obtain health insurance; and if you can’t obtain it through a private plan, there is going to be a public plan that is available in some way to give you insurance, or insurers are obligated to provide you with insurance in some way — now, that’s a principle.

June 15 Let me also address an illegitimate concern that’s being put forward by those who are claiming that a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system.

Now, I’ll be honest. There are countries where a single-payer system works pretty well. But I believe — and I’ve even taken some flak from members of my own party for this belief — that it’s important for our reform efforts to build on our traditions here in the United States.

So when you hear the naysayers claim that I’m trying to bring about government-run health care, know this: They’re not telling the truth.

June 24 A lot of the objection to the public option idea is not practical, it’s ideological. People don’t like the idea of government being involved. But keep in mind that the two areas where government is involved . . . in health care — Medicare and the VA — actually, there’s pretty high satisfaction among the people who participate.

July 7 I am pleased by the progress we’re making on health-care reform and still believe, as I’ve said before, that one of the best ways to bring down costs, provide more choices and ensure quality is a public option that will force the insurance companies to compete and keep them honest.

July 18 Any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange — a one-stop-shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, costs and track records of a variety of plans, including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest, and choose what’s best for your family. And that’s why we’ll put an end to the worst practices of the insurance industry. No more yearly caps or lifetime caps. No more denying people care because of preexisting conditions. And no more dropping people from a plan when they get too sick. No longer will you be without health insurance, even if you lose your job or change your job.

Aug. 15 Now, the insurance companies have come back and said, "Well, that’s not fair, because nobody can compete against the government." They have a legitimate point if, if what’s being done is the government is . . . subsidizing that government plan — essentially taking taxpayer money and saying, "Here, we’ll just keep on spending money regardless of whether you run a good operation or not," then it’s hard for insurance companies to compete against that. And by the way, it would be wildly expensive for taxpayers.

So I’ve already said a public option can only work if they have to collect premiums just like a private insurer and compete on a level playing field.

Washington Post

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says President Obama’s support for a government-run — or public — insurance option has not changed. Here is a sampling of what the president has said about the public option.

March 26 And to say we are going to allow anybody to get health insurance — and if you’ve got a preexisting condition you’re not going to be excluded, but you’re going to be able to obtain health insurance; and if you can’t obtain it through a private plan, there is going to be a public plan that is available in some way to give you insurance, or insurers are obligated to provide you with insurance in some way — now, that’s a principle.

June 15 Let me also address an illegitimate concern that’s being put forward by those who are claiming that a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system.

Now, I’ll be honest. There are countries where a single-payer system works pretty well. But I believe — and I’ve even taken some flak from members of my own party for this belief — that it’s important for our reform efforts to build on our traditions here in the United States.

So when you hear the naysayers claim that I’m trying to bring about government-run health care, know this: They’re not telling the truth.

June 24 A lot of the objection to the public option idea is not practical, it’s ideological. People don’t like the idea of government being involved. But keep in mind that the two areas where government is involved . . . in health care — Medicare and the VA — actually, there’s pretty high satisfaction among the people who participate.

July 7 I am pleased by the progress we’re making on health-care reform and still believe, as I’ve said before, that one of the best ways to bring down costs, provide more choices and ensure quality is a public option that will force the insurance companies to compete and keep them honest.

July 18 Any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange — a one-stop-shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, costs and track records of a variety of plans, including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest, and choose what’s best for your family. And that’s why we’ll put an end to the worst practices of the insurance industry. No more yearly caps or lifetime caps. No more denying people care because of preexisting conditions. And no more dropping people from a plan when they get too sick. No longer will you be without health insurance, even if you lose your job or change your job.

Aug. 15 Now, the insurance companies have come back and said, "Well, that’s not fair, because nobody can compete against the government." They have a legitimate point if, if what’s being done is the government is . . . subsidizing that government plan — essentially taking taxpayer money and saying, "Here, we’ll just keep on spending money regardless of whether you run a good operation or not," then it’s hard for insurance companies to compete against that. And by the way, it would be wildly expensive for taxpayers.

So I’ve already said a public option can only work if they have to collect premiums just like a private insurer and compete on a level playing field.

Comment: A government run program is the foundation of what the left wing hopes for in health care. Lenin said that “socialized medicine is the “arch” in socialism”. It redistributes wealth. This is morally wrong to take from someone who chose a different path than someone else. Freedom is moving through the world making your own choices whether risky or not and experiencing the consequences.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jbjzPEY0Y3bvRD335rGu_Z3KXoQw

Overhauling health-care system tops agenda at annual meeting of Canada’s doctors

By Jennifer Graham (CP) – 2 days ago

SASKATOON — The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country’s health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it.

Dr. Anne Doig says patients are getting less than optimal care and she adds that physicians from across the country - who will gather in Saskatoon on Sunday for their annual meeting - recognize that changes must be made.

