LETTER TO CONGRESS

Following is a letter I wrote to my South Carolina Representative and Senators:

Dear

All of the health care bills that are being considered create multiple bureaucracies, greatly increase reporting requirements, and generally increase administrative costs to all providers. Congress is basically trying to reduce what providers can charge while, at every level, greatly increasing their operational costs.

I read a 1998 CBO study that named the three largest contributors to increasing health care cost as: technology, administrative costs, and malpractice insurance. We don’t want to stifle new technologies, which leaves tort reform, and reducing reporting and administrative burdens as the best ways to reduce costs.

A large part of the admin burden comes from health care being tied to employers. As health care costs increase, companies begin changing plans every year, trying to find the cheapest one. As every plan has different negotiated terms with providers; doctors, hospitals and other providers have to hire multiple employees (and pay their benefits) to figure out and process all the claims.

Another part of the admin burden is created by the maze of government programs. Providers need to hire trained personnel to interpret and process the myriad rules, regulations and reporting requirements.

I know that our legislators and government officials live in a bureaucratic sea, which they probably don’t think about, any more than fish in the ocean think about the water in which they swim. However, those of us in private industry don’t have a bevy of clerks, paid for by the taxpayers, to interpret, manage and create all the paperwork mandated for us. We have to do it ourselves, at a great loss of productive time, or we have to pay someone to do it.

The massive increase in new programs, rules and regulations, layered over old programs will do to the Health Care System what “No Child Left Behind” did to education. That is, it will so burden the health care providers that many will retire early, or otherwise leave the profession, just as many teachers have. We don’t want our doctors and teachers spending all their time grappling with red tape; we want them doctoring and teaching.

Please look for simple, market based solutions, like Qliance in Seattle. Please consider the fact that the government and health insurance providers themselves are part of the problem. Please look to Mississippi, Missouri, Texas and California for tort reform solutions. Please, if there are billions of dollars of fraud and waste in Medicare and Medicaid, solve those problems first. This is the true responsibility of government.

As for the 10 to 17 million uninsured American citizens, we can figure out how to give them excellent care without spending trillions.

Please do not create a huge, government takeover, boondoggle plan that will destroy our country while it rewards special interests at the expense of the elderly, minorities and disadvantaged it purports to help.

On behalf of your Constituents:

WHAT I DO AND DO'T WANT TO SEE IN A HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL

The following ideas have all been discussed by so many sources, I do not know who originated them, and therefore to whom to credit them. However, they seem good to me.

1. Language to the effect that any “Comparative Effectiveness” Information will be advisory only. No rationing.

2. Allow Health Insurance companies to compete Nationwide.

3. No mandates to Health Insurance companies, without changing restrictions that limit their ability to be competitive.

4. No price fixing.

5. Language that excludes illegal immigrants from free health insurance. (Immigration reform is a whole other issue that we have to solve.)

6. Tort reform – Just cap punitive damages!

7. Make sure the bill is “revenue neutral” for the States as well as the Federal budget.

8. Allow the insurance to be separated from employers while, at the same time, allowing individuals, small businesses and other self insurers to take part in large pools in order to lower their costs.

9. No extra audits on self insurers.

10. No employer mandate.

11. Encourage groups of providers, like Qliance in Seattle, who will provide basic care at much lower prices, in exchange for not filing for payment through health insurance. Perhaps with tax breaks. Remove laws that prohibit them setting their prices lower than a preset minimum.

12. Allow insurance companies to provide policies that cover major medical or catastrophic care only, not basic care.

13. Expand HSA’s, and allow them to remain active indefinitely, with no penalties. Perhaps even allow them to move unused funds from an HSA to an IRA after age 65. This way, families could use HSA savings for basic care, and purchase catastrophic insurance as described in number 10. This would also cut down on elective and unessential procedures, since people will think twice when they have to pay. This could also be an option for Medicare recipients, for their supplemental policies, or Medicare Advantage plans.

14. No Gateway or Exchange with Government strings attached. I would rather trust The Better Business Bureau, Insurance agents, recommendations from customers and health care providers or even the Internet to find insurance.

