The Texas Attorney General is suing against "Obamacare" in order to protect "States Rights" to control health insurance companies doing business in Texas! But, maybe there's a thing called Abbottcare (or, Perrycare) that Texans should examine more closely.
Once, Abbot was in favor of mandates, now he's not. It's not just the hypocrisy "I was for it, now I'm against it." It is also the hypocrisy of the entire "States Rights" argument being used to cover up over a decade of Republican neglect of Texas health care reform by Texas' 100% statewide Republican elected officials.
On Dallas KRLD talk radio 1080 early this afternoon, I heard Dallas County Republican Chairman, Jonathan Neerman, assert that all Republicans support the end to the pre-existing conditions exclusion for health insurance.
This surprised me.
For one thing, when I called Congressman Lamar Smith's office back in November to inquire about any Republican proposal to end pre-existing conditions, I was told there was a proposal and if I would wait on hold the staff person would find it. The staff person never returned to the line. So, I concluded there was no Republican plan to end pre-existing conditions that Congressman Smith was willing to endorse.
So, when Jonathan Neerman, the Dallas County Republican Chairman, asserted as a fact that "all Republicans" are against the practice of excluding pre-existing conditions, I was just wondering how Lamar Smith missed that, and how Republicans might propose ending the practice.
I would have thought that if all Republicans support this "limited and incremental" reform, and if all Republicans believe in "States Rights", then all Republicans would have pressured the State Insurance Board to require that insurance companies doing business in Texas abandon the pre-existing conditions exclusion in policies of insurance companies under the jurisdiction of the people of Texas.
Jonathan Neerman was responding to a KRLD talk show host (Scott) about the baby (Houston Tracy) born March 15th in Crowley, Texas, who had a pre-existing heart condition. Coverage was denied by his father's health insurance as soon as the condition was known. (See, http://bit.ly/9w4b0U) Neerman claimed that Republicans were universally opposed to pre-existing condition exclusions" and would have taken care of that problem if the Democrats hadn't shut them out of the Health Care Reform debate.
In my opinion, Democrats should make this a cause celebre in Texas leading up to the election in November.
Just as Republicans sat on their hands for the 12 years they controlled Congress, Governor Perry and Atty Gen. Abbott have sat on their hands for over a decade while the State Insurance Board was allowing insurance companies to get away with denying coverage based on "pre-existing" conditions. Now, baby Houston is paying the price for the malfeasance and hypocrisy of Gov. Perry, Atty. Gen Abbott, and the entire statewide Republican leadership.
Representative Mac Thornberry of District 13 has contributed to the House Republican Health Care Solutions Group's rather delinquent and feeble answer to Democratic efforts at health insurance reform. It comes as no surprise that the Solutions Group doesn't seem all that interested in real solutions, and, for Congressman Thornberry's part, he's provided two measures which are certain to alleviate zero problems for Americans struggling with the costs of healthcare and health insurance.
The first bill would offer grants to states to form "healthcare tribunals" comprised of industry insiders to replace judges and juries in civil suits against healthcare providers. It would be a lot like mandating that all claims against parachute manufacturers go before owners of companies that make parachutes, an arrangement that's clearly unfair to the claimant. The idea for these "tribunals" comes out of the old, patently false claim that healthcare costs have been driven up by healthcare providers' vulnerability to frivolous lawsuits. Thornberry hasn't mentioned that Texas capped damages in healthcare liability claims in 2003, an experiment in tort reform that attracted a lot of doctors seeking up to 30% lower malpractice insurance rates and better profits but failed abjectly to stop the inexorable rise of healthcare costs.
The second bill proposes a commission on healthcare billing codes and a few changes to claims procedures that are likely to make it harder to fight fraud and waste in Medicare. The whole bill is about panels and committees that will almost certainly have no appreciable effect on costs or rising insurance premiums. It's just the sort of thing the Republican leadership is after, a non-solution to a problem that's wrecking the physical and financial health of millions of Americans.
