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Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Rich Galen :: Townhall.com Columnist
Health Scare
by Rich Galen
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Will the Dems' health care Christmas Present to America be an improvement or detriment to our health care system?


The Washington Press Corps, still recovering from their sobbing adoration of Barack Obama at the White House Correspondent's Dinner on Saturday night, fell over in paroxysms of idolatry when the President stood with representatives of large heath care plans in the White House the other day.

One of the smartest political writers in Washington - maybe ever - is the Washington Post's Dan Balz who writes:

"What happened at the White House this week should not be underestimated as a sign of potential, but the president is far from a victory lap on health care."

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal about the event said:

They agreed in principle to try to shave 1.5 percentage points off the growth rate of U.S. health-care costs over the next decade, about $2 trillion.

WHOA! Check Please. The health care geniuses agreed to "shave the growth rate" and that is being cheered as a victory for Barack Obama?

That is exactly the issue which led to the shutdown fight between Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton which, among other things, had the effect of dragging my butt back to Washington, DC from Dallas, Texas where I was enjoying a life completely outside of politics.

Let's hop into the WayBack Machine and set the dial to the end of the 1995 fiscal year - September 30. Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House. Bill Clinton was President.

They were on a collision course over … curtailing the rate of growth in the Medicare and Medicaid programs over the ensuing seven years.

Note, Gingrich and the Congressional Republicans didn't want to cut benefits, they wanted flatten the growth curve by $163 billion.

Granted, in 2009, $163 billion is about the cost of bailing out one insurance company, but back in 1995 it was serious money.

The Clinton White House made the case - which was bought into by the press corps - that Gingrich wanted to cut benefits to Medicare and Medicaid patients.

The argument that Gingrich was trying to make that what he wanted to do was slow the growth of the programs fell on deaf ears both among Washington-based reporters and their readers, listeners, and viewers around the nation.

All Clinton's White House team (which included the man who is now Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel) kept saying were four words: Medicare, Medicaid, Environment and Education.

That was it. Four words.

By the time we finished explaining what we were trying to accomplish in terms of slowing the rate of growth … Ess. Enn. Oh. Are. Ee. … we had lost the battle and, ultimately the war.

That's why, when I read that Obama was being fitted for yet another halo for his plan to "shave 1.5 percentage points off the growth rate of U.S. health-care costs over the next decade" I flashed back to those really fun days of the shut-down fight.

On the other side of the ledger, the President's plan to make health care available to everyone will entail, according to Bloomberg, "a 10-year price tag [of] $634 billion."

Even in 2009 that's real money. And, Obama has no idea how to pay for it.

Senator Tom Harkin (D-Ia), ever the big thinker, has proposed "a special tax on soda and junk food." Does diet soda count? And if you order a salad at McDonald's is that exempt from the "junk food tax?"

Sometimes you have to sit back and wonder just how some of these people got to be where they are and how they stay there.

Related Topic:

In the green room at CNN yesterday there were two women waiting to be interviewed. I asked them what they were going to talk about and they said they were there on behalf of some nurses who had been arrested for acting out at a Senate hearing on single-payer health insurance.

I asked them whether the nurses thought they would be arrested if they made a scene and the two women said they did.

ME: Then what's the problem? They wanted to get arrested. They did get arrested, so everyone's happy. Or am I missing something?

THEM: It's a punitive arrest. They're being held even though in California nurses have their fingerprints on file and they should have been released.

ME: It seems to me that getting arrested is, by definition, punitive.

THEM: No other country in the world would have arrested them for free speech.

ME: Every other country in the world would have arrested them for speaking out against the government. They weren't arrested for speaking out. They were arrested for disrupting a Senate hearing.

THEM: Well…

Is this a great country, or what?

