The Biggest Losers, Health Edition – Who Would Be Hurt the Most by a Failure to Enact Comprehensive Reforms
3-16-10 *Submitted*
The fate of health care reform is uncertain. The Urban Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research and educational organization that examines the social, economic, and governance problems facing the nation. Without legislative action, the cost of medical care will continue to grow faster than income, creating a greater financial burden for businesses and insured individuals; in addition, inceasing numbers of uninsured individuals seeking charity (indigent) care will put more financial pressure on state, local, and federal government, as well as the health care system as a whole. An 8 page analsysis is available online at: http://www.urban.org/uploadedpdf/412037.pdf
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The Senate Healthcare Bill will become law. The Congress can now amend the bill to include more features that the Republicans identified as critical. Although no Republican members of the House voted to pass the bill, many of the items which they wanted were included.. Critical will be changes which will assist rural hospitals, help reduce Medicare fraude, and ensure that Tri-Care insurance for veterans will not suffer. Many Democrats risked their political future by voting for the bill; however, the Democrats who voted “No” will, in many cases, have Republican opposition. Their vote may well have been a vote of conscience.
When congressional Republicans predict ominously that Democratic use of a self-executing rule (“deem-and-pass”) will encourage them to use similar behavior someday, they ignore history. GOP sanctimony should surprise no one—Democrats were as upset when Republicans used “deem-and-pass” more than 35 times from 2005 to 2006.
Donald Wolfensberger, who served on the Republican staff of the Housae Rules Committee for nearly two decades and as its chief of staff during the 104th Congress, after Newt Gingrich became speaker, wrote : “When Republicans were in the minority, they railed against self-executing rules as being anti-deliberative because they undermined and perverted the work of committees and also prevented the House from having a separate debate and vote on the majority’s preferred charges. From the 95th to 98th Congresses (1977-1984), there were only eight self-executing rules. In Speaker Tip O’Neill’s final term in the 99th Congress, there were 20 self-executing rules. In Jim Wright’s term (100th), there were 18 self-executing rules. Under Speaker Tom Foley, there were 30. When Republicans took power in 1995, they proceded to set new records under Speaker Gingrich. There were 38 and 52 self-executing rules in the 104th and 105th Congresses. Under Speaker Dennis Hastert there were 40, 42, and 30 self-executing rules in the 106th, 107th, and 108th Congresses.”
Four years ago is not ancient history. The same Republican leaders now roaring about the self-executing rule were the the GOP leadership that used it so vigorously when they held power.
Source: http://www.salon.com
As Christians, Jesus has given us responsibility for the “least of these.” Saying that “I am happy with my health care” is not saying enough. Our concern should not be to protect our entitlements but rather our Jesus-assigned concern is, “Am I happy with my neighbor’s health care?”
This concerns me greatly. As a practicing non-christian I fully support the church or individual christian following the tenets of their religion and helping anyone they wish. But here you have abdicated that responsibility to the State. As such, you have involved the rest of us in your personal crusade of vicarious altruism.
To restate your initial paragraph in plain English, it would read: “Jesus wants you to hire men with guns (government) to force one neighbor to give his money to another neighbor.” If you can justify that as good, right, or ethical, please do so.
Forced charity is never virtuous!
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To “Madison Advocate”.
Not every doctor agrees with you. In fact, the AMA is sharply divided over the issue.
See http://www.dfaaction.org/why/
Doctors support health reform because it:
1. Makes coverage more affordable.
2. Expands access to care.
3. Increase quality of care.
4. Builds a healthy health care system.
Are there problems with the bill being considered? Yes. You have to start somewhere. We can ill afford the increasing cost of treating uninsured “patients” at Madison County Memorial Hospital. We need to increase payments to physicians who provide services for payment through Medicare.
And we need to include more indifviduals in health care programs to make the programs more cost efficient from an insurance point of view. The choice at present is “to be or not to be.”
I personally find the bill being debated and proposed to be fearfully complicated but it is an attempt to solve a complicated and expensive problem. Yet we must not be deterred by the complexity. Above all, we are enjolyed to think about this issue, and any others, like Christians. (If you are interested in a thoughtful response to health care by some of the leaders of our church, then log into http://www.umc-gbcs.org/site).
