Defending Healthcare 101
Once again, we packed around 100 area residents into our recent Defending Healthcare 101 event December 16th. Dr. Scott Wright and Fran Bradley each provided the audience their perspective on what is needed in regards to healthcare reform as well as insight into why the current 'worst bill ever' continues to move forward.
There is no denying healthcare costs continue to consume an ever increasing proportion of our incomes and something needs to change. However, the currently proposed healthcare reform bills do not contain provisions that will help solve that problem. The current bills are more about expanding government control then about addressing the issues leading to higher costs. Both Fran and Dr. Wright advocate making healthcare more free-market or consumer-driven.
Fran Bradley pointed out several reasons the Healthcare Bill continues to move forward: Payoffs, separating out certain costs into a separate bill(to keep 'deficit neutral'), a shallow promise on Medicare payment reform and gutting Medicare Advantage to get AARP to side with the reform bill to name just a few. Think about it: if they haven't eliminated Medicare fraud by now, does anyone believe they really will?
Sadly, since our event, the Democratic Senators pushed through the Senate Bill on Christmas Eve morning. It didn't matter that the majority of the American people do not want this healthcare bill as they realize it will drive up their healthcare costs and burden future generations with additional debt. Does anyone really believe this monstrosity is 'deficit neutral'? (remember what we learned from the National Debt program in November: Deficit neutral does NOT mean Debt neutral!). Even if we believe the bill as written is 'deficit neutral', keep in mind, there is a track record of huge overruns with any government program. It typically costs 2-3 times what is initially estimated. For example, there are $51 trillion unfunded medicare mandates going out 75 years. As Dr. Wright so accurately pointed out, Congress is running the biggest Ponzi scheme ever with the current Medicare program.
When our representatives return to Washington, the House will need to either approve the Senate Bill as it stands, or the House and Senate will go to conference to resolve differences between the Bills and each will vote again. It is possible that House leadership will push to get the House to vote on the Senate Bill as-is and not go to conference. We all need to keep the pressure on both our House and Senate representatives to NOT pass a healthcare reform bill that does NOT address reducing costs, and will effectively increase the cost for most Americans as the cost forever-expanding entitlement programs shifts to them.
