bad assumption.
No, we're OBSERVING a jobless discovery, dolt.
BTW, isn't Bob Shrum the guy who said to John F. Kerry (who served in Vietnam), "May I be the first to call you 'Mr. President?'"?
Yeah, he's got a great track record.
the alternative was a descent into a Clintonesque, post-1994 presidency, in which defeat on health care led to shattered authority, a lost Congress, and major initiatives that were impossible, impassable or generated by political opponents.
Sounds like a plan to me.
That is exactly how the dying media will cover it
There is no recovery Mr. Mushroom.
BS. Even Bubba recognized that it was the NRA and gun-owners that cleared out a majority of the RATs in '94.
The Shrum Curse lives.
Bob Shrum says “Looks Good!”
Now we just need John Kerry,
And Health Care is Dead.
Hey, guys... No means No!
We have a right to say “No”,
To your advances...
He’s a regular Nostradumbarse.
I guess we need to make MORE PHONE CALLS and WRITE MORE LETTERS to the Congress....seems SCHRUM hasn’t talked to the ones who have had Town Halls!!!!
Sen. John Kerry to Don Imus on RomneyCARE=HillaryCARE: "I like this health care bill".
Shrum lives in the merry old land of Oz.
I wish they would follow his lead on health care, and let it die.
My local paper editor would never let me lie in a column, but maybe this is being run in the New York Times.
Reconciliation only applies to the budget. Since the amount of money you take in and spend is a budget item, the republicans could use reconciliation to set up tax cuts, but not to decide what those cuts would be.
When they tried to set up a budget item to spend the money from leasing ANWR, the media and the democrats attacked them viciously, claiming they were subverting the reconciliation process. ANWR of course was not opened -- I can't think of any substantive legislation that made it through by reconciliation.
If you could actually make a health insurance plan that would meet these goals, the democrats might actually get enough support to pass it from americans who are too used to having everything handed to them.
The problem is you can't make insurance "more affordable" by making it mandatory unless you also use price controls, in which case it won't work.
We could have more portable insurance next week -- there is strong bi-partisan support for insurance portability. Problem is that this means throwing out 50 states worth of insurance mandates, many of which were put together by liberals. So while they SAY they want portability, the details would require the liberals to dictate the minimum standards at a national level, meaning abortion, coverage for gay couples, all the things they have fought to get into the most liberal state's required medical plans.
No plan currently proposed would cover 50 million people anyway; well, in fact they would, but the democrats are currently insisting that their plan doesn't cover illegals, which make up 10-15 million of the non-covered.
The rest would be people who wouldn't lose coverage for 4 months when they switch jobs (because of portability), and millions of young adults forced for the first time to pay thousands of dollars for health insurance they don't need -- because the democrats won't let the insurance companies price the plans based on costs, by age.
the times
Northwest Indiana
Company offers affordable health care sans insurance
Sarah Tompkins - sarah.tompkins@nwi.com - 219-836-3780 | Posted: Tuesday, September 8, 2009 12:00 am
Hoosier Healthcare co-owner Donald Kiger went to see his physician in May for an annual test. About three hours and $250 later, Kiger left the office thinking there had to be an easier way to get preventive healthcare.
“There’s a big market out there that’s not being developed,” said Kiger, company CEO and president. “We already had the clinic. We already had the experience. Why not build?”
And build he did.
Now Hoosier Healthcare’s traditional occupational health center has opened its doors to the public. Its new Health eAccess program charges $25 per month for discounted medical services, unlimited access to physicians and practitioners, and discounted prescriptions through Fagen Pharmacy. Kiger said there are no other healthcare models like Health eAccess in the Midwest.
More than 200 patients have signed up for the program since it began in June. There are now locations in Portage and Valparaiso, with plans to open additional Porter County clinics.
The program does not work with insurance companies or other middlemen. There are no deductibles, co-pays or appointments necessary. Those not part of the Health eAccess program pay $75 for a walk-in visit.
