HR 3200 and Reading

HR 3200 (National Healthcare Plan): 485 pages read. Only 633 to go.

The following is an overview of the first 100 pages of the House of Representatives Healthcare Bill in addition to some possible questions one needs to keep in mind.

First lesson in Economics 101 is nothing is free. Everything has a cost. By cost we mean that you have to give up something.

The US healthcare system is not perfect. It has its flaws. There needs to be some type of reforms without question.

Every year the US Government spends $2.1 TN on the following components of healthcare/entitlement programs: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIPS, Veterans benefits, State and Local healthcare programs. (GAO)

The $2.1 TN the Federal Government spends on healthcare/entitlement programs is 1/6 or 16.7% of the nation’s GDP (total dollar value of all goods and services produced within the nation in a fiscal year). (GAO)

Any and all government programs result in government agencies having the sole power to determine the rules and regulations pertaining to these healthcare/entitlement programs. [Hence, there is great ambiguity in Congressional legislation because Congress relegates the detailed rule making to Bureaucratic agencies. Examples: Food Stamps are regulated by the Agriculture Department. Tax policies, as we all know, are written by the IRS.]

Thus, healthcare/entitlement programs are one of the most highly regulated sectors of the US economy. The result of this massive regulation is a loss of personal freedom known as the right to make a choice.

1.HR 3200 will not go into effect until 2013. (HR 3200 itself)
Why the rush to ram in through Congress?
Why not get states to run trial healthcare systems to tweak the system before mandating it in all 50?

2. If the Federal Mandated Healthcare System is adopted, and should it fail, can we get rid of it?

Probably not because once Congress has created a Federal Bureaucratic agency, it tends to grow, feed on itself in a self-perpetuating manner.

Example: When FDR signed the Social Security Act into law in 1935, he stated it would only be in use for 5 years. 74 years later we still have it, and Social Security is the largest component of the healthcare/entitlement programs.

If it’s voted in, we’re stuck with it---flaws and all---forever.

3.Single Payer (Public Option) v. Private Sector Plans

Will you be able to retain your current healthcare plan? Yes, as long as the current plan is offered by your employer. Businesses may (and probably will) opt to pay the 8% fee (tax) not to offer their healthcare plans. Why? The cost of healthcare already consumes a large % of operating costs for businesses. Competing against the government in offering healthcare plans is not feasible since the government has the capacity to print more money (inflationary) and / or raise taxes (inflationary) to generate revenue to pay for the public option –government healthcare.

Private enterprises simply are unable to compete with government subsidies.

Members of Congress have their own healthcare plan, and they have stated they will not have to participate in the public option because they are very satisfied with their plans. (They also have the power to make that decision unlike average citizens.)

4. Freedom of Choice in Plans

As long as there are private healthcare plans available.

5. Doctors

Will you be able to keep your own doctors?
Maybe. Maybe not.

When you add more people to a healthcare system, but you do not increase the numbers of doctors the result is a shortage. Whenever there is a shortage of goods, the price goes up. Price is a rationing system in economics.

Hence, a shortage of doctors will result in a rationing of healthcare.

6.Costs

The cost of government healthcare has not been forthcoming from the White House nor the Congress according to the CBO.

The CBO--Congressional Budget Office (which reports directly to the Speaker of the House, currently Nancy Pelosi)-- has stated in reports that the projected plan has failed to provide the following:

“The current plan has not detailed evidence of and cost of disease management, comparative treatment effectiveness, health information technology projections, prescription drug re-importation in reducing costs quickly, appreciably, and effectively.” (CBO)

The CBO’s best estimates and disregarding inflation for the annual cost of the current House of Representatives Plan is $1 TN a year on top of the current $2.1 TN spent on the healthcare/entitlement programs in the Federal budget.

7.Privacy of Health Records

Thus far, the bill is not clear on whether the health records will be kept private. The language is vague and ambiguous. Such policies will be determined by whatever government agency Congress creates.

8.Federal Health Regulatory Board will have the power to deliver, determine, and resolve conflicts over what constitutes ‘quality care’.

HR 3200 calls for an expansion of Medicaid and SCHIPs by the Federal Health Regulatory Board.

This board, according to HR 3200, will have watchdog power over Private Sector Plans (micromanaging) --the competitor of the government healthcare plan.

The Federal Government will have control overall all healthcare---public or private.

Is this an invasion of privacy?
Is this an egregious intrusion of government power into the lives of individuals?


9.Secretary of Health and Human Services

The HHS Secretary will be authorized to establish the standards and goals for the financial and administration transactions.

The Secretary will have access to determine an individual’s responsibilities at point of service (POS), the power to determine if the individual is eligible for specific services.

The HHS Secretary will have power to “enable electronic funds transfers, in order to allow automatic reconciliation with the related healthcare payment and remittance.” (pages 52-59 HR 3200)

Note the ambiguity of the language. Transfers of whose funds? Automatic payment from whom to whom? How extensive is this power to access one’s financial records and funds?

Would you have wanted the Nixon Administration to have had such a power?

10. What role will states have in the government healthcare?

Although he is a proponent of a public option plan, Governor Ed Rendell on the Mike Huckabee show on Sunday, August 9 made some interesting points.

Gov. Rendell raised these questions that remain unanswered by the Congress and White House:

If this is a Federally Mandated Program, will the Feds pay the cost or will there be a split cost such as 90/10?

Will this be an unfunded mandate and the states expected to pay the cost as well as run the program?

Will there be a Claw-back as there currently is with Medicare Part D?

What happens to the funding (if the Feds provide any) in the Outyears (5 years after the program begins)?

Obviously, there are more questions than answers.

The bill is a typical Congressional piece of legislation: oblique, obtuse, and full of enough holes to drive a mack truck through it. In other words, enough room for the creation of more government RED TAPE.

11.Are there 50 million who are uninsured?

We know there are at least 250 million in the US with healthcare plans. Of the 50 million remaining, 12 million are illegals leaving us with 38 million uninsured. From that number, about 20 million fall under government healthcare/entitlement programs. Now we’re down to 18 million. Approximately 10 million young adults have chosen not to purchase healthcare, leaving us with approximately 8 million uninsured.

Is it absolutely necessary to restructure/destroy the entire private healthcare system in order to reform a system? There have to be some alternative means to achieve the goal of offering the 8 million uninsured persons healthcare coverage.

Do we not have the ability and leadership in Congress to think creatively without furthering the economic recession?