"We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Doing said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"We know that there must be change," she said. "We’re all running flat out, we’re all just trying to stay ahead of the immediate day-to-day demands."

The pitch for change at the conference is to start with a presentation from Dr. Robert Ouellet, the current president of the CMA, who has said there’s a critical need to make Canada’s health-care system patient-centred. He will present details from his fact-finding trip to Europe in January, where he met with health groups in England, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands and France.

His thoughts on the issue are already clear. Ouellet has been saying since his return that "a health-care revolution has passed us by," that it’s possible to make wait lists disappear while maintaining universal coverage and "that competition should be welcomed, not feared."

In other words, Ouellet believes there could be a role for private health-care delivery within the public system.

He has also said the Canadian system could be restructured to focus on patients if hospitals and other health-care institutions received funding based on the patients they treat, instead of an annual, lump-sum budget. This "activity-based funding" would be an incentive to provide more efficient care, he has said.

Doig says she doesn’t know what a proposed "blueprint" toward patient-centred care might look like when the meeting wraps up Wednesday. She’d like to emerge with clear directions about where the association should focus efforts to direct change over the next few years. She also wants to see short-term, medium-term and long-term goals laid out.

"A short-term achievable goal would be to accelerate the process of getting electronic medical records into physicians’ offices," she said. "That’s one I think ought to be a priority and ought to be achievable."

A long-term goal would be getting health systems "talking to each other," so information can be quickly shared to help patients.

Doig, who has had a full-time family practice in Saskatoon for 30 years, acknowledges that when physicians have talked about changing the health-care system in the past, they’ve been accused of wanting an American-style structure. She insists that’s not the case.

"It’s not about choosing between an American system or a Canadian system," said Doig. "The whole thing is about looking at what other people do."

"That’s called looking at the evidence, looking at how care is delivered and how care is paid for all around us (and) then saying ‘Well, OK, that’s good information. How do we make all of that work in the Canadian context? What do the Is Canadian people want?’ "

Doig says there are some "very good things" about Canada’s health-care system, but she points out that many people have stories about times when things didn’t go well for them or their family.

"(Canadians) have to understand that the system that we have right now - if it keeps on going without change - is not sustainable," said Doig.

"They have to look at the evidence that’s being presented and will be presented at (the meeting) and realize what Canada’s doctors are trying to tell you, that you can get better care than what you’re getting and we all have to participate in the discussion around how do we do that and of course how do we pay for it."

Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Investors Business Daily

Posted 06/16/2009 06:30 PM ET

Health Care: The administration uses the "46 million uninsured" as a reason to nationalize health care. But the Census Bureau says about a fifth of those aren’t U.S. citizens. In fact, a goodly number are illegal aliens.

At a town hall meeting in Green Bay, Wis., last week, President Obama spoke of the need to cover the "46 million people who don’t have health insurance." At another point he simply referred to the "46 million uninsured." At neither point did he refer to them as "Americans."

That was wise, because not all them are, the Census Bureau says.

According to "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States," a Census Bureau report published last August, of the 45.6 million persons in the U.S. that did not have health insurance at some point in 2007, 9.7 million, or about 21%, were not U.S. citizens.

The Census Bureau does not ask if anyone is here legally or illegally, so we can’t tell how many are actually illegal aliens. We do know that throughout the Southwest and elsewhere, emergency rooms have been overburdened by a continuous flood of illegal aliens.

Also among the uninsured are 17 million Americans who live in households where the annual income exceeds $50,000; 7 million of those without coverage have incomes of $75,000 a year or more.

The notion that the uninsured are without health care is bogus, as well. They consumed an estimated $116 billion worth of health care in 2008, according to the advocacy group Families USA. Many of the uninsured are young and healthy (40% are between ages 18 and 34) and at this point in their lives, particularly in this economy, choose to put their dollars elsewhere.

Subtract noncitizens and those who can afford their own insurance but choose not to purchase it, and the number of uninsured falls dramatically. "Many Americans are uninsured by choice," wrote Dr. David Gratzer in his book "The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care."

Gratzer cited a study of the "non-poor uninsured" from the California HealthCare Foundation.

"Why the lack of insurance (among people who own homes and computers)?" Gratzer asks. "One clue is that 60% reported being in excellent health or very good health."

The uninsured are not always the same people, and many are without coverage only for a relatively short time. Devon Herrick, senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis, notes that "Being uninsured is a transitory state, since most uninsured Americans are only without coverage for a short time."

Herrick is backed up by the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation, which found a few years ago that only 19 million Americans go without insurance for a full year.

If the problem is the high cost of health care, there are private sector solutions the Democrats are ignoring. Some sensible ideas include ending costly one-size-fits-all mandates that drive up insurance premiums and lifting the ban on shopping for coverage nationally, allowing consumers to cross state lines to find the best deal.

