Patient Power

Medicaid applicants “don’t get timely benefits”

The Denver Post reminds us of why government should neither expand Medicaid, nor force us to donate to charities, especially ones run by government:

Roughly 19 percent of new food-stamp applications were delayed statewide in October. For Medicaid, 18 percent of new applicants didn’t get timely benefits that month, according to lawyers who get the data from the state as part of the 2007 settlement. …State officials say they are behind because of problems and inefficiencies with a $243 million computer system the state installed in 2004.

… At the end of 2007, the state Departments of Health Care Policy and Finance and Human Services entered into a settlement agreement, meant to force the state into compliance with federal law.

Improvements since then is like, “going from an F to an F plus,” Kahn said. “It’s not really satisfactory.”

For more, see my post, Charity Care instead of government programs.

• Colorado health care agency under investigation
• Why to condemn insurance companies
• Ritter increases your insurance premiums
• Ranking state health care policies
• The Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act (Arizona)

Posted in charity | tags: choice, Colorado Medicaid
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Polis’s suport for new gov’t run health plan: bad policy, bad politics.

Paul Hsieh, M.D. explains in the Daily Camera (Boulder).  Here are the opening paragraphs:

Boulder`s Congressman Jared Polis recently made national headlines when he and fellow first-term Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) teamed up to petition the U.S. Senate to include the so-called “public option” in its next version of health care legislation.

Polis` move was an attempt to break the political stalemate between the House and the Senate following Republican Scott Brown`s upset election victory in Massachusetts. After Brown`s election deprived Senate Democrats of the 60-vote supermajority necessary to pass the current version of ObamaCare, the House and Senate have struggled to bridge the differences between their respective versions of health legislation. In particular, one key difference has been the government-run “public plan” to compete with private insurance plans, which House liberals (including Polis) supported but which the Senate rejected.

Unfortunately, Polis` “public plan” is both bad policy and bad politics.

Read the whole article about Jared Polis and the public plan.

• Polis calls for Senate to add “public option” to health care bill
• Jared Polis: what’s your real reason for pushing the “public option”?
• No compulsory charity for Obama Care’s phony reform
• Majority prefers “nothing” to Dems’ health “reform”
• The “Public” insurance plan’s huge market share

Posted in Policy - National | tags: health care public opinion, Jared Polis, Public Health Plan
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Colorado House Bill 10-1154: moratoriam on mandated benefits

Update Feb. 7: Bob Mook at the Denver Business Journal reports that this bill is dead:

Small businesses in Colorado won’t get a break this year on their health insurance premiums — or from new mandates that insurance brokers say are contributing to the higher rates.

On Feb. 4, the House State Affairs Committee killed House Bill 1154 in a 6-5 vote.

Read his whole post: “Timeout” Proposal Dies; What Next?Here’s the summary of Colorado House Bill 10-1154 from the Colorado General Assembly page:

Concerning the process for the enactment of mandated health insurance benefits, and, in connection therewith, repealing the commission on mandated health insurance benefits and transferring its functions to the director of research of the legislative council and imposing a one-year moratorium on the enactment of new mandated health insurance benefits.

This would help reduce how much insurance premiums would increase. William Congdon, Amanda Kowalski and Mark Showalter conclude that

Mandated benefits raise the expected price of an individual policy by approximately 0.4 percent per mandate. For family policies the increase is approximately 0.5 percent per mandate. The typical state has about 20 mandates (with a range from 6 to 48) so a reduction from 20 to 10 m

• Mandated benefits increase insurance premiums
• AFL-CIO on mandated benefits
• Proposed one-year moratorium on new Colorado insurance mandates
• Mandated benefits inflate Mass. insurance premiums
• Instead of HB 1389: Show politicians’ guilt for costly insurance

Posted in Colorado health care, PPC | tags: Colorado HB 10-1154, Ellen Roberts, Kathleen Curry, mandated benefits, Shawn Mitchell
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Virginia Senate tries to block mandatory insurance

From the Washington Post’s Breaking News Blog:

Virginia’s Democratic-controlled state Senate passed measures Monday that would make it illegal to require individuals to purchase health insurance, a direct challenge to the party’s efforts in Washington to reform health care. …

Each of three similar bills that passed the state Senate on Monday would run counter to legislation passed by both chambers of Congress, which would require all individuals to purchase health care. …

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) said such measures could help Virginia’s government establish standing to intervene in a lawsuit against the federal government, should Congress pass a bill that includes an individual mandate.

“It’s a strong political message,” said Cuccinelli, who has been studying possible legal action.

Other legal scholars and many of the senators who voted against the measure said they thought it would have little practical impact because it would be preempted by federal law.

“This would not be worth the paper it’s written on, and everybody knows it,” said Sen. Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax). “Everybody knows this bill is nothing more than a brochure bill.”