Mr. Thornberry and his colleagues would have us believe that the problems in healthcare are caused by greedy lawyers and incompetent government bureaucrats, but those claims just don't bear out in reality: Tort reform didn't make a difference in Texas, and Medicare consistently outperforms private insurers in measures of customer satisfaction and efficiency. Most of the other measures are similar filler for a non-plan that exists solely as a diversion.
Several House members from Texas, including Rep. Joe Barton, have joined the House Republican Health Care Solutions Group. To see if your Republican congressman is wasting your time with this business, check Rep. Roy Blunt's (R-MO) site.
When I heard those words come out of the mouth of the moderator for today's Republican healthcare roundtable titled "The Future of Healthcare in America," it was difficult to stifle the laugh.
Now I know what you are thinking. The next word out of her mouth must have been reform. But no, you would be wrong. In fact the moderator made it very clear that they were doing everything they possibly could to fight healthcare.
It is truly amazing, if more than a little predictable, that the Republican solution to the healthcare crisis is tax cuts and deregulation. The first speaker of the day kept repeating that "the Left doesn't believe that markets work." Apparently, these yahoos learned absolutely nothing from the stock market rollercoaster ride last year.
The idea of a public option was repeatedly attacked. One presenter gave his reasons why it would be unfair to private insurers on a slide presentation that included the following gems:
The government would be able to set rates, but private insurance companies must negotiate rates.
Private plans will be forced to accept all comers. They would be unable to manage risks.
Let's examine these one at a time.
The first claim that private insurers must negotiate rates is just patently false. Ask your doctor or dentist if they have any control over what insurance companies pay them. The answer will be no.
I had a recent experience with this one myself. My son needed his wisdom teeth pulled. I felt sorry for the receptionist as I watched her spend hours on the phone with my insurance company just trying to find out if the extractions would be covered and if so, at what rate. After several fruitless calls to my insurance company, she made an estimate based on another patient. Her guess was that my share would be around $1500. She called me later that day to let me know that it would only be about $500.
Private insurers completely control what they pay to providers. Not only that, but each company pays a different amount. Insurance companies also dictate to the doctors and dentists what procedures they will and won't cover. For dentists, some types of fillings are covered, while others that are more effective and last longer aren't.
The second claim (it was a long list, but I'm only going to address these two) was that private plans will be forced to accept all comers and won't be able to manage risks.
What they are saying here is that private health insurance companies will have to cover sick people. That is kind of the point isn't it? I realize that is going to cut into their bottom line. But that is the real problem with the current system.
Our current system is based around the idea of lots of people making lots of money off you getting (or not getting as the case may be) healthcare. This is one of the reason that the price keeps going up.
Another reason our current system is so expensive is that providers now need whole teams of employees to process all of the different forms and filing procedures for all of the different insurance companies. A single payer plan that has been taken off the table would have addressed this problem. But, I guess we have to take baby steps or the heads of some of these Republicans will just explode.
Speaking of exploding heads, the audience's questions were also quite entertaining. One woman was so hysterical that I thought she might have a heart attack before she got her question out. The gentleman sitting next to me who was clearly one of our guys whispered to me that she was one of those that obviously wasn't getting mental healthcare covered under her plan.
Another guy on the front row made the comment that President Obama was trying to push through healthcare this summer before he gets killed. That one was kind of scary. It was especially scary considering recent domestic terror attacks like the assasination of Dr. Tiller and the shooting at the Holocaust Museum.
So there you have it. For those of you who were wondering what the Republicans are saying about healthcare reform, I have just given you a summary of their thoughts. And as I said before, their solution is tax credits, deregulation, and of course privitization of Medicaid, Medicare and S-CHIP. You have to give them credit with sticking with the same solutions that have so horribly failed every time they have used them.
Our moderator said it best when she said, "We're working to fight healthcare."
What kind of economy are they trying to protect? Let's talk about that -- and how Texas is on the brink.
Of all 50 states, Texas is ranked 8th in terms of the percent of mortgage loans that are subprime. (Source)
Without getting into too big of a discussion of what cause our current economic catastrophe, it is safe to say that subprime mortgage loans are among the biggest reasons we are where we are today. Governor Perry may want to pretend that all is well, but the fact is, it's not:
One in five subprime loans end up in foreclosure, according to new research by the Center for Responsible Lending -- more than eight times the rate for mortgages in the prime market...Rigorous research shows subprime loans are costly, applied unfairly, and -- given the risk of foreclosure -- dangerous.