15. For those with pre-existing conditions, allow high risk pools.

16. For those who still cannot afford health care insurance, expand Medicaid, perhaps on a sliding scale. Right now, there are 10 to 17 million legal residents, who want coverage, but can’t afford it. In 2008 Congress spent 17.2 billion on earmarks, defending the practice by saying that this amount is miniscule compared to the overall budget, only a very small percentage. With this “miniscule” amount, they could have given $1,000 to each of the above toward insurance. With 170 billion, they could have each been given $10,000. Clearly, we can take care of these people without a new multi- trillion dollar entitlement!

17. If people choose to accept an Employer Group Plan and then leave their job, make sure they have the option to keep their insurance with the plan’s provider, at an individual rate, with no increases for “preconditions”.

18. Give doctors and Hospitals tax incentives to maintain free clinics for the poor.

19. Give wealthy taxpayers back the charitable contributions tax deduction for donations to these clinics and other providers giving free care.

20. Give persons who purchase individual health insurance a tax deduction similar to that given to employers who offer group health insurance to their employees.

21. NO FEDERAL HEALTH BOARD!

22. NO PUBLIC OPTION! NO TRIGGER!

Like most Americans, I believe that, if we put our heads together, we can solve most of the health care problems without further bankrupting the country, or trampling on the people’s rights.

IDEAS FOR SIGNS

1.Speaker Pelosi, if you believe that “Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American”, why do you keep trying to do it?

2.Congress, what guarantee can you give that you will not steal the money from the Health Care Trust Funds as you did from the Medicare and Social Security Funds?

3.The definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing but expecting a different result. You can’t spend your way out of debt!

4.Sometimes you just have to say NO!

5.Homemade signs =Homemade anger!

6.I’m for affordable Health Care that’s available to everyone and doesn’t bankrupt the country. That’s why I am against Obamacare.

7.Where the government controls everything, the people are slaves.

8.If you allow the government to take over every aspect of your life, you will be a slave, no matter what color you are.

9.When a million dollars equals one yen, who will have health care?

10.Al-Qaeda beheads people and I’m the Terrorist?

11.Freedom of Speech means you have to put up with opposing views. NO FAIRNESS DOCTRINE, NO LOCALISM, NO DIVERSITY!

12.It’s the Constitution Stupid!

13.It’s Congress that needs fundamental change!

14.Why are special interest groups running our government?

15.I’m angry because I read the bills!

16.My Guru is Charles Krauthammer.

17.Overspending, over borrowing, and risky investments crashed our economy.
Now we call these things “stimulus”.

18.When the theater is burning, you have to yell “FIRE!”

19.It's not wealth Obama is distributing. It's debt.

20.Our freedom depends on the media reporting ALL the news.

21.In a Federal Republic, the Feds should have to beg money from the States, not the other way around.

22.Who will pay taxes when all the taxpayers are bankrupt?

ANALYSIS OF HR 3200 HEALTH CARE REFORM BILL

As for HR 3200, there is a lot that is “not in the bill”. No death panels to kill your Grannies. No mandate for coverage of illegal immigrants. No rationing. However there is also nothing in the bill to preclude these things.

There is a lot about what private insurers must cover, and about price controls on all sorts of providers.

There is a Health Exchange which will greatly increase the already skyrocketing administrative costs for Health Care Providers and therefore their fees.

There are also multiple new bureaucracies created at local, state, and national levels, as well as councils and committees, all under the control of the Executive Branch. Lots of committees, and councils, and other groups are created to study and disseminate “comparative effectiveness” information, as well as to decide what areas will qualify for extra help or all sorts.

There are lots of clinics and jobs for nurses and doctors to expand health care in under served areas, as well as lots of study grants for medical personnel at all levels.

This is a huge jobs creation bill, probably thousands in every state. Unfortunately they are all government jobs, which, however much good you believe they might do, will be a drain on the economy. The Feds will mostly fund this boondoggle for two years, and then it will become a burden on the States, who will have to impose lots more taxes. It goes without saying that Federal taxes will also have to go up exponentially.

Otherwise this bill is like most of the bills passed under the current Administration; it gives authority to councils and committees, and authorizes lots of money, but then basically says “details will follow”. Who would sign such a contract? I hope not Congress!

Note: The Senate bill is almost as bad. Just because the “public option” is removed doesn’t mean it is a good bill. If the regulations in the bill result in forcing insurance companies to substantially raise their costs, people will be driven to demanding a single payer system after all. The "Gateway" idea is much the same as the Health Exchange, and has the same problems.