SOMETHING TO THINK
ABOUT
March 10, 2010
Healthcare reform – is that a perplexing question or what?
After watching several hours of President Obama’s meetings with congressional
leaders, several TV news programs on this topic, reading what I can and
attending a meeting with Senator Brownback on Monday where health care was
discussed I’m more confused than ever.
No doubt we cannot nor should not sustain the current system.
President Obama’s plan will insure millions of Americans who don’t currently
have health insurance, but at what cost is the big unanswered question.
The Republican stance while sounding like it is just – NO, NO, NO, is actually
one of NO to a comprehensive plan, but supposedly YES to incremental steps to
fix specific problems.
The question for Republicans would be if you are now in favor of incremental
fixes for things like - $150 billion in annual Medicaid fraud, possible savings
of $600 billion in tort reform or increasing competition by allowing for health
insurance to be sold across state lines – why didn’t you do any of those things
when YOU HAD THE POWER?
The big question for Democrats who support the Obama plan is HOW DO WE PAY FOR
THIS?
The current legislation puts off paying for the increased health care for years
or until all current Senators and Representatives have either retired or been
re-elected. Senator Brownback said the plan to take money from Medicare just
would NOT EVER happen. He was emphatic about this point.
So what happens next?
It looks like President Obama will force reconciliation – an extremely
controversial political move – to get his health care plan passed IF he can get
enough votes.
If he gets the votes his new health care plan will become the law, but without
a clear plan as to how it will be funded.
When and if that happens there will be actions and reactions like we’ve never
experienced before.
Winners and losers will likely be hard to determine. Adjustments by government
at all levels will be required. The medical community will be changed
dramatically and big insurance companies – well who knows?
Some say the big insurance companies – a major lobbying group on this topic –
ALWAYS GET THEIR WAY, so who knows, but if they – the big insurance companies
are the drivers of President Obama’s plan then it looks to me like we are all
in for
A REALLY BAD DEAL!
Stay tuned.
I’m Steve Sauder and there’s something to think about.
Steve Sauder is
president of Emporia's Radio Stations, Inc. the owners of KVOE-AM 1400, Country
101.7 and Mix 104.9. Steve has been in a leadership position with
