No 7 Analysis Healthcare Debate

Call for Peace

In the Name of Allah,

the Most Gracious, and the Most Merciful

US Politics

Analysis

Health Care Debate

Barrack Hussain Obama

President of USA

Along with job issue Healthcare is the key issue which the Republicans are exploiting by following slogans:

malpractices

we are listening to the American people

2,700 page Bill

cost curve

Mr President! As below are observations in respect of the above.

MALPRACTICES

Mr President! In Capitalist System there is no room of Morals, therefore, ‘malpractices’ have become part of the system which cannot be stopped. I am based in England. Even the members of Parliament, ministers, Lords exploit the loopholes to lay hands on taxpayer’s money. I have listened to some news that Congressmen and Senators also exploit the opportunities where they can do so and they are among the highly paid people.

Mr President! Eliminate ‘malpractices’ is ‘moral’ issue’. Just to make the law is just not enough. However, the law is in the books but do the people abide by it?

Mr President! To bend the cost curve if Democrats and Republicans are of the opinion that first eliminate the ‘malpractices’ and then pass the Bill, they are living in ‘mad’ man’s world.

Mr President! The question arises ‘malpractices’ have been in existence for quite some time. Why the Republicans did not do anything for the last eight years when they had majority in both house, which you pointed out in your closing remarks:

Medical malpractice has been mentioned. Now, look, let me be honest. This is something historically that Democrats have been more resistant to than Republicans. I will note that when we had a Republican President and Republican control of the House and Republican control of the Senate,
somehow it didn’t happen, and I’m surprised, but we —

Mr President! Democrats are in position to exploit that ‘Malpractices’ is creation of Republicans in the sense that they knew about it and did not do anything to eliminate them and now they are not only blaming Democrats for ‘Malpractices’ but also asking them to eliminate them to lower the healthcare costs.

Mr President! Republicans were inherited Surplus of $2 billion and Democrats have been inherited a Deficit of more than $1Trillion dollars and projected Deficit of over $8 trillion.

Mr President! The reason Republicans are raising the issue of ‘malpractices’ is to cover their mishandling of the economy and put he blame on Democrats i.e. you because they do not want African American President to take credit for turning the Deficit into Surplusover a period of time.

WE ARE LISTENING TO THE PEOPLE

Mr President! In fact they are listening to the people of ‘Wall Street’ and not ‘Main Street’.

Mr President!

Had they listened to the American people they would have done

something when they were in power.

Mr President! I have browsed through the Health care system on the internet. In short, It is the Republicans who always opposed to reform Healthcare Reforms for the benefit of ordinary American people. When Democrats were in power they always wanted to take steps to overcome ‘malpractices’ and that middle class and low income people can have access to their treatment readily, Republicans opposed it.

2,700 PAGE BILL

Mr President! The Republicans brought with them the Bill which was in a Big Stack. This was to show the American people that it is complicated and not practicable i.e. who has time to read 2,700 pages.

Mr President! The Bill had to be on 2,700 pages or even more. Why? Because over the years the health Care system had become so much complicated that to eliminate malpractices and that all Americans have easy access to their treatment, every corner of the systemhad to be looked and appropriate provisions made.

COST CURVE

Mr President! Republicans have highlighted that the Cost Curve will go up rather than go down.

Mr President! For the sake of argument, let us assume that the ‘Cost Curve’will go up. But if it helps middle class and low income people to have access to treatment readily, then what is the ‘Fuss’?

Mr President! Health is such an issue that people have sold their houses, borrowed money by making use of credit cards at high interest rates etc. I have seen some cases on ‘Dateline’ at MSNBC. For the sake of argument, if the government has to borrow money to fund the Healthcare, then let it be so. If government can borrow money to bail out Wall Street, banks, financial institutions, AIG then why it cannot borrow money for Health Care System?

Mr President! To help middle class and low income people the Healthcare reforms are:

Pre – existing Conditions: Insurance can companies cannot deny covering due to pre existing conditions. Republicans supported this.

Cover of Children: Children can remain under the cover of their parents until they are 26 years old. Republicans supported it but they proposed age of 25 years.

Coverage: Insurance companies cannot deny covering anybody.

Mr President!

Please add other reforms as well.

I do not have all in mind at this moment.

Mr President!

The above reforms were necessary and Republicans supported it.

Mr President! The next step was what are the factors which make Insurance companies to charge highpremiums?

Mr President! Premiums are highfor the following reasons:-

high fees of physicians, surgeons, psychologists, neurologists, psychiatrists, etc. etc.

high charges by the hospitals to treat patient

expensive medicines

etc.

Mr President! To bend the ‘Cost Curve’ meetings should be held with medical professionals, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies to lower fees, charges and prices. The reduction in fees, charges and prices will be passed on to the patients which will make the insurance companies lower the premiums. Mr President! Reforms take their usual course to be effective. To bend the ‘Cost Curve’ and to improve the quality of service cannot be achieved overnight, it takes years because at present the Healthcare system has become very complicated. Mr President! The Republicans are giving impression to the people that Reforms should be effective overnight which is luring the American people away to support Democrat.

