If nothing else, we have to give Rep. Greg Walden points for consistency – he’s consistently against legislation that would help ordinary Americans.
Walden kept his record intact last week by being one of the 215 members of the House – including 39 Democrats and all but one of the 177 Republicans – to vote against the health care reform bill. (Thankfully, none of those 39 Democrats were from Oregon.)
“The country cannot afford a new $1.3 trillion government program that creates 111 new bureaucracies, especially when nationwide unemployment is at its highest level in 26 years,” Walden said after his vote. “Just this year, Washington, D.C. has launched unprecedented national takeovers of the auto industry, the energy industry, and now the healthcare of every American.”
First, on the cost issue: Walden, like all Republicans, pretends to be terrified by the cost of health care reform while ignoring the crippling costs of the present unreformed system.Health care already gobbles up $2.5 trillion a year – 17.6% of our total GDP, a bigger share than any other developed nation. And it’s projected to reach over $4 trillion a year by 2018. It’s estimated that small businesses will pay nearly $2.4 trillion over the next 10 years in health care costs for their workers, causing the loss of 178,000 small-business jobs by 2018. Studies have found that more than 60% of all bankruptcies filed in 2007 were related to medical expenses. An estimated 1.5 million families a year lose their homes to foreclosure because of unaffordable health care costs.
Now, about the “national takeover” claim: The House-passed bill is not a “national takeover” of health care or anything close to it. It merely would offer limited government subsidies for those who can’t afford insurance and a government-supported alternative to private insurance (the “public option”). Surely Walden knows this – which makes his “takeover” rhetoric an outright lie.
Compounding the offense of voting against the health care reform bill, Walden helped pass an outrageous amendment by Reps. Bart Stupak (D-MI) and Joseph Pitts (R-PA) that would prohibit the use of any government funds to pay for insurance policies that cover abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or endangerment of the mother’s life.
The prohibition would apply not just to women who choose the public option but to ANY woman who gets a government subsidy, no matter how small, to help pay for private insurance. “You’re talking about people who are paying their own money or are minimally subsidized by the federal government, and they will be prevented from purchasing insurance that supports abortion,” said Laurie Rubiner, an official with Planned Parenthood.
Apparently Walden opposes the government making health care decisions for people – unless the decisions involve abortion.
According to opensecrets.org, in the current election cycle Walden so far has collected $29,600 in campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, over $18,000 from health professionals and $12,500 from the insurance industry. We’re sure those contributors feel they got their money’s worth.
But on behalf of the rest of us, Walden gets THE BOOT.
This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2009.
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The Hyde Amendment has prevented federal funding of abortions for how long now? And who has been prevented from getting an abortion?
Gotta kill those babies you know.
This bill, which no one can read much less a legislator, will add to the cost of health insurance for each individual, not lower costs; creates a bureaucracy to determine what “qualified plans” are; does not eliminate illegal immigrants from being covered; does not cover an approximate 20 million people; will increase individual costs for medicare recipients, and eliminate medicare advantage programs; physician assistants, not doctors, will now be able to run clinics; and the list goes on.
Hopefully the Republicans, and the more sensible Democrats, in the Senate will be able to stop it.
BTW, none of you have ever tried to answer as to where we will get the required additional 90,000 doctors, and close to 200,000 nurses, to manage the program. Care to answer now?
Here are just a few “details” the “Staff” at The Source ignored:
For the text of the bill with page numbers, see http://www.defendyourhealthcare.us.
Ms. McCaughey is chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths and a former Lt. Governor of New York state. This is from an article she wrote for the Wall Street Journal
What the government will require you to do:
* Sec. 202 (p. 91-92) of the bill requires you to enroll in a “qualified plan.” If you get your insurance at work, your employer will have a “grace period” to switch you to a “qualified plan,” meaning a plan designed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. If you buy your own insurance, there’s no grace period. You’ll have to enroll in a qualified plan as soon as any term in your contract changes, such as the co-pay, deductible or benefit.
* Sec. 224 (p. 118) provides that 18 months after the bill becomes law, the Secretary of Health and Human Services will decide what a “qualified plan” covers and how much you’ll be legally required to pay for it.
An individual earning $44,000 before taxes who purchases his own insurance will have to pay a $5,300 premium and an estimated $2,000 in out-of-pocket expenses, for a total of $7,300 a year, which is 17% of his pre-tax income. A family earning $102,100 a year before taxes will have to pay a $15,000 premium plus an estimated $5,300 out-of-pocket, for a $20,300 total, or 20% of its pre-tax income.
* Sec. 303 (pp. 167-168) makes it clear that, although the “qualified plan” is not yet designed, it will be of the “one size fits all” variety. The bill claims to offer choice – basic, enhanced and premium levels – but the benefits are the same. Only the co-pays and deductibles differ. You will have to enroll in the same plan, whether the government is paying for it or you and your employer are footing the bill.
