Worst Argument Against Health Care Reform Ever.

Megan McArdle rants on BloggingHeads Tv that health care reform will kill people. McArdle gives the libertarian argument that health care reform will kill the competion for innovative new drugs. Mark Schmitt literally laughs at her argument.

Obama's health care plan does not kill private pharmacuitical companies. McArdle fails to understand market is created by demand. There will always be sick and terminally ill patients. The demand for current and new drugs is there during economic prosperous and weak times. The pharmacuitical industry couldn't have a better market. Medicine is not a luxury item. People need it to live.

The Bush administration hindered choice and competition. President Bush refused to allow cheaper drugs to come from Canada. Senator Orrin Hatch explain if we import drugs the terrorist wins.

Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, said, ''If this proposal becomes law, we are just placing our country in the hands of foreign terrorists who could easily get hold of various prescription drug products and spread desolation and disease.''

That is a silly argument. The FDA can screen the drugs. No one is arguing to have unsafe drugs enter the country. It is amazing Republicans are arguing against free trade and competition. Not so amazing considering what pharmacuitical companies spent contributing to the Republican Party during the 2004 and 2006 campaign cycles. Conservative ideology for free markets takes a backseat to lobbyists.

I'm not suprised McArdle would argue against health care reform. She defended accused murderer Scott Roeder and professed her crush on Bobby Jindal. There is no reason to expect McArdle to make a rationale argument. What I don't understand is why anyone would pay her to blog?

Obama & Dean Using Netroots

President Barack Obama is using is vast netroots coalition to mobilize support for his budget. Obama is asking supporters to call Congress and to canvass your neighborhood.



Howard Dean founded Democracy for America. The PAC changed the way political campaigns are run. Dean is using DFA to drum up support for Obama's health care plan.

DFA has a petition to voice support for universal health care.

This Cracks Me Up

My God! How stupid are Florida Legislature Republicans? The Obama stimulus package will update medical records by putting records onto computer files. I can understand conservatives having concerns about privacy issues. But what the hell was Rep. D. Alan Hays thinking when he uttered this nonsense?

"It sounds like a crack deal" that would hook middle-school students," Hays said.

I never heard of anyone becoming addicted to medical records. Perhaps Mr. Hays knows of some 12 step programs he can refer people to. We don't want our kids smoking computerized medical records.

Howard Dean Pitches Obama's Health Care Plan

Howard Dean went on Hardball to discuss Barack Obama's health care proposal. There is no official bill. Tom Daschle was to be Obama's health care point man. Daschle's nomination went down in flames. Daschle failed to pay $128,000 in taxes. On Daschle's nomination: Obama admitted, "I screwed up."

Obama's campaign health care proposal lacks specifics. Obama will have the health care industry join the nineties by keeping patient files computerized. Another issue that needs to be addressed is more competition amongst pharmacal companies to lower the price of medicine. Bush promised, in 2004, to end the ban against pharmacal drugs from Canada. Matt Yglesias notes Bush never ended the ban. Wal-Mart lowered prescription drugs prices by buying in bulk. Bush made it law the federal government could not negotiate by buying in bulk.

The Medicare prescription drug law specifically bans the federal government from negotiating bulk discounts on drugs even though the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs saves 50 percent and more off the list price of drugs it purchases for veterans as a result of bulk purchasing. Therefore, a larger share of the $400 million earmarked over the next ten years for the Medicare drug program will pay for overpriced drugs and drug company profits.

What is good enough for Wal-Mart is not good enough for the free market advocate Bush.

The Obama plan sounds a lot like the John Kerry 2004 plan. Kerry pitched lowering health care costs and giving health care recipients a choice of health care provider. The Kerry plan would be similar to health care coverage members of Congress receive.

KERRY: The fact is that my health-care plan, America, is very simple. It gives you the choice. I don't force you to do anything. It's not a government plan. The government doesn't require you to do anything. You choose your doctor. You choose your plan. If you don't want to take the offer of the plan that I want to put forward, you don't have do. You can keep what you have today, keep a high deductible, keep high premiums, keep a high co-pay, keep low benefits. Here's what I do: We take over Medicaid children from the states so that every child in America is covered. And in exchange, if the states want to-they're not forced to, they can choose to-they cover individuals up to 300 percent of poverty. It's their choice.

