Check out this June 10, 2009 article on health care reform from the Politico entitled, “Dems Double Down On Health Care.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23560.html

 

A rundown of this article with some additional commentary is basically as follows:

Recently House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D) have been pushing hard, lobbying members of their own party in order to avoid infighting over the issue of health care reform. It was division among house Democrats that (at least in part) took down the efforts to reform health care during the Clinton administration.

Democrats now are seeking unity – and reaching out in particular to “rank and file” and moderate Blue Dog Democrats. However, moderate Democrats have been warning leaders not to undermine the private health care market. One important concern relates to the potential ramifications stemming from a “public option” in health care.

Seeing as private insurers have no ability to deficit spend and raise taxes after they do, it seems likely that any government option would have an unfair advantage over private pay plans – even if the ground rules are well established. Any cost forecasts for a public plan would be largely speculative at this point – as happened in Massachusetts, and are more likely to be under priced relative to the reality of actual claims and other costs in the future.

Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) asks, “Why should private companies object to competition?” Well, it’s not “competition” that they are objecting to. Instead, it’s unfair competition that they are objecting to. Note you don’t see private companies asking for legislation to eliminate their other private competitors.

Key is the issue of the rules associated with the public option. If the public option uses Medicare Rules, then the worry that a government subsidized plan that unfairly competes with private plans, largely becomes a reality. As long as the government option can overspend on the taxpayers dime (or debt – as the case may be), how can private companies hope to compete in the long run?

Already we see more liberal congressional members calling for additional mandates to health care coverage such as mental health benefits and dental insurance. It’s hard to imagine this “add-on” trend not continuing.  It seems likely that the parameters will ever widen in the future, and that we are apt to see  a more and more bloated and expensive plan.

This article states that, having made recent concessions on climate change measures, it is believed that Speaker Pelosi seems – at the moment, anyway – less likely to concede on issues relating to health care reform.

Still, divisions are steep. R. Bruce Josten, who lobbies for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce expresses clear disappointment in the proposed measures. Conversely, Andy Stern, president of the Service Employee’s International Union, commented in support of Kennedy and his fellow committee members for offering such a wonderful plan – that puts the well being of the American people ahead of “profits.”

My take on all of this?

Wow! What has happened to our country that profits and private businesses are seen as the source of so many of our ills? Free-enterprise is now, clearly, on the run.  Even though, it was free-enterprise and the individual will to take risks and succeed that made this country great in the first place! America is supposed to be a place where individuals are rewarded for serving the greater good through private enterprise, hard work and capitalism.

As Zig Ziglar once said, “Help enough people get what they want, and you can have anything you want.” In the minds of many “progressives” today, this idea is now poison. No longer should we allow “… to each according to his ability.” Instead, we’re to become all about “…from each according to his ability,” and to each according to what some progressive politician decides you’re allowed to keep (i.e. does the issue of CEO pay legislation ring any bells?). Let’s hope the pendulum swings back toward our free-enterprise, individual-empowered, capitalist roots sometime soon before we lose ourselves completely.

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Filed under: Health Care Reform

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