For Some People, the Past Only Began Yesterday

If America Already Faces a potential shortfall of 16,000 doctors within the next fifteen years, how can that possibly have been caused by last-month’s passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act? This shortage was reported this morning on Pajamas Media, on XM-Satellite Radio’s  P.O.T.U.S. station.*

I Understand That President Barack Obama reportedly can walk on water and part the loaves and the fishes. But it’s hard to believe that even the Anointed One could sign a law on 23 March 2010, and the downward spiral toward medical armageddon has already begun, just three and a half weeks later.

Something Must Have Gone Wrong a While Ago. And coming off three decades of a Republican agenda, it’s a little hard to believe that it’s not the Republicans’ fault. Unless you use the kind of Republican reasoning that the Republicans use.

How Long Will We, the People, have our reasoning faculties beclouded by the slings and arrows of outrageous, mis-informed opinion? At least with adults back in the White House, we get some facts with our opinions these days.

If Doctors Are Being Chased out of medical practice by bureaucracy, the red tape comes not so much from the Federal government, as it comes from the confusion and contusions imposed by the multiplicity of insurance companies:

• Each insurance company has its own forms. Your doctor pays special personnel to handle these.
• Each insurance company has its own ideas about what procedures a patient (you) needs, and how long a  patient (you) should be allowed to spend in the hospital for the surgery your doctor prescribes, and what medicines you should take in recovery. Your hospital has special “case managers” just to handle these rationing ideas.
• Each insurance company has its own “disallows.” You yourself will likely have to pay for these.
• Each insurance company has its own structure of fees negotiated for the payment of services you provide. You will either pay more or less than your neighbors because of these.

Now That’s a Lot of Red Tape. All in the name of illogical opinion and an ideology that has persistently failed the American people for much of recent history. Anything but “single-payer.” Anything but “socialism.” Anything but “health-care reform.” Anywhere else but here.

The Origin of Much of the Standardization of these terms of insurance coverage comes from coding by the Federal government, through Medicare. If anything in American medicine has worked to standardize the relationship between medical providers and medical insurers, it is the Medicare system

That Codification Is a Benefit of Government, not a curse. Without even just this little bit of standardization, every single transaction throughout American medicine would be subject not only to the preceding list of items, but also to different forms of terminology, and to different computer codes for different medical procedures, drugs, and routines.

“Different Strokes for Different Folks” may work for individual freedoms. But it does not work for medicine. It does not change the facts, no matter what the underlying opinions would have us believe.

The Laws of Cause and Effect are often subject to interpretation. And the connection between what comes first and what comes later is not always cause and effect.

But You Don’t Get to Just Make Up your own reality. If the United States will suffer a substantial shortage of doctors in the next decade and a half, and the new reform law was just passed three and a half weeks ago, the opposition to the bill was not only lame, but was also contraindicated by those who oppose the reform law now.

We All Heard  the Republican Leadership in Congress repeat, over and over, through the long year of debate, “Go slow.”

We All Heard the Same Leaders Say, “We need to start over.”

We All Heard the Same Leaders Say, “We need to scrap this bill.”

If the System in Place before the three-week-old reform was already steering us toward a 16,000-doctor shortfall by 2025,* it was surely broken to start with. So how could America possibly afford to scrap this bill, start over, and go slow?

Someone Is Not Being Entirely Honest about This.

But at Least While the Republicans and the angry Tea Party Movement folks keep debating it, the Obama administration and the Democratic Party will be working on getting more Americans insured, encouraging more Americans to go into medical practice, and keeping more Americans healthy.

Outrage Is Easy.™

Talk Is Cheap.

Pajamas Media Has an Agenda that defies logic.

But We Finally Have a Few Adults Back in the White House.

At Least For Now.....

Regards,
(($;-)}
Gozo!

_______________

*Pajamas Media broadcast on P.O.T.U.S. XM Satellite Radio (04/17/2010)

Please, Sir! Show Some Mercy!