Of all 50 states, Texas is ranked 45th in terms of the net worth of households. (Source)
The net worth of the mean household is $35,942. The statistic measures all:
"Interest-earning assets, stocks and mutual fund shares, real estate (own home, rental property, vacation homes, and land holdings), own business or profession, mortgages held by sellers, and motor vehicles. Liabilities covered include debts secured by any asset, credit card or store bills, banks loans, and other unsecured debts."
Governor Perry and Texas Republicans would be quick to point out, I'm sure, that the same study shows that Texas ranks 4th in the affordability of homes. (Source) Cheaper homes allow for those with less net worth to be able to fulfill the dream of home ownership. That being said, if there is a high number of subprime mortgage loans being taken out to pay for those cheap homes, then we're really just sweeping the problem under the rug and hiding from the real work.
You also have to ask yourself if having a cheap home means anything if:
Of all 50 states, Texas ranks 44th in home ownership rates. (Source)
65.9 percent of Texans own a home. That means that one in three Texans -- despite the affordability of the Texas housing market and the proliferation of subprime mortgage loans -- still cannot afford to own a home. Of course, considering that 21.5 percent of the people in Texas live in poverty (Source), perhaps this shouldn't come as too large of a surprise.
Of all 50 states, Texas is the most expensive place to insure a home -- with Texans paying an average premium of $1,372 annually. (Source)
Above all else, this issue will be the test of the Republicans in control of Texas. What will Perry, Dewhurst, and Straus do to address homeowner insurance rates during this time of a crippling economy? Stories of Galveston homeowners who always paid their bills and yet are not being fully insured after the damages of Hurricane Ike are a dime a dozen.
Click2Houston -- Watch a video about Texas families struggling to receive their insurance payments.
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Texas Homeowners are living in a struggling economy. They were struggling long before Hurricane Ike. But like so much work that needs to be done in Texas, the Republican-led Legislature ignored the problem until it became a catastrophe.
And the way that Governor Rick Perry, Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn, and Texas Republicans in Congress are approaching the national discussion of the economy -- with pure political obstruction -- no one in Texas should expect much change any time soon.
The tragic end of medical insurance as we know it is upon us if John Conyers' HR 676 is passed. Representative Conyers proposes to provide health care to all whether they have proven themselves worthy by having a job with a company large enough to have health benefits or not. The proposal will weaken America since no American adult or child will have the character building experience of having to forgo health care because they can't pay for it.
What's worse about the proposal is that thousands of insurance company claims deniers will be out of a job and heaven forefend given priority in federal hiring as claims processors handling payments. On top of that Congressman Conyers proposes to pay for this debacle by raising our payroll taxes 3.3% while eliminating the insurance premium. A small tax increase in place of a large insurance premium; why that's positively Socialist.
I urge all readers to contact their congressman to demand that he reject HR 676 on the grounds that America needs healthy insurance companies more that it needs healthy citizens.
There was quite a bit going on Tuesday night: the democratic presidential debate aired on TV, UTA college students were cramming for finals, and a small audience spent the evening finding out about a proposed solution to the disaster that is health care in Texas. This educational forum called “Solutions to the Texas Health Care Crisis” was held at the Rosebud Theater at UTA, and dealt with a plan for addressing issues such as skyrocketing costs, evaporating benefits, and the one-in-four Texans who have no health insurance at all.
The audience learned about a single-payer universal health care plan named Texas Insurance Plan that would be run by a non-profit Health Care Authority. Replacing the for-profit health insurance industry in Texas would reduce the 27% overhead cost of current health insurance coverage to just 3%. They also learned that insurance rates are largely determined by the size of the risk pool. With 20 million Texans to spread the risk, premiums can be significantly lower while providing for complete medical coverage. Overall expenditures for pharmaceuticals can also be reduced through price negotiation similar to that used by the Veteran's Administration.
