In response to some comments received from a previous blog, where I disparage Nancy Pelosi’s monstrosity, I am going to say what should be done to solve the healthcare problem in less words than Nancy Pelosi used pages. I thought this would be a great challenge.

The first thing that should be done to solve the healthcare problem is get the cost of health insurance down. That is easily done by repealing all of the required items that are now part of every policy. My wife and I are 60+ years old. We have no need of maternity coverage, yet we pay just the same. Removing the required items, people could choose what they want and need covered.

Second, people should be allowed to purchase their health insurance from any authorized provider in the United States, even across state lines. This will introduce market forces on insurance. The insurance companies will compete for everyone’s business and the costs will come down.

Third, there needs to be tort reform. There are too many people that are trying to get rich by suing doctors. Putting limits on how much attorneys can receive as well as how much the aggrieved person can recover would reduce the malpractice insurance for doctors. This would enable the doctors to charge lower fees to their patients. This would also reduce costs to the public and help reduce insurance costs.

Also, as the cost of insurance and doctor visits are reduced, the quality of care will go up. That is because market forces have been re-introduced to the system. For those who doubt that this would happen, just look at what has happened with Lasik eye surgery. It used to cost three to four times what it does today and was of a much poorer quality. This all happened because it was to the doctors benefit to reduce their price and increase their quality. The same thing would happen with healthcare.

Government would have a limited role to licensing doctors and other healthcare professionals. This will insure that those that treat us are competent. The government should also be involved in licensing the people that sell health care insurance. This will insure that people are paying for a product that will deliver what it is supposed to do. Other than that, government should stay out of the health care business. I know that we have the VA system for veterans that should continue. Medicare should be targeted for elimination as it would not be needed after all the reforms kicked in. But, people have used it for years and so it will take some time for them to get off of the system.

There, I used less than 500 words to describe exactly what should happen to reduce healthcare costs in the country. If these reforms are enacted, healthcare would be affordable for everyone. It will never happen because of the reduced role for government.

I am not an expert in economics or medicine, so this is quite an experiment for me. I do know a little about medicine as my students generally end up as nurses. That means I have to know what the requirements are to be a nurse and also the prospects for employment. So, that does give me a little insight into the world of medicine. But it is no more than a peek. I do have some friends that are doctors, but we do not talk about medicine as a general rule. Translating that into English, I know little more than the average person. I hope that this plan is good. It is probably not unique. I gleaned it from the many sources I get my information from.  

The Democrats rolled out the “Elect Republicans in 2010 Bill”. They called it a different name, but that is what it is. They called it their version of the Obamacare legislation. Nancy Pelosi praised the bill saying that it would cover 96% of all working families and that it would make health insurance cheaper and more affordable for all. Steny Hoyer said that the process of developing this bill has been the most open and transparent in the 29 years he has been in Congress. Count me as an unbeliever because those comments do not ring true.

First let’s look at Madame Pelosi’s comments. She said the bill would cover 96% of all working families. I may have my figures wrong, but that percentage is essentially the same as under the current private insurance system. That does not seem to be much of an increase in any case, even if it is an increase.

Madame Pelosi’s second statement is even further from the truth. I was looking at the costs for families under this plan last night. I then compared that estimate to what I am paying for my insurance today. After deciding that my calculator was not telling me the truth, I determined that I would pay almost 50% more to get worse coverage under Obamacare. That does not sound like much of an appealing proposition.

Steny Hoyer’s comments were chilling. If he is telling the truth, that these were the most open and transparent meetings to develop this bill, we are in big trouble my friends. These meetings were held in secret for the most part. What came out of the meetings were trial balloons to see what would or would not fly. There was nothing open about the debates. Transparent is a complete joke if you think these were transparent. They were a closely guarded secret for the most part. The Republicans had almost no input into the debate, so the meetings were definitely not open. The Republicans were locked out of the final drafting of the bill.

If those meetings were the most open, then what about the other bills that come through Congress? Barack Obama promised us the most open and transparent administration in history. Of course, every President since John Adams has promised a more open administration than the ones that came before. Nobody lines up for secrecy.

Well, the first bill is actually written. The “bill” that came out of the Senate the other day was not even written on paper. It was just the idea that a bill might be written to possibly include these probable things. Notice all the weasel words in the last statement. That is the “bill” the Senate committee voted on. At least the House of Representatives came up with a bill that was written on paper for people to read. That is if they allow anyone near the actual bill. These Democrats have a problem with people reading anything. It is probably because if you read what they wrote, you would figure out what they intended to do to you. Then, you would rise up with pitchforks to storm the Congress to take back what is ours. The Democrats do not want us to know anything about what they intend to do, until they have actually accomplished their task. Then it will be too late. You will be stuck with that mess forever, just like all the other failed Democrat programs like Social Security, Medicare and the war on poverty.