* Sec. 59b (pp. 297-299) says that when you file your taxes, you must include proof that you are in a qualified plan. If not, you will be fined thousands of dollars. Illegal immigrants are exempt from this requirement.
* Sec. 412 (p. 272) says that employers must provide a “qualified plan” for their employees and pay 72.5% of the cost, and a smaller share of family coverage, or incur an 8% payroll tax. Small businesses, with payrolls from $500,000 to $750,000, are fined less.
Eviscerating Medicare:
* Sec. 1302 (pp. 672-692) moves Medicare from a fee-for-service payment system, in which patients choose which doctors to see and doctors are paid for each service they provide, toward what’s called a “medical home.”
The medical home is this decade’s version of HMO-restrictions on care. A primary-care provider manages access to costly specialists and diagnostic tests for a flat monthly fee. The bill specifies that patients may have to settle for a nurse practitioner rather than a physician as the primary-care provider. Medical homes begin with demonstration projects, but the HHS secretary is authorized to “disseminate this approach rapidly on a national basis.”
* Sec. 1114 (pp. 391-393) replaces physicians with physician assistants in overseeing care for hospice patients.
* Secs. 1158-1160 (pp. 499-520) initiates programs to reduce payments for patient care to what it costs in the lowest cost regions of the country. This will reduce payments for care (and by implication the standard of care) for hospital patients in higher cost areas such as New York and Florida.
* Sec. 1161 (pp. 520-545) cuts payments to Medicare Advantage plans (used by 20% of seniors).
* Sec. 1402 (p. 756) says that the results of comparative effectiveness research conducted by the government will be delivered to doctors electronically to guide their use of “medical items and services.”
Questionable Priorities:
* Sec. 399V (p. 1422) provides for grants to community “entities” with no required qualifications except having “documented community activity and experience with community healthcare workers” to “educate, guide, and provide experiential learning opportunities” aimed at drug abuse, poor nutrition, smoking and obesity. “Each community health worker program receiving funds under the grant will provide services in the cultural context most appropriate for the individual served by the program.”
These programs will “enhance the capacity of individuals to utilize health services and health related social services under Federal, State and local programs by assisting individuals in establishing eligibility . . . and in receiving services and other benefits” including transportation and translation services.
* Sec. 222 (p. 617) provides reimbursement for culturally and linguistically appropriate services. This program will train health-care workers to inform Medicare beneficiaries of their “right” to have an interpreter at all times and with no co-pays for language services.
Okay, let’s go over just one more time…
Who is going to pay for this monstrous health care bill?
The supposed “GOP machine” and the insurance companies are
behind the destruction of this nightmare bill?! Ya really think so?? Pleeeze!! Those grassroots activists– you know the tea partiers,and the townhallers–they are everyday Americans who see the writing on the wall and they’re not going to idly stand by while they witness this Administration and Congress throw us into further debt and saddle our kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids with ballooning debt that simply cannot be paid off in their lifetimes.
Obamacare/Pelosicare is a killer of the human spirit and a mish-mash of socialized medicine. Reagan said it best in 1961–check out the YouTube “Reagan speaks out against socialized medicine”. The Gipper got it right!! Listen up Congress and Nobama—you might learn something.
The usually great Source Staff blew this one;
SRS
Don’t seem to have to much trouble with the Cheney Administration “throw[ing] us into further debt and saddle[ing] our kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids with ballooning debt that simply cannot be paid off in their lifetimes” to pay for wars based on lies in far away places to kill brown skinned people (while getting our own young people killed for no good reason).
Not much water in that bucket. Though I do agree the bill[s] suck.
Not much water in the bucket, you know, like a few sticks shy of a (logtruck) load, not all the puppies are barking, lights on no one’s home…
It’s more than a little odd to see Republicans rediscover their outrage about deficits, debt, and the burdens of future generations. It was, after all, George W. Bush who added $5 trillion to the debt, after inheriting a quarter-trillion-dollar surplus from the Clinton era, which generated exactly zero criticism from GOP members of Congress.
Indeed, the entire political dynamic of the debate is bizarre. The Bush administration and congressional Republicans supported two costly wars, and added every penny to the debt, becoming the first party in American history to finance military conflicts entirely on credit. These same GOP officials expanded Medicare and created No Child Left Behind, and made literally no effort to pay for either.
And after their policies helped create the most severe economic crisis since the Great Depression, making increased spending and deficits an absolute necessity, Republicans feel comfortable making demands about fiscal responsibility? Seriously?
All you folks for this Dem heath care plan, plz answer, who pays 1.3 TRILLIO. I love free stuff. Everyone loves free stuff. But it is not free. Rich guys can pay. That’s the ticket. The rich guys. Yeah, let them pay.