Day: August 20, 2009

See, Lies DO Work!

Yesterday I had a post entitled “Argumentum ad populum” which I pointed out that “if enough people believe a thing then it must be so” and my point has been proven…..

For several months the Repubs in Congress have been feeding the population misinformation about the health care bill in Congress.  Most of their attacks are taken out of context from the bill and embellished to make it more freightening than it really is.  I have heard that little of this is really working on the population.  But a very recent NBC News/WSJ poll proves that the liues are working and working well.

The poll that was recently taken had a margin of error of +/- 3.5%.  When the people were asked about some of the stories in the news pertaining to the Dems Health bill, their responses were as follows:

Will give health care coverage to illegal aliens……….55% said yes

Will lead to the government take over of health care……..54% said yes

Will use taxpayers money to pay for women’s abortions……50% said yes

Will allow the government to decide when to stop supplying medical care to the elderly…..45% said yes

Those questions were of the misinformation about the health bill and have been attacked by the conservs and have been reported extensively on conserv news outlets.  BTW, there is no such sections for any of those questions in the proposed health bill.

I thank NBC News and the poll respondents for proving my point……that if enough people are misinformed and believe the lies then they belive it must be truth.

Health Co-op–One More Time

A paper by the Inkwell Institute

Looks and sounds like a major piece of waffling by the Obama Admin—a month ago the Prez said that he would not sign any health reform without a public option and just 2 days ago he said that the public option was just a small piece of the health care agenda.  At the beginning of his administration Obama made many promises and many things, but health care during the primaries was one of his best techniques to win over the voters.  But now almost weekly the admin seems to be back sliding….turn cowardly if you will.

I want to know…did the Dems ever have any intention of a Real health care reform?  Does not look like it.  They signed on when it came time to woo the voter but once they got back to Washington their tunes change along with the money thrown at them.  Several months ago Obama had a meeting with the drug industry and they made a deal for a huge multi-million dollar deal for drug savings, but is it possible that more was agreed upon in that meeting?  Maybe that less would be sought for the industry’s support?

I do not think single payer was ever on the agenda…….public option became the next best thing and it was used to stir up debate so that something less could be arranged.  Public option was only being used as a talking point to appease the Left of the Party.  Looks more and more like the piece of crap…health co-ops will be the deal.

Health co-ops:  Sam Stein writing in the Huffington Post:

The U.S. General Accounting Office produced a report on cooperatives in March 2000 that was mostly sour on the idea. Using five different co-ops as examples, the study concluded that on the key function — lowering the cost of insurance — these non-profit insurance pools came up well short.

“The cooperatives’ potential to reduce overall premiums is limited because (1) they lack sufficient leverage as a result of their limited market share; (2) the cooperatives have not been able to produce administrative cost savings for insurers; or (3) their state laws and regulations already restrict to differing degrees the amount insurers can vary the premiums charged different groups purchasing the same health plan.”

Part of the problem was availability. While cooperatives sought to provide more choice of insurance to participants, oftentimes they failed to get consumers a broader range of options. “Not all plans are available in all areas served by each cooperative, and individual employers using some cooperatives may limit the choice of plans their employees can select,” the study concluded.

And without a large number of participants, co-ops essentially were subject to the whims of the insurance market, unable to use market influence to get consumers better deals on coverage. “None of the purchasing cooperatives we reviewed had a large enough market share to create bargaining leverage and therefore had a limited ability to significantly increase the percentage of small employers offering coverage in their state,” the study found.

If the co-op deal is the final draft then Obama will claim it as a public option so that he can claim a victory in the health war.  Something to think about Blue Cross/Blue Shield started off as a co-op and morphed into the health for profit giant it is today.

Before I move on…Repubs are soooo concerned about the health of the people and the cost of the program….but just ask yourself what has their answer been in the last decade?  Do not Google it….I will help….their answer has been to open a health savings account and once that was said it was all silence as far as affordable health care.