tidbit's blog

white house - reality check (part ii)

 abuse

White House: Reality Check

 As a 'right wing freak' who has 'manufactured anger' and all that other BS being said....  I've taken the time to keep track of both sides of arguments.

Just like many others opponents to the Health Care Bill, I realize that there are a small few who of the opponents who are intentionally using fearmongering to their advantage.

Despite the fearmongering, name calling, belittling, etc,  from the left - coming from proponents of the bill, generalizing ALL of us opponents, I and many others do not support violence and are doing everything in our power to truly educate people with facts.

In doing so, I've been very happy that the White House came out with the "Reality Check" website for the bill.

My only complaint is that, clearly no one is still reading the bill. The overwhelming majority of the website videos tell you what the bill DOESN'T do, but it doesn't back it up with factual data of what it DOES to counteract the arguments.

The sole exception being the video on the euthinization. I'm glad they put that out there.

NOW, there is a FAQ.  Sadly, again, too much time is spent arguing points that  opponents have drawn up and it doesn't use any factual data from the bill to support it's claims.  To me, this is sad.  Because of this, it leads to more confusion and misinterpretation.

For example:

Health Insurance Reform will end current forms of rationing, not expand it.

First, there is widespread rationing in today’s system. Right now, decisions about what doctor you can see and what treatment you can receive are made by insurance companies, which routinely deny coverage because of cost or the insurance company rules. Health reform will do away with many of those rules that result in rationing today.

Health Insurance Reform will prevent insurance companies from denying coverage because you have a pre-existing condition; prevent them for canceling coverage because you get sick; ban annual and lifetime limits on coverage, which often force people to pay huge sums out of pocket if they develop a serious illness; and prevent discrimination based on gender.

With health insurance reform, we will also put treatment decisions back into the hands of doctors in consultation with their patients.

One of the reasons we spend too much on health care today is that our incentives are perverse: Doctors are paid by the procedure, rather than for quality. We want reform that rewards quality of care not quantity of procedures. Having dozens of procedures doesn’t necessarily make you better. In fact they can make you worse. Right now roughly 100,000 Americans die every year from medical errors, which, in many cases, were the result of treatments that were wrong for them. We want to reduce preventable hospital re-admissions that are frequently caused because patients are not getting the right care in the first place. We want to give doctors the ability to make the best treatment decisions for you and your family.  

OK:  There isn't anything in here that really addresses the real issue.  Health Care Costs.  The REASON insurance companies do this is to keep costs of premiums down.

When all the preexisting conditions, chronic illnesses, etc are put into a government insurance plan, it is going to be very costly. This is NOT my argument against it, but it is a fact.  The government IS NOT and has not addressed the cost issue.  It's my argument that they honestly have not considered it or if they have, they have done very poorly at it, as they have with other programs.  

Also, let's look at reality (since that's what they call their website). There isn't a single country that offers government paid health care,that has not rationed. It's impossible not to.  It's not a fear tactic, it's just a fact. Governments are (well apparently except ours) liminted to the funds they receive from tax payers.  "Insured" via a government plan, can only be subsidized so much with tax payer funding and with premiums.  At some point, the government will have to make a decision for it's "insured":  1) ration care  OR 2) raise premiums and taxes.  Especially when you are going to take everyone on regardless, pre-existing conditions and chronic illnesses and all, AND including more than what even standard insurance covers today.

GEE - sounds a LOT like the current system doesn't.  SO MUCH FOR CHANGE AND REFORM.

"The majority of the initiatives that would pay for reform will come from cutting waste, fraud, and abuse within existing government health programs; ending big subsidies to insurance companies; and increasing efficiency with such steps as coordinating care and streamlining paperwork. We want to take money that is already being spent on health care and re-allocate it toward reforms that lower costs and assure quality affordable health care for all Americans.

The cuts we are talking about involve spending that currently does not improve care for Americans. For example, we would save $177 billion in unwarranted subsidies to the insurance industry in the next ten years and put that money into actual care for people. These and other reforms will strengthen and stabilize Medicare."

For many opponents like me, this is the White House's attempt to answer our argument: This bill does NOT address Health Care COSTS (but instead it only addresses Insurance).

And truly, if this was all reality, then why are congressmembers annoucing to the public that they may have to raise taxes to cover costs of the health care reform?

Add to that... insurance companies get subsidies? So if you remove the subsidies, what's the first common sense thing that comes to mind? INCREASE in my premiums.

 So my taxes will go up to pay for those who don't pay for insurance now and my premiums are going to go up for forced regulations to take everyone regardless AND my preimiums will go up to cover what the insurance companies are not getting.  Sounds like Reform to me!

Add to that, if you read the FAQ it says that it's going to regulate insurance companies on limiting how much you can pay out of pocket for the year (putting a cap on it), capping co-pay, etc.  Guess what this does? YUP - You guessed it - raises costs of health care to make up the difference and guess what is impacted? The cost of health insurance.

But then they do this:  "Let’s also remember that we can’t afford not to reform health care. The cost of inaction is too high. Health care spending has grown in recent years three times faster than average wages."

LOL Sound familiar? Isn't that what we were told about all the bailouts and "stimulus". LOL We have to do "Something" and better now than later - we can't wait.

Well, we see how that worked out for us already didn't we?

 But let's be reasonable. This bill STILL does not address the reason why Premiums have doubled and out of pocket costs for people have gone up 32%.

THE TOP REASONS WHY HEALTH CARE COSTS SO MUCH:

1) Out of control Malpractice lawsuits

2) Exorbanent malpractice insurance premiums for doctors

3) extremely high administrative costs for practioners to deal with insurance companies

 Yet, none of these are addressed.

We have a shortage of general practioners right now. There is nothing to address this issue in the bill. We're going to add (assumably) 40 million people to the bill, who are they going to see? I've heard some say nurse practioners, but where are those going to come from, we have a nurse shortage too.

All in all, I'm happy to see the White House put this out there. I hope they will get more specific.

Whether your for or against the bill, it is important to know the facts. There is PLENTY Wrong with the bill, there is no need for opponents to manufacture anything to get a point across.

TIDBIT's "Not so perfect but close enough" Analogy: Joe Smo has a lawn care service.  The government now says: Joe - you can't charge more than $40 a month for anyone.  You can't descriminate: you can't charge someone with 4 acres more than someone with .5 acres. You can't turn anyone down or tell them you can't mow their lawn if  they ask.

Suddenly lawn care is more affordable, and more people are wanting his services. BUT now, he doesn't make enough to cover his gas to get to these places, he doesn't make enough to cover the cost of getting new vehicles to go to all the new businesses, he starts doing a half azz job becuase he's in a hurry to try to get in as much business as he can because he has to make ends meet to pay for all the maintenance on his equipment, his trucks, his employees AND STILL have $$ left over to pay his mortgage, taxes, etc. j

The current bill does exactly this and the outcome will be the same.

Filed under: Government