There is no doubt that there are needed reforms in health care. These include: tort reform on liability; Medicare and Medicaid reform; flexibility in insurance options available; create individual responsibility for the cost of health care; pharmaceutical reform and the empowerment of medical professionals to reconnect with their patients.
These must be the agenda, not the Obama Care proposals.
Several Posts ago I made the point that I truly believed that the Obama administration was now on the defensive. I was not only right then, I am even more right now. President Obama may not have met his "Waterloo" but he is clearly on the defensive. Waxman can-celled today's Markup session, and then proceeded to cancel tomorrow. They simply do not have the votes for this debacle.
Now is the true test of the Republicans. In my view the test is ...will they stand fast and hold to the principles of doing what is required to stop this socialized medicine option? The plain fact is, they must hold to their principles, and they MUST NOT accept the compromise game that the Obama administration is about to start playing. They must insist on a total rewrite of the plan, not to make small changes to buy votes. Once the Republicans accept this structure, they are now forced to play on the field defined by the Democrats. This must not happen! The Republicans need to take control of the agenda and force the Democrats and Obama to accept a new structure. They need to let the Democrats fall on their sword if that is what is required to cause the process to get back to rational approaches that can legitimately "reform health care" rather than to create a whole new system
The core premise of Obama is that government can save money and provide equal or better care at a lower cost. The facts from current programs simply prove that is not true. Medicare and Medicaid are insolvent, and the process is grossly inefficient. There is absolutely no evidence that any of the cost savings that they are promising will actually save the society money, let alone reduce the cost to the consumer. the CBO agrees.
The key is that the Republicans must come up with an alternative plan, and start a major promotional campaign to offer up a completely optional plan. I for one believe that we must have a requirement for all US citizens to have a minimum "catastrophic plan" that covers the really big health events. Then the plan can impose this required plan, paid for by all citizens, and then a supplemental set of programs can increase health insurance as the individual can afford and use. We need to deal with Malpractice law suit control and create a greater responsibility for costs by making the cost of health care insurance a more taxable event for all employees. Whatever the right program, the Republicans must not accept using the Obama 1100 pages of socialized medicine. They must propose their own plan.
What can we expect for our future? If Obama's planning to do the same thing with our countries health care system, it will be a great risk because the population in our country is to large compared to Canada. If republican's are trying to sabotage the future of this country then I cannot expect more.
Posted by: buy soma | September 04, 2009 at 05:42 PM