Mr President! ‘Malpractices’ are also a factor which put burden on taxpayer’s money. Simply to pass the law i.e. fines, imprisonments will not deter people who exploit the loopholes. It is a ‘Moral’ issue. Therefore, people have to be educated where they feel guilty if they will exploit loopholes.

BASICS OF HEALTHCARE REFORM BILL

HEALTHCARE DEBATE

Mr President! I have viewed videos of Healthcare Debate which lasted over five hours. While viewing the video I also was browsing the transcript of the Debate. Mr President! As below I have copied the extracts of views of Republicans which depict that they are determined to oppose the Healthcare Reform Bill and they have studied and analysed 2,700 page Bill to extract areas where they can win the hearts of American people and proving the Democrats are incapable of running the Politics of USA.

Mr President! I have made brief observation about their views. I am a layman. But I am sure you and your team can make analysis of these extracts and bring the Real Face of Republicans that they are not listening to the American people but they are listening to Wall Street and Insurance companies because the Healthcare Reform Bill is a step to curb their ‘monopolistic’powers to exploit people.

SENATOR ALEXANDER: (Republican)

Extract of Senator Alexander remarks at Healthcare Debate

I’d like to say the same thing to you. I mean, we want you to succeed, because if you succeed our country succeeds. But we would like, respectfully, to change the direction you’re going on health care costs. And that’s what I want to mention here in the next few minutes.
Observation:
Mr President! The above remarks undermine your ability as President of USA as the Senator said:
“But we would like, respectfully, to change the direction you’re going on health care costs.”

Mr President! The object of the Reforms is not to lower healthcare costs but the main object is that every American can have readily access to his treatment.
I was trying to think about if there were any kind of event that this could be compared with, and I was thinking of the Detroit Auto Show, that you’d invited us out to watch you unveil the latest model that you and your engineers had created and asked us to help sell it to the American people. And we go and you do that and we look at it and we say, that’s the same model we saw last year, and we didn’t like it and neither did they because we don’t think it gets us where we need to go, and we can’t afford it. So as they also say in Detroit, again, we think we have a better idea.
Observation:

Mr President! I believe the senator is referring to the GM and Chrysler. If this is the case, they opposed the new entity of GM and Merger of Chrysler with Fiat.

Mr President! They can see the results that both companies made profits, and not only saved jobs but increase in workforce and kept the image of USA in the eyes of the world which would have affected should both companies had put into liquidation.
And that’s about — that’s where we are. But we think to do that we have to start by taking the current bill and putting it on the shelf and starting from a clean sheet of paper.
Observation:

Mr President! Again undermining
the hard work which has been put to look into the complicated system and possible solution over 2,700 pages to be scrapped and start with clean sheet of paper.
When I go down on the floor — and I’ve been there a lot on this issue — some of my Democratic friends will say, well, Lamar, where’s the Republican comprehensive bill? And I say back, well, if you’re waiting for Mitch McConnell to roll in a wheelbarrow in here with a 2,700-page Republican comprehensive bill, it’s not going to happen because we’ve come to the conclusion that we don’t do comprehensive well. We’ve watched the comprehensive economy-wide cap and trade. We’ve watched the comprehensive immigration bill. We had the best senators we’ve got working on that in a bipartisan way. We’ve watched the comprehensive health care bill, and they fall of their own weight.
Observation:

Mr President! The senator is taking the mucky of the 2,700 page Bill by saying:

“some of my Democratic friends will say, well, Lamar, where’s the Republican comprehensive bill? And I say back, well, if you’re waiting for Mitch McConnell to roll in a wheelbarrow in here with a 2,700-page Republican comprehensive bill, it’s not going to happenbecause we’ve come to the conclusion that we don’t do comprehensive well.”

Mr President!

Speaker Pelosi

So this bill is not only about the health security of America. It’s about jobs. In its life it will create 4 million jobs — 400,000 jobs almost immediately; jobs, again, in the health care industry, but in the entrepreneurial world as well. You, Mr. President, with your leadership we passed the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act last January and got a running start on some of the technology and scientific advancements in this by the investments in biomedical research, health IT — health information technology — a running start by your signing the SCHIP, the children’s health bill, insuring 11 million children. You had a running start on expanding access, and not only that, but doing it in a way that is of the future.
Observation:

Mr President! Speaker Pelosi have outlined the long term effect and impact of the reforms which not only will reform the Healthcare System but will also create 4 million jobs and 400,000 jobs immediately.

Mr President! Had this projection of job had any flaw in it then the Republicans must have pointed out that this will not be the case.
This is not just about health care for America; it’s about a healthier America. This legislation is about innovation; it’s about prevention; it’s about wellness. But most people haven’t heard about that. And those people sitting at that kitchen table, they don’t want to hear about process; they want to hear about results. They want to know what this means to them. And what it means is a health initiative that is about affordability for the middle class, lowering costs, improving access for them. Accessibility — affordability and accessibility are closely aligned — and accountability for the insurance companies.

Observation:

Mr President! Speaker Pelosi highlighted the fact that Republicans want to look at the results i.e. overnight effectiveness of the Bill where every American is covered, costs are lowered etc:

“And those people sitting at that kitchen table, they don’t want to hear about process; they want to hear about results.”

