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HEALTH POLITICS: What Bipartisanship Really Means
During his campaign, President Obama called on our nation to work together to solve great challenges. But was the president's health reform speech in Congress this week partisan, as some critics charge? Or did he leave the door open for bipartisan compromise?
Certainly the president "called out" those who distort the truth. Who can blame him? But he was not partisan. I am more sensitive to partisanship than most. In 2006 I watched my boss, former Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI), fall to his Democrat challenger. Sen. Chafee voted against the war in Iraq, against drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and against amendments to ban gay marriage. He did not vote for President George W. Bush in 2004. Yet, Democrats ran countless ads linking the Senator to President Bush and his policies, particularly the Iraq war. Smart campaigning or not, it was partisan politics.
In contrast, President Obama did not cast aspersions in his address. He did not portray positions inaccurately. None of that. President Obama in his speech drew only one line in the sand. It was a very big and very nonpartisan line: we are going to address our health care coverage problems and we are not going to add to the deficit to do it. He made clear he is looking to solve our nation's health care crisis with anyone -- Republican, Democrat, or Independent -- who wants to solve it with him. He was also unambiguous, however, that he will not stand silent while people perpetuate misinformation to score political points.
Bipartisanship does not require silence in the face of unfounded rhetoric. The president was right when he said Congress already agrees on about 80 percent of his plan. Exchanges, insurance market reforms, subsidies, deficit neutrality, and tackling waste, fraud, and abuse are all initiatives that enjoy broad bipartisan support. In addition, President Obama left the door open for bipartisanship on more contentious aspects of reform:
- Public health insurance plan. The president signaled willingness to support alternatives to the public health insurance plan as long as every American is guaranteed a choice of affordable, reliable insurance products. In particular, he mentioned the possibility of a co-op or a conditional public plan that only goes into effect when prices are too high or competition is lacking. It is worth noting that the co-op idea was hatched during the Group of Six negotiations that include Republican Senators Grassley, Enzi, and Snowe and it was Senator Snowe who began talking up a "trigger" or fallback for the public plan months ago. The president's description was open-minded enough to elicit this from Chip Kahn, President of the Federation of Hospitals and former unabashed foe of the Clinton-era reform efforts:
"He worded it [the public plan] really carefully, because he said ‘not for profit' and he didn't say it had to be controlled by the government...The way he described it, we could support that!"
- Taxing insurers who offer high-cost benefits. Taxing insurers who offer high-cost benefits would be a big step toward slowing the rate of health care cost growth and making insurance affordable for the long-term. While the president has been clear he does not want to mess with the current tax free nature of employer-provided coverage, this proposal would achieve similar policy objectives: encourage insurers to deliver more value for their customers' premium dollars, bend the cost curve over time, and raise revenue from within the health system (something sought by fiscal conservatives).
- Medical malpractice reform. This is the biggie. Many analysts believe medical malpractice reform should be part of comprehensive reform -- not because "defensive medicine" has been proven to add much to the cost of health care (data suggest it likely does not), but because current malpractice laws are a black cloud over most clinicians. This issue, however, is incredibly polarized in Washington (think trial lawyers versus doctors). Despite the obvious political risk, the president did the right thing by putting medical malpractice -- long a Republican priority -- back on the table.
There is plenty of partisanship from both sides of the aisle to go around in Washington. Health reform should and can be different. As the president told Congress and the American people, the, "concern for the plight of others -- is not a partisan feeling. It's not a Republican or a Democratic feeling. It, too, is part of the American character."
Money-Care System
Hypocrapicy
It doesn’t matter how and how much the moneyed brainwashes members of the Republicon party and uses their blonds to spread their business proliferate propaganda to protect their inbound enrichments of the victimized sick - utilizing unbelievable, repetitive, rubber stamped, Republicon approved dogma of government wanting to control of everything when it is the moneyed who want control, as much as, Uncle Sham, whom, as well, have their ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ policies of their rape and plunder of American Wildebeests so it will go on unchecked.
When greed washes over Americans cleansing and bankrupting many of them of what little expendable funds average Americans may have in the Financial terrorism of insatiable and insane money sucking of us targeted sick in the Money-Care, blank check, money laundering then government not only should step in they must step in to protect us American wildebeests who aren’t moneyed, experienced, or time empowered enough to fight the medical mafia and their criminal cohort billing departments with their voodoo billings for further revenue enhancements.
What is the first thing or near first thing you are asked at a medical facility – What insurance do you have! This should be a hint at what the money-care system is all about.
The focal point in fixing the system is to fix the costs charged to us – all else will follow.
1. The ‘price’ of the procedure must be publically known, publically displayed in offices and in an appropriate website which can be searched by anyone for treatment pricing and comparison (you know - like in capitalism). The price must traceable in its generation, if any (other than abject greed). Also the price charged for people with insurance and those without insurance and the discount price (upper three to four times to make it look good) to insurance companies.
2.The ‘profits’ of treatments, every step of the way, must be publically known and shown. Greed level determined and then above the level be taxed at 200% or more at each (or public whippings better).
3. Whom the profits are distributed to and how much, at each level, must be known and shown.
4. Medical billing is culpable as part of the medical mafia. All bills should show, ‘exactly’, what the cost of the procedure is and what people are being billed for, not nebulous – ‘surgical procedure’ or ‘treatment’ and hiding unverifiable enrichments. When bills are shown hidden or unjustifiable charges the billing company should be fined the cost of the magic treatments and the person who made and approved it should be publically known. The $3.00 aspirin (from 10 years ago) BS should be penalized back to the manager of the billing department from their paycheck.
Warranty – instead of blank check, no responsibility voodoo treatments, win win for doctors and their enhancement of revenue who will ‘recommend’ anything whether it is needed or will work or not. When a doctor’s procedure does not work or make the situation worse – no pay or pay only exact provable cost with NO profit. I had one of these and two friends had voodoo treatments. Why isn’t this discussed in the flooding of medical moneyed propaganda! Doing something about the ‘no warranty’ plunder may make the medical vampires not so easily, off the cuff, revenue enhance themselves (as much), without possible a nano second of thought if a treatment will work or not (they buy machinery they must pay for, for treatments that don’t necessarily work!).
At last count 48% of Americans do not have health care. The moneyed do not mention this that I recall; I wonder why – no money in it??
A person out of work will have trouble feeding their families just how are they to afford the financial terror medical insurance? The medical moneyed seem to imply these are not good people since they are not able to provide to their enrichment. Of course these people you don’t hear being questioned about their situation and how they feel about living on the edge of a financial cliff that will destroy them and their families.
Where are the stories of the financially victimized! Like me being responsible for $90,000 for a day and a half stay in a hospital and having a defibrillator (battery operated and wireless computer) stuck in me (which I am not totally convinced was needed) that cost $5,000 more than my 5 acre land and house cost in northern California. This kind of financial insanity needs to be brought up and kept in the forefront of medical mafia and their dogmatic hacks. Make a case I will find justifiable all way around please. Undoubtedly there are MILLONS over the past couple of decades that will have similar financial bloodthirsty medical events in their lives.
‘People are more important than money’
Until Americans shake their heads enough to empty it of their moneyed medical vampire programming money will remain more important than people.
‘Peopleism not capitalism’
BiPartisan or call for unity?
They say that you can't serve two masters at the same time but in this case, we can make an exception and maybe, what the President wants to say that we will forget from what party we are in, so long as we can work together for the betterment of our country. And no, for me, it's not about BiPartisan but a call for unity....
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