GOP offers alternate Health Care Reform..but are any Dems listening?

[Bob Hubbard]

http://www.gop.gov/solutions/healthcare

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10 Reasons to Support the Republican Alternative


Taking the First Step. Republicans listened to the American people and have
produced a common sense, fiscally responsible health reform proposal—not Speaker
Nancy Pelosi’s 2,000+ page government takeover of 1/6th of our nation’s economy.
Republicans have a better plan, one that lowers premiums for working families and small
businesses, fights fraud, and will lead to expanded access to affordable health care
coverage for all Americans without raising taxes, cutting benefits to seniors or spending
money we don’t have.

1. Lowers Health Care Premiums.
According to CBO, the Republican Alternative would reduce health insurance
premiums by up to:

• 10% for employees who get coverage through a small business (50 or fewer employees)
• 8% for those who do not have access to employer-provided coverage
• 3% for employees who get coverage through a large business

All told, under the GOP plan, premiums for millions of families would be nearly
$5,000 lower than Speaker Pelosi’s cheapest insurance plan, according to CBO
estimates.


2. Guarantees Affordable Coverage for Patients with Preexisting
Conditions.
The Republican Alternative makes it illegal for an insurance company to deny
coverage to someone with prior coverage on the basis of a pre-existing condition. So
if you lose your health insurance because you lose your job, move, get divorced, or just
want to change plans, you are protected. Through a new Universal Access Program,
all patients with preexisting conditions will have access to affordable health care
coverage--without waiting lists. The Republican Alternative also prohibits an insurer
from cancelling a policy unless an individually knowingly commits fraud on an
application form. It also prohibits insurance plans from instituting annual or lifetime
spending limits.


3. Protects Seniors Medicare Benefits.
Unlike the Pelosi bill, seniors’ benefits are not cut and nothing in the Republican
Alternative will increase seniors’ Medicare premiums.

4. No Tax Increases. Period.


5. Encourages Small Businesses to Offer Health Care Coverage,
Without Taxing Job Creation.
Unlike the Pelosi bill, which punishes small businesses with onerous mandates and
exorbitant taxes that CBO says will be passed on the employees in the form of lower
wages, the Republican Alternative plan gives small businesses the power to pool
together and offer health care at lower prices, just as corporations and labor unions do.


6. Enacts Real Medical Liability Reform.
The Republican Alternative saves $54 billion by helping to end costly junk lawsuits
and curbing defensive medicine by enacting medical liability reforms modeled after
the successful state laws of California and Texas.


7. Empowers the Doctor- Patient Relationship.
The Republican Alternative eliminates taxpayer funding of a program that could lead
to government intrusion in the doctor-patient relationship and the rationing of care on
the basis of cost. Unlike the Pelosi bill that increases taxes and expands price controls
on medical devices and prescription drugs, the Republican Alternative promotes
innovation and places greater emphasis on prevention and wellness.


8. Prohibits Abortion Funding.
The Republican Alternative explicitly prohibits all federal funds from being used to
pay for abortion.


9. No Entitlement Expansions Forcing Americans onto a Government
Run Plan.
The Republican Alternative avoids a dramatic expansion in entitlement spending and
reverses pressure to enact enormous additional tax increases in the future, including on
the middle class.


10. Reduces the Deficit.
According to CBO, the Republican Alternative reduces the deficit by $68 billion over
the next ten years and continues to reduce the deficit in the second budget window.



For more information, please visit http://HealthCare.GOP.gov.

Republicans’ Common-Sense Reforms Will LOWER HEALTH CARE COSTS

Americans want a step-by-step, common-sense approach to health care reform, not Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s
costly, 1,990-page government takeover of our nation’s health care system. Republicans’ alternative solution
focuses on lowering health care premiums for families and small businesses, increasing access to affordable,
high-quality care, and promoting healthier lifestyles – without adding to the crushing debt Washington has
placed on our children and grandchildren. Following are the key elements of Republicans’ alternative plan:

• Lowering health care premiums. The GOP plan will lower health care premiums for American
families and small businesses, addressing Americans’ number-one priority for health care reform.

• Establishing Universal Access Programs to guarantee access to affordable health care for those
with pre-existing conditions. The GOP plan creates Universal Access Programs that expand and
reform high-risk pools and reinsurance programs to guarantee that all Americans, regardless of pre-
existing conditions or past illnesses, have access to affordable care – while lowering costs for all
Americans.

• Ending junk lawsuits. The GOP plan would help end costly junk lawsuits and curb defensive medicine
by enacting medical liability reforms modeled after the successful state laws of California and Texas.

• Prevents insurers from unjustly cancelling a policy. The GOP plan prohibits an insurer from
cancelling a policy unless a person commits fraud or conceals material facts about a health condition.

• Encouraging Small Business Health Plans. The GOP plan gives small businesses the power to pool
together and offer health care at lower prices, just as corporations and labor unions do.

• Encouraging innovative state programs. The GOP plan rewards innovation by providing incentive
payments to states that reduce premiums and the number of uninsured.

• Allowing Americans to buy insurance across state lines. The GOP plan allows Americans to shop for
coverage from coast to coast by allowing Americans living in one state to purchase insurance in another.