My problem with Obama is his lack of health care policy details. Obama is urging quick action on health care. With Obama's approval ratings, the time is now. It would help if Obama actually had a health care point man.

Florida Republicans Make Medicaid & KidCare Suffer

Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist have left KidCare underfunded. Bush lost $20 million in federal funds for KidCare. Bush intentionally let KidCare funding die. The waiting list for children with medical needs was over 700,000. Parents were greeted with the answering machine message: "It is not possible to tell you where your child is on the wait list or how soon he or she will be enrolled."

Barack Obama's stimulus package may not help Florida KidCare. The state is eligible for $33 billion. The problem is Florida has to match $1 billion for every $2 billion in federal funds. In 2007, Kathy Castor urged Crist to call a special session for KidCare. Crist let Senate President Ken Pruitt let KidCare die in session. The Republican Pruitt blamed KidCare not passing on it's supporters.

"The Senate has been vilified about this, and that's okay, " Pruitt said. "But this didn't happen in the Florida Senate. It's just these providers and these groups finally got together to come up with an agreement, which they didn't, and the process we have here gave them ample time to do it."

How has the Republican-led Florida Senate "been vilified?" Does the GOP want to be known as the party that is against child heath care? Michelle Malkin's attacks on Graeme Frost showed utter insensitively. Republicans demonize children, but support CEO pay raises. Talk about fucked-up priorities.

We now learn Florida is not likely to receive funding for Medicaid.

And Crist's budget writers are going to have to deal with some troublesome details.

For example, the bill provides $87 billion nationally for Medicaid, the federal-state program that pays for medical care for the sick, elderly and poor. Medicaid enrollment in Florida is up by more than 10 percent.

But to qualify for the money, states are required to maintain the same level of Medicaid coverage that they provided in July.

Cut Medicaid as enrollment increases. That was bound to bite Crist and Republicans in the ass. Republicans did health care on the cheap.

"Most of the things in there require us to spend more money in order to get more money," Amy Baker explain, coordinator of the Legislature's Office of Economic and Demographic Research. "So there are going to be hard decisions to make."

Crist and the Florida legislature may have to increase state funding for Medicaid. Florida is in a fiscal deficit. That solution is unlikely.

Policy people need to understand how Florida got into the current health care crisis. The message should be citizens will not tolerate poor health care policies. Preventive health care saves lives and money. Crist and fellow Republican's may have to borrow money to receive Medicaid and KidCare funds. The money would have to be paid back with interest. Fiscally, Republicans counter productive health care policies cost the taxpayer more. Enough is enough.

Florida KidCare In Shambles

Jeb Bush refused to fund Florida KidCare. 90,000 children with medical needs were placed on a waiting list. Florida lost $20 million in federal matching funds. Gov. Charlie Crist had a chance to lead on KidCare and passed.

The stimulus package offers $33 billion for KidCare. The problem is once again matching funds. Florida will get $2 billion for billion billion budgeted into KidCare. State Sen. Nan Rich is hoping to divert Medicaid into KidCare. It is uncertain if that will be allowed.

The St. Petersburg Times editorial board weighs in on KidCare.

Obama Keeps Promise On SCHIP

President Barack Obama fulfills his promise to expand coverage of SCHIP. The State Children's Health Insurance Program pays for the health care of poor children. President George W. Bush twice vetoed SCHIP expansion. Obama sign SCHIP into law today.

By doing so, the new president said, "we fulfill one of the highest responsibilities that we have: to ensure the health and well-being of our nation's children. It's a responsibility that's only grown more urgent as our economic crisis deepens, with health care costs that have exploded, and millions of working families are unable to afford health insurance."

SCHIP hater Michelle Malkin made a blacklist of Republicans that voted for SCHIP. Did it occur to Malkin that GOP candidates don't want to run against children's health care? With apologies to On-my-soap-box and alaskangrizzly, Malkin commenters aren't the entire electorate.

Michael Steele: Living Proof Government Creates Jobs

"Not in the history of mankind has the government ever created a job."

