Are you ready for the new TV show? It’s supposed to make us healthy… so should you watch? It’s this coming Thursday… Produced and directed by Barack Obama…
Man! If the Republicans don’t cooperate, meaning if they don’t do as I say, I’ll call’em up on a TV show, so we’ll all be in front of the American people in real time. Then how could they say no to my instructions? Is that what Obama is thinking? It’s what thinking people might suspect.
After throwing in the kitchen sink and the dish rag for a wild-spending democratic push for their brand of healthcare, and failing, somebody would have to take desperate measures. So now we’re gonna prove that we’re open and above board and put it all on TV? After we said we would and didn’t before? Well! Why would anybody be suspicious about forced cooperation. And could anybody think that’s an oxymoron?
The NY times has an op-ed this morning, with five invited republicanish guests, BILL FRIST, MARK McCLELLAN, JAMES P. PINKERTON, CHARLES KOLB and NEWT GINGRICH. Here’s some of what they write:
Frist: “The most powerful way to reduce costs (and make room to expand coverage) is to shift away from “volume-based” reimbursement (the more you do, the more money you make) to “value-based” reimbursement. …The Congressional plan to squeeze reimbursement to nurses, doctors and hospitals by imposing top-down budgeting in Washington won’t work. …Medicare and private insurance companies should reimburse providers not for each discrete service they provide but for managing a patient’s condition over an entire episode of care.”
McClellan: “(Republicans) should insist on adding reforms that would do more to reduce costs… cost-saving reforms could include meaningful changes in medical liability law; better opportunities for people to save money when they take steps to lower their health care costs; and Medicare savings from greater use of competitive bidding.”
Pinkerton: “Sixty-seven percent of Americans say they are not getting enough medical treatment, according to Kaiser Family Foundation Data. But we want not just more care; we want better health. Thanks to the public-private effort that decades ago brought us the polio vaccine, we no longer spend money on wheelchairs and iron lungs. We could do the same today for other diseases. Finding a cure is cheaper than paying for care.”
Kolb: “Health care reform should have two critical goals: reducing costs and covering more people. To meet them, Democrats and Republicans must abandon simplistic, ideologically driven proposals that animate each party’s base. Liberals cannot insist on Medicare for all, and conservatives cannot insist on markets for all, plus tort reform. Neither approach will work.”
Gingrich: “A new Gallup poll, commissioned by Jackson Healthcare, indicates that doctors believe an astounding one in four health care dollars is now spent on unnecessary care.
Doctors order these procedures to protect against frivolous suits filed by trial lawyers seeking an easy payout, particularly after a doctor makes a simple mistake. Seventy-three percent of the doctors surveyed said they had practiced defensive medicine in the past year. As a result, American patients not only endure extra hours of tests and treatments but also pay more for health care.
If President Obama and Congress are serious about reducing health care costs, then the more than $600 billion a year in unnecessary care should be at the top of the list.”
I never understood how spending trillions more could control health-care costs. Nobody ever explained how. And the press didn’t ask. Amazing! But Americans instinctively knew that wouldn’t wash.
So will they come up with something on the Obama show this Thursday? Or will it be more CYA? I’m checking my local TV schedule.
Op-Ed Contributors – How the G.O.P. Can Fix Health Care – NYTimes.com.