Mr President!

REPRESENTATIVE BOUSTANY

Now, we’ve all been through a long year — town hall meetings, telephone calls, e-mails — it goes on and on. And one thing that has become very clear, the American people have spoken out very loudly and very clearly. They want us to take a step back, and go step by step with a common-sense plan that really brings the costs down for American families and small business owners. They want insurance companies to treat them just like they treat big labor unions and large companies. It’s been a resounding message we’ve heard over and over.
So, again, I think it’s clear that the American people have rejected the bills that have gone through so far because they see increases in premiums for families, they see that it raises taxes significantly on families, and raids Medicare to create a new entitlement. This doesn’t really bring down the cost; this is really not the answer.
What American families want is a common step — a common-sense step-by-step approach that will really lower the costs for families and small businesses. I believe we have a duty to reform health care, but we have an obligation to get it right.
Observation:

Mr President! It is Republicans strategy to oppose the Bill i.e. American people and costs:

“And one thing that has become very clear, the American people have spoken out very loudly and very clearly. They want us to take a step back, and go step by step with a common-sense plan that really brings the costs down for American families and small business owners.”

“So, again, I think it’s clear that the American people have rejected the bills………. ”

“What American families want is a common step — a common-sense step-by-step approach“

SENATOR McCAIN:

So when my constituents and Americans now who overwhelmingly reject this proposal, say, go, back to the beginning — they want us to go back to the beginning. They want us not to do this kind of legislating. They want us to sit down together and do what’s best for all Americans, not just for some people that live in Florida or happen to live in other favored states. They want a uniform treatment of all Americans.
Observation:

Mr President! It is Republicans strategy to oppose the Bill i.e. American people and costs:

“So when my constituents and Americans now who overwhelmingly reject this proposal, say, go, back to the beginning — they want us to go back to the beginning.”
So I hope that that would be an argument for us to go through this 2,400-page document, remove all the special deals for the special interests and favored few, and treat all Americans the same under provisions of the law so that they will know that geography does not dictate what kind of health care they would receive.
Observation:

Mr President! The Senator is in a way accusing Democrats that the Bill is for the benefit of favoured people which is not the case. This point is made to win the support of American people that there is nothing in the bill for middle class and low income people.……..remove all the special deals for the special interests and favored few, and treat all Americans the same……..Mr President! You had to snub the remarks by saying:

“Let me make just this point, John, because we’re not running campaigning anymore.
The Election is over.”

REPRESENTATIVE CANTOR:

We don’t care for this bill. I think you know that. The American people don’t care for the bill. I think that we’ve demonstrated in polling that they don’t. But there is a reason why we all voted no. And it does have to do with the philosophical difference that you point out. It does have to do with our fear that if you say that Washington can be the one to define essential health benefits, there may be a problem with that. And that’s the language that’s in the Section 1302 of this bill, that it says that the Secretary shall define for people what essential health benefits are.

First of all, the cost, and Jon Kyl laid out the tremendous cost in the nearly trillion dollars of this bill.

Observation:
Mr President! It is Republicans strategy to oppose the Bill i.e. American people and costs and try to keep upper hand:
“We don’t care for this bill. I think you know that. The American people don’t care for the bill. I think that we’ve demonstrated in polling that they don’t.”

“First of all the costs, and Jon Kyl laid out the tremendous cost in the nearly trillion dollar of this Bill.”

“So I guess my question to you is, in the construct of this Bill, if we want to find agreement, we really do need set this aside’“
Because as we also know, most people in this country do have insurance and an overwhelming majority of people do like that coverage; it’s just too expensive.
The problem is when you start to mandate all of the essential benefits, there are going to be some insurance premium increases. None of us really want to see them. But if you stop them, who is going to pay for it? Well, then we get back to the fact that businesses won’t be able to pay for it and people are going to lose their coverage.
So I guess my question to you is, in the construct of this bill, if we want to find agreement, we really do need to set this aside.
We, again, have a very difficult bridge to gap here, because I know that this is something that we don’t want to look at, but these are, as you say, the complexities of what this is about.
We just can’t afford this. I mean, that’s the ultimate — that’s the ultimate problem here, is in a perfect world everyone would have everything they want. This government can’t afford it. Businesses can’t afford it. That’s why we continue to say go step by step trying to address the cost and we could ultimately get there. But we’re asking that you set aside this mandated form of insurance — this mandated form of health care regulation and let’s go back to things we can agree on without this trillion-dollar attempt here, that’s all.
Observation:

Mr President! It is Republicans strategy to oppose the Bill i.e. American people and costs and try to keep upper hand:

“We don’t care for this bill. I think you know that. The American people don’t care for the bill. I think that we’ve demonstrated in polling that they don’t.”

“First of all the costs, and Jon Kyl laid out the tremendous cost in the nearly trillion dollar of this Bill.”

“So I guess my question to you is, in the construct of this Bill, if we want to find agreement, we really do need set this aside’”

“….because I know this is something that we don’t want to look at…..”

