Subject: DJP Update 12-23-2009: AMA HSR Bulletin of 12-23-2009 link and excerpt PLUS Congressional Records comments by Senators Risch and Barrasso; LAGNIAPPE: CBO BREAKING NEWS
DJP Update 12-23-2009: AMA HSR Bulletin of 12-23-2009 link and excerpt PLUS Congressional Records comments by U.S. Senators Risch and Barrasso; LAGNIAPPE: CBO BREAKING NEWS
ITEM ONE: AMA HSR Bulletin of 12-23-2009 – Comments on an excerpt
ITEM TWO: Congressional Records comments by Senators Risch and Barrasso
LAGNIAPPE: CBO BREAKING NEWS (Don’t fail to read this! Important to verify statements made in the health system reform debate!)
ITEM ONE: AMA HSR Bulletin of 12-23-2009
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/health-system-reform/bulletin/23dec2009.shtml
Read the whole bulletin so you get all views about this debate. Interesting excerpt:
“No public plan option: The revised bill does not contain a public plan option and, as noted earlier, the AMA played a key role in blocking the Medicare buy-in proposal.”
DJP comment: Is this meant to imply the AMA is against a public plan option and wants credit for blocking it? If so, why is AMA supporting the House bill that contains a public plan option? Did anyone see any AMA ads about being against the public plan option. What I still see is the joint AARP/AMA ad supporting legislation in Congress. If AMA is against the Medicare buy-in and AMA should be, based on AMA policy, then how can AMA not strongly oppose the public plan in the House bill? All of these variations lead to government control of Medicine with price-fixing and disaster for patients. Just look at the failed Medicaid system for the best example. And now Congress is about to expand Medicaid in both the House and the Senate bill!
Too bad that our AMA policy developed over many years is not being used to fix the health financing system. And if Congress refuses to use those market enhancements, AMA shouldn’t give approval of a treatment that poisons the patient and the doctor. And I would love to see AMA ask the American public and CONGRESS in ads why the right to privately contract with patients WITHOUT PENALTY is forbidden in the House and Senate bills. Why is this American liberty being denied? With the present bills, you as a physician will comply or your population of patients will be severely limited. Only the doctors who get out of the onerous system and privately contract with patients will have the liberty Americans fought and died to preserve. —– ITEM TWO: Congressional Records comments by Senators Risch and Barrasso (Thanks to Dr. David Walsworth of Monroe, Louisiana for this alert!)
U.S. Senator Jim Risch of Idaho remarks in the Congressional Record December 22, 2009 placed below. Also go to this link in the Congressional record to see part of this speech PLUS the comments of Senator (Dr.) Barrasso. Go to: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2009_record&page=S13758&position=all
——EXCERPT FOLLOWS
Mr. RISCH. Mr. President, here is what this has come to. In the next 48 hours, this 2,400-some page bill is going to pass the Senate. But how did we get there? Was it done the way things are usually done in this body? Not at all. One party has been able to gather 60 votes for this. Not one person from the other party is going to vote for it. How did they get those 60 votes? Did they get it by arguing this out? They did not do that. They have bluntly, boldly, and on the front of virtually every newspaper in this country bought the votes to pass this bill, to get to the 60. They bought the last handful of votes, and they did not even buy it with their money, they bought it with the American people’s money. Now, that is wrong.
The explanation I heard from the majority leader the other day is: Well, that is the way this is done. That may be the way this is done in banana republics, that may be the way this is done in Third World countries, but this is America. The American people are outraged over this. The other party ought to be outraged.
I heard one Member quoted as saying: Well, I was too stupid to get any money for my State in there. I heard the majority leader say: You are not doing your job if you don’t have something in there for you. Where is the outrage from the other side, not only about the process but how they are getting snookered by some other members of their party? Where is the outrage?
I watched the debate on the other side and have seen Members come down and say: The American people want this. Are they living in a cave? Sure, there are a handful of American people who want this. Let me tell you who does not. The U.S. Conference of Bishops does not want it. The National Right to Life people do not want this. Not one Republican wants this. The Democrats do not want it.
Listen to what Howard Dean, the former leader of the Democratic Party, said:
At this point, the bill does more harm than good.
Ask any Democratic Governor in America. This bill transfers $25 billion in costs in unfunded mandates to the Governors and to their taxpayers. They have to come up with $25 billion. They don’t want it.
I have stood here and listened to the other side say: This is wonderful for small business. Small business is going to come out so well on this. Then why does the National Federation of Independent Business–small businesses–say:
The Senate bill fails small businesses.
The National Association of Wholesale Distributors. The Small Business Entrepreneurship Council says:
Small business group say Reid health bill more of the same–more taxes, mandates, big spending, and nothing to help lower insurance costs.
Associated Builders and Contractors is against it. The National Association of Manufacturers is against it, the Independent Electrical Contractors, the International Franchise Association. Even the labor unions have said: Don’t tax our health care benefits. We agree with them. We are on the side of the labor unions. We should not be taxing health care benefits.
