Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Congress / Woods Blackburn Cheers as Health Care Reform Stalls in House
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 5:38 PM
"When you have government-run health care you cripple access and the cost skyrockets just like it did in Tennessee. We do not want that for America. We want to get to the core issue which is, How do we preserve access to affordable, quality health care for all Americans? How do we address the cost and access issues? We know that the plan that is being brought forward - the tri-committee bill, the Senate bill - is not going to get us there. It is going to get us further away."Blackburn fails to mention that TennCare was managed ineptly in a state whose citizens always have refused to pay their fair share of taxes. Yes, if the national health insurance program follows that example, it'll fail too. By the way, our very own Bart Gordon is one of the Blue Dogs on the House Energy and Commerce Committee who are holding back reform. He says, "We cannot fix these problems by simply throwing more money into a broken system." Pith suspects Gordon is worried about another 1994. That's when the Clinton health care reform plan helped spawn the Republican revolution, and an under-funded candidate named Steve Gill almost turned Gordon out of office.
Comments (8)
Showing 1-8 of 8
Here's what else the Scourge of God, er, I mean Marsha, fails to mention: The private sector can't run a health program for everyone either, at least not one that's acceptable to the majority of Americans. The private sector is beset by the same cost increases that beset TennCare and other state Medicaid programs. And the private sector rations care to an incredible degree. It rations by dumping the indigent and the sick and by denying legitimate care to millions of people who file claims, solely as a cost-containment strategy.
You will never hear the honest truth from Marsha, because telling the truth is not in the interest of a demagogue.
But I actually agree with Bart Gordon's point. Unless healthcare costs are brought under control, healthcare reform will fail and the idea of universal coverage will be unfairly blamed. Then it will be another 15 years before the public is willing to try again. Universal coverage should certainly help lower costs, but it won't do enough on its own. A lot of liberals are deluded about that.
The costs don't simply need to stop rising. They have to come down. And they won't come down until the incentives are fundamentally realigned. Right now, the system's incentives are based on providing more care, more services, rather than focusing on outcomes. Some powerful forces are arrayed against changing these incentives. Unfortunately, none of the current plans being tossed around by Congress really do much to change these fundamentals.
But even if they did, even if Congress came up with a new healthcare scheme that was endorsed by Jesus himself, Marsha Blackburn would oppose it. It's all just godless communism.
like
dislike
"We want to get to the core issue which is, How do we preserve access to affordable, quality health care for all Americans? How do we address the cost and access issues?"
So, Congressman, what are your answers to those questions?
She and most Republicans are happy with the status quo. And they know if Obama manages to reform the health care system, it's political gold for Obama and Democrats. They can't have that. Wonder how many people in Brentwood are without health insurance?
Blackburn is a lap dog for big private healthcare companies. I call on her to cancel her federal health insurance she gets for her part time work as a congresswoman and buy her own policy on the market like her constituents have to do.
We got a $250 tax cut from George Bush and all that "free market" "competition" increased our insurance premiums by an average of $5000 per family from 2001 to 2008. Is this Blackburn's idea of a good thing?
"Blackburn fails to mention that TennCare was managed ineptly in a state whose citizens always have refused to pay their fair share of taxes."
Yeah Tenncare is a unique case of failure in entitlemet programs - well execpt for every other one in existence in this country which are all equally failures.
It's time to repeat those inconvenient facts which libs have no answer for:
State Medicaid programs are insolvent all over the country. Obama used a big chunk of the so-called "stimulus" money to prop them up.
When Medicare was started in the mid-sixties, the government projected the annual cost in 1990 would be $12 billion. The actual cost was $107 billion.
The latest report out by the Social Security and Medicare trustees shows that the actuarially determined net present value of the unfunded liabilties for those two programs combined is $106.4 TRILLION.
All of these progams are an abject failure - period.
The country cannot afford to contiune funding the entitlement programs it has already. Creating a massive new one is going to make things worse - not better. Even the CBO has already come out and stated that Obama's plan will increase costs - not decrease them (contrary to his ludicrous claims). And given the CBO's record of predictive accuracy with Medicare as mentioned above, that means the costs will actually be far higher than even they claim.
The root cause is and will always be the bogus notion of anything being an "entitlement" regardless of one's ability to pay.
Dreaming up such a concept was the very epitome of fiscal irreponsibilty to begin with.
"But even if they did, even if Congress came up with a new healthcare scheme that was endorsed by Jesus himself, Marsha Blackburn would oppose it."
As well she should,since there is no enumerated power delegated to the federal government in the text of the Constitution (as is required by the 10th Amendment) that authorizes it to set up any such mandatory participation system.
I'd trust the government (AKA, the People) over some seething Wall Street capitalist any day. Down with Wall Street run "health care".
Well, it seems I have something in common with everyone here. I don't trust the government or any third party (insurance company) to look after my health interests. Crazy me, but I don't think it's outlandish for my doctor to profit on my well-being. After all, if I die, he stops getting paid. The government bureaucrat still gets paid on Friday.
The government can't run or fund healthcare efficiently (see Medicare). The cost may be low at the Dr office, but not come April 15th (unless you don't pay anything anyway). Please read the CBO report on this bill. It won't lower premiums, won't cover everyone, may actually increase the number of uninsured, and will be unsustainable without tax increases or service reductions... unless they have revised the report again this week denying all that.
The current system is out of step, but how could anyone who witnessed the bumbling of TennCare or has ever actually filled out a tax form possibly be comfortable with a nationalized system? There is an alternate Republican plan by the way, but I'm sure nobody has bothered reading it... or the travesty the Democrats have thrust upon us for that matter. 1000+ pages of Socialism, Jefferson help us.
