The big drama inside the Beltway this week is the big bipartisan meeting Republicans will have with President Obama. Anyone who keeps their ear to the ground on Washington politics can already see how it will play out. Does anyone serious believe either side will be listening to the other?
The big question many Republicans are now asking is what will be the format, and who will moderate? Word is that if Obama acts as the moderator and controls the format then Republicans are prepared to walk out.
But let's assume that both sides will at least agree to the conditions of the meeting. We know what Obama has proposed in his draft on Monday: A near-single payer system with a robust public option, three separate methods to use public funds for abortions, stiff regulations on the insurance and health care industries, and thick bureaucracies which will serve as ration panels, just like the ones currently in place in Canada and the UK.
The Republicans will propose health savings accounts, and will allow consumers to shop different health plans across state lines. The GOP plan will reinforce the Hyde Amendment forbidding public funding for abortions. Rather than focusing on universal coverage, which is the Democrat plan, the Republicans are focused on reducing costs. The Republican idea is that through reducing costs, uninsured Americans on the margins will re-enter the market and purchase insurance. To their detriment, congressional Republicans have made no projections on how many more people will self insure in a market with declining costs.
Beyond what they have already stated, what are Republicans missing? Health care is America's most regulated industry. Every year each health clinic, doctor's office, hospital, and emergency room must comply with thousands of regulations. For example, a simple oxygen tank must be rolled annually. The term "rolled" basically means rebuilt. It must be disassembled, filled with ball bearings and solvent, and rolled, emptied of the solvent, dried, and reassembled. Oxygen tanks don't need to be completely rebuilt every year. But someone in the Food and Drug administration, (or more probably a company that services oxygen tanks) lobbied Congress to make this a law. And whom do you suppose has to pay to service oxygen tanks annually.
That's a good idea, you say. Oxygen tanks should be rebuilt once a year. Better safe than sorry. But that is just one example. Did you know that every refrigerator that holds serum must be inspected and certified and that temperatures and humidities must be constantly monitored and recorded on tape and that these records must be maintained for ten years? Every refrigerator. Multiply these regulations times hundreds of thousands, and you will get an idea of why health care is so expensive in this country. In addition to the federal level, health care providers must also abide by state regulations. Hospitals must hire complete staffs whose only job is to constantly monitor compliance. And who pays their salaries? You guessed it. You and me. When all totaled these regulations ad billions to our national health care bill.
Of course, we don't want to abolish all requirements to third world standards, but certainly a commission could be established (sort of like the military base closing commission) to examine unnecessary regulations that add undue costs to health care. But the Republicans have no such plans to pare back these exorbitant regulations.
What other cost saving mechanisms could the Republicans introduce? We'll find out in part two of this series.
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written by Drusilla Barron , February 24, 2010
Will also post to FB. We need more of this. This should be buzzed.