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About The Author

Rich Galen has been a press secretary to Dan Quayle and Newt Gingrich. Rich Galen currently works as a journalist and writes at Mullings.com

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(16 comments so Far)
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Reply # 1
Date: May 13, 2009 - 12:28 PM EST
Let's get this straight
Congress did so well with handling the banking crisis, remember most of these people were in office and promised to protect us from another S&L Crisis (back in the late 80's), they claimed to have been fooled into a war by a guy they said was an idiot, they want to put terrorists on American soil, and they paid an Italian automaker to take Chrysler - We want them to solve the health care and retirement systems?
Flag as Offensive

Reply # 2
Date: May 13, 2009 - 1:20 PM EST
Heathcare system is broken.

Obama said the U.S. Healthcare System is broken.

Off course Obama left out that it was the Liberals in Congress who broke it.

He left out the Liberals in Congress have opposed every effort to fix the problems.
Flag as Offensive

Reply # 3
Date: May 13, 2009 - 1:33 PM EST
Usefull Idiots
What I don't understand is O-man says medicare and social security is breaking the country yet he doesn't think socialized medicine will. $25,000 for a minor surgery, Medicines that cost $2 and $3 dollars a pill that half the population are taking. All sorts of things along this line won't break us but SSI and medicare will?
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Reply # 4
Date: May 13, 2009 - 1:38 PM EST
Some more equal than others
You can be guaranteed that congress will not use the same health care system that they will mandate that the rest of us use. Can we make them go to Canada for their health care for several years before ruining our health care system?
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Reply # 5
Date: May 13, 2009 - 2:54 PM EST
Stop the scare
If you have been sick and have struggled with ever increasing co-pays and bills and premiums you would agree that the system is "broken". We are paying twice as much for care and receiving half as much. And that's if you have not been dropped of the rolls even or can get insurance in the first place. I am grateful that Obama is willing to do *something* to address these issues as opposed to the republican members that want to kick the can down the road yet again as they have all these years.
No, the real cost here is being honest about how private companies have been raping the sick for the sake of protecting profits.
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Reply # 6
Date: May 13, 2009 - 3:34 PM EST
'Raping the sick' Very funny
crosstalk.

Obama's goal is something very similar to what's found in the UK and Canada, at least long term. He's willing to do this in stages, rather than in one fell swoop like Bill/Hillary did in the 90's. Obama's proposals will result in the elimination of the private health care system.

Let's look at the supposedly wonderful system that 'free' (government run) health care results in around the world.

According to a March 2, 2002 story in the London Observer, an 'unpublished report shows that some patients are now having to wait more than eight months for treatment, during which time many of their cancers become incurable.' An earlier story (12/16/01) in the same paper reported 'A recent academic study showed National Health Service delays in bowel cancer treatment were so great that, in one in five cases, cancer which was curable at the time of diagnosis had become incurable by the time of treatment.' More recently,

Canada's system is no better. The median wait for a CT scan in 2006 was over 4 weeks, and for an MRI was over 10 weeks.

More recently, within the last month or so, stories came out from Great Britain about the National Health Board refusing to pay for certain treatments because they're too expensive.

Do you really believe that, with a national health system, government officials won't start sticking their collective noses into your diet & exercize choices?
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Reply # 7
Date: May 13, 2009 - 3:38 PM EST
Continued to Crosstalk
Sure, we do need to reduce costs and make some improvements.

First, we can limit lawsuits. Doctors pay huge amounts in insurance premiums due to frivolous lawsuits (see John Edwards and 'channeling' the spirit of a baby who died).

Second, we need more people to pay more of their own costs- those dreaded 'co pays', as in incentive not to go to the doctor for every sniffle.

Health Savings Accounts, which allow the insured to roll over the unused part of their policy to the following year, make a difference. Letting the 'customer' (patient) know up front what it's going to cost enables them to shop around like we do for other things we buy.

But anything the Obamessiah's proposing will destroy our health care system, and destroy the pharmacutical industry.
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Reply # 8
Date: May 13, 2009 - 3:39 PM EST
Continued to Crosstalk
Sure, we do need to reduce costs and make some improvements.