“…… that’s why we continue to say go step by step trying to address the cost and we could ultimately get there.

Mr President! It depicts that Republicans are determined to oppse the Bill.

REPRESENTATIVE CAMP: (Republican)

And the American people have told us they don’t want to be forced to buy health insurance that they don’t want and they can’t afford. And this is a significant issue across the country. And the American people are telling us that — that the individual — the mandates, the requirements to buy insurance are something that they want us to scrap and start over on.
And so, this is a fundamental difference in this area of insurance reform that I think we — we have to really begin again and really take into what the American people are saying and expressing this through their elected representatives in the state legislators. I know there’s a lot of former state legislators here; I am one as well, and I think that’s a very serious point that we need to address.
Observation:

Mr President! It is Republicans strategy to oppose the Bill i.e. American people and costs and try to keep upper hand:

“And the American people have told us they don’t want to be forced to buy health insurance that they don’t want and they can’t afford”.

“……..that they want us to scrap and start over on.”

“….. we have to really begin again and really take into what the American people are saying and expressing this through their elected representatives………”

REPRESENTATIVE BLACKBURN: (Republican)

Now, a lot of the people that I talk to want us to start over in this issue and they want us to give them the ability to hold insurance companies accountable.
Now, some of the very differences in our bill — we have a way to do this without putting a federal bureaucracy in charge of it. States can already do compacts, but the Senate bill legislation would require state action and then federal approval for those compacts to take place.
There’s another important point here. The bill that you all are proposing would not put these in place until 2016, and quite frankly I think a lot of the American people agree with us that care delayed and access delayed is care and access denied. And they would like to see those — basically what you have — state lines right now basically have stop signs up when it comes to across state line access. They would like to see that come down, and like to see those access portals opened up so that they can first lower their cost, secondly so that they have greater ability to hold insurance companies accountable. And then also state legislators, even some of our governors — many of the governors — favor approaching this model and allowing our constituents a way to access this, get the cost down. And I will be brief so that we can move on to other topics. Thank you.
Yes, Mr. President, I did, very quickly. I would just suggest that we’re looking at this from, in your example, we’re looking at it the wrong way. You’re talking about letting companies into California. I’m talking about letting individuals out.
Observation:

Mr President! It is Republicans strategy to oppose the Bill i.e. American people and costs and try to keep upper hand:

“Now, a lot of the people that I talk to want us to start over in this issue. The bill that you all are proposing would not put these in place until 2016, and quite frankly I think a lot of the American people agree with us that care delayed and access delayed is care and access denied.”

“…. favor approaching this model and allowing our constituents a way to access this, get the cost down.”

“……. we’re looking at it the wrong way……”

Mr President! It depicts that Republican wants immediate results and do not want to wait. Because American people take their views on the face value

