Fighting ObamaCare: The Good News

The Senate Finance committee voted in favor of the Baucus-Obama Health Care Plan, dealing a significant blow to Obama's opponents, but opposition to the Democrats' health care takeover has only intensified:

Attacks on the leading Democratic reform plan this week by the insurance lobby left little doubt that two of the most powerful institutions involved in the debate — the White House and the nation's insurance companies — have abandoned any real hope of forging a compromise. What was a tenuous truce has turned quickly into an all-out battle, with both sides ratcheting up the hostilities.

The health insurance industry has finally recognized that in the long run, Obama is determined to destroy private health insurance. The industry faces two options: fight to win, or face certain extinction.

Let's also keep in mind that the Democrats still have enormous challenges to work out amongst themselves. Cato points out a very important fact: Democrats can’t expand health care coverage without taxing Democrats.

• Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) is the biggest opponent of Sen. Max Baucus’ (D-MT) tax on expensive health plans because that tax would hit West Virginia coal miners.
• Unions vigorously oppose that tax because it would hit their members.
• Moderate Democrats in the House oppose Rep. Charlie Rangel’s (D-NY) supposed “millionaires surtax” because they know it would hit small businesses in their districts.

The real fighting has hardy begun, and yet public support for the Democrats' plans is already very weak.

Once the shooting starts, industry opposition will sway even Democratic members, because there are physicians and hospitals and employers and insurance-industry employees in every state and congressional district.

And in the battle over the new health care legislation, there's one more very important factor that has been almost completely overlooked: multiculturalism.

The communitarian ethos that upholds the welfare state is based substantially on ethnic trust and national commonality, and those bonds of affection and unity have a way of breaking down amidst multiculturalism. Welfare states thrive in homogenous countries, they are smaller and less expansive in heterogenous countries — and as for really heterogenous countries, well, they have a way of becoming ex-countries, viz. the USSR, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and so on.

The U.S. is a diverse, multi-faceted and multicultural society...and it has been so since the very beginning. The founders understood that their experiment with democracy would only work with a weak central government that allowed the states to function as independent laboratories of democratic diversity. We've departed from that original idea, but perhaps the push for centralized control of the health care system will show us that we can go no further.

Via Memeorandum

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A Miserable August Recess

To Congress I say, "May you have a miserable August recess. You really deserve it." Before I go any further, here's some background info:

"By tradition and by law, Congress recesses for the month of August. During the Senate's early years, members attempted to adjourn in the spring, before the summer's heat and oppressive humidity overwhelmed them and their small staff.

"When the Senate moved to its current chamber in 1859, senators were optimistic about its 'modern' ventilation system, but they soon found the new system ineffective. Long sessions were plagued by hot and stormy weather. The 1920s brought 'manufactured weather' to the Senate chamber, but even modern climate control could not cope with the hottest days, forcing 20th-century senators to escape the summer heat.

"In 1970, finally facing the reality of long sessions, Congress mandated a summer break as part of the Legislative Reorganization Act. Today, the August recess continues to be a regular feature of the schedule--a chance to spend time with family, meet with constituents back home, and catch up on summer reading."

With a highly controversial 1000 page health care bill hanging over Congress's heads like the Sword of Damocles, "summer reading" had better be the top priority!

This year, August recess is scheduled to start on August 7 and continue until September 8 for the Senate. For the House, the official August recess spans from August 3 to September 4.

The August recess has already started with a bang, with hostile constituents all over the country pounding down on the Washington elites like never before. Forget the carefree trip to Martha's Vineyard. Congressmen have been so rattled, they've been using sick children as human shields to protect them from their constituents' oppressive and overwhelming wrath.

This is, of course, as it should be. As Thomas Jefferson noted, "When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." So keep it up, America! Has there ever been a time when the Federal Government of the United States more urgently needed to learn to fear the people?

I hope to encourage you and your friends to continue to make August a miserable month for our derelict lawmakers. Please take action against ObamaCare (and Cap and Trade) every single day during the August recess. Call, write, email, fax, tweet, blog, go to townhall meetings, go to tea party protests — attack from every angle!

Let's get Congress on the right track and implore them to scrap the ObamaCare bill. I believe in health care reform, but ObamaCare is not what this nation needs.

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Say Hello to IMAC, Kiss Your Healthcare Freedom Goodbye!

Obama has a brilliant new idea: IMAC.

Not the computer — this is another kind of IMAC. What, pray tell, is Obama's IMAC? We'll get to that in just a bit. First, let's set the stage.

ObamaCare 1.0 is on life support. The "public option" is probably dead. Health care reform has given way to health insurance reform. So the immediate goal is more modest. Instead of a plan to kill private healthcare with one fell swoop, Dems might have to settle for a strategy to kill the industry in stages, a death by a thousand paper cuts.

Regulation. Bureaucracy. Mandates.