Additional services beyond office visits, such as X-rays, hearing tests and injections, cost a small fee. Kiger said the cost is much lower than at other healthcare providers, because the program does not deal with insurance, Medicaid or Medicare.
Kiger said Health eAccess’s for-profit model is the future of health care, and its startup is timely, given that leaders and policy-makers in Washington, D.C., are debating public programs and nonprofit cooperatives as potential pieces of national healthcare reform.
But Samuel Flint, an assistant professor of public affairs at Indiana University Northwest, said this model would help only a niche group of patients receive affordable care and is by no means a systemic solution. He said it just provides another healthcare option.
“The unfortunate part is the healthcare system is so fragmented,” Flint said. “We need to reduce the fragmentation and duplication. ... We need to move toward a more comprehensive, uniform, electronic system.”
Some patients see superior care
Kiger believes the Health eAccess program is the kind of grassroots innovation that will change health care in the United States.
“I believe healthcare reform is not going to change by regulations,” Kiger said. “It has to change by the patient model and how a patient accesses health care.”
Patient Lynn Wellsand, who has muscular dystrophy, agrees. She and her husband have catastrophic insurance that would cover them in extreme, unexpected circumstances, such as if they were diagnosed with cancer, but they do not have health insurance. Wellsand said she went to the Hoosier Healthcare clinic to get a prescription refilled and ended up joining the monthly program in July.
“I wasn’t just a patient’s name; I seemed to be a person,” Wellsand said. “It made me feel like they take my health seriously.”
She said the care and attention she was given, including a nurse practitioner’s follow-up phone calls to check on how she was doing, inspired her to take better care of herself.
“I (had given) up checking my blood sugar every day,” Wellsand said. “Now I’m faithfully testing my sugar.”
Dr. Dean A. Shoucair, Hoosier Healthcare co-owner, medical director and medical review officer, said Health eAccess patients get more time with their practitioner or physician than patients at traditional primary-care offices, where low insurance reimbursement rates can force doctors to see up to 40 patients each day.
“I want to make sure the person is taken care of,” Shoucair said. “I’m their advocate.”
Shoucair said the clinic’s one-stop-shop model also saves patients money. A suture that would cost about $750 in an emergency room would cost about $125 through the Health eAccess program, he said.
Small businesses embrace low-cost approach
Some area small businesses such as Family Mobile Medical Services in Merrillville are using the Health eAccess program as a way to offer its 150 employees affordable health care. Not having to keep track of premiums and deductibles is a plus for them.
“It allows us to offer our employees some sort of health plan,” said Hilary Anderson, assistant to the company’s president.
Anderson said the company’s insurance rates were increasing about 40 percent each year.
“This year when it went up, it sort of priced us and our employees out of health insurance,” she said.
In the past, the company was paying about $170 per month, per employee, for health insurance, Anderson said. Now it pays about $20 per employee for the Health eAccess program.
Programs like Hoosier Healthcare’s are great at offering more access to health care, but it cannot replace insurance coverage, said Leigh Westergren, employee-benefit specialist with Anton Insurance Agency, with locations in Valparaiso and Chesterton.
“The Health eAccess program is going to provide an opportunity for people to come in off the street and see someone and not have to wait,” Westergren said. “But as far as a health-insurance program, it is a provider, not an insurance program.”
Westergren said it would be a great supplement for catastrophic insurance or for people with a high-deductible plan, where they have to pay thousands of dollars out of their own pocket before insurance reimbursements kick in.
“People can see someone for something minor, and they don’t have to freak out about it because they have to pay until they reach their deductible,” Westergren said.
http://nwitimes.com/news/local/article_c3e4c85f-8443-5e04-9387-cfe7ecb5706f.html
"The progressives considered lesser options to ensure competition and hold down costs, including creation of effective co-ops and a mechanism for triggering a public option in the event costs continue to soar"
"In the event that costs will soar?" Costs will continue to soar because there isn't any tort reform, which is why costs soared in the first place.
Thus leaving the door wide open for the socialist Democrats to socialize medicine.
He should have to submit to drug tests before anything he writes is published.