Posted on 08/15/2013 7:36:39 AM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network
No big huge raving fan of Gingrich anymore, but when he's right he's completely on the money:
Boston (CNN) – Former House Speaker and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich reprimanded his fellow Republicans in unusually harsh terms Wednesday, blaming GOP members of Congress for developing "zero" alternatives to President Obama's health care reform law.
(please see link for full article)
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com ...
Gov’t should get out of insurance and medical fields. Once out of the way, if you don’t like the way insurance companies operate, you can start your own company and do it the “right” way. If the market agrees w/you, you’ll make a killing. If, on the other hand, you’re a naive dummy w/pie in the sky ideas that don’t work, your business will fail.
I think that’s called the free market or something I learned about in Ancient History.
The problem with the Healthcare market *is* the government.
This is actually a huge problem, one that I have never seen discussed. It explains why the Congressional GOP won’t REALLY do anything to stop Obamacare, and also why they have no other ideas - because there ARE no other ideas.
Starting in 1965, we (I started medical school in 1972) have built a gigantic edifice of modern medical care, certainly the best in the world by far - using OPM - other people’s money - (people other than the patients or their families).
Look at the video depiction of the hospital where Vito Corleone was taken after being shot in the Godfather - that level of sophistication is what a true free market is willing to pay for. By “true free market”, what I mean is what willing patients and their families will pay out of pocket at the point of service.
Everything else - MRIs, CT scans, joint replacements, implantable pacemaker/defibrillators, mobile ICUs, heart surgery involving bypass, modern (safe) anesthesia, GI endoscopy, laparoscopic surgery, cures for lymphoma and certain leukemias - all of that would require tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket at the time of illness, and most people could not or would not do that.
Enter Medicare and Medicaid. They pay, using OPM, for ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING that we, our medical device manufacturers, and translational research can think of (and they pay for the research, too). Yes, there is excess, and yes, given the general competence of government workers, there is fraud, too.
But most of this cost is fixed and most of it is beneficial. Imagine you live in rural NH, and you wake up at 1am on a snowy night in February with chest pain. You dial 911. Within 15 minutes, there is a mobile coronary care unit in your driveway. Within 20 minutes, your EKG is sent via either a cell tower or satellite to a heart center 60 miles away. The PA in the truck has orders within a half hour to administer a cloned protein that costs $10 000 via an IV. It doesn’t work, so you roll to your local hospital helipad, where a chopper picks you up. You are at the heart center by 3am. The entire cardiac cath team meets you and goes to work. By 3:45am, they see that angioplasty is not an option, so you go down the hall to the OR, where the surgical team is waiting for you. Using a small incision and microsurgical equipment invented here in the last five years, they bypass your 95% lesion, and your heart is free of damage as you watch the sun rise.
Now, the cost of all this stuff on standby, just waiting for you or your neighbor, replicated as it is all over the country, is in the trillions. The simple overhead dwarfs the cost of the actual treatments. And all of it - every single bit of it - exists because of Congress’ promise to print or borrow enough money to pay for it, since they know people can’t pay for it themselves and are not willing to pay taxes at a level sufficient to nationalize it.
That’s what Obamacare is all about - it’s a way for Congress to escape from the cost monster that they themselves created before everything comes crashing down. And they have very cleverly offloaded the responsibility for who gets what to the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which will shortly be offloading it to hospitals and doctors.
The alternative? Go back to 1964. The guy in rural New Hampshire gets up, takes Mylanta, calls his doctor who thinks it’s too snowy to go out, and he makes it or he doesn’t. (By the way, the odds of him making it are pretty good, around 85%).
Both the Republicans and the Democrats in Congress are partners in the something for nothing fantasy, and it looks like they are going to ride it all the way down to the ground.
The purpose of the US Federal Government involving itself in the US Medical Profession is to control and take the money that people will spend on their own health issues.
Basically, the US Medical Profession is viewed as a cash-cow for the US Federal Welfare State, which currently is totally supported by selling US Debt Bonds to strangers, and thus generates 40 % of the annual debt of the Total US Federal Government.
This article demonstrates that Gingrich, Obama and Republicans are ALL supporters of using the US Medical Profession to deliver cash to the US Federal Welfare State.
For example: “ - - - President Obama also accused Republicans of having no health care plan during a White House press conference last week, a claim that was met with disdain by House Republican leaders who circulated a series of health care ideas to reporters after the president’s remarks. - - - “ is a quote from this article from this thread.
Note how easily Obama leads the Republicans into the trap of public debt to Nationalize a cash-cow from the Medical Profession.
Does “Conservative” Gingrich chastise the Republicans or Obama for decimating the Medical Profession in order to support the bottomless money pit of the US Federal Welfare State?
Does “Conservative” Gingrich instead show that he is just another supporter of unlimited Public Debt to support the failed philosophy of the US Federal Welfare State?
Which Republican will be the first to propose that the US Federal Government’s main financial problem is due to Federal involvement in Medicare, Medicaid, and Obama’care?’
Which Republican will tell Gingrich to stop promoting Federal involvement in the US Medical Profession?
Is “Conservative” Gingrich just trying to Conserve Federal involvement and control of the US Medical Profession?
Name recognition and “favorites” aside, if we are to accurately choose leaders who will lead us back onto the right track, we MUST be brutally honest about the probable effects of the ideas from these leaders.
We need to call ‘em as we see ‘em, and from what I see, Gingrich is no Conservative on the topic of the Nationization of the US Medical Profession.