Michael Steele

Apparently, Mr. Steele believes the private sector created his former position as Lieutenant Governor of Maryland. Steele would not hold the RNC chair, if fellow anti-government conservatives weren't trying to win public office. Steele benefitted more than most from government job creation.

I find it amusing people who ran for government believe government does not create jobs. John McCain spent his adult life on public health care. The Maverick's policies would make it less affordable for companies to supply health care. Workers would be pushed to find their own health packages.

Public health care is good enough for McCain, but not the American people. Steele has no problem receiving a check from a government job. By his strange logic, the government shouldn't should attempt to create jobs. This goes beyond ideology. Steele's and McCain's "it is only good enough for me" attitudes reeks of hypocrisy.



Paul Krugman provides a graph showing the disparity between George W. Bush' and Bill Clinton's disparity in job cration. The Clinton years added 22.7 million jobs. Bush has the worst job growth rate of any modern president. Private sector job growth was a mere 0.14 percent.

The Drowning Pool

My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

Grover Norquist

Wayne Garcia writes about how Republicans will rather let education, health care and job training go to hell than raise taxes.

So instead of leaving all options on the table, Republicans leaders such as the ethically challenged House Speaker Ray Sansom want, instead, to continue slicing services and raising trust funds to make up the $2.1 billion shortfall.

For K-12 and higher education, already reeling from a devastating round of cuts last year, it likely means another 2 percent cut. A sign of how bad things are could be seen in a news story that recently trumpeted how education officials were simply glad they weren't looking at the 4 percent cut that most other state services face. Even workforce education programs, which should be key to our economic development, would lose $8.4 million in Gov. Charlie Crist's proposed cuts. We've got hundreds of thousands of newly out-of-work residents and less money to get them back into productive, taxpaying jobs.

In health care, we're failing as well. The state Department of Health recently issued a report that warns of a mounting doctor shortage. A national study gave the state a C- for access to emergency care, and we're third in the nation for mass layoffs in the health care industry.

Florida Senate President Jeff Atwater told his colleagues the state is experiencing record home foreclosures, food stamp recipients and unemployment.

"The gravity of the current fiscal situation is clear," Atwater, a North Palm Beach Republican, told the Senate. "We are simply spending money we do not have."

Messege: Floridians are hurting and don't expect the legislature a helping hand. From a merely political standpoint, this is suicide for the Republican Party of Florida. I knew Republicans were out of touch when they applauded Ray Sanson and described him as "statesmanlike." Sansom is not Nixon coming back from his historic visit to China.

When times are bad people look for the goverment to help. People without health care don't care about the economic philosophies of Milton Friedman. People go to a restaurant and expect good service. Not for the management to tell them to cook their own food. You pay to see a movie. You don't want the manager to give you a lecture about how he is living in his means by not fixing the projector. Florida Republicans are cutting services and expect to keep their jobs. Not fucking likely.

The Healthcare Vote

Healthcare is an issue that made staunch Christian conservative Republican Lauren Miller vote for Barack Obama.

"I said, 'Lord, I'm not hearing you right. I just know you're not telling me to vote for a Democrat,'" she said.

The tipping point? This morning, before going to the polls, she went to her doctor's office for an annual checkup -- and discovered that her health insurance wouldn't cover the visit. That made her furious. Her father was a doctor. Both parents were Republican. But she pays nearly $400 a month in premiums and sees little return.

Miller went to her doctor today. She found out her health insurance wouldn't cover her yearly checkup. Miller had enough and voted for Obama.

"When that thing happened at the doctor's office," she said, "it was like a sign from the Lord. He said, 'Did you hear that one, Lauren? Did you hear me that time?'"

Conpassionate conservatism doesn't care about healthcare. We will finally get real healthcare reform when people catch on.

Wonky Health Care Post

The McCain campaign web site contains more on border security than health care. McCain's "vision for health care reform" is only worthy of a single paragraph.

We want a system of health care in which everyone can afford and acquire the treatment and preventative care they need. Health care should be available to all and not limited by where you work or how much you make. Families should be in charge of their health care dollars and have more control over care.

The McCain web site doesn't include health care in the drop menu of issues. The actual health care page does has not have a plan. Visitors are greeted with a short McCain video talking about giving tax credits. Those tax credits don't help people below the poverty line (who pay no taxes) or sick people that can't find a health care provider. The great irony is McCain has been on public health care his adult life; as a Navy veteran and as a member of Congress.

