Rep. Doggett's Comments on Senate Health Reform Vote

Priorities (3.67 / 3)

The priorities for the conference committee, and for anybody who has influence on the conference committee (that means you, Lloyd!), should be:

1) Find language that will pass both houses, which pretty much means the Senate bill plus small changes,
2) Fight off bad amendments (like Stupak), and
3) Introduce changes that make it better,
in that order. Forget about single-payer or even a public option. That's good public policy, but it's not in the cards, and neither is the threat of reconciliation (see Nate Silver's analysis for why reconciliation won't work.)

The health, and lives, of millions of people without insurance depend on the bill passing. Once the bill emerges from conference, every Democrat in the House and Senate, and those of us in the blogosphere, have to work to:

1) Pass the bill.
2) Pass the bill.
3) Pass the bill.

If the bill passes, there will be plenty of credit to go around. A few years down the road, when folks are used to universal coverage and like it, we'll have a chance to improve it.

If it fails, we'll be back to where we were in 1994, both policy-wise and politically, with no chance to do anything about it for a decade or more. If that happens, we definitely need to punish the SOBs who voted no, but we also need to punish the hard-liners whose insistence on improving the bill wound up killing it. Stupidity may not be as evil as malice, but it's just as dangerous.  

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by: LSadun @ Sat Dec 26, 2009 at 18:32:27 PM UTC

Yes, We Can Finish This Off? (3.00 / 2)

We've had our chance to disparage the President or (more rightfully) Congress on the imperfections of this bill.  Let's put that aside, now.  

This may not be our hope of hopes, but I know that in my short lifetime, this is the absolute best thing that the federal government will do.  For that reason, I will support the legislation that comes out of conference full-heartedly.  For that reason, I will work harder in 2010 to make sure Republicans stay away from power and to make sure better Democrats get their hands on the steering wheel.  

This isn't the ideal, but it's still the change I hoped for.

"Let us tenderly and kindly cherish therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write."  -  John Adams

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by: Michael Hurta @ Sun Dec 27, 2009 at 08:45:53 AM UTC

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Yes, pass the bill! (3.00 / 1)

It does a lot of good- insures 30  million Americans who don't have insurance, does away with pre-existing conditions, you will no longer  your insurance because you get sick, or lose your job, or change jobs, and children can stay on parent's insurance until they are 26, just to name a few.

Nate Silver says there is  less than a 10 % chance it won't pass. I am hopeful we will soon  make history. This is the change I voted for.  

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by: loblolly @ Sun Dec 27, 2009 at 15:35:48 PM UTC

Medicare Fraud (0.00 / 0)

I just hope this bill tightens up procedures so that Medicare fraud is much less easy.  Currently, it is ridiculously easy.  You can apparently be extremely mentally ill, or even pretty stupid, and still bilk the government for hundreds of thousands of dollars before anyone even notices.  Here is how you do it:  (1) You set up an account as a vendor, work out of your garage, and call yourself something like "Smith Medical Supply Services." (2) You offer your services to old people, nursing homes, etc. (3) You bill the government at will for defective or nonexistent medical supplies, services, or whatever; which you obtain, or not, from other sources and mark up. (4) You get a check.  The writing of checks is outsourced to a company.  The U.S. Government pays companies millions of dollars to merely look at each invoice, examine it for facial validity, and cut the checks.  The check writers have no incentive to uncover fraud. (5) You hope like hell that none of your clients looks at his/her quarterly statement and complains that the statement lists services not provided, or that the merchandise provided was defective. (6) Finally, if there are complaints, you hope they do not reach such a critical mass that some agency (not the company cutting the checks) decides to look into the matter and ask for a federal indictment.

This is the Reader's Digest condensed version, but it is really that easy.  I was shocked.  By the time the fraud is uncovered, the wasted tax dollars are, of course, long gone.   I hope this health care proposal includes some plan to stop this. I am sure the outsourcing of check writing is your classic "pork." I am also sure that tightening things up enough would enable the government to provide health care to all and actually save money.  It can be done.  But given how much pork was handed out to get the current health care reform  bill passed, I am not sure that our current Congress is the group with the will to do what needs to be done.

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by: KarylKrug @ Sun Dec 27, 2009 at 17:06:43 PM UTC

Wouldn't count on it (0.00 / 0)

The next efficiently run government program will be the first.  More specifically to the fraud comment.  About 7-8 years ago there was a huge wheelchair fraud case in Houston in which Nigerian nationals did exactly as you described.  As the investigations started they fled home.  The government response was to require ALL Medicare dealers in Houston to attend a 2 day meeting and be admonished for 16 hours and treated like misbehaving children. To my knowledge I do not believe the offending dealers attended.  Go figure.

This bill will add so many layers of bureaucracy that it will be impossible to control costs or uncover fraud, waste and abuse.  
Ronnie was right, the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the Government, and I'm Here to Help'    

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by: sdhook @ Mon Dec 28, 2009 at 17:13:08 PM UTC

[ Parent ]