• Promoting healthier lifestyles. The GOP plan promotes prevention & wellness by giving employers
greater flexibility to financially reward employees who adopt healthier lifestyles.

• Enhancing Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). The GOP plan creates new incentives to save for
current and future health care needs by allowing qualified participants to use HSA funds to pay
premiums for high deductible health insurance.

• Allowing dependents to remain on their parents’ policies. The GOP plan encourages coverage of
young adults on their parents’ insurance through age 25.


Scorecard: Speaker Pelosi’s Government Takeover vs. GOP Common-Sense Solutions

Speaker Pelosi’s Bill GOP Alternative
Job Losses Up to 5.5 million 0
Medicare Cuts $500 billion 0
Tax Increases $729.5 billion 0

 

[Blade96]

could you post the nancy pelosi solution, so we can compare the 2? You've posted only the republican one.

I'd like to see both.

 

[Touch Of Death]

What has been happening is the Republicans have been running a smear campain from the get-go. They refuse a meeting that they have been asking for for a year, and now they are bitching about how the Dems aren't listening. Its obvious that you won't need medicare or medicade if the system were universal.
Sean

 

[theletch1]

I haven't seen too much evidence of either side listening to the other... or to the American people for that matter. Politics as usual has become something entirely different than what I remember from years gone by. There was a time when arguments had at least a thin veil of logic to the back and forth. Now, it's simply your plan won't work because you're a republican/democrat. Nothing at all to do with the merits of the plan. I'm a bit sick of it myself. If I wanted childish shennanigans I'd go to Chuck E. Cheese. :jediduel:

 

[Phoenix44]

Well, some of those Republican ideas are also included in the Democratic Plans, for example, encouraging healthy lifestyles. But the ideas you listed are a little thin on details.

For example, how would they lower premiums? Insurance companies don't voluntarily lower premiums, even if they save money. They just take more profit.

What about those pre-existing conditions? They may mandate that insurers cover pre-existing conditions, but there's nothing I can see that would prevent insurers from making the coverage unaffordable.

As for the threat of government interfering in the doctor-patient relationship, that's just a red herring, as far as I'm concerned. As a doctor, I can tell you that it's the PRIVATE insurers that interfere the most in the healthcare of my patients--they choose the drugs and dictate what tests I can order. And that's mainly because they swing financial deals with the drug manufacturers so they can make the most profit. It has nothing to do with the benefit of the patient. It's gotten to the point where I don't even choose treatment anymore. It's more like, "What does your insurance company want?"

I think we have to bear in mind that it isn't a matter of "government healthcare" vs a vacuum. It's the difference between a government non-profit system, and corporate for-profit system. Personally, I'd remove the profit motive altogether. I don't understand how a system where the administrator must make a profit will save money.

 

[cdunn]

In theory, a for-profit system encourages the leaning down of administration, in order to prevent it from getting in the way of profit. It also encourages a double check on the efficacy and cost of a service route - which is why the insurance companies are writing your prescriptions for you instead of you writing them, and if anyone threatens to spend more money than they're likely to put into the system over a given time period, out on your *** you go, missy.

Also, I read the first twenty or so pages of the Republican unproposal. It looked like a giant unfunded mandate to the states to me.

 

[Phoenix44]

Every so often I call an insurance company to ask, "What would you like to prescribe for my patient whom you've never met?"

 

[Bob Hubbard]

I believe the senate webpage has links to Pelosi's plan, as well as more in depth information on the GOP suggestion.

Personally, I think they should scrap it all and leave it alone. I'm against anything that raises taxes on anyone.

 

[chaos1551]

I'd like to see a few changes in regulation, then we leave it alone for awhile and see how it works. A few changes like allowing healthcare purchases across state lines and putting a cap on lawsuit eligibility and compensations. It would also be nice to see healthcare changed to non-profit across the board.

 

[Archangel M]

For example, how would they lower premiums? Insurance companies don't voluntarily lower premiums, even if they save money. They just take more profit.

Why Health Insurers Make Lousy Villains

Overall, the profit margin for health insurance companies was a modest 3.4 percent over the past year, according to data provided by Morningstar. That ranks 87th out of 215 industries and slightly above the median of 2.2 percent. By this measure, the most profitable industry over the past year has been beverages, with a 25.9 percent profit margin. Right behind that were healthcare real-estate trusts (firms that are basically the landlords for hospitals and healthcare facilities) and application-software (think Windows). The worst performer was copper, with a profit margin of minus 56.6 percent.

If you're wondering about Exxon, with its history of gargantuan profits, its profit margin was 9 percent over the past 12 months, according to the research firm Capital IQ. The average for the oil and gas industry overall was 10.2 percent, three times the margin in the health insurance industry. And that's nothing compared with high-fliers like Google—which had a 20.6 percent margin—and Microsoft, at 24.9 percent.

 

[Phoenix44]

I don't think that healthcare purchases across state lines would make any difference at all. In New York, we have so many different plans that you need an army of billers to deal with all of them. It certainly doesn't lower costs. It increases costs just dealing with the bureaucracy.

