"Access and Affordability"

A lie told often enough becomes the truth.
- Vladimir Lenin

President Obama has repeatedly stated that all he wants from healthcare legislation is for all Americans to have "Access and Affordability" to healthcare. The Democratic leadership has argued that the only way to accomplish this is to have the "public option" or "government option" that would bring "competition" to the marketplace. They argue that in most parts of the country, there are only a couple of choices among private insurance companies.

Well, I did a little research by simply going to http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/ and my conclusion: YOU LIE! LIE! LIE!

Since I believe that insurance is a personal responsibility, I looked at just options a family of four would have in 11 different states. The results are as follows:

Source: www.ehealthinsurance.com

Family: Dad - 47  Non-smoker
             Mom - 41 Non-smoker
             Son - 8
             Daughter - 14

City                 State           Nbr Plans          Starting Cost / Mo.
Atlanta              GA                111                            $245
Dallas                TX                 107                            $189
Los Angeles       CA                 114                            $279
Seattle              WA                 57                            $271
Denver             CO                 113                            $234
Minneapolis     MN                   46                            $231
Chicago            IL                    98                             $206
New York         NY                   16                             $340
Boston            MA                    6                         $1,176
Hartford          CT                     82                            $190
Las Vegas       NV                  123                          $142

Do these plans offer a $20 doctor visit? $3 prescription drugs? NO...But they do offer "insurance" for catastrophic illness so that the family would not have to declare bankrupcy to pay medical bills. The family would have the responsibility to pay for care up to the deductibles. After all, isn't that what the definition of "insurance" is anyway?
 
It is interesting that far and away the most expensive plan is in the only state that mandates that everyone be covered...Massachusetts. Interesting too is that it is the state with the fewest choices. Also interesting is that Nevada, Sen. Reid's home state, has the most choices and the most competitive prices.
 
Therefore, when you tell us that we need the federal government to solve our "crisis", you distort the truth. Obviously, applying more rules, regulations, and mandates is not the answer to "Access and Affordability", but just the opposite! So, why not just fess up and be truthful with the American people? It's all about power and re-election isn't it?....Come on, you can do it...I know you can....

Pardon Me Mr. President for Jumping to Conclusions

Last Thursday, a horrific tragedy happened at Ft. Hood, TX. that left 13 dead and 30 more wounded. The "perp", a 39 year old Muslim Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Hasan, opened fire in a crowded readiness center and is believed to have discharged his weapons more than 100 times, before a courageous female police officer took him down. Unfortunately, his date with 72 virgins will have to wait as he is recovering from his wounds.

As soon as the name was made public, my anger went through the roof! How did the Army let this kook get to this level? Then further reports and interviews surface that colleages had known about his feelings for months! Why did they not report him? Two words, "Political Correctness". How dare we show suspicion towards someone of the Muslim faith...that would be "polictically incorrect" or "insensitive"!

Then, I switched around the channels for other coverage. Within 1 hour of the shootings, CNN and MSNBC were taking the "war stress syndrome" angle and that must have been what made him snap! Obviously, the 2 wars that the evil Bush/Cheney regime had gotten us into had caused this to happen. Really? You mean the fact that it would be pretty hard to have "war stress syndrome" if you had never been deployed? Would it kill ya CNN and MSNBC to actually report the truth for a change?

President Barack "Hussien" Obama then made a statement that (after giving shout-outs to peeps) that we shouldn't jump to conclusions just because of the man's name and faith. Really? Now that we have found ties to Al Qaeda, or that in June of 2007 when he was supposed to give a presentation on medical related issues to a group of senior staff at Walter Reed hospital, he instead gave a lecture on "The Koranic World View as it Relates to the U.S. Military". Will you President Obama, have the courage to speak to the remaining family and friends at Ft. Hood and tell the hard cold truth? The truth that this was not an "Overseas Contengency Operation - Man-made Event", but an act of terrorism on American soil? Will you have the guts to call it like it is or will you continue to show distain for the very men and women that you propose to lead?

Pardon me Mr. President for jumping to conclusions, but I remember 9/11....DO YOU?

God Bless the families who are grieving today from this heinous act that could have been stopped. God Bless the men and women of our Armed Forces and their families who sacrifice so much for us.

Healthcare Debate - Costs or Agenda?

In the rush to “solve the healthcare crisis” (as our esteemed President likes to put it) there have been many arguments put forth by members of both parties as how to “fix” the “crisis”. If the concern is so much about the affordability of healthcare, then why is the discussion been about political idealogy and not about getting to the root causes of the costs?

It is true that the costs of healthcare has significantly outpaced inflation in the last 25 years…but why? Is is due to the aging of America, the abuse of emergency room care, malpractice insurance costs, etc? The President can only seem to put the blame on insurance companies and their apparently evil desire to make a profit. From someone who doesn’t know the difference between an income statement and a balance sheet, that is a pretty bold statement! But what are the cost drivers?

In a company, if rising costs of doing business outpace the natural rate of inflation, best practices teach us to form project teams to perform deep analysis of why and where. Sometimes, the findings may lead to simple solutions (low-hanging fruit), while other findings lead to very complex solutions that require a careful and thoughtful approach that may lead to a change in strategy for the long-term. Whatever the case, the best decisions are made based objective data and not knee-jerk subjective “feelings”.

Unfortunately, I have not seen this best practice approach in any of the discussions. Therefore, in the absence of objective decision making, one can only assume that the debate is being driven by an agenda and fueled by subjective knee-jerk reactions. Unfortunately, unlike business, once a program is inacted in Washington, it never goes away no matter how ineffective it may be. With 16% of the Gross Domestic Product at stake, this “crisis” is simply too important to be rushed.

Any smart business would not make rash decisions with 16% of its production at stake and neither should our Government. Call your Congressman or Senator and urge them to take a rational approach and not be bullied into making a subjective decision that effects everyone’s lives by a President only seeking to capitalize on what’s left of his popularity. He promised Change that was not business as usual, its time to hold him to that promise.

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