Read the whole post: Virginia Senate bills say no to requiring health insurance.  The Post also links the text of the Senate Bills:

The three measures passed by the Virginia Senate on health care Monday — each on identical 23-17 votes — were SB 283, SB 311 and SB 417

Also, the Associated Press published an article about other states attempting to do the same thing.  Read it in the Denver Post: States seeking to ban mandatory health insurance.  See also the American Legislative Exchange Council’s Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act.

• Health bill: In defense of Senate “obstructionism”
• Challenging mandatory insurance in court
• Colorado Right to Health Care Choice Initiative
• Insurance “exchanges”: government-run insurance w/o a “public option”
• Colorado ballot inititiative to block parts of Obama Care

Posted in Obama Care, PPC | tags: Colorado Right to Health Care Choice Initiative, mandatory insurance, Obama Care, states
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Polis calls for Senate to add “public option” to health care bill

Polis calls for Senate to add public option to health care bill, reports the Daily Camera (Boulder).  As Paul Hsieh, MD has noted:

In the Dec. 10 [2008] Wall Street Journal, Polis wrote: “Our United States Congress… now finds itself poring over ‘business plans’ submitted this week by Ford, GM and Chrysler. People who have never before in their lives seen — no less implemented — a business plan are now trying to decide if these companies will succeed by means of a ‘capital infusion’ with… [taxpayer] money. Something is wrong with this picture.”

Polis is absolutely correct on this point. As a successful businessman himself, he knows that government cannot and should not be manufacturing cars.

His argument applies even more strongly to the issue of health care. Although he campaigned on a platform of government-run “single payer” health care, he should recognize that government cannot and should not be running health care.

• Obama’s health care flip-flop and contradictions
• Polis’s suport for new gov’t run health plan: bad policy, bad politics.
• Jared Polis: what’s your real reason for pushing the “public option”?
• No compulsory charity for Obama Care’s phony reform
• How many uninsured?

Posted in PPC, single payer | tags: Jared Polis, politician credibility, single payer
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Why we’re “crazy” about health care choice

Originally published in the Aurora Daily Sentinel, January 29th, 2010.  This version has links to references.

Why we’re “crazy” about health care choice

By Brian T. Schwartz and Linda Gorman

Sentinel Editor Dave Perry dismisses the Colorado Right to Health Care Choice Initiative as “crazy” and says its supporters “clearly have lost” their minds (Opinion, January 21).

The Initiative would prohibit Colorado government from requiring you to purchase health insurance.

Mr. Perry thinks that mandatory insurance is justified because “those without health insurance are driving up the cost of health care for every American.” But these added costs are trivial compared to the amount that mandatory insurance would increase premiums and taxes.

Read the rest of this entry »

• Medicaid & Medicare drive up insurance premiums
• Michael Bennet’s health care confusion
• Colorado HB 1293: Prepare For More Expensive Medical Insurance
• CO Medicaid cuts reimbursement rates. Will your insurance premiums go up?
• Ritter increases your insurance premiums

Posted in Colorado health care, PPC, mandatory insurance | tags: AARP, Amerian Medical Association, Colorado Right to Health Care Choice Initiative, cost-shift, mandatory insurance, Massachusetts health, Medicaid, Medicare Advantage
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Idaho’s Health Freedom Act moves forward

From the Idaho Reporter:

In a contentious hearing Thursday morning in the House State Affairs Committee, the Idaho Health Freedom Act (IFHA), sponsored by Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden, and co-sponsored by Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Eagle, and Rep. Lynn Luker, R-Boise, passed the committee on a 13-5 party line vote.

During his testimony before the committee, Clark said bill would enable Idahoans to choose their own medical services and insurance and free Idahoans from excessive regulation by the federal government.  The bill would also give the state more standing in court, should the time come that the state needs to sue, said Clark.

Read the full article: Despite contentious hearing, panel passes Idaho Health Freedom Act.

(via John LaPlante at StateHouseCall)

• Colorado Right to Health Care Choice Initiative
• The Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act (Arizona)
• Virginia Senate tries to block mandatory insurance
• Obama Care: prohibit buying what you want, mandate what you don’t want
• Medicaid applicants “don’t get timely benefits”

Posted in PPC, Policy - National | tags: choice, Colorado Right to Health Care Choice Initiative, Idaho health care
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Beware of incremental health care “reform”

Sheldon Richman makes the case in The Freeman:

Opponents of (more) government control of health care and health insurance are breathing a sigh of relief after Tuesday’s upset senatorial election in Massachusetts. But now that the celebrations are subsiding, I feel compelled to warn that the most perilous days may lie ahead. …

In place of 2,000-page omnibus monstrosities, we are likely to see a series of micro “reforms” — that is, government interventions — that may well garner bipartisan support. The new buzzword on Capitol Hill is “incrementalism.” This is a strategy to break the big House and Senate bills into several small ones. …

… those micro bills are unlikely to be the needed repeals of the government’s impediments to free competition, such as the ban on interstate insurance commerce, the Food and Drug Administration, the patent system, and the tax-code bias toward employer-purchased insurance. …

… since the series of small bills won’t look like an overambitious program to reinvent 16 percent of the U.S. economy in one unreadable fell swoop, much of the congressional opposition could be defused.

