Misinformation Volume III

The third piece of so called misinformation is that the public option will put private insurance out of business. Obama says this isn't true, so I guess that's the end of the argument, unless of course we want to do the unthinkable and apply some logic and deductive reasoning to the situation. How very unamerican of me.

Competition is a good thing, it is the cornerstone of capitalism and controls costs by giving the people an option and the companies an incentive to keep costs low. Competition within the insurance industry is good as well and the industry is seeking to eliminate waste and reduce costs because there is not a current monopoly. There are several different companies all competing for the same market share and good coverage at a reasonable prices is what they are all striving for. So I'm not averse to fair competition; as a capitalist I know we need it to keep things working the way they should. But we need fair competition.

The big problem with the public option competing with the private sector is that the public option will be non-profit while the private sector needs to make a profit, therefore the private sector will not be able to compete with the public option on price, but never fear, there are other ways to compete, right?

The private sector could offer different types of plans, setting themselves apart from the public option and giving people a choice -- Or they could if HR 3200 didn't specify that they will have to offer what is deemed "acceptable" by the same people writing the public option.

The private sector could continue to work with companies who decide to be self-insured and change their line of business to administering these plans -- Or they could if HR 3200 did not give government the right to decide whether or not a company can self-insure.

So by page 24 of HR 3200 the real competitive options have already been eliminated by dictating what insurance will have to cover, and by taking the option of self-insuring from other companies. After those two options for competition are eliminated, what is left? Not much.

The bill is not written with the statement that private insurance will be eliminated, but the 5 year grace period for employer based benefits before they must comply with government "standards" and the limitations it places on competition will lead things in that direction.

Ignoring the fact that there is a possibility that the public option will drive private insurance companies out of business is irresponsible and short sighted. President Obama uses the Post Office as the shining example of competition between the private sector and a public option, but let's not forget that the post office is bankrupt and continuously raising prices; is this what we want for our health care? So maybe there is hope. If the public option in health care works as well as the post office then there won't be a problem, but on the other hand, the post office doesn't dictate to UPS and FedEx what services they have to provide or how much they can make. Nor does the post office give themselves the prevent private companies from using other carriers.

Where it not for the language in HR 3200 which limited the options for competition I would not be worried, but that language is there; and as long as it is I will see an uneven playing field designed to make one side the winner and one the loser.

Misinformation Volume II

The idea that a new government program for health care will explode the deficit or cause an increase in taxes is "misinformation" according to the white house. President Obama (I really hate having to type that) has stated firmly and repeatedly that the program will be deficit neutral so why do we insist on applying our own brands of logic to the claims?

Obama says deficit neutral but the Congressional Budget Office says $1 trillion in set up and then an explosion of costs.

Obama says that Medicare is bankrupting us so the best solution is to expand it to everybody. (I still haven't figured out how that is logical.)

Obama says that he can pay for it with savings from cost controls. Ummmm, OK. What are those cost controls going to be exactly? Will it have anything to do with stopping doctors from whacking off your limbs willy nilly in an attempt to charge you more?

Obama says that by having everybody covered the costs will go down because people won't be going to the ER as much, but aren't the highest volume of people using the ER those already on Medicaid? I'm missing the logic again.

Obama says that he won't vote for any bill that grows the federal deficit - this claim is a little hard to swallow considering that he's already quadrupled it in 6 months. Yep, Mr President, we can see you're a real fiscal conservative.

As a cost savings initiative Obama plans to lower the re-imbursement rate to health care providers for the services they give Medicare patients. The re-imbursement rates are already pretty low so if they go much lower it's going to start costing the doctors to do the test. Forget making money, they'll be bleeding it.

Hmmmm, an interesting way to implement rationing isn't it. If the government tells a doctor they will be re-imbursed $1,000 less than their costs for a particular procedure how long do you think those procedures will continue to be performed? If it's a break even I think many doctors would still do it, but if it throws them into a negative balance I can't see them continuing. Wouldn't it be interesting to require a bailout of our medical professionals due to the new Medicare re-imbursement rates. Especially since Obama already think the doctors get $30,000 - $50,000 for taking your foot when they actually only get #350 -$750. He's only 10 times higher than the actual so we should definitely be able to trust his numbers.

There are only 2 ways to make the public option (path to single payer) deficit neutral and that is to either raise taxes or to charge premiums for the public option which will cover the medical cost payout. Considering that the people don't want or can't afford the premiums of the private sector, I doubt the public option would look much better.

How about you first do a little research, real analysis into what is driving the cost of health care up. Hire an independent team of process improvement analysts to determine exactly where the issues lie (because I frankly doubt that doctors really are cutting off people's feet just to get more money) and fixing those first and see how it goes.

One last little tidbit that I just have to share -- As much as Obama talks about the importance of routine care and how we need to expand Medicare type coverage to all, he might want to keep in mind that routine care is not covered under Medicare.

Misinformation

At his town hall yesterday President Obama stated that there is a lot of misinformation floating around about health care reform and this is why support for the plan is dropping. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs reiterated this today and blamed the press for the misinformation; but what is the misinformation?

I'm going to do a series of blogs on these issues to delve into them in more detail, but here is an overview of what they are calling misinformation and I call deductive reasoning.

We will go to a single payor system - the leadership keeps telling us that there will not be a single payor system but there will be a public option. However, many of the leaders, Obama included, have previously said that the public option will be the lead to a single payor system. In March 2007 Obama stated that he would not be able to do away with employer paid health benefits immediately but believed we could accomplish a single payor system within ten years. -- Is believing the plan is to get us to a single payor system really misinformation?

The reform will explode the deficit or increase taxes - Obama says it will be deficit neutral but the Congressional Budget Office said it will cost $1 trillion just for start-up. So who is putting out the misinformation? Is it Obama or the CBO?

The Public Option will eliminate private insurance - The leadership says this will be a plan to compete with private insurance and they can work together, however private insurance will have to make a profit while the public option can operate at a loss subsidized by tax-payor dollars. If Medicare was working like private insurance now and not operatiing at a loss then it would cost the government nothing. By expanding a Medicare type benefit to all it is an acknowledgement that it will be subsidized where private insurance will not.

There will be rationing of care - Obama says there will be no rationing and yet his advisors have written papers on who should take priority in the case of a shortage. Also, a government board will be created to determine benefits and what to do when adding 40 million patients to already overloaded physicians.

Abortions will be covered under the government plan - Leadership says this will not happen while other leaders are insisting it will.

Robert Gibbs said this is all a case of he said / she said and this is how the misinformation is getting out there, but considering there is no final bill to work from isn't all we have to go on what people are saying?

What I think I object to most is applying deductive reasoning to the situation and coming to a conclusion and then being told that I'm wrong - that I'm spreading misinformation - and given no facts to back it up.