Ben Nelson's Column out of touch with reality.

Publisher's Note:  Sidney Stage Coach writer Tamara Nelson called me up and told me that the column contained herein was not an opinion piece by the Epaper, but rather a press release from the Senator's office. It was originally posted here as an opinion of the epaper due to the lack of attribution. SidneyStageCoach.com has since begun to post pieces with attribution. TheGuardianNews apologies for the confusion this post may have created.  Edits to the original story are in green.

In this column I will refute in stark detail the inanity of the Senator Ben Nelson's column supporting the Health Care Debate. My comments will be inserted herein in red and italics.

COLUMN: HEALTH BILL CONTROLS COSTS

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

There is no doubt that the Senate Health Care Reform bill has caused controversy with attacks coming from both sides. Some think it goes too far, others think it doesn’t go far enough. Like is so often the case, there are many in the middle who have contacted me and are pleased we are doing something because they understand that the system needs to be repaired. I would submit to you that those who are glad we are doing something because the system is broken and are in favor of this plan are ill-informed as to what the plan will cost.

Among those who have contacted me are some of the 220,000 Nebraskans who don’t have health insurance, which includes people who can’t get insurance because of a pre-existing condition.

Saves Billions of Dollars

Others who’ve contacted me are worried about escalating premiums that all but wipe out their pay raises, if they got a pay raise. For them, it needs to be pointed out that the bill saves us money. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill will save $132 billion over the first 10 years and as much as $1.3 trillion over the second 10 years until 2029.

It lowers costs because it is fully paid for and includes $447 billion returned to middle class Americans in tax credits to help make insurance more affordable. The plan isn't fully paid for and it is a farce to say otherwise. First of all, the plan taxes people for up to 6 years before substantial benefits are paid, does nothing to actually go after the root cause of health care inflation and does nothing to control waste, fraud and abuse in the current government run systems. Furthermore, increases in taxes on certain health plans, taxes on medical devices and other fees that are supposed to be paid by insurance companies will in fact, be passed on down to the consumers of said products. Finally, the government is unlikely to capture the amount of money in savings from Medicare and Medicaid fraud claims as advertised by Congressional leaders. If they could have done so, they would have done so and no legislation would have been necessary since fraud is a crime, punishable by fine, jail time or both upon conviction.

Changing the Way to Cover the Uninsured

Today Nebraskans pay about 15 percent more for insurance to cover the costs when the uninsured seek medical treatment they can’t pay for at clinics and emergency rooms. This cost shifting will dramatically drop, reducing premium increases for all Nebraskans.

Nebraska’s small businesses will have access to a new Small Business Health Options Program. They can pool together for better insurance coverage, and they will receive tax credits to help them cover employees.

Tax Credits for Small Business

Currently 70% of Nebraska small businesses cannot afford or do not have access to health insurance. Small business health insurance tax credits will make health insurance more affordable for an estimated 33,000 Nebraska small businesses.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services will be able to test various different payment structures designed to foster patient-centered care, improve quality, and slow the rate of Medicare cost growth.  Nebraska has a model for that at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln. 

The bill provides grants for doctors serving in rural areas so people living in rural Nebraska will continue to have access to treatment.

The bill offers tax relief for health professionals participating in state-funded student loan repayment programs. It creates the same tax exemption used for the federal loan repayment program for state-funded programs not eligible under current federal guidelines.  This will help doctors and nurses serve in rural areas. Only if there is a requirement for doctors to serve in rural areas in exchange for said benefit and frankly... why should the rest of tax payers subsidize a doctor's lifestyle.

It moves toward closing the Medicare Part D doughnut hole, saving thousands in medicine costs for 48,000 Nebraskans.

The Senate bill permits states to join together to allow private insurance to be purchased across state lines, which is a big deal that will improve competitiveness.  It requires the Office of Personnel Management to negotiate contracts, just like they do for the various private health plans available to Members of Congress offered by insurance companies such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Currently, Insurance is regulated by each state. The federal government will most likely see challenges to this provision based on constitutional grounds. It is also unlike to survive constitutional challenges for provisions that require individual coverage or risk paying a fine or even jail time.

Like great legislation of the past, including Social Security, Medicare, and Civil Rights, history will likely show that health care reform was the right thing to do. Of the list herein, only Civil Rights legislation has had positive impact. The net result of the other programs was to increase taxes over time and severely limit the return to the participants. Over the average lifetime of paying into the Social Security system, the recipient typically gets paid less than at a 3 rate, far below other types of investments and the overall system is bankrupt, facing obligations of some 73 Trillion dollars over the next 25 years. 

 The right thing to do is to start over with health care and actually attack the costs and to exclude any party from the discussion who stands to gain from the result. This includes Insurance companies who will get trillions in revenues from mandated coverage, AARP who gets a cut of medicare insurance premiums, Unions who get breaks for 6-8 years on their Cadillac plans and the AMA who gets hospital subsidies.

In the end, increasing competition and encouraging healthy living will help contain the need for care beyond regular checkups. Doctors need to be moved away from fee for service to a patient outcome based solution. If you get a sore throut, you get treated for the sore throat and not charged for a half dozen tests to avoid a lawsuit. Most importantly,  significant progress needs to be made on tort reform and stopping junk lawsuits that cause the cost of a doctor's business to go through the roof. 

It is one thing to beat up on an existing system and recognize that something has to change. It is a far different and incredibly dangerous thing to say that because we need change, we should take the efforts of an out of touch Congress and White House Administration as being better than the status quo. Nothing could be farther from the truth, or more dangerous.