But set all that stuff aside. These are all people who have an ax to grind. The American people do not want this bill. These people who are coming out here saying the American people want this bill, I don’t know whether they are not reading the newspapers, whether they are not reading their own e-mails at their office. The Quinnipiac poll that was out this morning, Tuesday through Sunday, says: 36 percent of the American public support the health care spending bill; 53 percent oppose. That is an 18-percent difference. Gallup says 61 percent of the American people don’t want this bill.
Stop coming out here saying the American people want this bill. The American people do not want it. You want it, but the American people do not want it. Leaders in your own party do not want it. The labor unions do not want it. Nobody wants this thing, and most of all small business does not want this bill.
I have listened to anecdote after anecdote from the other side. There are some very touching stories, and everybody over here is empathetic with them. But you don’t legislate using anecdotes because you are only hearing one side of the story, you are not hearing all the facts dealing with the anecdotes, and to then pat this 2,400-page bill and say this will solve that, that is not the way you legislate, and it is certainly not the way you argue a point.
I heard the other side come out here and pat the bill and say: When we pass this bill, 94 percent of American people will have insurance, will be covered by health insurance. In court, they say you have to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and that is exactly why. You cannot pat this bill and say now 94 percent of the American people are going to be covered.
Somebody listening to that will say: Gosh, what a wonderful bill. What is it going to cost? It costs $2.5 trillion to cover 94 percent of the American people. But they don’t say the bill only adds another 7 percent. The fact is, they don’t tell you that 87 percent of Americans are already covered by some kind of health insurance. So don’t say this is a grand and glorious victory because we are now going to cover 94 percent when 87 percent are already covered.
This is gimmickry at its worst, to tax for 4 years without giving any major benefits. Giving some minor benefits but holding off the major benefits
[Page: S13758] GPO’s PDF
until later is plain gimmickry. They say: Oh, look how wonderful this is. It is not going to add to the national deficits because we are going to collect taxes for 4 years, and only then are we going to start the benefits.
What do we have here? When all is said and done and you strip it away, you have $2.5 trillion and 2,400 pages that most people do not understand, higher taxes, and higher insurance premiums.
I can give you one fact that is the best reason to vote against this bill; that is, it cuts $ 1/2 trillion out of Medicare benefits. If you are a senior watching, $ 1/2 trillion of Medicare benefits is going to disappear. I heard the President say and I heard my friends on the other side say: Look, if you like your program, if you like your insurance plan, you are going to be able to keep it. Try to tell that to the people who are on Medicare Advantage. It is being stripped. It is being eliminated under this bill. Indeed, if you read the rules and regulations under this bill, the plan you have will not even exist when it is done.
You know, I have heard the other side say: Oh, you Republicans are just playing on fears of the American people. Let me tell you something. The American people are frightened. They are afraid. It isn’t just this health care bill, they have sat here for the last year, and they have watched stimulus packages costing $1 trillion. They have watched multibillion-dollar bailouts. They have seen buyouts. They have seen trillion-dollar deficits running up. They have seen the national debt now running into the trillions. And, yes, they are afraid.
But it isn’t us that is doing it to them, it is you that have done it to them. It is you that have committed the actions that have put the fear into the hearts of the American people. Don’t do this. Stop this nonsense. You have the opportunity still to stop this. You can do it. The American people don’t want this. Stop the insanity.
I yield the floor.
——-
Go to Congressional Record link above for Senator (Dr.) Barrasso of Wyoming.
Keep the faith. Americans are not stupid. They will recognize what is happening in Congress for what it is. There will be consequences.
——
LAGNIAPPE: CBO BREAKING NEWS Go to: http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc10868/12-23-Trust_Fund_Accounting.pdf
Key point: “However, the additional savings by the government as a whole which represent the true increase in the ability to pay for future Medicare benefits or other programs would be a good deal smaller. The key point is that the savings to the HI trust fund under the PPACA would be received by the government only once, so they cannot be set aside to pay for future Medicare spending and, at the same time, pay for current spending on other parts of the legislation or on other programs. Trust fund accounting shows the magnitude of the savings within the trust fund, and those savings indeed improve the solvency of that fund; however, that accounting ignores the burden that would be faced by the rest of the government later in redeeming the bonds held by the trust fund.”
DJP comment: The claim that the Senate bill with the latest Manager’s Amendment health reform bill both improves the solvency of the Medicare trust fund and pays for itself IS NOT supported by the CBO. This points out the dangers of rushing a bill through Congress without adequate study.
Stay well.
Donald
P.S. Thanks to all of you who have joined http://twitter.com/djpNEWS About to send out a Tweet! Drop by and join! Hear is what a typical “Tweet” looks like with the 140 character limit: CBO re health bill- not both: solvency and pays for itself: http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/108xx/doc10868/12-23-Trust_Fund_Accounting.pdf
Donald J. Palmisano, MD, JD
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