Posts Tagged ‘health care’

We’ve got updates on new disads including Education Reform and Nuclear Power, as well as some old staples including Health Care, Budget Deficits, Climate Change, and more!

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In the week since Obama’s State of the Union, he has begun to work with congressional allies and opponents to lay the groundwork for his ambitious agenda, including:

• Climate Change
• Budget
• START
• DADT

and much more!

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U – HEALTH CARE – COMPREHENSIVE / RECONCILIATION

DEMOCRATS AND OBAMA PUSHING COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CARE REFORM – WILL USE RECONCILIATION TO GET THE VOTES
LA TIMES 1-28-2010

PELOSI SUGGESTS MANEUVER TO PASS HEALTH CARE OVERHAUL, LEVEY

But a growing number of overhaul supporters — including doctors, consumer groups and labor unions — have stepped up calls for Democrats to push forward with a more ambitious plan. So too has President Obama.

On Wednesday, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, a conservative Democrat who has opposed reconciliation in the past, indicated that he would not necessarily oppose that strategy with healthcare.

“If I support a bill, then I will vote for it regardless of whether it takes 50 votes to pass or 60 votes to pass,” Nelson said on a call with reporters from his home state.

On the other end of the Democratic spectrum, Rep. Lynn Woolsey of Petaluma, Calif., a leading member of the House Progressive Caucus, said she would consider backing the Senate healthcare bill and a reconciliation package.

“It is something that has been done many times over. Why should we be bullied out of doing something that could improve healthcare?” she said.

Republicans used the reconciliation process to pass former President George W. Bush’s tax cut packages in 2001 and 2003.

We’ve got some new disads this week, such as Deficit Freeze and US-Russia START treaty, as well as some updates to classic scenarios such as Health Care and Financial Regulations.

Get your file now and receive FREE updates on the political reaction to Obama’s State of the Union as it develops over the next couple days.

Some of the updates includ:

• Energy Legislation
• US-Russia START
• Financial Regulations
• Health Care
• Budget Deficits

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UIL – DEMS COMMITTED TO PUSHING HEALTH CARE FORWARD – OBAMA’S POLITICAL CAPITAL IS KEY

NEW YORK TIMES 1-23-2010

DEMS MUM ON HOW TO KEEP PUSHING HEALTH OVERHAUL, AP

Obama has used immense political capital to advance the health care overhaul and remake a system that has frustrated past administrations, most recently Democrat Bill Clinton’s in 1994. Whether he can succeed where others have failed is now unclear.

”Here’s the good news. We’ve gotten pretty far down the road, but I have to admit, we had a little bit of a buzz saw this week,” the president said.

”I understand that, why after the Massachusetts election people in Washington were all in a tizzy, trying to figure out what this means for health reform, Republicans and Democrats: What does it mean for Obama? Is he weakened? Is he, oh, how’s he going to survive this?” Obama said. ”But I want you to understand, this is not about me. This is about you.”

Despite Dodd’s comments, both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., insist the health care legislation will go forward. They just haven’t said how.

UIL – DEMS COMMITTED TO PUSHING HEALTH CARE FORWARD – OBAMA’S POLITICAL CAPITAL IS KEY

NEW YORK TIMES 1-23-2010

DEMS MUM ON HOW TO KEEP PUSHING HEALTH OVERHAUL, AP

Obama has used immense political capital to advance the health care overhaul and remake a system that has frustrated past administrations, most recently Democrat Bill Clinton’s in 1994. Whether he can succeed where others have failed is now unclear.

”Here’s the good news. We’ve gotten pretty far down the road, but I have to admit, we had a little bit of a buzz saw this week,” the president said.

”I understand that, why after the Massachusetts election people in Washington were all in a tizzy, trying to figure out what this means for health reform, Republicans and Democrats: What does it mean for Obama? Is he weakened? Is he, oh, how’s he going to survive this?” Obama said. ”But I want you to understand, this is not about me. This is about you.”

Despite Dodd’s comments, both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., insist the health care legislation will go forward. They just haven’t said how.

Looks like the “wait and see” approach we’ve researched in our latest politics updates isstill the prevailing mood in Washington when it comes to health care reform. Obama and the Democrats are weighing

their options carefully as they choose between the lesser of many evils – trying to pass some version of health care reform with a no longer filibuster proof Senate majority:

Critical condition. Life support. Code red.

Any kind of medical cliche can be used to describe the state of President Obama’s health care initiative.

The election of Republican Scott Brown to the Senate gives the GOP the power to block a final health care bill, so the Obama White House and the Democrats are scrambling to figure out what they can do — if anything.

“We will take the time it needs to consider the options,” says House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Cal. Can a new negotiated bill “hold the insurance companies accountable? Make it more affordable for the middle class? Does it reduce the deficit? Can we get the votes to pass the approach? We will be able to. We just have to find it.”

We’ve posted our latest politics file! Get these updates for key evidence on Massachusetts dramatic election result’s effect on all agenda items and key issues such as health care and more.

This file has the updates you need to take into account this momentous change – eliminating the Democratic Senate’s 60-vote supermajority. Almost every card is either assuming the election results, or directly speaking to their impact on politics scenarios this weekend.

Featured in this file are 5+ disads including:

• Health Care Reform
• Immigration Reform
• Climate Change
• Midterm Elections
• Financial Regulations

and much MORE!

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Yesterday’s upset in Massachusetts leaves democrats reeling and has many questioning the prospects for health care reform. Although Obama has lost his filibuster-proof majority, he has promised to continue pushing for a health care plan that embraces the spirit of his campaign.