Libs would like nothing more than to bring about the death of the private health insurance industry, the very heart and soul of private health care. Princess Pelosi informs us that health insurers are immoral and villainous. The democrat propaganda machines tell us that private insurance companies are populated by heartless bureaucrats who are eager to take your money, but who ration care ruthlessly and spend countless hours looking for cruel reasons to deny benefits. Grassroots Dems are irate: "The industry cares about numbers, profits, not people!" Supposedly free to do whatever they please, insurance providers "take our money and run."

"We can't trust the private sector to provide our healthcare needs, so we must put the government to work for us," say libs. One ObamaCare supporter put it like this: "We elect our government, not our insurance providers. Which do we control?"

Very good question. Why don't we answer that question with another question: "There are 1,300 health insurance providers in the US, but only one Federal Government. Who has more power, more potential to make your life miserable?"

Enter stage left — IMAC.

Here's a good introduction to IMAC, straight from Obama's very own propaganda machine: "[O]ne of the most potent reforms is a change in the process of health care policymaking: empowering an independent, non-partisan body of doctors and other health experts to make recommendation about Medicare payment rates and other reforms."

[snip]

"The Independent Medicare Advisory Council (IMAC) would be an independent, non-partisan body of doctors and other health experts, appointed by the President..."

[emphasis mine]

Did they mention the fact that it was independent?

Actually, this hideous idea is not new. It's essentially a mirror image of Tom Daschle's anti-democratic idea for a Federal Health Board. Tony Blankley explains:

Daschle recommends passing a vague bill and then "a Federal Health Board should be charged with establishing the system's framework and filling in most of the details. This independent board would be insulated from political pressure."

By "political pressure," he means the democratic process of electing fellow citizens to Congress who then pass legislation about which the public is informed before final passage — and about which they may wish to petition their government for redress of grievances. Apparently, we can end petty bickering and partisanship by not letting anyone know what the new laws will contain.

[emphasis mine]

New rallying cry: "Power FROM the people!"

Unfortunately, many Liberals sincerely believe that the Federal Government actually intends empower them. They are oblivious to the power grab.

Admittedly, the health care system needs some serious reforms. Health care should be portable. We need a national market for health insurance. Health care savings should be incentivized. And healthy living should be rewarded with lower insurance premiums. But Obama and his democrat friends have voted against these reforms in favor of the politics of 'delay and defeat.' Rather than giving you health care freedom, the kleptocrats would prefer to give you IMAC.

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Obama's Mandate: Down The Drain

• The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll shows that 40% of the nation's voters now strongly disapprove of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President.


• Twenty-nine percent (29%) strongly approve giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -11. This is the first time his ratings have reached double digits in negative territory.


• The Presidental Approval Index is based upon nightly telephone interviews and reported on a three-day rolling average basis.


• Sunday's update is the first update based entirely upon interviews conducted after the President’s prime time televised press conference (Gates-Crowley/healthcare).


• The number who Strongly Approve of the President has remained unchanged since the press conference but the number who Strongly Disapprove has gone up by five percentage points (from 35% on Wednesday morning to 40% today).


• The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve.
  

Why ObamaCare Will Fail

Obama has good things to say about the Mayo Clinic: "One of the things I’m going to be discussing with the health and the finance committees is how can we change incentive structures so that, for example, places like Mayo Clinic in Minnesota are able to provide some of the best health care services in the country at half or sometimes even less of the costs than some other areas where the quality is not as good.”

But the Mayo Clinic is not as enthusiastic about ObamaCare:

"[T]he proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients. In fact, it will do the opposite. In general, the proposals under discussion are not patient focused or results oriented."

Denis Cortese, President and CEO of Mayo Clinic (also a physician), has a very interesting perspective. He shared his thoughts on the Charlie Rose show on Wednesday. Please take a few minutes to watch. It's well worth your time.

Unfortunately, Cortese is not opposed to more centralized government intrusion into the health care industry, but he understands the limitations of government imposed health care reform and he knows the rush to implement ObamaCare is doomed to fail.

Here are his most interesting points:

• We already have several public plans including Medicare, Medicaid, TriCare, the VA system, and the Federal employees health care plan. Why are we wasting time trying to build another?

• The question is not how to get everybody ensured...Massachusetts has shown that there's at least one way to accomplish that goal. The fundamental problem is designing a delivery system that can provide health care value.

• Health care value takes quality and cost into account.

• Congress is focused on cost, there is almost no discussion about quality.

• An efficient and effective health care system will define value, measure it, and reward it.

• We must acknowledge that Congress cannot design a health care delivery system, let alone one that provides good health care value. Congress is busy with the job of representing the people, they not selected to be a board of directors for an insurance agency.

• We have to "get health care stuff out of congress."

Very good points all. There are there many intelligent people in the world of health care who understand the need to get government out of health care. Unfortunately, they don't always see that the way to do that is to turn health care over to the hardworking people and the brilliant minds of the free market.

It is our responsibility to help them see more clearly.

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We Are Winning

Jim DeMint is leading the fight against ObamaCare, and he is doing quite a good job. As he noted on Twitter, "Reid and Pelosi have delayed a vote on a government takeover of health care until September; your voices are being heard." He goes on: "[The] American people are winning the healthcare debate, let's use August to fight for true reform, not a takeover."