The Des Moines Register editorial board questioned McCain about having public health care.

"You know that's an interesting statement, isn't it? And I have never been an astronaut, but I think I know the challenges of space. And I have never done a lot of things in my life that I think I am familiar with. I've always been a free enterprise person who thinks that families make the best decisions for themselves and their future...so the answer is that most of my life, in serving my country I have had health care. I did go a period of time where the health care wasn't very good."

McCain can't be unsatisfied with public health care since he is still a recipient. The Maverick feels what works for him doesn't work for the American people. The Chutzpah of McCain's position is staggering.

The free market Maverick wants to end the tax breaks for employers offering health care.

The crux of McCain's healthcare plan is to end a tax break for employers who provide health insurance premiums now utilized by many workers. That would be replaced with a tax credit worth as much as $5,000 per family for the purchase of health insurance. McCain would also promote cost controls and competition among insurance companies. He has also joined with Democrats to support legislation that would allow the purchase of prescription drugs from Canada.

Employers would have less incentive to offer health care. Workers would have to get health care from the market and hope a provider will give them coverage. Many employees will be left without health care. These so-called free market principles are actually a way for health care companies to shed coverage and raise prices. Columbia University Health Policy and Management Sherry A. Glied why this is a explains why this is a horrible idea.

The reality is that providing coverage through nongroup plans is much more costly than providing that coverage through groups. Administrative expenses are twice as high in nongroup markets as in group markets. The costs are higher because insurers in this market spend considerable resources on medical underwriting, and economies of scale are lost. It is much more expensive to sell insurance to millions of individuals one individual at a time than it is to sell to a much smaller number of employer groups, each comprising thousands of employees. For a typical family that moves from group to individual coverage, therefore, the move to nongroup insurance will raise premiums for an identical policy by more than $2,000 per year. Shifting people into the nongroup market would not save money for most Americans. Rather, it would lead to increased spending on administrative costs and a decrease in the portion of health spending that actually goes to providing care.

McCain's plan gives a health care tax credit the rich and lacks details on how health care costs can be brought down. A person only receives the tax credit if he or she purchases health care. That doesn't help people that can't afford health care. Harvard health policy and economics Professor Mary Carmichael did an estimate of McCain's health care proposal.

My colleagues and I have predicted that around 21 million people in the first year would lose access to health insurance because their employers would stop offering it. About 21 million higher-income people would take the tax credits and buy their own insurance. So it would be a wash in the first year. We worry that within five years, more employers would stop offering insurance, and we'd end up with more people uninsured than there are now.

The John Edwards plans offered the most wonkish solution to dealing with health care costs. The Edwards solution is shared financial resonsibility between the public and private sectors, tax credits and regulation on health care premiums. Another good plan came from John Kerry's 2004 campaign. Kerry focused on lower the cost for people with health insurance premiums paid by employers and employees.

Kerry's catastrophic-illness relief plan is the only new health care proposal -- and the most expensive -- of this campaign season. It marks the first time in 12 years that a political leader has attempted to reorient the insurance market away from dodging the costliest patients and in the direction of implementing higher quality of care.

The concept of a national reinsurance pool has garnered support from a wide spectrum of players from labor unions and former Vermont governor Howard Dean on the left to former House speaker Newt Gingrich and former Bush economic adviser R. Glenn Hubbard on the right.

I have read the Barack Obama plan. I'm unsure how the Obama plan would be paid off. I don't expect the Obama campaign to address that question during an election. Carmichael and and a Health Affairs pound the point that Obama isn't being upfront about the cost. Judging by Obama not fighting offshore drilling and warrantless wiretapping; it is doubtful President Obama would battle Congress for his own health care plan.

Obama's plan is not universal health care and political pandering. McCain's plan is dangerous.

McCain on Women's Heath Issues

Planned Parenthood asked citizens where does John McCain stand on women's health issues. People were shocked to find out the Straight Talker is against such things as insurance companies covering birth control pills. Exactly how does that make McCain a maverick from other Republicans? Someone should ask McCain fan Chris Matthews.

