Health Care Marketplace: Cut Costs And Create Competition

By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

The issue of promoting competition and preventing rising health care costs was discussed by the Consumer, Product Safety, and Insurance Subcommittee during a hearing Thursday morning.

“For too long, too many health care decisions have been made behind closed doors with industry profits, not the patient’s best interests in mind,” said Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.). “It is no surprise that without any transparency or the force of competition to keep them honest, industry profits soared, as have consumer costs and the barriers to necessary medical care.”

Representatives from various organizations including the Federal Trade Commission, New America Foundation, Center for American Progress, Arkansas Pharmacists Association and Galen Institute testified at the hearing.

Richard Feinstein, Director of the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commisssion (FTC), highlighted the need to prevent or stop anticompetitive agreements that raise health care prices. He said anitrust enforcement saves money that consumers, employers, and governments could spend on health care. All the panelists agreed that reform is needed, and more should be done to create more health care incentives for the public.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) also held a health care discussion of his own Thursday. Barrasso and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) are hosting a new online show entitled “The Senate Doctors Show.” Barrasso and Coburn are the only doctors in the Senate and their new show will feature them answering questions from the public about health care proposals under debate in Congress.

“I think you ought to take the bill home, read it, talk to people about it. The best ideas don’t come from Washington...I think the American people have a right to expect to see the bill, read the bill, think about the bill, and come up with some suggestions,” said Barrasso.

"The Senate Doctors Show" is streamed live at http://republican.senate.gov/doctors every Tuesday and Thursday at 4:00 p.m. EDT.

Has The World Rushed To Judgment On Honduran Coup?

By Courtney Ann Jackson-Talk Radio News Service

By attempting to run for reelection, did ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya’s violate his country's constitution? On Friday, representatives from seven Latin American organizations testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Western Hemisphere Subcommittee to discuss the question.

Certain members of the committee were adamant in their view that Zelaya's actions had, in fact, crossed constitutional boundaries.

“I think it was clear that virtually all major Honduran political institutions and actors opposed President Zelaya’s efforts. Not only were the Supreme Court, Congress, and Zelaya’s own Attorney General against him, even members of his own political party and the influential Catholic Church were hostile to Zelaya’s efforts to change the constitution,” said Committee Chairman Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y).

Cynthia Arnson, Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars' Washington Office on Latin America, noted that Zelaya's actions should serve as a “wake-up call” that further progress to advance democracy in Latin America is still needed.

Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), the committee's ranking member, said, “It seems to me that the more we look at Mr. Zelaya, the more we find a man who believes he is above the law, untouchable, and clearly a man who has no respect for democracy.”

Guillermo Perez-Cadalso, former Foreign Minister and Honduran Supreme Court Justice, said he believes the international community rushed to judgement over the coup before evaluating all the facts. He testified under the title of “Concerned Honduran Citizen" rather than using his official government title.

Perez-Cadalso argued that Zelaya was “legally and constitutionally removed from office,” and that the “military is not in charge of Honduras; the consitutional order of [the country] remains intact.”

The U.S. State Department headed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has endorsed a dialogue process with the Organization of American States. On that subject, Perez-Cadalso noted, “I am optimistic that this situation can be resolved through the dialogue. This process will be successful if both sides refrain from emotional personal reactions and stick to constructive discussions about the issues.”

A Savior for Jobs in America?

By Courtney Ann Jackson- Talk Radio News

The Council on Economic Advisers reports that they will be monitoring the saving and changing of jobs in the United States on individual state basis.
 
The CEA this year will report to Congress on all estimates of jobs saved and created. The estimates will be combined with numbers from state by state reports.

An unnamed senior administration official said they are going to “be monitoring every state, every county, finding out what’s happening in terms of the actual reporting of where the jobs are being created and how things are going.”

A January report said that 3.5 million jobs would be saved as a result of the program under the Recovery Act. The official said those estimates have not changed “in terms of what the program is going to do.”

The program is expected to fulfill its original promises, the official said. “We are seeing unemployment interestingly throughout the spectrum,” the official said. The effects have crossed over into a variety of industries and geographic groups. The CEA hopes to receive description of exactly what types of jobs are being created when they receive the individual state reports.

The report spells out the general principles of how the states will be asked to report on the specifics of their progress. The official said it is important to see how each state’s projects and progress compares across the country. That is the type of information the CEA hopes to gain with the direct reports.