In its latest and desperate attempts to kill off health care reform, insurance industry lobbyists will unleash $1 million in HCR attack ads over the next few days. This is $1 million, by the way, that could be put to far better use such as funding treatments for patients. But who cares about patients?
The ads, which will run on cable, will focus on "setting the record straight about rising health care costs" as the Obama administration goes after big insurers for raising insurance rates.
I betcha the industry's attempts to set the record straight will be a verbatim replay of last summer's fear fest frenzies that were ginned up by the health industry lobbyists and its go to politicians. Why is it that the fear fests surrounding health care reform remind me of another orchestrated event called Iraq?
Fear coupled with deception.
Health insurance CEOs take home record profits while volunteer groups of doctors and nurses will roll up their sleeves to clean out animal stalls, if need be, to set up free health clinics in Republican held states that are hell holes for the jobless and uninsured.
Kay Bailey Hutchison joins the vast majority of her Republican colleagues in Washington in the GOP Hall of Hypocritical and Cowardly Shame.
Many Republicans voted for the stimulus bill and now they trash it day in and day out, at least when they are in Washington.
And yet when Republican lawmakers visit their home districts, all take credit for the projects and jobs that the stimulus bill made possible. In Texas we received:
1148 contracts: $1,178,584,964=1,398,97 jobs.
8852 grants:
$11,229,522,199=27,057,60 jobs.
Loan: (partially because Governor Perry refused to accept extended federal unemployment benefits)
$25,517,309. What were you thinking, Governor?
So, Senator Hutchison, given your stance on the evil doing stimulus package in Washington, do you suggest that Texas send the above back?
It's no secret that the House version of health reform is a stronger, more progressive bill. That's what happens in a body with strict majority-rule, and none of this Nelson and Lieberman courting needed to get to 60 cloture votes.
The bill now moves to conference committee, where leaders from the House and Senate work to resolve differences between the two bodies' legislation. The House version has better cost controls, as well as a public option. It is imperative that we keep the pressure on and keep pushing for a better bill that can pass both bodies and be signed into law by President Obama.
Congressman Doggett, TX-25, sent out the following statement after the vote:
"Opening up this Senate health care package reveals much good wrapped up with unwise taxes on employer plans and too little competition for insurance monopolies. Let's take time for a little Christmas cheer now that the Senate finally acted, but make and keep a New Year's Resolution in the House demanding at least a little more consumer and taxpayer protection."
Come Monday, let's keep the pressure on. Folks in Texas can volunteer with Organizing for America to make calls into swing-vote Senators' states, encouraging their constituents to call in favor of a stronger bill to come out of committee. Folks in Blue Dog Congressional districts can call their Representatives in favor of an even stronger bill.
And folks in Austin can remind our one Democratic representative, Congressman Lloyd Doggett, that even though this bill is far from perfect, it goes a long way to insure the 24% of Texans who lack access to care. This bill may well become the greatest social achievement of our time, normalizing access to quality, affordable care for all Americans. There is room to improve, but so it was with Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and many other government programs that are now viewed as the fabric of our society.
Two years ago, despite our majorities in the House and Senate, Democrats could only dream of one day passing sweeping health insurance reform legislation. Today, a Democratic president makes that reform not only possible but probable. We must all keep working to expand those majorities and elect more and better Democrats, in order to have the votes to pass the legislative changes we need.
Very, very early this morning, the Senate took an historic vote to pass sweeping health reform. This version of the bill--while far from perfect--will help insure millions of Americans who currently lack access to affordable, quality care. President Obama sent the following email following the vote:
In all the back and forth, it's easy to lose sight of what this incredible breakthrough really means. But consider this: This Christmas, there are millions of Americans without health insurance who risk losing everything if they get sick.
There are mothers and fathers who wonder how they'll provide for their children because an illness has wiped out their savings. There are small business owners who worry that they'll have to lay off a long-time employee because the cost of insurance is rapidly rising.
If we finish the job, all this can change. We will have beaten back the special interests who have for so long perpetuated the status quo. We will have enacted the most important piece of social policy since the Social Security Act in the 1930s, and the most important health reform since Medicare in the 1960s.
Success of the final bill means that within the near future, millions of Americans will have affordable insurance coverage. Millions will be spared the fear of medical bankruptcy, and millions will no longer have to choose between taking their child to the doctor and paying the light bill. This change is a holiday gift we can all be thankful for, no matter what we celebrate.
President Barack Obama continued:
There is still more to do before I can sign reform into law -- a last round of negotiations and final votes in the Senate and the House -- and I'm counting on your help every step of the way. But for now, I hope that as you celebrate this holiday season, you remember that the work you are doing is making our union more perfect, one step at a time. For that, I am grateful to you.
After this holiday weekend, we all need to keep the pressure on, contacting our officials in the House and Senate. A stronger bill can emerge from committee, but we the people need to advocate for it.
The President's email thanked everyone who called and organized in support of health reform, and asked us to sign a letter of thanks to those Senators who voted in favor of the bill. After all, it is just as important to thank our elected officials for doing the right thing as it is to challenge them when they do not.