Richman predicts the bills will include guaranteed issue (must cover everyone, regardless of health status) and community rating (charge everyone the same premium, or almost the same). Of course, these controls provide a rationalization for mandatory insurance, as otherwise people can wait until they get sick to buy a policy.  In all, bad news.  Richman also notes that some Republicans are amenable to guaranteed issue.

Read the whole article: The Goal Is Freedom: The Snare of Incremental Heath Care “Reform”.

(Via Scott Keyes)

• Insurance price controls hurt the sick
• The health care reform death spiral
• Health reform bill and preexisting conditions
• For affordable health insurance, lift government controls
• Guaranteed issue & community rating backfire

Posted in PPC, Policy - National | tags: community rating, guaranteed issue, Obama Care
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Sneaking health bill through “reconciliation”

From the New York Times:

Seeking to avert the collapse of major health care legislation, the White House and Democratic leaders in Congress face a crucial decision about whether to use a procedural maneuver that would allow them to advance the bill despite the loss of their 60-vote majority in the Senate.

The maneuver, known as budget reconciliation, could allow President Obama and his party to muscle the legislation through Congress with a simple majority vote in the Senate. But it carries numerous risks, including the possibility of a political backlash against what Republicans would be sure to cast as parliamentary trickery.

The procedure is also subject to complex rules that could make it difficult for Democrats to include all the provisions needed to win approval of the bill, especially among rank-and-file House Democrats. For instance, it might be difficult to include provisions related to insurance coverage for abortions.

Brian Williams describes it this way (summarizing Dick Morris):

1. The House would agree to pass the Senate version of ObamaCare and send it to the President’s desk for signature.
2. The House and Senate would agree to subsequently approve some of the House’s amendments to the package — using the reconciliation process (which does not require 60 votes because it is not subject to filibuster).

• House may pass the Senate health bill as is
• AP on health bills: “meaningful negotiations occur behind closed doors”
• Will health “reform” kill HSAs & high-deductible insurance plans?
• Obama Care: higher taxes & premiums, poverty trap for low-wage workers
• Outlawing affordable health insurance

Posted in PPC, Policy - National | tags: HR 3590, Obama Care, politics of health care
1 Comment »

House may pass the Senate health bill as is

The Institute for Health Freedom invites you to contact your representative in DC about the Senate health care bill:

Congress Is Trying to Bypass Filibuster-Proof Senate to Pass Insurance Mandate

If House Approves Senate Bill (Verbatim), It Bypasses Filibuster-Proof Senate and Goes Directly to Oval Office

Contact Your Representatives ASAP and Tell Them to “Vote NO on Senate Health-Reform Bill”

(Jan. 25, 2010)—The Cato Institute warns that even though most Americans oppose ObamaCare and a majority of Massachusetts‘ residents don’t want it (43% of MA voters support it, 48% oppose it; some 80% of Brown voters oppose it), Democrats are still pushing for ObamaCare to become the law of the land. And that could happen if the House approves the already-passed Senate bill (the bill would then go directly to the Oval Office, without having to break another filibuster in the Senate). Many think it’s a long shot, but Cato’s Michael Cannon explains:

“If Speaker Nancy Pelosi bribes enough House members to reach that magic number of 218 votes, she could hold the vote with as little as 24 hours’ notice. And ObamaCare would become law. Done and done.”

Thus, it is very important for you and others to contact your Representatives — as soon as possible — and tell them to VOTE NO on the Senate Health-Reform Bill because it includes the unconstitutional mandate and it infringes on Americans’ health freedom and privacy.

Please help MAKE SURE bribes and vote-buying don’t strip you and others of existing health freedom rights — including the freedom to forgo buying a federally dictated insurance policy written by Washington lobbyists.

Congress’s main number is (202) 225-3121.

Or email Congress here: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

• Sneaking health bill through “reconciliation”
• Senate passes health care bill. Is the battle over?
• Denver Post: “Udall, Bennet should say ‘no’” to health bill
• Obama Care: prohibit buying what you want, mandate what you don’t want
• AP on health bills: “meaningful negotiations occur behind closed doors”

Posted in Obama Care, PPC | tags: HR 3590
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