REPRESENTATIVE RYAN: Republican

Look, we agree on the problem here, and the problem is health inflation is driving us off of a fiscal cliff. Mr. President, you said health care reform is budget reform. You’re right. We agree with that. Medicare right now has a $38 trillion unfunded liability. That’s $38 trillion in empty promises to my parents’ generation, our generation, our kids’ generation. Medicaid is growing at 21 percent this year. It’s suffocating state’s budgets. It’s adding trillions in obligations that we have no means to pay for it.
Now, you’re right to frame the debate on cost and health inflation. And in September when you spoke to us in the well of the House, you basically said — and I totally agree with this — “I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits either now or in the future.”
Since the Congressional Budget Office can’t score your bill because it doesn’t have sufficient detail, but it tracks very similar to the Senate bill, I want to unpack the Senate score a little bit.
And if you take a look at these CBO analyses, analysis from your chief actuary, I think it’s very revealing. This bill does not control costs. This bill does not reduce deficits. Instead this bill adds a new health care entitlement at a time when we have no idea how to pay for the entitlements we already have.
And let me go through why I say that. The Majority Leader said the bill scores as reducing the deficit $131 billion over the next 10 years. First, a little bit about CBO. I work with them every single day. Very good people, great professionals, they do their jobs well. But their job is to score what is placed in front of them. And what has been placed in front of them is a bill that is full of gimmicks and smoke and mirrors.
Now, what do I mean when I say that? Well, first off, the bill has 10 years of tax increases, about half a trillion dollars, with 10 years of Medicare cuts, about half a trillion dollars, to pay for six years of spending. Now, what’s the true 10-year cost of this bill in 10 years? That’s $2.3 trillion.
It does a couple of other things. It takes $52 billion in higher Social Security tax revenues and counts them as offsets, but that’s really reserved for Social Security. So either we’re double-counting them or we don’t intend on paying those Social Security benefits. It takes $72 billion and claims money from the CLASS Act — that’s the long-term care insurance program. It takes the money from premiums that are designed for that benefit and instead counts them as offsets. The Senate Budget Committee chairman said that this is a Ponzi scheme that would make Bernie Madoff proud.
Now, when you take a look at the Medicare cuts, what this bill essentially does is treats Medicare like a piggy bank. It raids a half a trillion dollars out of Medicare not to shore up Medicare’s solvency but to spend on this new government program.
Now, when you take a look at what this does, it is — according to the chief actuary of Medicare, he’s saying as much of 20 percent of Medicare’s providers will either go out of business or will have to stop seeing Medicare beneficiaries. Millions of seniors who are on — who have chosen Medicare Advantage will lose the coverage that they now enjoy. You can’t say that you’re using this money to either extend Medicare solvency and also offset the cost of this new program. That’s double-counting.
And so when you take a look at all of this, when you strip out the double-counting and what I would call these gimmicks, the full 10-year cost of this bill has a $460 billion deficit. The second 10-year cost of this bill has a $1.4 trillion deficit.
And I think probably the most cynical gimmick in this bill is something that we all probably agree on. We don’t think we should cut doctors 21 percent next year. We’ve stopped those cuts from occurring every year for the last seven years. We all call this here in Washington the “doc fix.” Well, the doc fix, according to your numbers cost $371 billion. It was in the first iteration of all these bills. But because it was a big price tag, and it made the score look bad, made it look like a deficit, that provision was taken out, and it’s been going on as stand-alone legislation. But ignoring these costs does not remove them from the backs of taxpayers. Hiding spending does not reduce spending.
And so when you take a look at all of this, it just doesn’t add up. And so let’s just — I’ll finish with the cost-curve. Are we bending the cost curve down or are we bending the cost curve up? Well, if you look at your own chief actuary at Medicare, we’re bending it up. He’s claiming that we’re going up $222 billion — adding more to the unsustainable fiscal situation we have.
And so when you take a look at this, it’s really deeper than the deficits or the budget gimmicks or the actuarial analysis. There really is a difference between us. And we’ve been talking about how much we agree on different issues, but there really is a difference between us. And it’s basically this: We don’t think the government should be in control of all of this. We want people to be in control. And that, at the end of the day, is the big difference.
Now, we’ve offered lots of ideas all last year, all this year, because we agree the status quo is unsustainable. It’s got to get fixed. It’s bankrupting families. It’s bankrupting our government. It’s hurting families with preexisting conditions. We all want to fix this. But we don’t think that this is the answer to the solution. And all of the analysis we get proves that point.
Now, I will just simply say this — and I respectfully disagree with the Vice President about what the American people are or are not saying, or whether we’re qualified to speak on their behalf. So we are all representatives of the American people. We all do town hall meetings. We all talk to our constituents. And I’ve got to tell you, the American people are engaged. And if you think they want a government takeover of health care, I would respectfully submit you’re not listening to them.
So what we simply want to do is start over, work on a clean sheet of paper, move through these issues step by step, and fix them and bring down health care costs and not raise them. And that’s basically the point.
Observation:

Mr President! It is Republicans strategy to oppose the Bill i.e. American people and costs and try to keep upper hand:

“Look, we agree on the problem here, and the problem is health inflation is driving us off of a fiscal cliff.”

“Medicaid is growing at 21 percent this year. It’s suffocating state’s budgets.”

“I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficit either now or in future.”

“And if you take a look at these CBO analyses, analysis from your chief actuary, I think it’s very revealing. The Bill does not control costs. This Bill does not reduce deficit.”

“………. The Bill has 10 years of tax increases……..”

“…… it takes $52 billion in higher Social Security tax revenues and counts them as offset…….”

“…… what this Bill does is treats Medicare like a piggy bank….”

“…..the full 10 – year cost of this Bill has a $460 billion deficit….”

“….. I finish with the ‘Cost Curve’. Are we bending the cost curve down or we bending the ‘Cost Curve’ up….”

“…..We don’t think the government should be in control of this. We want people to be in control”

“…..And if you think they want a government takeover of Healthcare, I would respectfully submit you’re not listening to them….”

“….. so what we simply want to do is start over, work on a clean sheet of paper.

CONGRESSMAN BOEHNER: Republican

So, Mr. President, what we’ve been saying for a long time is, let’s scrap the bill. Let’s start with a clean sheet of paper on those things that we can’t agree on. Let’s take a step-by-step approach that will bring down the cost of health insurance in America, because if we bring down the cost of health insurance, we can expand access.
Mr. President, I told you the day after — maybe it was the day you were sworn in as President, that I would never say anything outside of the room that I wouldn’t say inside the room. I’ve been patient. I’ve listened to the debate that’s going on here. But why can’t we agree on those insurance reforms that we’ve talked about? Why can’t we come to an agreement on purchasing across state lines? Why can’t we do something about the biggest cost driver, which is medical malpractice and the defensive medicine that doctors practice? Let’s start with a clean sheet of paper and we can actually get somewhere and we can get it into law here in the next several months.
Observation:

Mr President! It is Republicans strategy to oppose the Bill i.e. American people and costs and try to keep upper hand:

“So, Mr. President, what we’ve been saying for a long time is, let’s scrap the bill.”

“……..I’ve been patient…….”

“Why can’t we do something about the biggest cost driver, which is medical malpractice……..”