There was no shortage of questions after the presentation. Yes, diabetes and hearing aids are covered. Pre-existing conditions are covered. Surgery, hospitalization, prescription drugs, dental, eyeglasses, mental health, all covered. There are no deductibles, no co-pays and yes, you can choose your doctor.
One employer asked, “How much is this going to cost me?” Employers who provide health insurance are currently paying 7% or more of payroll. In this plan, the employer’s portion is 5.3% of payroll. Your employee, making anywhere from minimum wage to $200,000, would pay 2.5% on gross earnings.
How are the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries going to react to this? They'll hate it and fight it with everything they've got. Expect misinformation, denial, well funded advertising campaigns, large political contributions to compliant politicians and generally the same kind of tactics the Tobacco companies used for 20 years to suppress the truth about the harmful effects of their product.
How can you ensure that the financial incentives remain high enough to maintain providers? TIP will negotiate service rates just as for-profit insurance companies do now. By using a four-dollar "smart card" that electronically stores patient information and streamlines administrative processing, providers will save approximately $8.50 per office visit.
Could this program entice companies to relocate to or expand their operations in Texas? If they want to increase their competitive edge it is entirely possible. Health care costs are becoming a major problem for large employers like General Motors.
The issue of health care coverage for undocumented aliens seemed to be a hot-button topic for many. If you’re a Texas resident more than 90 days, you’re covered and if employed, you pay premiums. It’s that simple. Undocumented aliens who have no health insurance now use hospital emergency rooms, often at public expense.
Dr. Merrill Matthews, Resident Scholar at the Institute for Policy Innovation and Executive Director of the Council for Affordable Health Insurance, presented an opposing opinion and cited plans initiated in Oklahoma and Tennessee as previous unsuccessful attempts at universal health care. He neglected to mention that the Tennessee plan, TennCare, was a replacement for Medicaid and designed as a "Managed Care Model" to extend coverage only to uninsured and uninsurable persons who were not eligible for Medicaid. This is a very selective risk pool, which doesn't meet the definition of universal health care. The plan was funded by general tax revenues, not employer and employee contributions and is not even vaguely similar to the proposed Texas plan.
Doctor Matthews also forgot to note that the Oklahoma plan, SoonerCare, is Oklahoma Medicaid, with the same kind of risk pool as TennCare, and is funded by state and federal funds from general taxes. Amnesia is usually a medical issue, except when it's used as a convenient political tactic.
Dr. Merrill believes that “markets work in health care” and that the for-profit insurance industry, which has left 46 million Americans without health insurance, will somehow (a miracle occurs here) provide the answer. Just don’t hold your breath.
The designers of the Texas Insurance Plan think it’s valuable to know how others have failed because it lets you avoid repeating those mistakes. Studying numerous examples of systems that fail gives you a much better chance to build one that works. So, thank you Dr. Matthews, we'll take it under advisement.
It’ll be an uphill battle to get even the best plan considered by the state congress-critters in Austin. Weaning political creatures from the cash cows of Big Pharma and Big Insurance will not be easy. Politicians rarely, if ever, initiate anything on their own that benefits the public. They usually just find a huge parade in progress, then jump out in front of it and pretend to lead. Maybe it’s time to start a parade!
More information on the proposed Texas Insurance Plan can be found at the web site HTTP://www.healthcar...
In the 1800s, immigrants to the U.S. from China were often used by railroads and mining companies to ignite dynamite along cliff-sides and deep within caverns. Of course, most of these workers were exploded right along with the rock.
Hence, the origin of the offensive phrase "a Chinaman's chance in Hell." Which is exactly what the Gov. Rick Perry's so-called Medicaid reform will give those who do most of the hard work building our roads, cleaning our buildings, feeding our kids, disposing of our garbage, washing our dishes, hauling our freight, picking our fruit.
There's a spooky scene in Robert Altman's film, "McCabe and Mrs. Miller," in which the paid assassin is describing 19th Century mining practices. Just send the Chinese down with the dynamite and blow it up, he laughs. After all, there are plenty of Chinese dynamite exploders available. It's cost effective to kill them.