I don't think people's health care should be a business that "shareholders" and CEOs can profit from. Complete waste of money.

 

[Touch Of Death]

I believe the senate webpage has links to Pelosi's plan, as well as more in depth information on the GOP suggestion.

Personally, I think they should scrap it all and leave it alone. I'm against anything that raises taxes on anyone.

Just as England can not compare their tax structure to ours given say a higher tax on feul or what have you, wouldn't a higher tax for health care be off set by lower prices elswhere? Because, its seems we are talking about a potential re-adjustment of the tax structure.
Sean

 

[Bob Hubbard]

I still maintain that government involvement at this level is unconstitutional.

CNN has a running update on the show
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/02/25/health.care.summit.updates/index.html?hpt=T1

 

[Blade96]

I believe the senate webpage has links to Pelosi's plan, as well as more in depth information on the GOP suggestion.

Personally, I think they should scrap it all and leave it alone. I'm against anything that raises taxes on anyone.

depends on the tax. Not all taxes are bad.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

Depends on your position in relation to them. I'm all for a $20 per pack tax on cancer sticks, but a smoker might disagree with that, for example.

 

[Deaf Smith]

When your ship is taking on water (like TRILLION dollar deficits, very high unemployment, and nutso Iran with nukes) you don't spend your time trying to upgrade your first aid kit.

I saw Obama & Co. on their little confab. The great 'leader', well he don't lead, he referees, if you could call it that, and sits there with his face in one hand telling Sen. McCain the 'campaign is over' while Biden says, "I'm always reluctant after being here 37 years to tell people what the American people think. I think it requires a little bit of humility to be able to know what the American people think, and I don't, I can't swear I do. I know what I think. I think I know what they think. But I'm not sure what they think. And the second point I'd make is..."

How could these two bozos get elected? One is a egomanic wannabe 'leader' and the other a buffoon posing as a, uh, buffoon.

Now how can you lead by sitting there doing nothing but look bored? Can you imagine Gen. Patton sitting there with his generals and just lets them talk and make all the decisions by committee and still Gen. Patton says he is a great leader?

Every place from the more balanced FOX to CNN to CBS to NBC to NYT all say the Republicans came out looking good while the Democrats look… well like Democrats.
If this meeting was supposed to get Obamacare 2.0 to reboot well, lots of luck. It looks more like the Democrats just went down in the citizens confidence polls (Congress right now is at 10 percent favorable, so they can’t go much lower.) Thank goodness Mid-Term elections are coming in Nov. Time to clean house in November. I mean really clean house.

 

[Touch Of Death]

When your ship is taking on water (like TRILLION dollar deficits, very high unemployment, and nutso Iran with nukes) you don't spend your time trying to upgrade your first aid kit.

I saw Obama & Co. on their little confab. The great 'leader', well he don't lead, he referees, if you could call it that, and sits there with his face in one hand telling Sen. McCain the 'campaign is over' while Biden says, "I'm always reluctant after being here 37 years to tell people what the American people think. I think it requires a little bit of humility to be able to know what the American people think, and I don't, I can't swear I do. I know what I think. I think I know what they think. But I'm not sure what they think. And the second point I'd make is..."

Now how can you lead by sitting there doing nothing but look bored? Can you imagine Gen. Patton sitting there with his generals and just lets them talk and make all the decisions by committee and still Gen. Patton says he is a great leader?

Every place from the more balanced FOX to CNN to CBS to NBC to NYT all say the Republicans came out looking good while the Democrats look… well like Democrats.
If this meeting was supposed to get Obamacare 2.0 to reboot well, lots of luck. It looks more like the Democrats just went down in the citizens confidence polls (Congress right now is at 10 percent favorable, so they can’t go much lower. Thank goodness Mid-Term elections are coming in Nov. Time to clean house in November. I mean really clean house.

I know medical things may not seem important to you, but when you are in charge, its all on the table, and you are responsible for all of it. New Orleans didn't seem important in the face of everything that was going on in the world, but it sure did get important as time went by.
Sean

 

[Bob Hubbard]

The Dems will shut out the GOP and any of their own party who have a clue and push their disaster through regardless. They know that come November, most of them will be reelected. They have utter contempt for what American's want, and they continue to show it.

Patton would have shot the sons of bitches.

 

[Blade96]

Depends on your position in relation to them. I'm all for a $20 per pack tax on cancer sticks, but a smoker might disagree with that, for example.

well sure. That's true what you wrote.

 

[5-0 Kenpo]

I don't think that healthcare purchases across state lines would make any difference at all. In New York, we have so many different plans that you need an army of billers to deal with all of them. It certainly doesn't lower costs. It increases costs just dealing with the bureaucracy.

I don't think people's health care should be a business that "shareholders" and CEOs can profit from. Complete waste of money.

This is partly true, I believe. One thing that really drives up the cost of insurance are health care mandates by the state, ie. you must have X level of coverage and it must include these features. The insurance companies can't even control their own product. No, not health care, but the coverage provided by the insurance plan. That is dictated to them. So it doesn't matter whether person A in California can buy insurance from company XYZ in New York, if company XYZ must provide the exact same plan as every other company in California.