Day: June 19, 2009

Republican Health Care?

Finally, after weeks of trashing the Obama health bill, the GOP has offered up an alternative.

As reported by NBC’s Luke Russert:

The plan, devised by the House Republican Health Care Solutions Group, promotes specifically targeting groups among the nation’s uninsured that could be covered by the existing system as well as keeping health insurance within the private sector. Republicans believe that if a government plan were to arise, patients would not be able to keep their existing health care — despite the president having said that’s not the case.

According to the Solutions Group press release, the GOP plan “encourages employers to opt-out rather than opt-in rules, which help the 10 million uninsured Americans who are eligible, but not enrolled in, an employer sponsored health insurance plan.”

Employers would be able to pay for this coverage through a creation of a new small business tax credit, Republicans say.

In an appeal to younger Americans, the GOP plan would also extend coverage to those under 25 years of age by “allowing dependents to remain on their parents’ health policies up to the age of 25.”

Oh my!  More do-do from the right.  Yet another plan with no information in it.  Sounds like their budget plan….nothing but old ideas from old men……their plan is about tax cuts and misinformation……sounds like their plan for everything.

Repubs are down on Obama for not telling the people what the Dem plan would cost…they go so far as to quote a CBO report that is based on estimates not reality…..and guess what?….the GOP plan has nothing in it about how their plan will be paid for…sound familiar?  They have left out the figures to support their plan….kinda like their budget plan.

The Huffington Post makes some good points about the GOP plan:

“The Patients’ Choice Act of 2009,” the plan will be introduced by U.S. Senators Tom Coburn, (R-OK) and Richard Burr (R-NC) and U.S. Representatives Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Devin Nunes (R-CA) at 11 a.m. The focus of the proposal — an advanced copy of which was obtained by the Huffington Post — is to push for a “guaranteed choice of coverage” in the private market through federal-state partnerships know as State Health Insurance Exchanges.

Individuals, the authors write, will have a “one-stop marketplace” to choose plans in the exchange, including the option of keeping their employer coverage and/or existing insurer. “Participating insurers,” meanwhile, would be required to “offer coverage to any individual — regardless of patient age or health history” though there is no mandate for an individual to purchase that insurance.

There are, finally, some budgetary concerns with the Republican proposal. The authors call for investing in chronic disease prevention for problematic, long-term illnesses — including providing $50 million annually for increased vaccine availability. They pledge major administrative improvements in Medicaid and Medicare as well. And they promise to ensure compensation for injured patients by encouraging legal reforms. All of this will require spending, and eliminating the tax exclusions for employer coverage can only get them so far.

The biggest problem is that the GOP would insure about 17 million leaving in the neighborhood of 29 million still uninsured.  The American people are concerned with health care and how they will provide for their family and the Repubs continue to ignore the majority of people and keep massaging their tired obsolete plans.

It Is Good To Be A Government Contractor

Do you remember Blackwater?  The security private army that works for the US government.  UPI is reporting the results of an audit into Blackwater:

An audit by the U.S. government found the Department of State overpaid security contractors with the company formerly known as Blackwater by about $55 million.A joint audit by the inspector general for the U.S. State Department and the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, a temporary agency examining the abuse of funds intended for Iraq reconstruction programs, found the State Department overpaid security contractors by at least $55 million.

The audit also alleges Xe, as Blackwater is known currently, did not provide a sufficient number of guards, marksmen and other securitydetails for the protection of U.S. representatives to Iraq.

The audit comes as Xe lobbies for new government security contracts in Afghanistan potentially worth tens of millions of dollars, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Green Party On The Economic Situation

From a news release by the Green Party USA:

Green Party leaders said today that measures to end the recession must focus on the financial needs of middle- and lower-income Americans, and accused Democrats and Republicans in Congress and President Obama of favoring big banks, financial institutions, and insurance firms.

“The very banks, Wall Street firms, and insurance companies that are responsible for the economic crisis are calling the shots for economic recovery. They’re using their power over Congress and the White House to make sure that taxpayers’ money and workers’ retirement benefits rescue CEOs and major shareholders. They’re blocking badly needed regulation and the deeper reforms in our economic system that are necessary to dig us out of the hole. Unfortunately, President Obama and Democrats and Republicans in Congress are cooperating with them so that the power these corporations hold over America remains undiminished,” said Laura Wells, former candidate for California State Controller (TV interview: http://www.gp.org/flash/LauraWells/lw.html). Ms. Wells intends to run for the position again “until we — the people of this state — win. We need to follow the money, understand it, and correct it.”

Congress and the White House have refused to take real action against skyrocketing interest rates, especially on credit cards, by restoring laws against usury and imposing interest rate caps. Greens called the Democrats’ “Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights” a small step in the right direction but severely inadequate, with no limits on future credit card interest rates.

“The economic meltdown is the result of deregulated lending — predatory mortgage lending, outrageous credit card interest and fees, and other practices that have put working Americans into endless debt and bankrupted small businesses,” said Jody Grage, treasurer of the Green Party of the United States. “But Democrats and Republicans alike have refused to consider modest steps like an 18% interest rate cap, out of loyalty to major corporate campaign contributors and lobbies.”

“The most important step in ending the economic crisis must be reversal of the Reagan-Bush-Clinton revolution, which deregulated the financial industry. All that rhetoric about ‘shrinking big government’ really meant repealing protections for working people, especially laws against usury. Since 1980, bipartisan legislation favoring giant corporate lenders have paved the way for the current disaster. It’s time to restore and expand the Glass-Steagal Act, overturn recent bankruptcy bills that put millions of Americans in hock to credit card companies and other financial corporations, and place restrictive caps on corporate lenders and creditors,” said Ms. Grage

More information: “The Trouble With Democrats” by William Greider, The Nation, June 22, 2009 (http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090622/greider).