Bush making health-care proposals a priority in 2006

[fencesitter]

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/13680311.htm

......"I decided this is a national issue that requires a national response," Bush said in a speech in Sterling, Va., a Washington suburb. The government, he said, must ensure "that health care is available and affordable."
The message reflects voter concerns about health-care costs. Spending on prescription drugs alone in the United States climbed 8.2 percent to $188 billion in 2004, about 21/2 times the rate of inflation that year.
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Oh God please. Health policy is too important for these guys to get their destructive hands on just to score some political points.

[acmavm]

1. I had this horrible post all ready having to do with Dr. Mengele being

appointed to the Department of Health and Human Services but I decided that it would be in really bad taste.

[0007]

24. You should have I like hearing others sound off about this

piece of shit.

[

[pinniped]

38. God, they reanimated Mengele so he could work for the cons?

They will stoop to any level to further their agenda.

[Retrograde]

2. S. Security reform in a new package?

After last year's Medicare reform, I say be afraid. Be very afraid.

[Deja Q]

3. Okay. Undo the new needlessly confusing medicare laws.

:dunce:

And regulate prices; why do Americans pay ONE THOUSAND TIMES MORE THAN EVERYONE ELSE?

If we are to be globalized, the cost of goods must match the wages they want to dole out. Otherwise the economic system won't remain stable. As we are seeing.

[killbotfactory]

4. Bull requests to be transferred to new china shop

He's already screwed over the elderly, now he's targetting regular people.

[AndrewJacksonFaction]

10. This is one of the funnier things I have read in a while.

It describes him so perfectly! He may be a good animal on the farm, but he lacks the finesse for governance. For instance, he is always bullying, he is bull headed, and is always trying to ram something through. Perfect! Should we send this quote to some of the congress folks?

[stray cat]

5. play acting as a compassionate conservative again

[VegasWolf]

6. "I decided" I wanna Cheerios for breakfast. This man's insecurities

make me puke.

[Sandpiper]

7. Elections are coming up, Time for the GOP to pretend to care

About issues that affect the hoi polloi.

[rodeodance]

8. any bush 'reform'----scares me. oh gawd!

[rodeodance]

9. but for now--no bold initiatives--I saw a list a few days ago--most are

reruns--instatlling medical information technology to decrease costs, malpractice reform, medical savings etc. but who knows what his sotu speech will reall entail.

[Dawgs]

11. Bring it on...

If he handles this like he handled Social Security then Dems will win in a landslide.

[mike_c]

12. it'll be the medicare mess for the rest of us!

"Died while filling out forms or awaiting clerical review" will be the hot new item on death certificates....

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. So he gave up on SS reform and is now tackling health care?

Lord help us.

[Warren Stupidity]

14. Odd - he's done everything he can to make sure it is unaffordable.

For example: cutting medicaid funding. For example: insisting on the corrupt drug-benefit add on to medicare that, by law, forbids the government from negotiating group purchasing discounts on drugs, and along the way provides a scheme so bogus and complicated that most people are just opting out anyway.

The Bush solution: HSAs for small businesses. That ain't the problem for small businesses that are trying to provide health insurance for their employees. The problem is that health insurance costs grow by 10-20% per year, and that small businesses cannot negotiate decent group rates.

The solution is universal health care. Meanwhile, if Bush wants to help, just open up the federal health insurance system to individuals and small businesses. Oh wait, he can't do that, that would hurt the health insurance industry, which is making billions off of misery.

The Bush solution: more tax cuts and make the current one's permanent. Never mind that the fed is heading straight for bankruptcy over looming medicare payouts to retiring boomers, keep on handing the elites a tax discount.

[WinkyDink]

15. "I decided" = first lie. "...affordable"= second lie.

Good grief.

[salin]

16. Their goal - end employer paid health care benefits (Please Read)

Their means to achieve it: ending tax incentives to employers providing health ins to employees.

Their rationale/spin to sell it: Inefficiencies in the market because

a) middle men are not the best consumers for competitive markets...

