Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Republican health care reform?

By

The democrats are in power now,after years in the minority. The powerful GOP wouldn’t allow much out of the Democratic side of the aisle. NOW that the Democrats have a majority and the White house, the republicans want to talk health care reform as if it is a new concept and didnt need it when they were in power. Where were these reforms 6 years ago when they could have easily passed healthcare reform…why now..is it because they really care about the people’s health or are they just competing with the Democrats

Please share widely!
fb-share-icon
Tweet
0

Comments

  1. They think they’ll get killed if they don’t come up with SOMETHING.  Anyone interested in the GOP plan can find a comment from JohnD and link through his signature line.

    • The RMGers have been pointing to the Empowering Patients First Act

      <

      p>It seems equally polemical.

      <

      p>

      Sec. 101. Refundable tax credit for health insurance costs of low-income individuals.
      Sec. 102. Advance payment of credit as premium payment for qualified health insurance.
      Sec. 103. Election of tax credit instead of alternative government or group plan benefits.
      Sec. 104. Deduction for qualified health insurance costs of individuals.
      Sec. 105. Limitation on abortion funding.
      Sec. 106. Non-discrimination on abortion and respect for rights of conscience.
      Sec. 107. Equal employer contribution rule to promote choice.
      Sec. 108. Limitations on State restrictions on employer auto-enrollment.
      Sec. 109. Credit for small employers adopting auto-enrollment and defined contribution options.
      Sec. 110. Require employers to disclose amounts paid for employer-provided health plan coverage.

      • JohnD links to something from the Senate side, whereas this appears to be a House bill.

        • They’re still very different. It speaks to their “we have to say SOMETHING” nature.  

    • Tort reform
    • Deregulation: some believe that it’s lack of competition driving up costs
    • Medical savings accounts. Argument is that free market doesn’t work if the buyer and the consumer are different. So place more consumer responsibility with the patient.
    • Reduction or elimination of tax breaks for employer health insurance. Push it onto the individual.

    I keep meaning to write a post on how the free market doesn’t work for health care.

    • I have yet to hear it explained as anything other than a grant of immunity towards corporations.  It may well be true that malpractice judgments effect the bottom line of corporations, but it seems ass backwards to use that as a justification for changing the legal system.  The purpose of the system is justice, not some company’s balance sheet.  You have to ask, when Joe Schmoe and his trial lawyer are painted as having an unfair advantage against Mega-Pharmaceutical Incorporated and their legal team, is that a fair characterization?  And in what other instance would you ever hear conservatives bemoaning excessive salaries as they do with trial lawyers?  Maybe I misunderstand the whole thing, but damn if I don’t find it funny.

      • We haven’t had a tort reform debate in a while. Cynically, one could say that this is because we have Democratic majorities in Congress and trial lawyers are not only Democratic but contribute to Democrats. Or we get to choose to direct our cynicism elsewhere: we could say that tort reform is a bad idea popular with Republican lawmakers because their corporate masters hate it.

        <

        p>In any case, this is an issue on which we progressives would do well to have our positions correct and our debating points sharp, factual, and memorable, because the GOP is going to push this for years. No doubt there are some abuses to the tort system. I don’t expect it to be simple, black, and white, but we should understand those exceptions and and be able to right-size them in the public mind. We should also be able to describe its necessity.

    • I’m glad we finally have a “handling” question on the GOP side so we can compare apples to apples.

      <

      p>A slight plurality appear to oppose the public option, but a majority support the Obama plan (which last I checked still includes the public option.

      <

      p>The sources of news is interesting; Fox News beats CNN and MSNBC.

      <

      p>3/5 say we need total overhaul or major reforms.

      <

      p>Obama’s approval rating is over the 50% mark and he’s doing better than Clinton (who got re-elected) at this point in his term.

Archives