I signed the letter, and I left a note:
"Thank you. As a citizen of Texas, my Senators do NOT want me to have access to affordable, quality care. They do not believe that we need reform, and are satisfied with the status quo. Those of us in Texas--where we average 24% uninsured--are depending on this reform to give us access to care and coverage. Thank you for doing what our own Senators would not--standing up for change, and standing up for the American people."
We're one step closer to historic health reform. There are still a few important steps to go, we should all be happy with today's progress.
A few days ago Senator Cornyn sent out a scary email making a series of spurious claims about the health care reform bill now being debated in the Senate. Refuting it point by point here is useless but I would ask a few questions about what he and the rest of the Republican Party are doing to improve the bill.
Senator, why haven't you worked to make certain that the reform bill requires insurers to cover pre-existing conditions and prohibit rescission for any reason? Since you're so certain that competition is the best solution, why haven't you demanded that insurers loose their anti-trust exemption? Since competition is so useful, why haven't you demanded that Americans be allowed the opportunity to purchase lower priced imported medications?
Since you are so concerned about the millions of Texans without insurance coverage why don't you demand that employers either be required to offer insurance coverage to their employees or expand Medicaid to allow low income folks working for companies that don't offer insurance plans to have medical coverage and at the same time also feed, clothe and house their families? The point of health insurance is to spread the risk so that no one looses their home or life over huge medical bills because we all share in the cost, why haven't you worked to force insurers to use community rating rather than allowing them to rate individuals so that people with medical problems can find affordable insurance?
Last Sunday, on Meet the Press, Kay Bailey Hutchison spewed one whopper after another about the recently passed Senate health care reform bill. KBH spouted the same fear mongering myths as had John Cornyn in his recent newsletter to his so-called constituents. Kay and John's grotesquely misleading talking points are also a clone of what John Culberson (TX7-TeabaggerR) stated in his pricey and slick brochure.
This week alone I have been bombarded by snail mail and electronic mail from my Texas lawmakers mentioned above. Sadly and outrageously, all of the letters and brochures are filled with nothing but fear mongering tactics and blatant lies.
From Hutchison:
After hearing from constituents over the last several months, some members of Congress have now learned that using the term "government plan" elicits a strong negative from voters (because you have been scaring voters about government for years.) so they have now latched onto a new way to describe the same thing: a co-op. Texans should not be confused by this new packaging of the same idea. The co-op is a back door to a government takeover of our health care. (Really? According to whom? You?) The co-op would be started with federal funds, and it remains unclear whether or not taxpayer dollars would be used if the co-ops begin to fail. The Administration has tried to bail out the banking, housing and auto-industry. Would the co-ops be next?
Wow. Let's talk about an exercise in deceitful fear mongering. This is the first time I have heard about a co-op that would replace the public option and would ultimately become single payer health care. This would be a true dream come true for the American people.
But it ain't going to happen.
Because if a single payer, universal health care reform bill had been introduced there is no way in hell that Republican enabling Lieberman and the three sell-out Democrats known as Blue Dogs would have ever in their dreams voted for the Senate HCR Bill. Like Cornyn and Hutchison, Lieberman and the Blue Dogs serve as major pimps and go to bitches for the insurance industry.
Kay Bailey Hutchison should also remind herself that banking, housing and the auto-industry collapsed under her and her Party's watch. Like most Republicans Kay Bailey has always been in favor of dismantling every living regulatory legislation and she has never supported government oversight, transparency nor checks and balances of any sort.
Based on the mail I have read from Senators Hutchison, Cornyn and my U.S. House Rep. John Culberson, it is obvious that the Republicans are repeating the same lies over and over. The cover of Culberson's brochure reads:
HEALTH CARE TAKEOVER
.
The brochure shows a stethoscope lying on a flag draped on top of a building called:
INSURANCE
A couple of Culberson's bullet pointed lies:
2.5% tax on all individuals who do not purchase government run health care.
8% tax on businesses who cannot afford to purchase government run health care.
Notice how the Republicans frequently use the term government run. They do this to attach a negative and fearful meaning of government. The intended message? The evil government will take over one's life and control one's destiny. The Republican Party has spent years demonizing government run anything b/c they'd rather have the sharks, i.e. their cash cow donors, on Wall St.,in corporate America and the insurance industry to remain permanently in the driver seats.
Let's take a peek at Republican and other pimped out lawmakers willingness to enable corporate greed and corruption.
First up, Culberson's lies. His are only the tip of the iceberg.
Hey dude, I am one of your constituents and quite frankly you are full of stupid nonsense. It is stunning to me that you would include me and other progressives in your district among your special interest groups and deluded teabaggers. I'd venture to suggest that you will have an election challenge in the very near future.
According to Culberson's brochure.
The uninsured should 1. don't get sick or 2. if you do, die quickly.
The Democratic leadership bill, H.R. 3962 costs over $1.2 trillion; contains $729.5 billion in new taxes, adds 111 new offices to the government (jobs anyone?); and creates, expands and extends 43 entitlement programs. (There they go again with their entitlement obsession. Apparently the only ones who are entitled to be entitled are Republicans.) Now here is a really huge whopper: The bill also prohibits the sale of private insurance after 2013; cuts more than $150 billion from Medicare; and exempts members of Congress from the public options but no one else.