 [An open letter to my own Congressman, as well as to all other Democrat and Republican Senators and Congressman who would vote against a public option that would provide all Americans with medical care:]

The Honorable Michael T. McCaul

10th Federal District

United States of America

Dear Congressman McCaul:

By This Point, it has become clear that you have no intention of voting for your citizen-constituents on health-insurance reform, but instead you will vote for your insurance company CEO-constituents. But let me try a different tack:

(1) Last Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that, ““Pensions for top executives rose an average of 19% in 2008, with more than 200 executives seeing pensions increase more than 50%, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.

“Executive pensions rose even as the share prices at the companies declined an average of 37% in 2008 and many firms froze employee pensions and suspended retirement-plan contributions.”*

Are We One Nation, Congressman, or are we two?

(2) You Probably Know That Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, back in 2002, cut 15,000 jobs from the Hewlett-Packard payrolls and effectively shipped them overseas. Fifteen-thousand good-paying American technology jobs sent off to China, Taiwan, and beyond. Ms. Fiorina was given a severance package of $21,000,000 to go away and leave HP alone.

This Past Wednesday, that same Carly Fiorina announced her decision to campaign for U.S. Senator from California, on this basis:

“Our most pressing problems today are too few jobs for Americans and too much spending in Washington....As California's senator, economic recovery and fiscal accountability will be my priorities.”†

Are We Working to Make America Better for All Americans, or only for the few at the top? And which of these groups do you work for, Congressman?

(3) If Ms. Fiorina’s Behavior and that of “more than 200 executives” exemplifies the American spirit in times of great need such as we are experiencing today, then there’s something pretty badly wrong with your supposedly Christian and Conservative and Republican ideology, Congressman.

Maybe It’s Time You Think about the Difference between your 640,477 constituents who struggle to keep the American dream alive as their own, and your 6,469 who only take their welfare and benefits—at taxpayer expense—in the millions and billions of dollars.

(4) Americans Down Near the Bottom of the economic pile can take care of each other pretty well without contributions from CEOs and the health-insurance industry.

We Can Take Each Other in when our neighbors lose their homes and can’t feed their children. We can buy our Christian neighbors clothes, we can drive them in our cars, we can take donations to the food banks and the Salvation Army.

We Can Take up All Sorts of Collections at church and make sure that everyone else’s kids get clothed and fed and taken to school and kept away from gangs and drugs.

The One Thing That We Can’t Do for Ourselves, or for our neighbors, is pay for medical care. It just costs too much. At the high end, fewer than 1% of Americans can afford to pay for it.

The one thing that we can’t do for ourselves,
let alone for our neighbors,
is pay for medical care.

What’s Not to Get About This—except for sheer, unmitigated greed at the top of the economic pile.

And So I Am Begging You:

If you would—

Please, Sir!

—just grant us this one dispensation—so that no matter how sick we get, we can get to the doctor and get treated without going bankrupt. I promise you—

Please, Sir!

—we will come back to work for your and your business associates and political contributors, at the low-paying jobs that remain as your industrial advisors convince you of the necessity of making it harder and harder for Americans to get ahead economically. But just—

Please, Sir!

—I’m only asking you for this one thing: just make it so that your constituents can get to the doctor, whether we’ve lost our jobs or our homes or our self-esteem, and—

Please, Sir!

—I swear that I will never trouble you for anything again.

God Bless You, Congressman, Sir!

Regards,
(($;-)}
Gozo!

__________

*“Pensions for Executives on Rise,” by Ellen E. Schultz and Tom McGinty, The Wall Street Journal, (11/03/2009)
†“Amid GOP optimism, Fiorina announces Senate run,” by Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer, San Francisco Chronicle (11/05/09)

What Did the Post Office Ever Do to Senator Grassley?

In a Phone-in Town Hall Meeting about healthcare reform yesterday on C-SPAN, Iowa Republican Senator  Charles “Chuck” Grassley made an odd comment about Democratic efforts at instituting some form of “Public Option” as part of the reform bills pending before Congress. Said Senator Grassley:

 “[T]heir goal is to have the government run everything. And I don’t think the government does a very good job of running the post office, for instance. So should they be running healthcare?”

