Kudos for calling out Perriello
Published: November 15, 2009
Kudos to The Daily Progress editorial board for pointing out Rep. Tom Perriello’s vote against individual freedom and choice (“A vote against your liberty,” Nov. 11), with his vote for Obamacare.
The bill has nothing to do with providing health insurance to all, and everything to do with government elites attempting to take monopolistic control of one-sixth of the U.S. economy. Evidence of this fact can be found in, as the Progress points out, “elimination of most flavors of health savings accounts (HSAs).”
There is a well-established concept in economics known as the “public goods or free-rider problem.” Goods and services perceived to be “free” are always over-consumed.
Highly-respected economist Milton Friedman observed that “it is easy to misinterpret problems of market failure as unfairness rather than inefficiency ... The problem with public goods is not that one person pays for what someone else gets but that nobody pays and nobody gets….”
The only way to solve this problem is to coerce all recipients to pay. In order for this coercion to work, it needs to be monopolized by a single agency, the state — the only entity with authority to tax all consumers at once.
When statists President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Perriello,Mark Warner and Jim Webb claim that the so-called “public option” is just another competitor being added to the over 1,700 insurance companies currently providing health coverage, they are either ignorant of basic economic laws or they are lying.
I believe the latter is the case.
Why else eliminate HSAs? They are the one recent reform proven to control health care costs, reduce overconsumption and enable consumers to see exactly what they are spending for the health care they consume.
HSAs work because they a) turn a “public good” (which is what health care is when employer-provided or Medicare/Medicaid-provided) into a private good; b) sustain freedom and choice in the marketplace; and c) maintain individual liberty, which has proven consistently to yield simultaneously the most efficient and most equitable results.
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“The way this bill is laid out those who cannot afford healthcare will receive more than the ER care as they do now.“
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ER Care is the most expensive way to treat people, whether they are paying or someone else is paying. Health reform legislation will keep people out of the expensive ER by helping them buy insurance coverage (much cheaper then paying their ER bill). This also saves money because prevention and early detection are the cheapest ways to treat illness.
The bill also provides for the research and inclusion of proven healthy behaviors in the essential benefits package and in community-wellness programs; establishes a new grants program to prevent overweight and obesity among children. The cheapest health care is the illnesses we avoid by staying healthy in the first place.
scottsville you are wrong.
The way this bill is laid out those who cannot afford healthcare will receive more than the ER care as they do now. They will receive full coverage regardless of prexisting conditions. This means that every person in the country who cannot get health care because of chronic conditions who have been getting free medicine from drug companies and comped or reduced price care from doctors will now be placed into the system where the doctors and drug companies can bill the public option plan for it. When it is comped and spread around it is done so pretty much at cost. When it is billed out as legitmate they will get their 500% mark up on drugs and Doctors will get regular rates from the government. These are the numbers that are not being factored in.
So to summarize… all the drug dealers will be able to get free healthcare, go to a Doctor and claim back pain get pills to sell to their customers etc….
Do you think for one second that these Nigerian Scam artists won’t flock to every inner city and open up a clinic to bill the US government for writing prescriptions for backpain, toothaches, migraines, viagra, adderall etc?????
Get real… the only thing this might do is increase employment because there will be so many new claims they can’t process them all. (much less police them)
How can you audit a doctor who writes a prescription for a homeless man who claims chronic back pain? It is technically legit. So you gonna bust the homless guy for hustling pain killers, and then pay a cop, procecuter, judge and jail? Where are your savings?
The numbers do not crunch and there are alternatives.
This bill is insane.
Helping Rural Hospitals AND Doctors: For decades, Medicare and Medicare have reimbursed rural hospitals and doctors at a lower rate than other areas. The new bill is a major step forward towards fixing this problem by directing the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to study geographic inequities in Medicare reimbursement rates and revising payment rates based on the IOM’s findings. It also provides a 10 percent incentive payment for primary-care doctors practicing in underserved areas, such as rural areas.
salty dog,
The pan handlers on the downtown mall already have coverage. They have medicaid, or they go to the ER and don’t pay their bills (and we pay in the form of higher premiums and higher treatment costs to make up the difference for all the people who can’t pay).
This bill is about expanding coverage and slowing cost increases to the middle class, people with pre-existing conditions, small business, and people who don’t get insurance through their employer.
The destitute and lazy already get coverage one way or the other. This bill is for the working poor and middle class.
To claify, Tom did not promise to make abortion illegal, as that must be done in the supreme court, not in health care legislation. He pledged to protect the status quo of no federal funding for abortion, and he stuck to his word.
Drug companies support the bill because they know that with 45 million new clients the total number of pills sold will increase.
Doctors have no choice but to plan to make up the losses in dollars by increasing volume. With people who have never had health insurance coming on board it will be a field day to take advantage on an overburdened system.
AARP is an insurance company first and foremost. Google it. They are doing what is in their interest which is why they are losing subscribers.
This is a fundemental upheaval of our current system pushed by people with an extremely radical agenda who want to create a cradle to grave security at the expense of the wealthy.
The problem is that you can only slaughter the cow once.