On his website, DeMint continues. "Americans can win this debate but they are going to have to continue speaking out. They know the promises the President has made do not match up with the policies he is pushing. Over the August break, [voters] need to connect with their Congressmen and Senators and let know that Washington shouldn’t make their families’ health care decisions."

Along those lines, Alex Castellanos provides some excellent talking points for August:

Us vs. Them

• They want a Washington-centered plan.
• We support patient-centered reforms.

• They want a big Washington Experiment with our health.
• We want common-sense fixes that will yield real results.

• They want to start building a closed health care system in which government tells you which doctors you can see and limits the treatments and cures your doctor can order.
• The patient-centered health care movement supports an open health-care system in which patients and doctors make those decisions.

• They want a top-down system where distant and uncaring bureaucrats end up deciding who gets what.
• We want a bottom-up, patient-centered system where control remains with you and your doc.

• They want politically driven cost control from Washington.
• We want to get politics out of health care, not to put more politics in. We want common sense fixes, not politically driven experiments.

• They want to empower a big Washington-run monopoly to control your health care.
• We say big monopolies are bad no matter who runs them, whether it is big government or big businesses.

What ObamaCare will bring:

• ObamaCare plan will put government in charge.
• Obama's plan will cut hundreds of millions of dollars from seniors on Medicare.
• Obama will further bankrupt the country with trillions more in deficit spending.
• Obama's plan will raise a lot of taxes on middle class families and businesses. Taxing insurance, taxing sodas, even taxing health care benefits.
• Obama's plan will tempt your employer to dump you into a cheaper, government-run health care program.

In a nutshell, getting government more involved is not going to reduce costs. It will extend wait times, limit what you can get, cost you coverage; raise your taxes and the deficit.

This risky experiment is not something leaders on either side should rush through Congress in a few days or weeks. Even voters who support a "public plan" think Obama and Congress are moving too fast, with reckless speed, risking a huge part of our economy and our health care, when they don't know what the "reform" would really bring.

Slow Down, Obama, and read the bill!

Real Reform

• We want to change the law so you can take your health insurance with you if you have to change jobs.

• We want to cut out the "Washington health care middle-man," reducing expensive bureaucracy to produce big health care savings.

• Every American should have equal opportunity to get the best value and buy the cheapest insurance no matter where he lives or who he works for. We want to change the law so any American can buy the lowest cost insurance available nationwide, not just in their home states — whether from insurance companies, businesses, church groups, college alumni associations, or groups like the AARP, who often provide it less expensively.

• We believe doctors should be protected from frivolous, expensive lawsuits so they can work together with other doctors and patients in their communities to reduce unnecessary and expensive tests and procedures.

• We believe in bottom-up health care savings: every American should get a tax deduction for their health insurance premiums.

• Where possible we should duplicate Safeway's plan, which gives employees a stake in holding down health care costs. Instead of cutting care or shifting costs to employees, Safeway has held health care costs flat, while it's up 40% for the rest of corporate America.

• Congress should be required to play by the same rules as everyone else, and we should eliminate lifetime health care benefits and insurance for Congressmen who leave their jobs.

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Universal Coverage Does Not Mean Universal Care

Universal coverage does not mean universal care.

What good is health insurance if you can't get medical attention? This is the question that arises when politicians ration health care. Residents of Massachusetts are learning about all this the hard way. Will we learn from their mistakes? Let's break down Massachusetts' sad story:

• Chapter 58, Massachusetts' universal health care plan, was signed into law by Mitt Romney in April 2006. It is seen as a model for nationwide healthcare reform.

• Under Massachusetts law, any individual earning at least $32,508 a year must purchase health insurance. Those who earn less are eligible for subsidized coverage.

• Residents who obtain no coverage incur a state-imposed fine of approximately $1000/year.

• Physicians who care for patients on state-subsidized plans lose money. "In effect," one physician says, "I hand them $20 when they walk out the door."

• Chapter 58 created an estimated 400,000 newly insured residents in less than two years and Massachusetts' glut of doctors quickly became a critical shortage.

• More than 41% of primary care practices in the state did not accept new patients in 2008, up from 28% in 2006

• Wait times for new-patient appointments rose from four weeks in 2006 to nearly eight weeks in 2008 for general internal medicine doctors. (Nationally, average wait time is slightly under three weeks.)

• Universal coverage has resulted in universal price hikes. By some estimates, costs of covering the state's newly insured are rising by almost 10% each year

• Overall healthcare spending on state-sponsored insurance has risen 23% since 2006.

• "If the problem is cost, reform has failed. Costs have gone up, not down. Since Massachusetts reformed their system, health costs have followed the same path as the U.S. as a whole: a steady upward climb, faster than inflation or wages."

• Doctors are miserable. "Anyone who can is leaving the state"

(From Medical Economics)

"If universal care in Massachusetts cannot stem the tide of rising costs [or deliver the care people need] is there hope for similar plans on the national stage?" We will soon know the painful answer to that question if the Democrats manage to pass a health care bill.

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Waterloo!