Health savings accounts are another practical solution that is being dismissed by the Democrats. An HSA is an individually owned tax-exempt account that can be used to pay for routine treatment, including drugs, dental care and eyeglasses. There are no restrictions on choices of doctors, specialists, hospitals or tests.

People would be not just patients but consumers. Since HSAs are personal savings accounts, they encourage preventive care, since money not spent on illness is money that grows and accumulates. There is both a financial incentive to stay healthy and a nest egg of savings, should major illness arise. HSA funds can be used to pay health insurance premiums during job transition. They are completely portable between jobs.

The issue here is not providing health care, but who controls it. We believe health care is a matter between doctor and patient, not patient and bureaucrat. Obama says his plan is to ensure "that there is an option out there for people . .. where the free market fails."

But the free market has not failed, except when it’s been overburdened by overregulation, mandates and litigation to the point that it is no longer free. Bleeding the patient didn’t work as a medieval medical remedy. Neither will bleeding the taxpayer and using bogus numbers to justify it.

Politico (Politico)
- Clipping Loc. 20-55 | Added on Tuesday, August 04, 2009, 11:14 PM

Recess strategies center on health Carrie Budoff Brown | 800 words They call this a recess? The five-week House break — the Senate is meeting another week — could go a long way in determining the direction of health care reform when lawmakers return next month. Aware of the stakes, House Democratic and Republican leaders have armed their members with enough talking points and tips to keep them from taking much of a vacation. Here’s the CliffsNotes version of what you need to know about the summer strategy on health care, according to House Democratic and Republican memos: Strangely absent. Many Democrats consider the government-run insurance plan their top priority, but there’s not one mention of it in the House Democratic strategy memo. It’s a noteworthy omission, given that Democratic leaders have said repeatedly and unequivocally that the House bill will include a public plan. Members are instead encouraged to talk about insurance market reforms, which are far less controversial than the public plan. They are following a slight shift in messaging that started last month with the White House calling the bill ‘health insurance reform" rather than ‘health care reform." So what will you hear? ‘No discrimination for pre-existing conditions," according to the House Democratic memo. ‘No dropping your coverage because you get sick. No more job or life decisions made based on loss of coverage. No need to change doctors or plans. No co-pays for preventive care. No excessive out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays. No yearly or lifetime cost caps on what insurance companies cover." Weapon of choice. Despite a few recent town halls gone bad, the traditional recess sit-down with constituents is still a preferred method of spreading the message. But both Democrats and Republicans suggest a slightly more controlled option: the telephone town hall, which can make it much harder for critics of either side to hijack the event — and media headlines. An unruly event Saturday with Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) suggests it may be a long recess month. After saying he would support the Democratic health care plan even if his constituents opposed it, the congressman faced chants of ‘Just say no." The shouting protesters followed him to the parking lot with signs and appeared to cheer when his car pulled away, according to a video posted on YouTube. Message of choice. Voters could be in for a confusing month. Republicans plan to argue that the Democrats want a government takeover of health care. Get used to hearing Republicans draw comparisons between the health care effort and the bailout of the auto and financial industries.’Democrats are leaving Washington on the defensive, and as a Republican challenger candidate, you must do everything you can to own the issues and frame the debate," the Republican memo states. ‘It is up to you to reaffirm what the voters already know, which is that government is NOT the answer to an ailing economy." Democrats have built a messaging strategy aimed at explicitly refuting the government takeover argument. The Democratic boogeyman is the not the government but, rather, insurers, which disrupt the doctor-patient relationship. By all means necessary. Democratic House leaders seem intent on leaving no media untouched. If you go on Facebook, they want you to visit their health care reform page. Ditto for Twitter. They also want members to create their own health care Web pages and are sending a template to member offices in case they didn’t get the hint the first time. And lawmakers should record YouTube videos, reach out to Hispanic media, hold online video chats with reporters and create flash quizzes on health reform for their websites, the leaders urge in their strategy memo. Best gimmick. You know that clock in Times Square that displays an ever-spiraling uptick in the federal debt? The ‘hidden tax" clock is next. Look for one on a member website near you, tallying the money insured families pay to subsidize the care of the uninsured. The strategy is to convince people who worry about paying more money to cover the uninsured under a reform bill that they are already footing the bill. The idea of a hidden health tax was introduced in a May report from the liberal consumer group Families USA. Its bottom line: In 2008, families paid a ‘hidden health tax" of $1,017, and individuals paid $368. Shameless coordination. Democrats will roll out all their assets. The House Democratic memo details coordination not only with the White House and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius but also with advocacy groups, including Health Care for America Now, AARP and the Service Employees International Union. Spoiler alert. Republican House leaders are urging members to submit op-eds to local newspapers for Aug. 17 to mark ‘the six-month anniversary of the signing of the failed ’stimulus’ bill’" — which will no doubt be tied back to the health care debate.

By Ric Joyner

Arlen Specter’s meeting with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius 

Congressional Representative Lloyd Doggett’s meeting gets heated.