REPRESENTATIVE COOPER: (Democrat)

Paul Ryan is right again and Tom Coburn is right when they point out that we’re probably wasting a third of medical spending. Medicare alone is $37 trillion in the hole. And that means for all the folks who want to talk tough and not vote tough — that’s not good enough. It means that for all the folks who want to do this next year or next decade or leave it to their successor — that’s not good enough.
So I hope the American people are watching because — and they’re going to be watching after the cameras are turned off, too. And I’m thankful you called this meeting because this is a moment of truth for our country, and together we can solve this problem.
We’ve had some examples of how we’ve behaved recently — a wonderful bipartisan measure, the Conrad/Gregg bill, completely bipartisan for years and a bipartisan, fiscal responsibility commission. Was brought up for a vote in the Senate; we had the 60 votes, but only 53 people showed up for work. Seven people who had been original co-sponsors of that measure suddenly got different ideas when the moment of truth came.
Observation:

Mr President! Congressman Cooper highlighted the lack of co – operation from Republicans:

“….It means that for all the folks who want to do this next year or next decade or leave it to their successor — that’s not good enough……”

“…….. and they’re going to be watching after the cameras are turned off, too………”

“was brought up for a vote in the Senate; we had the 60 votes, but only 53 people showed up. Seven people who had been original co-sponsors of that measure suddenly got different ideas when the moment of truthcame.”

SENATOR McCAIN:

Thank you, Mr. President. I say to my friend from North Dakota, none of us want to do nothing — but we do want to start over. And we’ve just had a discussion about the 800,000 carveout and all of the other special deals and special interests that were included in this bill, which is more than offensive. But I want to talk about one specific issue on deficit reduction and that is medical malpractice reform.
Observation:

Mr President! It is Republicans strategy to oppose the Bill i.e. American people and costs and try to keep upper hand:

“…….but we do want to start over …..”

“………on deficit reduction and that is medical malpractice reform…..”
And I would just like to finally mention one other thing. There’s an issue that’s overhanging this entire conversation — we all know what it is. It’s whether the Majority Leader of the Senate will impose the “reconciliation,” the 51 votes. Now, having been in the majority and the minority — I prefer the majority — I understand the frustration that the majority feels when they can’t get their agenda through, and it’s real and I understand it and I have some sympathy.
But I remember, and I think you do too, Mr. President, the last time when there was a proposal that we Republicans in the majority would adopt a 51-vote majority on the issue of the confirmation of judges. There was a group of us that got together, said, no, that’s not the right way to go because that could deal a fatal blow to the unique aspect of the United States Senate, which is a 60 vote majority. And then we came to an agreement and it was brought to a halt.
Observation:

Mr President! Republicans did not want that the Healthcare Reform Bill should be passed. As you did not have 60 votes in the Senate and then there was no alternative other than to have the Bill passed through “Reconciliation” i.e. simple majority of 51 votes, the Senator wanted to block this option:

“……It’s whether the Majority Leader of the Senate will impose the “reconciliation,” the 51 votes……..”
Now, both of us during the campaign promised change in Washington. In fact, eight times you said that negotiations on health care reform would be conducted with the C-SPAN cameras. I’m glad more than a year later that they are here. Unfortunately, this product was not produced in that fashion. It was produced behind closed doors. It was produced with unsavory — I say that with respect — deal-making: the Louisiana Purchase, fining them $300 million for one state; the “Cornhusker Kickback,” which has, I understand now, been done away with.
Observation:

Mr President! The Senator want to give impression to the American people that Healthcare Reform Bill was framed behind closed doors and they were not consulted:

“…… Unfortunately, this product was not produced in that fashion. It was produced behind closed doors. ……