The battle is joined. Madame Pelosi said she wanted to vote on this bill in six weeks. That means we have six weeks to stop the Democrats from destroying the heart of America. They already have a good start on the bone and muscle. They should not get the heart. We have to stop them by letting our Congressional delegation know the consequences of voting against America on this bill.

The fringe press has been boosting and supporting Obama so much that they cannot see what is happening in this country. They continually report polls inaccurately so that they give the impression that the majority of the American people want socialized healthcare. When you look at the polls in question, it is obvious that the poll was more of a “push poll” than a real poll. A real poll asks real questions to get real answers. A push poll asks leading questions to get pre-determined answers. Real polls are valid. Push polls are not worth the cost of a match to burn them up.

That the Obamacare socialized medicine plan is in trouble is obvious. They are trying trick after trick to get the people to support their socialized medicine. None of their tricks have had any lasting effect. The public is too locked in on the issue and too informed. The latest trick is to rename the original government option, then public option and now consumer option or competition option. The hard core leftists are grasping at straws if they think that changing the name of a stupid idea will make it a good idea.

If Democrats were serious about reforming healthcare, they could do it in a couple of days. That is allowing for the slow legislative process. It would take me about 15 minutes to write it up and then they could have their debates and pass it.

My plan is very simple. It is to remove government from health care as much as is possible. Removing it entirely is not a good idea as it is a good idea to have doctors and other healthcare workers that are certified. Having an agency check on minimum standards of cleanliness and such is also a good idea. But other than that, government should get out of the way. Government should be out of the health insurance business except to license those that sell the insurance. People should be able to select plans from any state and tailor a plan that suits them. For example, right now my wife and I are paying for maternity care. We are both past age 60. The odds on our ever needing maternity care are zero. Therefore, if we could choose a plan without maternity care it would be cheaper. I could go down the list, but I think you get my point. Tailoring a plan to suit every individual would reduce costs, even with the current government involvement.

Once the costs were reduced and true market forces were at work in the health industry, you would see costs go down and the quality would go up. A perfect example of what I am talking about is Lasik eye surgery. When it was first introduced it cost about $1000 per eye and the surgery was very risky. Now it costs about $300 per eye and the risk is very low. The quality of the surgery has increased by a tremendous amount and the cost has gone down at the same time. How has that happened? The answer is very simple, competition drove those costs down. As doctors got into the business, they realized that if they lowered their costs, they would get more patients. As they got more patients their income went up. But, to get those patients they had to have the latest technology available.

Under Obamacare, none of that will happen. Quality will be something that people will hear about and wonder what it was. The costs will continually go up as nobody has any interest in controlling them. As the costs go up, rationing will occur because the government will only have so much money. The patients with the highest need will not get the services because they would cost the most money. Those that had the lowest cost services would get first choice of services. If there was anything left, those with high cost services would be taken care of. The rationing would be the “Death Panels” that Sarah Palin talked about and the left said would not happen.

We have to stop this monstrosity called Obamacare. There is still a chance to defeat it. I heard an expert this morning say that it had a 50-50 chance of passing. That is much too high for me. Until that number is zero, I will not be happy. Also on Glenn Beck, he said that as the age goes up, the support for socialized medicine goes down. If politicians remember, older voters vote in a higher percentage than younger ones. Voting for this unconstitutional bill would mean a massive turnover in Congress. There probably will be a massive turnover even if it does not pass, just because of all the other terrible things that Obama is making Congress pass. But, passing this one would mean certain political death for a huge number of people who voted for the bill. Since it had not been implemented, it might still be dismantled before implementation. At least that is what I hope for.

The amount of disinformation coming from the White House, Democrats in general and the President in particular is astounding. They know that we have “hot buttons” that if pressed would immediately destroy the subprime healthcare bill. (The term subprime healthcare bill is borrowed from Hugh Hewitt) So, in the interest of saving their bill, they tell us what we want to hear, regardless of what is really in the bill. Some people might call that making mistakes. But, the consistency with which it happens makes me think that the intent is to tell something that is not true. By definition, telling something that is not true is a lie.

Let’s look at a few examples of what I am talking about. First would be the insistence by the President that if we like our insurance carriers we can keep it and if we like our doctors we can keep our doctors. Anyone with half a brain knows that cannot possibly be true. Since over 80% of people are happy with their current insurance coverage there would be no possible space for a “public option”. The estimates are that the “public option” will cover over half of the country initially. The two ideas are not compatible. Either we keep our existing coverage or we will be forced into the “public option”. Since the obvious goal is to get everyone in the public option, the truth has to be that the public option would cover most Americans initially and all Americans eventually.

