The national Republican Medicare Killing Party must be in dire straits if it seriously considers running an extremist right wing Governor who racked up a $27 billion budget deficit that he said was either imaginary or "speculative."
Except that a $27 billion hole that was made in hell is a $27 billion hole that was made in hell.
So much for the silliness of the Texas miracle. Meanwhile, back at the Guv's pricey ranch in Austin, Rick Perry passed the women rights killing abortion sonogram bill into law today. Has a fundamentalist Christian Sharia law come to Texas, thanks to our extremist right wing Governor?
Governor Perry might be good at fooling and tricking Texas voters but his winning streak ends right here and perhaps in Mississippi. After all, both states are in a neck to neck competition for low performing schools and for dismantling social programs for the middle class and economically challenged.
With the State of Texas needing to find ways to trim billions of dollars to balance its budget, shifting pharmacy services from a fee-for-service system to a Medicaid managed care system in order to save money may seem like a good idea at first blush. A closer look at the proposed Medicaid managed care "carve-in" of pharmacy services, however, reveals that any such savings predicted from the program are elusive, manufactured, and fleeting, at best.
Currently, pharmacy services for Medicaid patients are delivered by community-based pharmacies who are reimbursed by the state through a fee for service structure. This simply means that the state reimburses a pharmacy a pre-determined rate to cover the cost of the product (drug) and the cost of doing business (paying the pharmacist). The administrative cost of this approach to the State is a mere 1% of total program outlays.
The Texas legislature is proposing that Medicaid pharmacy services be shifted to a restricted managed care system where "middlemen," known as Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), would set the rules for administering pharmacy services to Medicaid patients. It is asserted by proponents of this change that this move would save money, but such "savings" come only in the form of a premium tax on health insurance plans, which would in turn be passed on to all consumers of private insurance products in Texas.
This premium tax "benefit" to the State is nothing more than a tax and is dwarfed by the economic damage that a the resulting restriction in access to pharmacy services would impose on the State and its citizens.
I have asked this question before and I will ask it again. Why do Republican voters, whose financial net worth is far less than one million dollars, continue to routinely vote for politicians that have nothing but unbridled contempt for those who fall far short of millionaire incomes?
Since January, 2011 the Republican Party has embarked on a radical mission to dismantle the social programs that were passed into law in the 20th Century. The GOP extremists want to return to the heyday of the reckless and irresponsible economic policies of the 1920s that led to the worst depression in U.S. history.
The social programs that were implemented in the 20th Century passed during a time in which there was a Democratic ethos of caring capitalism. By making investments in programs and initiatives for working Americans, tens of thousands of boats were lifted. Hard working folks had the opportunity to move up the ladders of education and attendant higher incomes. These investments ensured a secure future for a solid and thriving middle class America.
But today's radicals on the right want nothing to do with the caring part of capitalism or with floating any boat, for that matter. In fact, the extremists have no clue what the definition of care is.
On Friday the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives voted to gut Medicare. It did so while giving yet more tax cuts to millionaires and by making the Bush tax cuts permanent.
Just one day after Congress concluded its fight over this year's spending, the House voted 235 to 193 to approve the fiscal blueprint for 2012 drafted by Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin and chairman of the Budget Committee. Besides reconfiguring the Medicare program that now serves those 65 and older, the proposal would cut the top corporate and personal income tax rates while also overhauling the Medicaid health program for the poor.
Medical giant Johnson & Johnson's subsidiary DePuy Orthopaedics recently issued a massive hip replacement recall of 93,000 hip implants. DePuy admits that the recalled hip implants have a failure rate of at least 13%, which means that more than 12,000 people will have to undergo a surgery to remove an replace the defective devices.
Who will pay for these surgeries, each which can cost $50,000 or more? Government programs (like the Texas Medicaid program and the federal Medicare program) already have paid substantial costs to surgically remove the recalled hip replacement parts, and assuming $50,000 for each surgery, the total medical costs of DePuy's hip implant recall could exceed $600 million. DePuy tells patients that these costs should be submitted to the patient's insurance company for payment. In many cases, this will be Texas' Medicaid or Medicare.
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.
Clever politicians have turned socialism into a frightening ghost. It has replaced terrorism as the catchall phrase. Should we get our pitch forks and kill this really scary monster? Maybe, but be careful what you kill. You might just kill a friend.
Facing falling poll numbers, the Republican political elites are downplaying their anti-gay and anti-abortion rhetoric. Political consultants had told them to use these "wedge issues" to divide America and win elections. More and more voters, however, want to know what their leaders stand for, not what they oppose. For the first time in thirty years we have an opportunity for real pro-family policies.
LINK Texas not meeting kids' Medicaid needs, court agrees.
Ruling in mothers' federal lawsuit means they can seek relief from state for failing to comply with 1996 agreement