First, we can limit lawsuits. Doctors pay huge amounts in insurance premiums due to frivolous lawsuits (see John Edwards and 'channeling' the spirit of a baby who died).

Second, we need more people to pay more of their own costs- those dreaded 'co pays', as in incentive not to go to the doctor for every sniffle.

Health Savings Accounts, which allow the insured to roll over the unused part of their policy to the following year, make a difference. Letting the 'customer' (patient) know up front what it's going to cost enables them to shop around like we do for other things we buy.

But anything the Obamessiah's proposing will destroy our health care system, and destroy the pharmacutical industry.
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Reply # 9
Date: May 13, 2009 - 3:40 PM EST
Numbers say "No" to national health care
The US Treasury has data available on the web. (Search "Monthly Treasury Statement")

I compared Health and Human Services for FY 2008 with FY 1998. Spending by H&HS has grown about 100% in just 10 years. It was $350.6 billion in FY 1998, and it was $700.5 billion in FY 2008.

Part of the increase is explained with the prescription drug program. That is about $50 billion. Remaining to explain is $300 billion.

Looking at monthly data for FY 2009, the current year, and I see spending by H&HS is still climbing at an alarming rate.

It should be imperative for existing spending by H&HS to be brought under control and reduced to an affordable level before considering any new major programs. There is no room in the budget for any sort of national health care plan.

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Reply # 10
Date: May 13, 2009 - 4:13 PM EST
The New Treas. report says
King Elect O has to borrow 46 cents for every new dollar he spends. (One reason the *stimulus* hasn't been much dispersed is there is NO MONEY).

Since China figures the dollar is shot and won't buy Treas. notes anymore, now the Fed. is *buying* from the Treas. note is can't sell elsewhere and giving the T. the same kinds of IOUs the fed. gov't has been giving FICA in Soc. Sec. (since Johnson and Dems. ended the *lock box* in 1968), up to $39 trillion now in unfunded Soc. Sec. debt.

This Fed-Treas. switch is pretty cute and a sure way to pave the road to economic ruin.
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Reply # 11
Date: May 13, 2009 - 4:48 PM EST
CROSSWALK
It has NEVER been the employers resonsibilty to pay an employees health care, Just like it is not my emplers responsibility to pay my car insurance and house insurance. NEVER!
Some companies offered health insurance as an incentive for the prospective employee and then soon (like everything else that is given for free) became an entitlement! Why are you so angry at businesses that make money. Could it be envy? If you don't like it, take all the risks and start your own business.
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Reply # 12
Date: May 13, 2009 - 5:45 PM EST
Stupid is....
Einstein offered the observation that doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results is the definition of stupidity. Increasing subsidization of medical care fits that description.

One of the fundamentals of economics is that any product or service that is subsidized will increase in price. The employer-paid insurance that is the norm in this country grew out of the labour shortages of WWII, and is a tax-encouraged subsidization. Now we have government directly providing health insurance to people who "can't afford it".

A better way would be to start weaning ourselves from insurance paid for by anyone other than the individuals concerned. There are a host of ways to do this less expensively through affinity groups and tailored plans. One real good way is to quash the idea that everybody needs a broad plan. Buy insurance for big-ticket items and not routine care. You don't use your car insurance to pay for oil changes, do you?
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Reply # 13
Date: May 14, 2009 - 9:03 AM EST
SINGLE PAYER
right_wing2, there are several things wrong with your post.

HSAs are a HORRIBLE idea. It is in effect a regressive tax.

Malpractice suits will dwindle down to a meaningless amount when we have a health care system which is fair and does not drive people into financial ruin.

People don't go to the doctor for "every sniffle" How many people do YOU know who like passing the time of day in a doctor's office???
And how much freedom do we have to "shop around"? First, we do not get the information we need to be informed to "shop around". Our insurance company-driven system limits us to "in-network" choices, effectively no choice. In a single-payer system, we will have the choice of ANY doctor.

