Monday, August 17, 2009
Congress / Politics / Woods TennCare Bashing Reaches New Heights in National Debate
Posted by Jeff Woods on Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 7:01 AM
Now, as Congress debates a national health-care overhaul, state experiments like Tennessee's are informing the discussion. Unlike Massachusetts's more recent universal coverage law, the TennCare plan is most often cited by opponents. They say TennCare's runaway costs show that the public health-insurance proposal by House Democrats could bankrupt the federal government.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn is beating up TennCare: "Many of the concerns we have expressed about the proposal before us today are the stark realities of a system that went terribly wrong in Tennessee," she wrote in a letter to Congress. And Rep. Phil Roe, a physician, is doing it, too. A doctor who didn't like TennCare--imagine that.
"As soon as I heard about this public option, I thought, 'I know how this works,"' Roe tells WSJ. He said he has been repeating his cautionary tale about TennCare to colleagues "until I'm hoarse."
In fact, in its first five years, TennCare was an astounding success. As this article points out, Tennessee enjoyed the lowest per capita cost of any Medicaid program in the country, and TennCare provided near-universal coverage by wringing up to $2 billion in savings out of the system.
Costs eventually skyrocketed, it's true, but that wasn't the fault of the system so much as its inept managers, mostly under the Republican Sundquist administration. So because Tennessee politicos screwed up TennCare, as they screw up just about everything else, that means America will never have universal health care? This kind of argument is about as mindless as accusing Democrats of plotting to pull the plug on grandma.
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Most Tennesseans with whom I've been visiting, granted largely GOP voters, wonder why it is taking the General Assembly so long to scrap the program entirely.
I've been leading on this issue from the beginning and expect the rest of the field to fall in line soon. It doesn't take a Ph.D. in economics to realize that the "public option" is utterly contrary to reason.
The best we can hope for is that the State of Tennessee can provide some mechanism for citizens, who wish to provide themselves with PRIVATE coverage, to cooperate in "super groups" regardless of their employment status to use their buying power to drive down rates and improve coverage.
Another mistake we make is not providing more impetus to the AMA and the TMA to discipline (revoke the licenses) their members more prone to malpractice. Malpractice recidivism is one of the primary factors in the outrageous cost of that type of insurance.
Tort reform is a "straw man" for two reasons: it denies attorneys a free market within which to operate, and it denies victims the right to seek any amount of damages above an arbitrary, statutory limit.
Further, it is an outrage to pass legislation denying culpability to a doctor who gives a faulty, second opinion. The ethical equivalent to this would be to give doctors acting as expert witnesses immunity from prosecution for perjury or misleading testimony.
The larger point is that there is plenty of room for reform at the state level.
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TennCare as an astounding success in its first five years simply points out the truth of the old adage: “a new broom sweeps clean.” The breakdown really had less to do with politics than with simple minded ineptitude within. My taxi business thrived carrying TennCare passengers 'cross town, then back, depositing them finally at a medical facility ten blocks from home. The TennCare dispatcher had made a mistake and the fares frequently quadrupled, not infrequently amounting to over $100. The dispatcher didn't give a shit, and I loved it!
I for one, applaud Ms Blackburn's beating up on TennCare. Tennessee doesn't need to be experimenting with this kind of stuff. Tennessee cannot print money.
Which leads to another point. Universal health care is inevitable. And WSJ's wolf call about universal health care bankrupting the federal gov't is just that. A wolf call. Norman Thomas, the quadrennial socialist presidential candidate of the 20's, 30's and 40's quit politics, announcing that his work was done. That it would be completed by a burgeoning liberal voting populace. Guess what. Old Norman was right.
Get the hell out of the health care business, Tennessee. Let the big boys do it. They want to. They intend to. And they are doing it, inexorably. And they can pay the bill. All they have to do is crank up the printing press.
"Costs eventually skyrocketed, it's true, but that wasn't the fault of the system so much as its inept managers, mostly under the Republican Sundquist administration. So because Tennessee politicos screwed up TennCare, as they screw up just about everything else, that means America will never have universal health care?"
What evidence do you have that the federal government could manage health care costs any better than Tennessee could? Aren't Medicare and Social Security in constant danger of insolvency? Why should a program such as this fare any better?
It was REPUBLICAN politicos who screwed it up and don't forget the TNGOP was gunning for the program from day ONE, using that favorite old boogeyman the INCOME TAX threat.
People who think fraud never happens in private healthcare industry might want to have a conversation with Rick Scott, formerly of HCA and now leading the charge against healthcare reform. He defrauded the government of hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicare overbilling.
And these tea shouters and birth baggers are now doing his bidding? Whatever happened to "country first"?
Jeff,
Why do you repeat the DNC talking point about "killing grandma"? President Obama said at least twice--once to the L.A. Times and once to the N.Y. Times--that he would reconsider giving his grandmother her hip operation. When other people decide whether you receive end of life care that is what is meant by a "death panel." It is a sensational characterization but no less accurate for being so. Here are the links. Educate yourself and stop being a typical leftist propaganda tool:
4/28/2009: N.Y. Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/magazine/03Obama-t.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
7/5/2009: L.A. Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/magazine/03Obama-t.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
See also:
8/8/2009: Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/07/AR2009080703043.html
I hope those are liberal enough sources for you.