Axelrod said Obama will push on with health care and highlight how the administration is fighting for the middle class and “everyday people” a term he used numerous times.

“The bottom line has to be and continue to be the economic security of everyday people,” Axelrod said. “We need to focus the agenda of Washington on that.”

On health care, he added in the part tense: “The irony of all this, of course, is that the health care initiative of the president was really aimed at giving more security to everyday working people in this country, as is the motivation from virtually everything that we do.”

The “event,” as Axelrod called the Massachusetts election, will likely be reflected in Obama’s upcoming State of the Union address.

Uh Oh Democrats! Uh Oh Health Care!

Democrats may have reason for concern in the 2010 midterm elections, as the race between Coakley and Brown in Massachusetts is narrowing as it becomes a proxy battle over both parties and their approach to the congressional agenda.

NEW BEDFORD, Mass.—This is supposed to be friendly territory for Democrats, even in this year’s hostile political climate. But the suddenly frenetic and competitive race for the Tuesday vote to replace the late Sen. Edward Kennedy suggests Democrats could be in for tough fights across the political map.
Massachusetts hasn’t elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972, and a few months ago the state didn’t seem to present an opportunity for Republicans. But a series of polls suggest the race has tightened since the beginning of January.
One survey shows the contest essentially tied. Thursday, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report said the race was a “toss up,” and Democrats are already analyzing their mistakes.

Read more coverage from the Wall Street Journal.

Also check out the InfinitePrep Politics File for updates on the Massachusetts election.

Congress is back in action very soon and the agenda is already being set behind the scenes.

In light of recent catastrophic events in the world, InfinitePrep will donate $1 for every politics file sold this weekend to disaster relief efforts in Haiti.

This weeks file includes:

• Immigration Reform
• Health Care Reform
• Midterms
• Climate Change

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IMPACT – HEALTH CARE REFORM BAD – COSTS / DEFICITS

ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF HEALTH CARE REFORM ARE A MYTH – REPEAL OF SGR MAKES MASSIVE COSTS INEVITABLE AND MORE THAN OFFSETTS ANY SAVINGS – THEIR EVIDENCE OBSCURES THE TRUE NUMBERS

WEISS 1-12-2010 – MD AND MBA, NEUROSURGEON AND HEALTH CARE WRITER

THE TRUE COST OF HEALTH REFORM, FORBES

A little background review is helpful here. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 implemented a new methodology for targeting and containing Medicare expenditures, known as the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR). The SGR basically limits the reimbursement to physicians based on the rate of growth of the economy. If payouts to physicians exceed targeted spending in one year, fee schedules would be adjusted downward the following year, with no room for negotiation. Following the legislated reimbursement calculations, fees for physicians are scheduled to decrease by 21% in 2010, 23% in 2011 and 40% in 2016. These are decreases in real dollars, not adjusted for inflation, and they reduce payments to below their 1980 value. Seniors who have been staunchly protective of their Medicare benefits have serious cause for alarm.

Why haven’t most people heard about this before? It’s because physicians are actively lobbying on behalf of their patients. On an annual basis physicians, including myself, meet with legislators and fight to prevent the physician shortage, decreased quality and limited access to care that would result from enacting this formula. Since the Sustainable Growth Rate is, in fact, unsustainable, the rate cuts have repeatedly been blocked over the last decade by annual, urgent, temporary Congressional action. While this has been good news for patients and physicians, the fleeting nature of these measures mandates yearly pilgrimages by physicians to Washington, D.C., taking us away from our patients, costing time and money, and distracting us from providing medical care.

As it stands now, reimbursement cuts initially scheduled for Jan 1, 2010, have been deferred to Feb. 28, 2010. Once again, however, the Senate has chosen not to repeal the SGR. Permanent repeal was passed by the House in 2009, but it has no authority without Senate backing. The timing here is noteworthy. The need to keep the SGR ball in play at this time stems from the desire to mask the true cost of health care reform. The bills could only be passed under the guise of deficit reduction if the CBO calculation included the huge theoretical cost savings implied by the widely disregarded SGR. At the same time that the House passed its health reform bill, it also passed its separate, contradictory SGR-repeal bill, which would directly increase national costs but would not be counted as “reform-related” costs. The Senate stayed more consistent, declining to pass a permanent repeal but acknowledging that a temporary freeze on cuts will be again granted.

The CBO initially estimated the additional direct costs of health care as a result of this shady math at $250 billion, which dropped to $210 billion after physician-administered drug costs were shifted to another fund. Moving drug benefits, however, added another $78 billion to total costs. The CBO concludes that it simply cannot make any realistic estimates about the total impact of these maneuvers, “…as uncertainties involved are simply too great … a wide range of changes could occur … that are likely to be significant but are very difficult to predict, both under current law and under any proposal.” This information is not being honestly presented to voters by their legislators or the media.

While alarming under any circumstances, this sort of juggling is downright deceptive in the context of the proposed health care legislation. Any merger of the House and Senate bills will lead to a massive expansion of federally administered health insurance, be it Medicare or Medicaid, even in the absence of a public option. The White House would have us believe that increased governmental intervention would streamline our health care delivery. But even under the current system our highly regulated system is unsustainable.

We think it was worth the wait! We’ve posted our first ever FRIDAY politics file complete with the most recent evidence on over 7 scenarios for debates this weekend and throughout January.

This is InfinitePrep’s largest politics file ever, at over 200 pages.

Disads include:

• Immigration Reform
• South Korea Trade
• Health Care Reform
• Midterms
• Afghanistan
• Stimulus Legislation

And MUCH more.

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