Health Care Workers Against John McCain

Change America Now will hold an event today at the Grand Hyatt, Tampa Bay. Health care advocates will discuss their problems with John McCain's positions on health care. McCain supports President Bush's veto against SCHIP.

Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, told CNN Wednesday he agrees with President Bush's veto of legislation expanding a children's health insurance program, saying the bill provided a "phony smoke and mirrors way of paying for it."

"Right call by the president," the Republican White House hopeful told CNN's John King.

That is the kind of straight talk the Maverick is now being taken to task for.

WHO: Nurses, healthcare professionals and advocates and families concerned about the healthcare mess in America

WHAT: Press Conference Responding to McCain Healthcare Remarks in Tampa and Calling on Him to Support Expanding SCHIP and overturning Bush Administration Efforts to Slash Medicaid by $13 Billion

WHEN: Tuesday, April 29th at 12:00 PM, ET

WHERE: Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay
2900 Bayport Dr.
The ‘PELICAN’ Room
Tampa FL 33607

John Edwards Gets His Wonk On

What I love about John Edwards is he is running such a wonkish campaign. That probably won't make a great deal of difference to the voters. But it is refreshing to see a presidential candidate make clear policy proposals.

Edwards stated why NAFTA has been a disaster.

He focused his day on an aggressively un-flashy subject, the 14th anniversary of the passage of NAFTA, condemning the deal as a "particularly clear example of... big corporate powers getting exactly what they want in Washington, at the cost of over a million American jobs and incredible damage to the middle class in this country."

I'm more sympathic to free trade. One reason is so developing countries can lift themselves out of poverty. Longtime NAFTA proponent Brad DeLong notes that the agreement has not helped many Mexicans out of poverty. Wages have not kept pace with the nation's productivity.



Edwards outlined his College for Everyone plan.

Creating a National "College for Everyone" Initiative: Edwards will create a national initiative – based on the Greene County program – to pay one year of public-college tuition, fees, and books for more than 2 million students. In return, students will be required to work part-time in college, take a college-prep curriculum in high school, and stay out of trouble.

Overhauling the Student Loan Program: Edwards will let all students borrow directly from the Department of Education. By eliminating bank subsidies on student loans, he will free up billions of dollars to make college more affordable.

Simplifying Financial Aid: Edwards would dramatically simplify the application process by using information the federal government already has, eliminating two-thirds of the questions.

Giving Students the Tools They Need to Apply for College and Aid: Edwards will help every low-income high school eligible for Title I hire a new college counselor, helping students choose college-track courses and navigate the admissions and financial aid process.

Financial aid has become a corrupt system that enriches universities and lending companies at the expense of students. Conservatives make the argument that the market takes care of itself. This kind of conservative told Hebert Hoover not to do anything during the stock crash.

The 'leave-it-alone liquidationists' headed by Secretary of the Treasury Mellonfelt that government must keep its hands off and let the slump liquidate itself. Mr. Mellon had only one formula: 'Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate'.He held that even panic was not altogether a bad thing. He said: 'It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people'

Regulation is needed because human nature involves people lying, cheating and stealing from others. Lending companies don't care if students get an education. They are concerned about profit. As a society, America should be concerned it will produce a workforce that can maintain it's status as a leading industry nation.

Plan For Opportunity For All Americans is a plan to increase education spebding for prodominetly black schools and provide health care for the African American community. Edwards wants to reform criminal sentencing guidelines for non-violent offenders. The Left and libertarians will agree will that. Conservatives will frame Edwards as soft on crime.

A proposal I love is Edwards wanting to restore voting rights for felons. It's nice to know Edwards has been paying attention to what is going on in places like Florida.

Edwards believes we should allow voters to register on Election Day, ending the fiasco of purge lists, provisional ballots and voter registration intimidation, and he opposes voter photo identification legislation, which disproportionately disenfranchises racial and ethnic minorities.

Stuff like this is why I haven't jumped on the Obama bandwagon. I can't stand Obama's Social Security rhetoric. The Obama campaign is now attacking Paul Krugman for pointing out that his health care proposal won't work if everyone doesn't pay into it.

