Thursday
May142009
GOP: No Third Party For Health Care Decisions
Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 10:01AM
By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service
The House Republicans announced their official, common-ground position on the health care reform debate today, rejecting bureaucratic participation in their decision-making process.
House Minority Leader John Boehner said the GOP wants “A system (where) everyone has access to coverage, and a system that people can afford, and a system that focuses on quality.”
In order to achieve this, Republicans believe that there should be no third party involvement, Boehner announced.
“We want to make sure that health care decisions remain between a patient and a physician, not a bureaucrat,” said Boehner.
The debate over health care reform has intensified since the election of President Barack Obama. Health care reform has been one of the primary concerns of his campaign.
Tom Price, Chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said that market forces and the competition were a better alternative than the public plan.
“If the government's defining what qualifies as health insurance, that means that the bureaucrats are deciding what individuals are going to receive in their health package,” said Price.
Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz) said that “This idea of having choice for individuals actually helps bring down the costs because they know that in a year they might choice another plan”, referring to the advantages of Medicare’s Plan D.
Rep. Ginni Brown-Waite (R-Fla) said: “The health care insurance as we know it would cease to exist because the government would price its product less.”
Boehner called for the Democrats’ attention on cooperating for the reform, saying “ We continue to be here, we continue to reach out to you we want this to be a bipartisan effort but in order for it to be a bipartisan effort, you need to talk to us, but that isn’t happening”
The House Republicans announced their official, common-ground position on the health care reform debate today, rejecting bureaucratic participation in their decision-making process.
House Minority Leader John Boehner said the GOP wants “A system (where) everyone has access to coverage, and a system that people can afford, and a system that focuses on quality.”
In order to achieve this, Republicans believe that there should be no third party involvement, Boehner announced.
“We want to make sure that health care decisions remain between a patient and a physician, not a bureaucrat,” said Boehner.
The debate over health care reform has intensified since the election of President Barack Obama. Health care reform has been one of the primary concerns of his campaign.
Tom Price, Chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said that market forces and the competition were a better alternative than the public plan.
“If the government's defining what qualifies as health insurance, that means that the bureaucrats are deciding what individuals are going to receive in their health package,” said Price.
Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz) said that “This idea of having choice for individuals actually helps bring down the costs because they know that in a year they might choice another plan”, referring to the advantages of Medicare’s Plan D.
Rep. Ginni Brown-Waite (R-Fla) said: “The health care insurance as we know it would cease to exist because the government would price its product less.”
Boehner called for the Democrats’ attention on cooperating for the reform, saying “ We continue to be here, we continue to reach out to you we want this to be a bipartisan effort but in order for it to be a bipartisan effort, you need to talk to us, but that isn’t happening”
Reader Comments (3)
It's a simple calculation. The insurance industry and drug companies own most of congress. Congressmen & President Obama will do what big money wants done.
I love how Tom Price hides behind his simplistic "free market" ideology. What a fraud. He is opposed to any involvement by our government to curb the abuses of the insurance industry.
Actually, he may not be a fruad, it may be that he's just hopelessly misguided.
It is galling to hear mendacious blather about "choice [of plan] for individuals" and "We want to make sure that health care decisions remain between a patient and a physician, not a bureaucrat." I asked a friend working for a large employer how much choice of plan he has. Answer: none. Who decides what treatments he is allowed? An insurance company bureaucrat, one of the army of denial clerks the healthcos employ to limit costs, which they call "medical losses", i.e., payment for health care services.
The real mystery is that "health care insurance as we know it" continues to entail huge markups. Even with all the pressure to keep healthcare costs down, health insurance companies persist in imposing a 50% markup on the healthcare delivery services they choose to pay for. Why do they do this, when supermarkets can flourish with a 2% markup?
They are not all run by a bunch of greedy incompetents: there must be something about "free market" health insurance that requires a large markup. Something inherent must impose large expenses compared to the Medicare single-payer solution, which functions with a markup of about 5%. Hence the inordinate fear of any kind of government competition. FedEx and UPS thrive despite competition from the Post Office; why can't the healthcos handle government competition? Why, exactly, do they need to mark up health care services by 50%?