The second part of the President’s statement is that we would be able to keep our current doctors. Listening to talk radio and doing research on the internet, I understand that doctors that are currently near retirement age would retire if this subprime healthcare bill gets passed. That would lower the number of doctors available to see patients immediately. Since this number would greatly exceed the number of doctors that would enter the workforce in that first year, the total number of doctors available would go down. Also, many doctors have said that under no circumstances would they take payment from any “public option” patients. That means if you are forced to the public option you would most likely lose your doctor at the same time. Democrats have to know this as they are much more connected to this information than I am. They also have large numbers of employees that can check the information as it becomes available.

The next one I want to look at is funding for abortions. Since over half of the country does not believe in public funding for abortions, the Democrats have been telling everyone that there are no provisions in the bill to pay for abortions. The wording in the bill is a big ambiguous, but bills that attempt to clarify the language by making it policy that there is no public money spent on abortions is immediately rejected by the Democrats in Congress. If there was no language in the bill to fund abortions, there should be no objection to clarifying the language. Since they obviously did not want the language clarified, it can be assumed that the Democrats want the language to be interpreted to mean that there CAN be public money spent on abortions.

The other thing that really amuses me is whenever Barack Obama brings up an example of a government program that works well, it never does. Even the “Cash for Clunkers” program that simply gave money to people to buy cars could not be done right. If the Congress cannot get a simple program like giving away money correct, what are the chances they can get a complicated program like the subprime healthcare bill correct?

Democrats are not telling the American people the truth. There is no reason for them not to know what is contained in the bill, as they wrote it. Republicans might get things wrong every now and then because they did not write the bill. But Democrats should have a record of getting their facts correct almost all of the time. Since their record of getting the facts on the subprime healthcare bill is near zero, there has to be a reason for the discrepancy. Either they truly do not know what is in the bill or they are lying. Since there is no excuse for them not to know what is in the bill, the only conclusion is that the Democrats are lying about what is in the bill. They have to be lying for a reason. The only reason I can think of is so that they can get some Republican support for this subprime healthcare bill. That would give them some cover when the bill goes belly up within a few months of implementation.

Plus, I still do not know why the emergency when the bill will not be implemented until 2013. If it will take that long to get it implemented, we can take a year or two to get it right. The only reason for speed is to pull a fast one over on the American people.

Today, the accomplished world traveler, Barack Obama, is visiting Phoenix to speak at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention. He is expected to try and mend fences with the military and maybe speak about his government healthcare takeover.

Yesterday, Barack Obama visited the Grand Canyon. I have no objections to him visiting the Grand Canyon. I also understand that when a President visits somewhere, there are understandable restrictions on the people that are in the area. What made the event memorable is that Obama tried to play himself off as some sort of a westerner. He looked and acted so out of place that when he put on the act, it was truly laughable. Those in the east might not pick up on it because they do not live out here, but we in the west know what a true westerner acts like.

One bit of good news is that Senator Kent Conrad (ND) announced that the “public option” will be dropped from consideration from any healthcare reform bills. That is good news on the surface. They can still achieve their goal by government regulation, but the easy way through insurance is not on the table right now. The fight is not over as any revision that allows the government to stick its nose in the business of health care is not good for the country. I hope that most people are not disarmed by this “sop” to the masses. It is a victory and it should be savored, but it is not final victory. It is like winning a battle in a war, it is good, but not the final objective. Right now, the Democrats are on the run. If we keep the pressure on, we can achieve a lasting victory. If we take the pressure off, we will lose everything we ever won.

What we need to do now, is get government out of the business of regulating health insurance. Licensing companies and agents who sell insurance is still a good thing. You want to make sure that the insurance you get is legal. But, that is where government regulation should end. We need to be able to buy our insurance anywhere we want. If I find a policy in Vermont that is cheaper and gives me what I want, I should be able to buy it. Right now, that would be illegal.

I should also be able to pick and choose what is included in my policy. That way I am paying for what I might potentially use. My wife and I are over childbearing age. We have no need for maternity services. Why should I pay a fee each month to pay for maternity services that I will never use? Why can’t I drop maternity services and save a small amount each month? The same can be said for many of the other required things in health insurance. Some things I want included are not included. Some things I want excluded are included. I should be able to pick the things I want included and then pay what I want to pay. If I want cheaper insurance, I could choose to have fewer things covered or lower amounts. The choice would be between me and the insurance company. The government would not be involved. This would not cost the government any money. In fact, it would save the government a lot of money because the cost of health insurance for government employees would go down. The Democrats would never go for this option because it gives them less power, not more power. Democrats are into power. Anything that gives them more power, they support. Anything that takes power away from government they are against.