And it’s not just a matter of principle. As a practical matter, letting people opt out if they don’t feel like buying insurance would make insurance substantially more expensive for everyone else.

Krugman gives Edwards props for making people require to show proof of health insurance when they go to the doctor.

Well, John Edwards has just called Mr. Obama’s bluff, by proposing that individuals be required to show proof of insurance when filing income taxes or receiving health care. If they don’t have insurance, they won’t be penalized — they’ll be automatically enrolled in an insurance plan.

That’s actually a terrific idea — not only would it prevent people from gaming the system, it would have the side benefit of enrolling people who qualify for S-chip and other government programs, but don’t know it.

Obama is proposal a shiny happy people version of universal heath care. Americans can have health care and not having to pay for it. The only problem with Obama's plan is reality.

Ric Keller SCHIP Ad

Americans United For Change is running an ad attacking Ric Keller's vote against SCHIP. This is just the beginning of Republicans are going getting hammered. Keller contempt of health care for the poor didn't end there.

Student Loan Lender Subsidy Cuts and Student Grants and the Section 8 Voucher Adjustments Act of 2007 - Nay

Section 8 Voucher Adjustments Act of 2007 - Nay

Keller voted against the bill because he wanted patients to submit citizenship documents. Keller doesn't have enough of a sense of humor to realize how Orwellian that sounds.

Lobby Jim Marshall For SCHIP

Contact Jim Marshall and tell him to vote for SCHIP.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

Budget breakdown is from The Gavel.

To the anonymous wingnuts in the comments, I am well aware that The Gavel is the official Democratic Congressional blog. For the two people who read this blog that can't comprehend, I am pro-Democratic Party. I celebrated when the Donkeys won Congress. I don't want to hear accusations of partisan bias from people that do not hold the factually-challenge Michelle Malkin to the same level of accountablity they hold political opponents.

I know wingnuts are angry at progressives for not being allowed to wage war against every third world nation, not being able to kill Bambi at will or paving over every green space because America doesn't have enough Taco Bell franchises and a host of other sins. I know it scares conservatives that the bad old days of job creation, balanced budgets, and a federal surplus might one day be at hand, again. Look on the bright side, conservatives had all three branches of the federal government. Look how well things worked out for the conservatives. Besides, that gay Republicans stumbling out of the closet business. We all know, conservatives are much more bothered with Democrats having hetrosexual sex. The Christian Right hates people having sex that do not further their political agenda.

Democratic Candidates On Health Care

American Progress has posted a video of democratic presidential candidates discussing the need for universal health care.

:: Medicare Part D: A Piece of Crap ::

This article is completely bogus.  If they were to ask the consumers under this program what they thought of it, they would get hammered.

This January, my parents were, without their knowledge or consent, enrolled in Medicare Part D rather than Part B, which they have been and consented to be enrolled in previous years.  They pay a premium for this coverage under their health plan.  Is contains coverage allotments and requirements for prescription drugs already.  Their health plan took it upon themselves to enroll everyone on their plans into Medicare Part D.  I'm sure they did this in order to save themselves money on prescription drugs covered under their Part B coverage.

We found this out when my mother went suddenly deaf in one ear mid-January.  I made her go to the doctor, which lead to specialists and prescriptions for a special viral medication.  In any case, when she went to fill this prescription, she found out from the pharmacy that her usual coverage was suspended in lieu of Medicare Part D.  So, a prescription that would have cost her $10, now cost her $91 for a weeks worth of medicine.  Yeah, a 900% cost change to my parents under Medicare Part D.  Needless to say, there has been hell to pay with their health plan provider and they are back on Part B.  Well, my mother is.  They have yet to fix my father's plan and he is two moths behind on medications he requires and refuses to buy now until this is fixed.  Not good.

So, if Medicare Part D is slowing spending on prescription drugs, it isn't because the program has negotiated good deals with the manufacturers, it's because the cost burden is put upon the person paying for the prescription medication.  Sort of a reverse insurance if you will.  Where you would have paid $10 you now pay for the majority of the drug price and the plan pays the co-pay you used to pay.  Yeah, I suspect a lot of seniors are going without critical medications necessary to prolong their lives.  Great fucking program. 

tag: health, medicare part D, medicare, prescription, drugs, healthcare, government