I’ not sure that I have special light to spread on this subject other than my own attempt to think about this issue in a Christian way. Here, for what they are worth, are some of my responses:
1. I hear that most Americans are “happy with their health insurance.” I sure am. . . . Madison County has significant health problems. Ask the folks at the Health Department. As Christians, Jesus has given us responsibility for the “least of these.” Saying that “I am happy with my health care” is not saying enough. Our concern should not be to protect our entitlements but rather our Jesus-assigned concern is, “Am I happy with my neighbor’s health care?”
2. Scripture tells us that we are “not to bear false witness.” It is tough enough to have a national debate over an issue of this compllexity wihtout deliberate misinformation being put out on the airways to muddy the conversation and spread unwarranted fear.
3. I am so disappointed by our nation’s Senators and Representatives, most of whom have contributed nothering to this debate and show a callous disregard for the welfare of their poorest consatituents. Let’s urge our elected officials to get in the debate and craft good legislation. We have the most expensive health care system in the world that leaves out millions because, while it is not government run, it is dominated by the insurance companies. I’m glad that our elected representatives have health care; thousands of their constitutents don’t..
4. Christians should care about those who can’t get health care. Some of our health care professionals volunteer every year to go work in medical missions where Christians are trying to help those who are left out of our health care system. Why? We think about these issues with scripture, with Luke 10 where, in one of Jesus’ favorite stories, the Samaritan says, “take care of the wounded man and when I return I will repay you whatever it costs.”
We pay today to care for the uninsured through indigent care. Now is the time to pass health care reform. The legislation can be amended to make it better. Just saying “No” is not the answer.
4. I fully trust the American Medical Association and our doctors to worry about health care and they say we need dramatic reform.
Shortly before six o’clock in the morning on Sunday, November 23, 2003, the top priority of congressional leaders was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives. The 220 to 215 vote, begun under normal procedures that routinely limits votes to fifteen minutes, took two hours and fifty-one minutes to complete. At 3 a.m., Rep. Richard “Doc” Hastings (R-WA), presiding over the House, announced that the time for debate on the Medicare bill had expired. He said from the chair, “Members will have fifteen minutes to record their votes.” … The official time expired at 3:15 a.m. with no Democrats having voted for the bill, twenty-two Republicans against it, and the nays ahead. At 3:30, the vote still open, the official tally was 212 for and 214 against. … By 3:48, the vote ws 215 to 218; for the first time, the opposition to the bill had an absolute majority of the House of its side. The vote went on…At 5:53, DeLay emerged, smiling, having persuaded Reps. C. L. “butch” Otter of Idaho and Trent Franks of Arizona to switch their votes, following which several other members also changed their votes (in both directions), leading to the final margin of 220 to 215. The gavel came down quickly.
… The House vote on the Medicare prescription drug bill ws the longest roll call in modern House history….this was not, technically speaking, against the rules….
… the Medicare vote was … a punctuation of a growing pattern in the House. Faced with a series of tough votes and close margins in recent years, Republicans have ignored their own standards and adopted a routine practice of stretching out the vote when they were losing until they could twist enough arms to prevail.
… The problems did not start with the Republican majority in 1995. Signs of institutional decline were much in evidence during the latter years of the longtime Democratic control of Congress….Sharp partisan differences on policy created an atmosplhere in which legislative ends could justify any procedural means.
…By the time the Republicans took control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, it seemed almost natural for the House majority leadership to drive nearly every issue, controversial or not, in paratisan ways.
Worth reading: Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Oxford University Press, 2008).
“The Broken Branch is a serious step toward strengthening the Congress and moving America back toward a more stable and safer system” (Newt Gingrich, Former Speaker of the House)
“You don’t have to agree with every point in their criticism to feel renewed respect for their lifetime of devotion to helping make the people’s branch of government a better functioning and more constructive tribune of the public interest.” (U.S. Senator John McCain)
Most people tend to think the biggest loser will be the tax payers and all citizens in the form of lost freedoms.