Note - the middle men are the employers; the implication is that human relations departments are not shopping for competitive health insurance (huh? what it isn't in the companies best interest to get the cheapest cost health care - and that individuals would do a much better job?) Also note how WELL this "taking tons of plans to the public - in the name of competition" is doing for Medicare Plan D.

and b) that consumers of healthcare make unwise decisions (go to the doctor too often) because of LOW copays - and that if consumers had to pay more per visit, they would better ration their use of health care.

Note - the suggestion seems to be that preventative medicine is undesirable and that folks should wait until it is really bad; also odd is the suggestion that if folks went to the doctor less, that healthcare would become more affordable - as if that would create more demand for services making drs and hmos need to be more competitive (again - huh?); more likely is that there were fewer folks seeing doctors, individual trips to the doctor would cost more in order for offices to maintain the income to cover overhead costs.

Their mechanism to be sold: Under the guise of 'expanding health care coverage to Americans' they will promote an increase in the amount of money that can be sheltered (not taxed) in "health savings accounts", coupled with a push for Americans to use less expensive catastrophic coverage policies in conjunction with the savings accounts.

Note - this is a push to get insurance costs off the backs of employers - something businesses have been screaming about while health insurance costs have skyrocketed over the past several years; the implication to the public (not based in any reality) is that if employers didn't have to pay insurance, that employee pay would increase (as if corporations would shift that money back to employees rather than shift it into profit margins), and with the "extra money" (hah!) individuals could buy their own health insurance - opting for cheaper "catastrophic coverage" plans that often have lower monthly payments but very high deductables and don't pay at all for some procedures such as... pregnancies and births; and that individuals would use the rest of the "extra money" (hah!) to invest in tax-free health savings accounts.

The reality is that no extra money is likely to come shift from employers to employees; thus the individual/family must now foot the costs of catastrophic coverage, and money to be put into the savings accounts to a) pay the out of pocket deductables, and for emergency costs of things not covered by the very limited (in terms of coverage) catastrophic coverage. This would mean that millions of Americans who have insurance today - would suddenly have to pay out several thousand dollars a year MORE than they do today for much less adequate health coverage. Because wages are not increasing at a rate to generate these additional funds - it is likely that many working and lower middle to middle income families will not have the additional income required to get the insurance and to pay into the health savings accounts.

How they intend to get it done: Bush is also pushing for "tax simplification" - his other major domestic policy push of 2006. This plan includes the major mechanism to shift health care costs from employers to employees. The plan will END all tax incentives/subsidies to employers that provide health insurance to its employees. Simultaneously the tax code changes would expand the amount of money allowed to be put into tax-free "health savings accounts".

Note - how many companies, already suffering due to exponential increases in costs of health care over the past ten years, are going to keep providing health insurance coverage when it becomes even MORE expensive to do so? Most likely the only company paid for health benefits would be reserved for the executive level with everyone else being dropped. Overnight the ranks of the uninsured will swell.

Salin's overall note to anyone reading this post - I have been trying a way to pull together my thoughts and concerns on this issue - as the writing on the wall has grown more clear to me since the details of Bush's push on "the strength of the economy" a couple of weeks ago were released which included this push on healthcare. My memory of various writeups on the work and plans of Bush's special panel on "Tax Simplification", which included the ending of tax incentives for employers providing health insurance - made the current news/themes make the hair on my neck stand on edge. I haven't been able to find a way to write this concisely - so here is a stab at it.

The mess of the medicare drug plan should put a face to the lie that taking complex plans straight to consumers = more efficiency with cheaper and better coverage - but I fear that the rhetoric will obscure the links between the president's new push - and the realities of his botched medicare plan D reform. Most frightening of all is his success throughout his presidency of winning ALL votes that are related to "tax cuts" - even when the public is no longer behind it - because of the GOPers in the senate and house. I fear that the whole details on the push to end employer health insurance will be obscured in a "tax cut" sell athon - and that the public will not be aware of the HUGE implications... until it is too late.