If Culberson had really read the bill instead of dancing with teabaggers he would have known that his claim about prohibiting private insurance is a bald faced lie. It is outrageous for Culberson to think he can willfully insult the intelligence of so many of his constituents with such stupid nonsense.
What Republicans are not telling us is the fact that HCR will cut the deficit by $127 billion, coverage will be extended to 94% Americans, 31 million more than have coverage today.
What the heck is wrong with that?
Remember those evil doing non-existent WMDs in Iraq? And Iraq's non-existent ties to Al-Qaeda?
The GOP is promoting health care reform as if it is a WMD. It is one that exists only in their heads.
This morning I received the following electronic newsletter from Senator John Cornyn on the Senate Health Care Reform Bill.
Last night, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid released his 2,074-page health care bill, which Senate Budget Committee analysis shows will cost American taxpayers $2.5 trillion when fully implemented over ten years. (My bold.)
Until we have had a chance to read the full 2,074 page Reid Bill, it's impossible for Americans to fully grasp what the Majority Leader has cooked up behind closed doors. It is my hope that Sen. Reid will afford all Americans the same courtesy that he had: ample time to study the legislation and deliberate the best way to proceed.
Over the second 10 years, CBO projects even greater cost savings--up to $650 billion, with the caveat that after 10 years, their analyses become highly uncertain.
Do you have a problem with saving lives and money, Senator?
Recently, Houstonians for Health released it's latest video providing viewers their opinion of what's wrong with the health care system in Houston. Houstonian's' for Health is an unknown group, that I still can't identify. The very detailed video shows how Dan Wolterman, CEO of the powerful Memorial Hermann Health System, tried to "dump" one of their hospitals on tax payers. What's scary about it is the reason that Dan gave for trying to get the Harris County Hospital District to bail him out.
When asked by the Houston Chronicle reporter, Wolterman said he wanted to get rid of it because there was a "demographic decline" in the area. According to the video, the area is 31% Hispanic, 23% African American, and 12% Asian. I'm not sure what Dan doesn't like about those demographics, but he better get comfortable with them given the changing face of Texas.
After seeing the video, I spent some time calling around to learn more about this ground and Wolterman. The information people were willing to give about Wolterman was interesting.
Apparently Wolterman is facing two civil law suits alleging antitrust violations, he threw his doctor's under the bus during the sale, he upset most of the Harris County officials to the point he was compared to a "car salesman," and then had a "political pep rally" with Kay Bailey Hutchison opposing health reform--upsetting local Democrats, probably, Rick Perry as well. With that many powerful enemies.
What's scary about Mr. Wolterman's statement is that it creates the perception, rightly or wrongly, that he would rather serve patients living in the suburbs who are rich/insured patients, rather than underserved patients in the inner city.
You may remember the the first video from Houstonian's for Health Care. You can see Wolterman, front in center, celebrating Kay Bailey Hutchison and pleading for her and her party to slow down the process in reforming health care. Now we see the latest video and understand why.
Texas can't stand for this kind of reckless attitude and "leadership." The problem in health care is less about the system, and more about greedy guys like this who run our institutions. Perhaps it is time to create a system that limits the negative influence of men like Wolterman
As the House of Representatives continues debate on health reform, we've heard appalling untruths from Republicans and heart-wrenching stories from the Democrats. One of our great Texas Democratic representatives stood up tonight to oppose the Republican "alternative," that won't insure the 37 million Americans who lack coverage, and won't cut costs as well as the Democratic bill.
To help cover huge medical bills in Bastrop, Texas, they hold a Main Street pancake supper, an American Legion auction. Essential health care shouldn't depend on the kindness of strangers, the goodness of neighbors, and certainly not the just say "No" of Republicans or the weak tea parties brewed up by the insurance lobby.
Now, belatedly, they offer a scheme as skimpy as a hospital gown. They do nothing to help seniors. Their proposal is inefficient, ineffective, and wasteful. Masquerading as reform, their bill authorizes insurers to continue denying coverage for pre-existing health conditions, such as acne or a C-section. Republican obstructionism has, itself, become a giant pre-existing condition to any meaningful change.
This is a typical old time Republican medicine show--do a little for 5% of the uninsured, do nothing for the other 95% and leave the portion of American families uninsured largely unchanged. The only thing they propose more of is more insurance policy loopholes. Freedom? The only freedom they offer is the freedom to go broke from medical debts - the leading cause of personal bankruptcy.
24% of Texas residents are uninsured, the highest rate in the nation. We have the most uninsured adults, and the most uninsured children. Tonight, all Texans are lucky to have Rep. Lloyd Doggett fighting for our access to quality, affordable healthcare on the floor of the House tonight.
If you can't follow along at CSPAN, I've been live-Tweeting the highs and lows: @KathTX. I'll have some of the better comments from our Texas delegation tomorrow.