I cannot believe that people are actually ok with GIVING the panhandlers on the mall FULL MEDICAL BENEFITS without any repercussions. If they declare no income they don’t have to pay a fine and receive healthcare for free. So they collect food stamps, collect enough cash to find a place to crash, go to the library for free internet, and they pretty much have a better standard of living than most of our blue collar parents.
If you people wnant to give away your money fine, do it through charity, but don’t force me to pay for people who are capable of working and CHOOSE NOT TO.
The health care bill is far from perfect, but it expands coverage to 96% of Americans, increases choice with a public option available everywhere, ends discrimination due to pre-existing conditions or gender, and helps reduce the deficit. Not just in the first decade, when numbers can be fudged to make anything look like it reduces the deficit- But in the second decade out as well.
The independent Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that the legislation reduces the federal deficit by $109 billion. It ensures equitable reimbursement for rural hospitals by directing revised payment rates based on geographic inequities. Lastly, Tom voted in favor of the Stupak-Pitts amendment, which ensures that no federal funds will be used for abortion. This goes beyond the status quo of not using federal funds for medicare or other federal subsidies of health insurance. It essentially prevents any plan in the exchange from carrying plans that cover abortion…so even those in the exchange that are not getting subsidies will be prohibited from using their own money to get a plan that covers abortion. I don’t really care that much one way or the other, but to state that the Stupak amendment does not prevent federal funding of abortion is a complete fabrication. Tom kept his promises of fighting for deficit reduction, a fair shake for our rural hospitals, and no federally subsidized abortions.
I would agree that Periello is intelligent, even thoughtful—brave is a stretch. Brave is the Democrat Representative who voted their conscience—as I assume Tom did as well—but happened to come out on the other side. There is nothing at all brave about towing the party line. And, as we witness how vicious the DNC is in punishing ‘defectors’, well, can we blame Tom for taking the easy way out?
To the point and well written.
Save the Party talking points, Scottie. You are capable of better than that:
The bill does not reduce the deficit, except through creative accounting—as support for the bill quid pro quo was obtained by huge special intetrest concessions not factored in by the CBO (as they are not technically part of ‘the’ bill—welcome to ‘transparency’—at the carney it is called a shell game.) You know that, I know that, the well-informed voters of the 5th District know that, and Tom Periello knows that. You must think everybody is stupid, or ill informed, or gullible (or just willing to do anything to justify the end for the means, ala Alinsky).
The bill does not provide a ‘fair shake’ for rural doctors, though it does indeed have a provision allowing for regional adjustments. Note how you shift from rural doctors to rural hospitals—which is it? Are you, or your friends, or anyone aware of the differences now in Medicare reimbursement between independent physicians and hospital or health sytem employed physicians? Are you aware of how “regions” are decided upon? Do you have the foggiest notion of whether a private rural physician, now being reimbursed under $20 for a patient visit by Medicare, will see any change—oh, that’s right, the bill does not go into that kind of detail. But, hey, the DNC printed it up, so it must be so. What of the doc already running the most efficient and cost effective practice in their region? Oops, its all based on the sum of all docs in the same ‘boat’. Would it interest anyone that over a decade ago, QualChoice set up panels of healthcare providers and was able to track to the penny the cost of care by provider, by CPT code—only they adopted a model of returning a portion of the savings to efficient providers—all of which was killed by whom? the docs who were out of kilter. But that’s yesterday’s news.
That last point, too, is a crock. The Stupak Ammendment, for one, was a political ploy—it was inserted in the bill to provide cover for rubes and their supporters. We’ll see if it survives the process—but its that old song “I voted for it before I voted against it” all over again. Second, it only applies to DIRECT feferal funding of abortion, as did the Hyde Ammendment in an earlier era, so its a kinda but not really with work arounds. Since I am—personally—both pro-life and anti-government intervention in personal matters, the idea that the government should not be using tax moneys is important to me—so don’t marginalize people on either side of the debate by stating something that is only techically so.
The AARP is not an impartial body, having struck a deal for its support and vested interests, which includes health insurance—I beleiev the term is “sell-out”, as well as conflict of inteest. Already they are paying the price for their duplicitous behavior.
Ditto the AMA, which represents a minority of liscensed physicians, struck its own deal to suspend scheduled reductions in physician reimbursement for its support—mind you, the AMA is dominated by non-primary care physicians, and the reductions that were planned affected specialists disproprtionately (as non-procedure based fees are already too small to cut much, not to mention are well below cost of service).
As for the rest, the ACS, the AHS, CR, (come on, the endorsement of the National Committe to Perpetuate Stupid Systems and Medicine is laughably irrelevent, except for a DNC scriptwriter) I respect their right to support what they will—who knows how objective, or non-objective they may be. Consumers Union has long ago lost its virginity, not to mention its subscriber base.
Backstroke.
Tom Perriello is intelligent, thoughtful, and brave.
He voted for the people of the 5th district, not big money corporate interests.
Whether for or against health care reform, most people in the 5th District asked Tom to fight for deficit reduction, a fair shake for rural doctors, and no federal funding for abortion—and all three were part of the final bill that passed. The independent Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that the legislation reduces the federal deficit by $109 billion. It ensures equitable reimbursement for rural hospitals by directing revised payment rates based on geographic inequities.
This legislation has been endorsed by the AARP, the American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, Consumer Reports, and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, among others.
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