SENATOR BARRASSO: Repblican

Thank you very much, Mr. President. For people who don’t know me, I practiced medicine in Casper, Wyoming for 25 years as an orthopedic surgeon, taking care of families in Wyoming. I’ve been the chief of staff at the largest hospital in our state. My wife is a breast cancer survivor. Bobbi has been through three operations, a couple of bouts of chemotherapy. We’ve seen this from all the different sides of care.
And this discussion needs to be about all Americans because everyone is affected, not just people that don’t have insurance. And I’ve had dozens and dozens of visits to senior centers and town hall meetings, and visited at service clubs, and if you go to any community in America and you ask the question, “Do you believe that this bill up here — that this bill, if it becomes law, do you believe you will pay more for your health care, you personally?” Every hand goes up. And then you say, “Do you believe if this bill becomes law, overall health care in this spending — its spending in the country will go up?” Every hand goes up. And then you ask the most personal question of all, “Do you believe if this bill becomes law, the quality of your personal care will get worse?” Every hand goes up.
And most worried of all are the seniors, when you go to the senior centers, because they know there’s going to be $500 billion taken away from those who depend upon Medicare for their health care, and it’s not just Medicare Advantage. It’s hospitals; it’s the doctors; it’s the nursing homes; it’s home health, which is a lifeline for people that are home alone; it’s hospice, for people in their final days of life. That’s all going to be cut. That’s why the seniors are most concerned.
And even the White House own actuary if this goes into play, one in five hospitals, one in five nursing homes will be operating at a loss in 10 years. That’s what we’re looking at.
Now, for 25 years practicing medicine I never asked anybody if they were a Republican or a Democrat or an independent; didn’t ask if they had insurance or not; took care of everybody. And many, many doctors — I know Dr. Coburn, Dr. Boustany — do that, we take care of everyone, regardless of ability to pay. Doctors work long hours; nurses work long hours.
And, Mr. President, when you say with catastrophic plans, they don’t go for care until later, I say sometimes the people with catastrophic plans are the people that are best consumers of health care in using the way they use their health care dollars, because a lot of people come in and say, my knee hurts, maybe I should get an MRI, they say, and then they say, will my insurance cover it? That’s the first question. And if I say yes, then they say, okay, let’s do it. If I say, no, then they say, well, what will it going to cost? And what’s it cost ought to be the first question. And that’s why sometimes people with catastrophic problem — catastrophic health plans ask the best questions, shop around, are the best consumers of health care.
But to put 15 million more people on Medicaid, a program where many doctors in the country do not see them, as Senator Grassley said — you know, you say, how are you going to help those folks? And, Mr. President, when I talk to doctors, they say, I have a way: Put all the doctors who take care of Medicaid patients under the Federal Torts Claim Act. That will help them, because they’re not getting paid enough to see the patients. But if Medicare — if they accept those patients and then their liability insurance is covered under the Federal Tort Claims Act, I think you’d have a lot more participation in that program.
I do believe we have the best health care system in the world. That’s why the premier of one of the Canadian provinces came here just last week to have his heart operated on. He said, “It’s my heart, it’s my life. I want to go where it’s the best.” And he came to the United States. It’s where a member of parliament — a Canadian member of parliament with cancer came to the United States for her care. They all have coverage there, but what they want is care — so coverage does not equal care.
What we heard from Senator Conrad is also right. Half of all the money we spend in this country on health care is on just 5 percent of the people. Those are people, for the most part, that eat too much, exercise too little, and smoke. And as a result, we need to focus on those people. So the focus ought to be on the best possible care. People are happy with the quality of care they get, the availability, but they sure don’t like the affordability because it’s not affordable.
And, you know, Mr. President, the first week in medical school we got our stethoscopes and the professor of cardiology, who just died this past year, he said, this is to listen. This is to listen to your patients — listen to their heart, listen to their lungs, but it’s a constant reminder to listen to them, listen to what they are telling you. And it means to listen to the other people in the room. If you’re seeing a child, listen to what the mother is saying. If you’re with an elderly person, listen to what their adult child is saying. And it’s a constant reminder to listen.
- And I have great concerns that people around this table are not listening to the American people and are fearful of the consequences of this large bill, which is why only one in three people in America support what is being proposed here. And that’s why so many people, Mr. President, are saying it’s time to start over.
Observation:
Mr President! It is Republicans strategy to oppose the Bill i.e. American people and costs and try to keep upper hand:

“……And this discussion needs to be about all Americans…..

“…..Do you believe if this Bill becomes law, the quality of your personal care will get worse? Every hand goes up….”

“……That’s all going to be cut. That’s why seniors are most concerned……”

“one in five hospitals, one in five nursing home will be operating at a loss in 10 years……”

“….will my insurance cover……..”

“……What will it going to cost…….”

“……What we heard from Senator Conrad is also right. Half of the money we spend in this country on Healthcare is just 5 per cent of the people…….”

“…..people around this table are not listening to the American people……”

“…..which why only one in three people in America support what is being proposed here…..”

“….And that’s why so many people, Mr President, are saying it’s time to start over….”

REPRESENTATIVE ROSKAM: (Republican)

And it wasn’t just a bumper sticker — I think they were actually hopeful about what was going to be happening. And they listened and they listened and they listened. And my sense — now, I can’t speak for every one of your districts, but in my district they’ve become increasing disappointed with what they have seen come out of this process.
I’ll tell you what, a year’s worth of work and this is what has come up with? The American public, as far as the ones that I have heard from, are vehemently opposed to this. And they say, look, take the Etch A Sketch, go like this, let’s start over, let’s do incremental things where there’s common ground. I yield back.
Observation:

Mr President! It is Republicans strategy to oppose the Bill i.e. American people and costs and try to keep upper hand:

“…..The American public, as far as the ones that I have heard from, are vehemently opposed to this……

REPRESENTATIVE BARTON:

So what we’re saying, Mr. President — we’re not talking about incrementalism. We’re talking about, as Leader Boehner said and Mr. McConnell — Senator McConnell said, let’s start over in the sense that we change the vision and work together to do the things that we agree upon, but do it in a way that doesn’t destroy the fundamental market system that’s made the American health care system the best in the world. And if we do that, we can make a deal.
Observation:

Mr President! It is Republicans strategy to oppose the Bill i.e. American people and costs and try to keep upper hand:

“…….let’s start over in the sense that we change the vision and work together to do the things that we agree upon…..”