That is just one simple idea that would save at least millions of dollars each year. It would most likely save billions. There are other ideas that are simple to adopt that would save people billions. As the costs go down, more people would have health insurance. But, only the people that want health insurance would have health insurance. If you do not want health insurance, you should not be forced to buy health insurance. People should not be forced to do something that they do not want to do, just because the government says they should do it. We should support freedom for Americans. More freedom means a stronger America. It also means some people will not choose to do things the way that we want them to do them. That is just fine as long as they are not harming anyone by making those choices. We own ourselves and as long as we are making choices that affect just us, the government should stay out.

At least that is one man’s opinion, as long as there is still freedom to say what you believe. That time is rapidly closing, but it was fun while it lasted.

Barack Obama is trying to force his health care plan down the throats of Americans with as little discussion about it as possible. He wants no information about the plan to get out. He is going around the country telling everyone that they will not notice any changes to their current health care plan if his plan is adopted. If that is the case, why do we even need his health care plan? He will say to cover everyone, but the plan being discussed in the Senate covers the same amount of people as the current system. In other words, there are 37 million uninsured under Obama’s plan and supposedly 46 million currently uninsured. That is hardly enough of a difference to make any radical changes in coverage.

The plan being discussed in the Senate has a big hidden problem. That problem is the “public option”. That is a government sponsored health insurance plan. If that is adopted, all employers will quickly drop their current health insurance coverage and adopt the “public option”. That would eventually put everyone under the “public option” and give America the single-payer system that Democrats covet. They covet the single-payer system because it gives the government a great deal of control over the citizens of the country.

The Democrats love to talk about the wonderful health plans of England, Canada and Australia. All of them have single-payer systems that are similar. All of them are now starting to allow private health care options because the single-payer systems they have cannot meet the demand. We do not need to follow after the plans that are failing. We should continue the plan that the single-payer systems are starting to emulate.

I spent two years in England between 1970 and 1972. England adopted the single-payer system shortly after World War II. At that time, England and America had health care that was roughly equivalent. By the time I was there in the early 1970’s, England had not progressed very much beyond the health care of the early 1960’s. I had a couple of opportunities to visit English doctors while I was there and was appalled at the shabby conditions that existed. The rooms the doctors used were larger than American doctors, but they were not stocked with enough medical equipment to supply the doctor. When I was there, the doctors were still all English. Now, the doctors are almost exclusively foreign born. That also goes for Canada and Australia.

The medical care is being rationed in England, Canada and Australia. Over Thanksgiving 2008, I visited Spokane, WA. While there, I read the local paper. It was reporting that Canadians were having babies in Washington because the hospitals in Canada had met their quota for the year and would not admit the women. I also have read about patients that have had to come to the United States from Canada to get medical care when needed. They were put on lists and would have died before they could have seen a doctor. In Australia hospitals limit specialists to a small number of surgeries per quarter. It does not matter how many patients need surgery, only that number of surgeries can be performed. That is the kind of thing we can look forward to under a single-payer system.

We have the best medical system in the world. There are problems that exist with our current system. Almost all of them are either directly or indirectly caused by government interference. The best way to reform the current system is to get government out of making requirements for medical insurance. That is just a scam to help their buddies in the health care delivery system. If everyone was allowed to choose their options, insurance would be cheaper. If we could take our policies from state to state, insurance would be cheaper. We could learn a lot from the car insurance system. If we modeled the health insurance system after the car insurance system, insurance would be cheaper and more people would be covered. There are other options that may be better. The one thing we cannot do is allow the government to compete with insurance companies or get into offering health insurance at all. That is a recipe for disaster.

We do need to make some reforms in our health care system. What we do not need to do is throw the baby out with the bath water. Tweaking the current system will deliver more good than any new system could possibly deliver. Changing our system to something else is not about delivering health care. It is about control over you, the citizen of this country. A “public option” is really a recipe for the government to step into your life and tell you how to live.

I prefer to live my life the way I choose. I am an American and was born to freedom. I was not born to be a slave. I will not be a slave to anyone. If you want to be a slave, support the “public option” and kiss your freedom good-bye. If you value your freedom at all, call your congressman and both Senators and tell them you want no part of the “public option”. Then, make sure they follow your lead. If they do not, work to defeat them in the next election. That is the only thing politicians understand. Make sure they know you are serious and they will listen to you.