By Jim Stanford on November 21, 2009
Lost in all the screaming over health insurance reform has been a substantive dialogue about what’s actually proposed in the legislation and what it means for Wyoming residents.
Click for details.
A group of citizens has organized a community forum Sunday for a patient, thoughtful and respectful discussion of the facts.
Quite a novelty, in an age of fraud and hysteria on Faux News.
Gary Trauner, the two-time candidate for U.S. House, will serve as moderator. I’ve been privy to private discussions among a group in Jackson — Republicans and Democrats, convened by uber-conservative Foster Friess — and no one has been as knowledgeable and willing to broker a solution as Gary. It’s a shame we don’t have him to represent us and push for bipartisan reform in Congress.
After the jump is an editorial Gary has written about Sunday’s event, and the state of health care in general.
The forum runs from 2 to 4 p.m. at Snow King Resort.
From Gary Trauner:
Confused about health care reform? You are not alone.
During my campaign for Congress, one encounter regarding health care made a deep impression on me. I knocked on the door of a homeowner and family man in Dayton, Wyoming. When I asked what issues concerned him the most, he spoke to me for nearly 20 minutes about health care, his sick son and his fear that, lacking insurance because he could not afford the premiums, he would lose his home. I thought: “The perfect spokesperson for a health care system that covers everyone with basic, quality and affordable healthcare.” But at the end of his monologue, he looked at me and said, “You know what, though? I hate socialized medicine.” When I politely inquired what he meant by that, he had no real answer, only a mumbled reply about “government.”
The debate over health care reform has been fraught with acrimony, distrust and charges of bad faith on both sides of the issue. The result – whether you believe that our system is broken and needs reform, or you are happy with the status quo – is mass confusion and uncertainty.
Certain facts are indisputable. The United States spends more money per person on its health care system than any other developed country in the world. The United States spends more as a percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP is a rough measure of our national annual income) than any other developed country in the world – and it’s not even close. Yet over 15 percent of Americans, more than 46 million, do not have health insurance. Private insurers are able to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions (that they define) and are also able to cancel the insurance of certain customers who have been faithfully paying their premiums through a practice called “rescission.”
In a heated debate about a complex health care system, further confusion reigns over terms thrown around all too casually and without much explanation: “socialized medicine,” “government-run,” “public option,” “universal coverage,” “patient choice,” “death panels” and “rationing,” among others.
One of the attributes that makes Jackson Hole so great is the willingness of so many people across the policy spectrum to get involved in issues that matter to all of us. A nonpartisan group of citizens called Wyoming for Health Care Reform has asked me to moderate a public forum on Sunday, Nov. 22, at 2 p.m. at Snow King Resort to educate others on fact and fiction, to de-mystify the debate and to arm citizens with the ammunition they need to make an informed decision. In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “The best defense of democracy is an informed electorate.”
Finally, one more fact. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, as reported by the Commonwealth Fund, the average cost to insure a family in Wyoming was $12,734 in 2008, making Wyoming the 16th-most expensive health insurance state in the country. Don’t we owe it to ourselves to spend a few minutes to get informed? After all, the stakes couldn’t be higher – the future health and well-being of you, your friends and family, and the future economic health and well-being of your town, your county, your state and your country. As Jefferson further observed, “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”
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• Overview of legislative process and debate, from the N.Y. Times
Posted under Democratic Party, Economy, Politics
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.
If you ask me this pretty much sums it all up.
45 or 46 million without health insurance is a totally fraudulent statistic. About 14 million of these are eligible for existing government programs such as SCHIP or Medicaid but have not signed up. A significant number of this oft cited 45 million could choose to purchase insurance, but choose not to. Many have incomes in excess of $50k. 18 million of the uninsured are under aged 34, meaning mostly young and healthy and would rather spend money on things other than premiums. Some of these groups of people overlap, for example many who have not signed up for Medicaid but are eligible are also under the age of 34. Finally 10 or 12 million in the 45 cited are actually in the United States illegally. So what you are really left with is probably around 8 -12 million truly uninsurable people. Obama himself says his plan does not cover illegals, so that must mean the number of uninsured immediately falls to around 35 million right off the bat…
This last category of truly uninsurable people needs to be addressed; some way to extend coverage to them should be found. However it is not necessary to upend the entire health care system to accomplish this. And patently fraudulent statistics should not be thrown around in support of overhauling the system.
Before you throw in behind a scheme to nationalize the health care industry, think about your experiences with the DMV, the Transportation Security Administration, the IRS, the Post Office and all of your other encounters with heavily unionized work forces. If you think that is a good model, by all means support govt healthcare. Otherwise you should think twice about what is being proposed.
I don’t have time to address all the complaints right now, but let me talk about the number of “illegals.” The Census Bureau said there are around 9 or 10 million “noncitizens,” which is NOT the same as “illegals.” For a thorough discussion on the numbers, please see http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/aug/18/barack-obama/number-those-without-health-insurance-about-46-mil/
Also, I have had very good experiences with the DMV and the Post Office–getting a physical object delivered in 3 days to the opposite coast for 44 cents is not bad, and as a mail order retailer, I use Priority Mail all the time with great success. Then there are schools, highways, police, fire department, regulated utilities (remember what happened with Enron?), etc. Not all the government does is bad. We’ll leave the IRS aside for the moment
I should stop now but just one more thing…the uninsured need to be brought into the system not just for their own good, but for all of us. Think of it as a social responsibility, like paying your taxes and having car insurance. I know, there’s the IRS again. But without it we wouldn’t have a lot of the services we take for granted.
And here we are again, almost two months further down the road and the final battle is about to be waged on Health Care Reform for America after 60 years of debate! It may not end up being what any of us hoped for, but we can aspire to make it better over time and it’s a dam sight better than what’s in place right now.
I, for one, look forward to the day every American can afford good quality health care in America…we’d all benefit from a healthier, happier population of productive citizens and that’s what it should be all about…not the political football where whoever wins the debate wins the next election regardless of the merits of their arguments.