Some Quick Research on the United Parcel Service (UPS) Web Site shows that you can mail a letter by UPS, from one American residence to another, for $12.16. And UPS's biggest competitor, FedEX, will pick up and deliver the same letter for about half that: just $6.87.

I’m Embarrassed to Tell You what Senator Grassley's whipping boy, the United States Postal Service—the government-run program that has delivered mail to every address in the United States since 1775—charges:

44¢

Given the Incomparable Differences between the government rates and those of the private sector, Senator Grassley’s comment is highly suspect. To say nothing of the denigration it delivered to your neighborhood USPS delivery person. 

The Government-run USPS will deliver your letter for about 
6.5% of the FedEX® cost. and about 3.62% of the UPS® cost.

If Opponents of Government-Insured Health Care want higher standards than those of the United States Postal Service, it’s fair to say that their demands are unreasonable. One might say that their perspective is ideologically blinded.

Senator Grassley Is the Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee. But his understanding of the role that the Federal Government plays in the daily lives of the American people raises some concerns. One wonders if the senator has any idea what it costs these days to mail a letter.

It’s a Mystery Why So Many Americans are convinced that we need private industry such as FedEX® and UPS® to make profits, while the Postal Service delivers everybody’s mail, with outstanding service, at a cheap price—and America gets to keep the profits....

Medicare and the Veterans Administration both deliver low-cost, affordable insurance to many of America's most-expensive citizens. And we don't hear the kind of complaints about Medicare that Senator Grassley just leveled at the Post Office.

I Bet You That Neither UPS® nor FedEX® Could Deliver all your letters for 44¢ a piece and come anywhere close to doing it as cheaply as the USPS does.

It’s All in How You Look at It. And ideology clearly plays a tremendous role in clouding many people's judgment.

But When It Comes to My Own Health Insurance, I’d rather go the 44¢ route—for United States Postal Service quality, at a United States Postal Service cost.

Ideology Aside, of course.....

[For a video recording of Senator Grassley's call-in Town Hall meeting on C-Span, go to this link:

Senator Grassley on Congressional Agenda: 09/08/2009 (Product ID #288770-3)]

Regards,
(($;-)}
Gozo!

Democrats Want Health Care That’s Affordable:

Republicans Want Medicare to Die

The most expensive citizens to insure are America’s Senior Citizens. Whatever conditions they acquire—such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer—have had a lifetime to develop. And these conditions, once acquired, will usually be present until the time that they die.

And yet America has covered each and every one of our Senior Citizens from the time that they turn 65 until the very end. With Americans living longer and longer lives, many Seniors now live well into their 80s and beyond. Even to 100 and beyond. And we are glad to have them, our grandparents and our great-grandparents, and even our great-great-grandparents with us.

It is an expense that most Americans gladly pay, in order to keep our loved ones alive. But of course it is a large expense.

And yet we pay the expense as a nation, because we would not see our loved ones suffer and die.

America Insures Only the Most Expensive Americans

Insuring the most-expensive segment of the population has been a costly endeavor. The Democrats put this in place, back in 1965. It took them twenty years, from the time that President Harry Truman proposed it until the time that the Democrats managed to put it in place. This was in the first half of President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s tenure. Medicare was put through for our Senior Citizens during that time, and the Civil Rights Act was put through for all Americans in the same era, and the Conservatives turned away from the Democratic Party, as LBJ had foreseen, for the next 40 years.

Medicare Covers All Seniors....But Republicans Wanted to Kill It

During all this time that Medicare has made health care affordable for our Senior Citizens, Republicans have argued against it. Republicans argue against Medicare primarily on ideological grounds:

“It’s too expensive!” they cry.

“We can’t afford Medicare!” they shout.

“We don’t want big government running our health care!” they say.

Well, of course it’s expensive:

What do you think you get when you only buy the most-expensive things, without budgeting for all the rest?

We Insure More Than Just Seniors

On top of insuring Senior Citizens, already the costliest segment of society for health care, we also pay insurance costs for other expensive groups.