We have long waits in this country for many specialists, procedures, and even primary care. People talk about the long waits in other countries as if we could get everything we want the very next day. Not true. And people don't wait for PRIMARY CARE in other countries.

The INSURANCE companies are the ones sticking their noses into our medical care now. They are essentially running our medical care, and very much to our detriment. Their goal, making money, and our goal, getting good health care, are mutually exclusive. And there's not a thing we can do to get rid of their CEOs and so on. We can get rid of elected officials.

SINGLE PAYER is the ONLY way to fix the health care system. Obama and his cronies such as Baucus and so on are being arrogant and stubborn in refusing to implement it. Too many Americans have been fed rubbish misconceptions about health care in Canada, the UK, and so on. Many Americans are ignorant about other countries and gullible enough to believe a lot of nonsense they read or hear.
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Reply # 14
Date: May 14, 2009 - 11:00 AM EST
Good points Allen
The last two really burn me up. So there really are no terrorists, and they really do hate corporations.
I think we'll be destroyed, a burning hulk of our former selves very soon.
These radical marxists just got through with their 20 year plan for everyman to have the American dream, a home. It blew up in the worlds face, spiderwebbed with the criminal financial instruments legalized and promoted to "get er done". The rich stole the home inflation cream off the top, then with the marxists in power now, stole the coverup money - the people were left with a decade of funny money bills from inflated home mortgages and a new low on equity, with their stocks and 401k's slaughtered - it was an overall DISASTER - produced by legislated criminal inflation and legislated criminal fiduciary instruments.
To pull off the "everyman American dream" for healthcare, they will have to pull off another gigantic crime spree.
Since the administration believes in crime and dreamy rhetoric and kneecapping, it looks like the final assault is almost here.
We have been hearing about reform since clinton, but all we've seen is larger outrages and more crime, often elicited from reform legislation.
I'd much prefer the criminals keep their noses and ten finger discounts out of everything - but it's far too late for that - it's one big crime family now.
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Reply # 15
Date: May 14, 2009 - 4:16 PM EST
Foxyloxy
I have a friend I've known since Viet Nam that lives in London and an Aunt who lives in Canada. They both say the same thing about the health care in their country. Long waits for scans, long waits to see a specialist and people having to delay treatment till they are inoperable. Why do you think there are so many people coming here from Canada for diagnosis and treatment? Why did the Shah of Iran come here years ago for heart treatment? Why do so many dignitaries come here for treatment? The answer is quite simple, with all it's faults, we have the best health system in the world. Is it perfect? no! Do people fall through? yes! But if you regulate it to death the cream of the crop are going to migrate to where they can make more money.
Also you are not going to see the washington
crowd get the same medicine as us. Are they more important to you than anyone in your family? I think not.
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Reply # 16
Date: May 16, 2009 - 8:30 AM EST
Oust Obama and All Liberals
Great Article Mr. Blackwell. You describe it so sublimely how corrupt and amoral Obama, Sebelius and the entire Liberal Establishment in this country are. And, these same Humane Liberals, will sit outside prisons and cry, chant, pray and moan over the impending death sentences of some who have tortured, raped and murdered children, but fully support the torture and dismemberment of unborn children without shedding a single tear for the fetus or for the would-be mother who has lost her soul, and in most cases, the taxpayers are forced to pay for these procedures that most civilzed people do not agree with.

God, help us all, if Obama and his diabolical schemes actually succeed. Obama and his entire administration and his cohorts in the U.S. Congress need to be exposed and removed from office. The only means that, We The People, have to do that is to Unite and Vote in Record numbers to replace these morally bankrupt individuals from office, and for the MSM and their talking heads such as Oprah Winfrey, The Nags on The View, and others, they need to be boycotted and their miserable shows that support and promote these Scoundrels and the Despicable Acts that they condone, will also disappear from the airwaves, and then Oprah and these other Immoral Feel Good performers can disappear into the dark shadows where they belong.
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