What say all of you?
The basic conflict is between those who want Liberty and those who want Totalitarianism.
For over a century various names have been applied by the advocates of Totalitarianism to their groups such as “Progressive,” “Socialist,” and “Communist.”
All such names are based on the King-Slave Style of governance.
The last King-Slave System practiced in America was the Plantation System which ended in a horrific Civil War, and consequences that we are still recovering from today.
Currently, the King-Slave Model has been sold to America as a “Safety Net,” and eagerly embraced by the “47 % “ who pay no person homage to their King.
The 53 % are being led by Republicans who are afraid of EFFECTIVELY opposing the King.
Hence, we have a watershed position in time rapidly approaching where we, the 53 % who pay our personal Federal Income Taxes, must choose between changing the Leaders of the Republican Party, or continue to financially support these same cowardly “leaders.”
Partial Government control is Socialism.
There is partial Liberty with Socialism.
Total Government control is Communism.
There is no Liberty with Communism.
Conservatives are dedicated to conserving Liberty.
The Federal politicians who support whole or partial Government control are either Socialists or Communists.
Conservatives should not donate money or time to these Socialists or Communists.
Will you LEAD, follow, or get out of the way?
Our sorry Democrats and RINOs in Congress have chosen to follow as America continues to not oppose “The Man” in “The Big House” at 1600 Plantation Avenue, in the District of Corruption.
What say all of you?
Why Gingrich feels the need here to embrace the Obama/Pelosi/Reed agenda for greater centralized power, may be a subject of debate. But it is a wrong-headed approach. Not only is it illegal, it is no accident that the soaring percentage of GDP that goes for health care in America, has directly coincided with the increased Federal involvement, at least since the days of LBJ.
William Flax
Pretty simple, really. Sack Obamacare funding and leave things the way the are. No need to do anything else. Newt, and many here, have got their nickers in a twist about new ideas. New ideas cost more money. And Newt should go back to his babe and keep his mouth shut.
Well said.
What is the punishment that Congress can mete out to violations of the US Constitutions?
“What is the GOP alternative? “
Does it matter? If Republicans had a plan, the Democrats would still say there is no plan and the media will parrot that. They did it with the budget, with immigration and with everything else Republicans proposed over the last 3 years.
Since this gets into questions of interpretation, the remedy is simply not to be complicit! Defund the takeover is a good start.
I disagree.
The number one problem with the US Federal Government is that there are no longer effective “Checks and Balances.”
If violations to sworn oaths to “defend and protect the US Constitution” lack the teeth of swift punishment, then it really is time to SHUT DOWN THE US FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
We are in this horrible condition because of Presidents and Congress wanting more and more power. So they figure the way to power is to control everyone of the citizens. Rep and Dem are the same.
Get
There are only two fair choices: no government subsidies for anyone, OR everyone gets the same subsidy. Anything in between screws those that don't receive government money.
So how many Republicans (or conservatives for that matter) are going to give up their place at the Medicare trough?
Exactly. So we're stuck.
Opposition to Obamacare by some Republicans amounts to simply refusing to share a big piece of government health care cheese.
Just leave the whole thing alone and let it fix itself. From a Federal standpoint, there's no sound "alternative" to a health care system that has been a government-induced fabrication for years.
I should correct myself here. There actually IS one measure that would make the most sense and should be implemented by the Federal government immediately. This would be the elimination of the tax deductibility of medical insurance premiums at the individual level, coupled with a change in the law that would treat the payment of medical insurance premiums by employers the same way taxable bonuses are treated under the tax code.
These two steps alone would solve most of the problems we're facing as a nation -- to the extent that there are even any problems to "solve" here.
First defund Obamacare, then worry about so-called 'alternatives'. (Who says we needed alternatives anyway? Not me.)
I can sympathize with your plight, but if you were basically in a position where you were perfectly willing to buy an insurance policy but couldn’t find an insurer who wanted to do business with you, I’m not sure exactly what kind of “problem” this is from a government standpoint.
But at least they will have presented an alternative that they can defend in the media, and which will provide a comparison with Obamacare.
There's nothing "asinine" about that, for the following two reasons:
1. The insurance industry is regulated at the state level, and as such an insurance company cannot sell a policy in a state without first being licensed to do business in that state.
2. Related to #1 ... Each state has its own set of regulations, many of which include provisions that mandate coverage for various types of medical procedures.
Item #2 is particularly important because it goes a long way toward explaining why medical insurance in some states is much more expensive than in others. Some states require insurance companies to cover all kinds of medical procedures, some of which are of questionable value (chiropractic care, experimental treatments, etc.) or even downright idiotic (sex change operations, etc.).
I say leave the states alone and let them regulate the industry as they wish. That's what the Tenth Amendment says, anyway.
Obamacare has taken a hold primarily because our healthcare system is in the crapper. Hospitals are closing their doors, insurance companies are making a fortune, and medical costs are skyrocketing and arbitrary. An operation that costs thousands in one hospital can cost hundreds in another.
The system’s failure has ooened the door to Obamacare. What that will bring no one knows. If the powers that be had prevented this collapse there would be no Obamacare.
The alternative should be for the federal government to stay out of it completely. If Gingrich has lost sight of that as a goal, then he has lost sight of the proper function of government.
This is a sleight of hand that gets played out again and again. Dems come up with a plan to do something outside the proper scope of government. Repubs feel they have to come up with an "alternative" that is cheaper but in the end legitimizes the usurpation of power.
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