What This Country Really Needs

This morning, I was browsing through CBSNews.com, and I read a disturbing fact.

There are three thousand registered health care lobbyist in Washington - that's six lobbyists for every member of Congress.

According to the article, many of these lobbyists are Congressmen who crafted legislation benefitting the health insurance industry.

This led me to an interesting thought: what this country really needs is lobbyist reform. It seems that these days, and perhaps my entire lifetime, what the people want is irrelevant. When election time comes around, the politicans kiss hands and shake babies and pretend that they give a shit about us. After they get elected, our voices are shut out and only the lobbyists have any influence.

Some examples:
- Billy Tauzin, who was "instrumental" in the passage of Medicare Part D. Now works for the drug industry's lobbyist group PhRMA as their president. He is earning ten times what he earned as a Congressmen.
- Sen. John Breaux, fought against allowing drug prices to be negotiated in Medicare Part D. Now runs his own lobbying firm, and has received $300,000 this year to lobby for the pharmaceutical industry.
- Sen. Don Nickles, helped negotiate the final version of Medicare Part D. Earned $120,000 this year to lobby "health care reform issues related to Medicare and Medicaid."
- Thomas Scully, former Medicare chief. Began working for a lobbying firm less than two weeks after Medicare Part D passed.

There are more examples, but I won't bore you with the details. My point is this: how are we supposed to believe that our Senators and Representatives are really working for us, when so many of them migrate to the lobbyists' side of the business soon after leaving Congress? Are we to blithely believe that those job offers came after legislation was passed? That the health care industry and their lobbyists didn't whisper promises of job offers in their Congressional ears before the legislation was passed?

There needs to be a drastic change to laws surrounding lobbyists. I don't have a problem with the industry getting their voice heard. The problem is that, most of the time, it is the only voice that is heard.

100,000 Calls to Congress

The President is calling on supporters of healthcare reform to take a few minutes to call their Congressional representatives. The goal is to hit 100,000 phone calls today. Currently, there have been 4,000 calls made.

To look up the names and phone numbers of your Congressional representatives, visit the link below:

http://advocacy.barackobama.com/healthcare/campaigns/13/call_scripts/33/call_sessions/new

It's very easy to use. Just enter your zip code, and the information for both of your Senators and your Representative will be displayed. The site will also give you a sample call script, so don't worry if you don't know what to say! When you're finished, be sure to click the "Report Calls" button so that we can see how close we are to achieving our goal.

Don't let this opportunity to have your voice heard slip by. With the healthcare reform bills coming out of the committees now, it will soon be up to your representatives to vote on them.

The Cost of Healthcare Reform and a Public Option

With all of the debate that I keep hearing about healthcare reform, one of the favorite topics seems to be that of the cost and where the money will come from. This is certainly a reasonable concern, but let's consider a few facts.

• In 2007, Americans spent $2.7 trillion on healthcare
• The Baucus bill, one of the leading bills, will cost an estimated $829 billion
• The Senate HELP bill, another leading bill will cost an estimated $1 trillion

One of the big things that I, personally, want out of healthcare reform is a public option. To me, this is the best of both worlds. We get the benefits of socialized medicine such as that in Canada or the UK, but we can also get the benefits of private insurance. It seems like a very happy meeting place, in my eyes. But, of course, that brings us back to the cost. $1 trillion dollars seems like a lot of money.

But consider this: if Americans spent $2.7 trillion in 2007 for overpriced, unreliable and discriminatory healthcare, should we then have a problem spending even the same amount on healthcare that no one can take away from you? Healthcare that could not be lost to job loss or pre-existing medical conditions? To me, this security is worth it. Let's assume for a moment that the public option is just as good as any private insurance. But instead of paying some insurance company who will ditch you at a moment's notice, you pay the government in the form of either higher taxes or upfront premiums.

Obviously, you don't want to pay for both, and I'm sure this is a concern for those who intend to keep their private plans. Which is why I don't want to see them pay for it with cuts to Medicare or by tax hikes. I'd like to see it paid for with upfront premiums so that only those who are using the public option have to pay for it. And in doing so, the cost of private insurance may be driven down by the fact that they now have to compete with the government.

What are your feelings on a public option? Do you think this is a good idea, or as some say, a very bad one?

The So-Called Evils of Socialized Medicine

One of the major arguments that we've been hearing against healthcare reform is that, as "everyone" knows, socialized medicine is horrible. We've heard all about long wait times to see a doctor, about incompetent doctors, and about the multitudes of people who come to the US for their healthcare in spite of being able to get it for free in their own country.

From the discussions I have personally had with people who live in countries with socialized medicine, I believe that this is simply untrue. But, I would like to find out for sure.

So today's blog post has one simple request: if you live, or have lived, in a country with socialized medicine, please tell us about your experiences with it. How long do you have to wait for a doctor's visit? Did you feel that the doctors you saw were competent and able to fix whatever was wrong with you? And, if you happen to have lived in the US and another country, how did the doctors there compare to those the US?

I can't wait to read your responses!

Welcome!

For months, I have been following the healthcare reform discussion with a great deal of interest. This is an issue near and dear to my heart. My hope is that we can use our collective influence as writers to educate others and spread the word about the importance of healthcare reform in the US.

How it works:

I will post blogs that, hopefully, will educate readers on various aspects of the different healthcare plans that are being considered. If you agree with the cause of healthcare reform, you can post a link to this blog on your own blog, website, Facebook, etc. In return, I will link to your blog or website. In addition, I have created a Facebook fan page so that fans can be notified via Facebook when there is a new blog post. In this way, I hope that we can help move healthcare reform forward. To join the cause, email me and your link will be added to the site.

Guest blogs:

Have an idea for a guest blog? I would love to hear it. Contact me via email at j-shumate at hotmaill dot com.