We Insure the Military

Our military—the soldiers, sailors, marines, and fliers who keep America safe—come back from war with myriad serious and costly medical conditions, both physical and emotional. And we pay for them all. Because our military—perhaps even more than our Seniors—deserve it. Our military suffers on our behalf, and the very least we can do is provide for their health care.

But it is expensive.

We Insure Prisoners

Our prisoners are another expensive group. And we pay their health care, too.

This segment of the population often leads lives riddled with drug addiction and other abuses. From tattoos (including those acquired with dirty pen points in prison) that lead to Hepatitis C and other practices that lead to AIDS, America pays for them all.

We Insure the Impoverished

The poor, too, we pay healthcare for.

We provide neighborhood health clinics in the poorer parts of our cities, and those not served in this fashion go to our hospital emergency rooms. And there in the ER, whether it’s a sore throat or a diabetic coma or a gunshot wound, America pays for it all.

We Pay for the Most Expensive: Why Not for the Least?

If we are already sharing the cost of health care for America’s costliest populations, it only makes sense to level out the field a bit more, and put everybody under the same reimbursement umbrella.

If cost is the issue—as the Republicans currently proclaim—then what better way to get those costs under control than to put the cheapest in the same tent with the most-exorbitant, and level out the costs for us all?

Republicans Work to Keep Medicare Too Expensive

But since 1965, for almost 45 years, the Republicans have worked to keep it so that the most-expensive health care to be paid for—is paid for out of the taxpayer’s your pocket.

The Republicans have made sure that Medicare is almost impossible for America to afford, so they can keep hollering out, “It doesn’t work! Socialized medicine doesn’t work! It’s too expensive! We can’t afford it! Medicare is going broke!”

Of course it’s going broke:

You Can’t Afford Steak and Lobster on a Hamburger Budget

The Republicans insist on serving up steak and lobster for dinner every night—while the rest of America eats low-cost, high-fat hamburger meat to pay for that steak and lobster (which, by the way, the members of Congress also get to eat, through their government-paid healthcare).

And then they keep fussing at Democrats for blowing the food budget.

If America is already paying for the most-costly patients—the poor, the prisoners, the military, the Seniors—and also paying its own insurance through employer-paid policies—and on top of that, we are paying the insurance companies bigger and bigger and bigger profits every year, then cutting out the insurance company profits, and using that money to pay for Medicare and the VA and the rest of us, can only cost less.

Why Not Keep Healthcare Profits Where They Belong?

A single-payer insurance system that covers all Americans, while paying the bills of the private sector, is the best way to encourage the private sector—doctors, hospitals, drug companies, medical-equipment companies—to continue providing the best possible health care, at the affordable costs that the free-enterprise system and free-market capitalism provides.

Let’s keep medical profits where they belong: in the medical industry. Not in the pockets of private insurance companies.

Republicans Argue Ideology.....
While Americans Without Insurance Die

Now, Republicans can argue with this all that they want. They can talk about the threat of Big Government—but you can ask any Senior how he or she feels about Medicare, and you’ll know that Big Government isn’t really the issue.

The real issue is insurance companies. It's not that they're evil. But businesses need profits in order to survive. And it's just the profits that they have to take out of society that make insurance too-expensive. It's just the profits that require denials of coverage, whether for preexisting conditions or from loss of your job.

Republicans Cry “Choice!” But There Is No Choice.....

Republicans can argue about “choice” all they want. But under our current system of private insurance, there is no real choice.

When all the products available are supported by a broken system—

—that squeezes profits out of the misfortunes of patients and the dedicated service of doctors—

—and no available insurance policy will afford you complete coverage—

—without any rationing of preexisting conditions and illness-caused loss of employment—

—adding zero value to our health care—

—that leaves every single American taxpayer at risk of financial ruin—

—then you know that it’s time to give Medicare to everyone.

Republicans Are Determined to Bankrupt Medicare

The Republicans have worked for almost 45 years to kill Medicare. It’s time to put this destructive Republican ideology aside.

Now Let’s Work to Keep All Americans Alive...

Regards,
(($;-)}
Gozo!