SENATOR COBURN:

If we don’t think about what the key goal is — the key goal is to reconnect purchase and payment so we become good purchasers. Whether we create — what system we do, if we don’t reconnect the mechanism of payment with purchase, we’re not going to get good value out of our health care system. And I outlined one out of every three dollars that doesn’t help anybody get well, doesn’t prevent them from getting sick. And there’s enough potential there in that pool of money that we don’t have to have the government run it. What in fact we can do is we can create and allow that money for everybody to have the kind of access that Senator Murray wants that individual to have.
The thing that I think is — draws us apart is the level of involvement in the government in making those choices. And I would just put forward to you that we ought to have another talk like this as we can get closer and closer on some ideas because we all want the same thing, but how we get there, whether or not we’re in charge of it or the individual patient is in charge of it, personally making their own choices with the asset value that is capable, based on what we’re already spending in health care. We don’t need to spend a penny more in health care in this country. What we need to do is spend it much more wisely and much more effectively.
Observation:

Mr President! It is Republicans strategy to oppose the Bill i.e. American people and costs and try to keep upper hand:

“…..And I would just put forward to you that we ought to have another talk like this as we can get closer and closer on some ideas because we all want the same thing……”

PRESIDENT:

Medical malpractice has been mentioned. Now, look, let me be honest. This is something historically that Democrats have been more resistant to than Republicans. I will note that when we had a Republican President and Republican control of the House and Republican control of the Senate,
somehow it didn’t happen, and I’m surprised, but we —
SENATOR ALEXANDER: We needed 60 votes in the Senate, too, Mr. President. (Laughter.)
There were criticisms about the public option; that’s when supposedly there was going to be a government takeover of health care, and even after the public option wasn’t available, we still hear the same rhetoric. And it turns out that what we’re now referring to is we have an argument about how much we should regulate the insurance industry.
The point that Tom Harkin made, the point that Chris Dodd made, the point that Henry made, and a number of other people made, I think is very important to understand. I did not propose and I don’t think any of the Democrats proposed something complicated just for the sake of being complicated. We’d love to have a five-page bill. It would save an awful lot of work. The reason we didn’t do it is because it turns out that baby steps don’t get you to the place where people need to go. They need help right now.
And finally, with respect to bending the cost curve, we actually have a lot of agreement here. This is an area where if I sat down with Tom Coburn I suspect we could agree on 95 percent of the things that have to be done. Because the things you talk about in terms of — and I wrote some of them down — in terms of reducing medical errors, in terms of incentivizing doctors to coordinate better and work in groups better, in terms of price transparency, improving prevention — those are all things that not only do I embrace but we’ve included every single one of those ideas in these bills.
I will end by saying this. I suspect that if the Democrats and the administration were willing to start over and then adopt John Boehner’s bill, we’d get a whole bunch of Republican votes. And I don’t know how many Democratic votes we’d get, but we’d get a whole bunch of Republican votes.
Observation:

Mr President! You have summed up the debate by highlighting that Republicans have just pointed out the areas which needed to be reformed. The Bill which have been produced embraces a lot which Republicans have pointed out. So, on this basis the Republicans should not have objected upon the Bill. As below are extracts of your remarks:

“…..There were criticisms about the public option; that’s when supposedly there was going to be a government takeover of health care, and even after the public option wasn’t available, we still hear the same rhetoric. ….”

“…….I did not propose and I don’t think any of the Democrats proposed something complicated just for the sake of being complicated. …….”

“……..And finally, with respect to bending the cost curve, we actually have a lot of agreement here……”

“….In terms of reducing medical errors, in terms of incentivizing doctors to coordinate and work in groups better, in terms of price transparency, improving prevention – those are all things that not only do I embrace but we’ve included every single one of those in these Bills.

CONCLUSION

Mr President! I believe the above observations in respect of the remarks of the Republicans clearly depict that GOP was determined that the Healthcare Reform Bill must not get passed. Even though it has passed, they are making every effort to repeal it and it is part of their manifesto.

Mr President! The object of analysis of your speeches, remarks and healthcare Bill is that they only way you can win back the votes of the American people is to bring before the American people that Republicans are listening to the people of Wall Street and Insurance companies and not to middle class and low – income people.

Mr President! The American people have to be told that this Global Recession which has become the cause of job losses, foreclosures, bankruptcies, liquidations are due to the policies of Republicanswhich the want to hide by the slogans:

job loses
foreclosures
broken promises
no outcome of the policies.

Mr President!

The ball is in your court.

Mr President! I listen to your speeches. You deal with these aspects. But you have to deal with these aspects by advertisements likewise Republicans have been doing through ‘Pledge’. I am based in England. My only source of information is MSNBC and Whitehouse.Gov. I do not have TV. So I am not aware what types of advertisements are displayed by Democrats. However, those do not appear to be effective because the polls are showing that Republicans are likely to win the majority in both houses. However, if the data uploaded on the email: cfpmidtermelection@gmail.com with password: democrats. Is exploited then there is hope that Democrat supporters will revert and also the voters who are undecided. At the same time Tea Party movement will also see the policies of Democrats from a different angle and Republicans will lose the support of Tea Party movement.

May Allah be with you

Wa’Assalam

[May Allah Bless you]

PS:

Americans

And

People all over the world!

Please express your remarks on the following email:

Email: cfpcommentsmidterm@gmail.com

Password: democrats

europosud.ua

Primary Links

Profile

Sponsorship