If anyone reads this - please respond. Does what I write make sense? What else can be added to help folks watch the boiler plate of how the bush admin and GOP in congress is going to approach "health reform" + "tax reform" in a way that will actually swell the ranks of the uninsured and put millions of Americans at even greater risk of bankruptcy, and worse than that of serious health risks due to little to no access to preventative medicine and little to no access to life-saving medicine/medical attention.

Thank you,

salin

[Mika]

27. Great analysis. Hospital emergency rooms will be more crowded..

.. many hospitals will declare bankruptcy or close down emergency rooms.

--

The ship's a goin' down down, the ship's a goin' down.. down down.. down down..

[salin]

29. leaving the more expensive, exclusive private hospitals

to benefit by taking those still insured and having no compunction at turning others away.

[salin]

17. K&R - folks this is so much bigger than it looks on the surface.

Down right diabolical.

[rodeodance]

20. I agree--Lets be alert

[Carla in Ca]

30. He has already screwed us

He really needs to go...NOW!

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x186383>

[progressivebydesign]

18. Fuck him. NOW he cares?? BS. he's reading index cards again.

The world has been so screwed over since he stole office... and now he's trying package himself as a democrat. Maybe he'll do somehting with health care the way he did such a great job with the Medicaire/medicaid.. :sarcasm:

[salin]

19. he doesn't want to do anything but END health care via employers

read my post above - this is a sick orwellian joke that will leave even more americans uninsured, all in the name of "making health care more affordable". :puke:

[rodeodance]

21. Bush's allies have quietly begun lobbying Republican lawmakers --heads

up!

.....President Bush's allies have quietly begun lobbying Republican lawmakers on some of the health-care proposals he will outline in his State of the Union address this month.

Former Bush economic adviser R. Glenn Hubbard said he was briefing Republican leaders in the House and Senate and their staffs on his recommendations, which are shaping up as central elements of Bush's 2006 domestic agenda.

The President said Friday that he would aim to make health savings accounts more widespread, seek price disclosure for medical services, and make health insurance more widely available to the 45.8 million Americans whom the Census Bureau said were uninsured in 2004.

"I decided this is a national issue that requires a national response," Bush said in a speech in Sterling, Va., a Washington suburb. The government, he said, must ensure "that health care is available and affordable."

[Maggie_May]

22. If he touches our health care we are screwed

what I fear is that our heath care will be like our auto and home insurance. You file to many claims your deductibles will go up. You are bad health or our a smoker your deductibles will go up. If you file to many claims they can drop you. This plan would put money only in the pockets of the insurance companies and screw the hell out of you! Don't fall for his bullshit people.

[Vidar]

23. Up and coming: Torture for the disabled.

[Demeter]

25. I Think Bush Means His OWN Health

He doesn't give a rap about anyone else.

[lovuian]

26. Consumer will pay some more...

and I would expect some Price fixing ...

[alcibiades_mystery]

28. LOL

After thoroughly fucking the duck with the disastrous Mediscam Drug Rip-off, they now seek to position themselves as healthcare experts? God help us all!

If it weren't for all the people dying, these clowns would be the greatest show in town. What a fucking farce.

[sarcasmo]

31. Kick and Nom to the top. Another fine mess W will lead us into.

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[schmuls]

33. *, please don't do us any more favors. Enough has been screwed

up.

[MiniMe]

34. Any plan by * will work just as well as the prescription drug plan

'nuff said!

[Straight Shooter]

35. A twisted version of King Midas, everything bush touches turns to sh*t.

Please leave it alone, bush, just leave it alone until a Dem is in the White House and the adults who actually care about this country and its citizens are in charge again.

[AzDar]

36. EVERYTHING this moron has ever touched has withered and died.

We need to make Congress aware...go along with Shrub's insane policies further, and go looking for different employment!!!
K&R. On edit: oops, too late!

[area51]

37. plan

The republinazi party plan is to kill off as many poor & middle-class as possible; this is one way to do it.

We are hurtling toward the middle ages of serfdom.