A post by Pat
All the double talk on the health care reform health insurance reform is getting to the White House Press Secretary.
The larger talking points are simple enough. It is urgent and imperative to pass the bill quickly so no one will have to go without health insurance. Pre-existing conditions will be covered, there will be a limit on out-of-pocket expenses and no lifetime cap on benefits. The President is adamant that health care reform will not increase the deficit. All this will be paid for primarily by squeezing cost savings out of the system.
The nasty CBO knocked down that castle in the air with a report that the bill would cause a net increase in the federal budget deficit of $239 billion over the 2010-2019 period. None of Obama’s cost control measures were really going to control costs very much.
Now the focus is on IMAC. This is something the Blue Dogs pushed for to ensure that cost cutting would really happen. IMAC, the Independent Medicare Advisory Council (a really bad idea), would have clout in setting the Medicare reimbursement schedule. Obama called IMAC “MedPac on steroids”. MedPac was a Republican invention in the 90′s to curtail Medicare spending. All MedPac can do is make recommendations which Congress ignores. IMAC would make recommendations to the President who would pass the recommendations on to Congress for an up or down vote within 30 days. Just days ago Obama cited IMAC as one of the most important ways to curb health care costs. (Read the whole thing. He hints at Social Security reform in the future.)
Along comes the CBO spoiling things again with a projection that IMAC will not contribute much to cost savings over the next 10 years. The defense from the White House is that IMAC is not scheduled to start until 2015 so it’s silly to say there won’t be much savings over the next ten years. Gibbs made that point to Bret Baier today when asked about the CBO report. Bret reminded Gibbs that the President promised deficit neutrality over the next decade and that IMAC is supposedly a key component in achieving cost cutting. He then took it from there quoting projections of billions added to the deficit from 2015 – 2025 when IMAC will be in effect.
Too much for Gibbs to keep up with.
The administration decided cost cutting was a good sales pitch in economic hard times for a long-desired liberal power grab. That angle is starting to break down despite the attempted shell game. The cost cutting claims are getting backed into a corner. The emphasis may now shift to the usual liberal tactic of sob stories and unfairness.
(See here for a good analysis on why health care costs are so high and why the reality is not so blue skies and happiness. Also see Hospitals React To Proposal To Revamp Medicare Advisory Panel)
Yeah, Pat, you got it: The new talking point is “cost-cutting”, and we started hearing it after the old slogans went down in flames. It’s not “ObamaCare”; it’s “insurance reform”. Heaven save us from these fast-talking power-hungry fools and scoundrels! I think people are starting to realize the words have nothing to do with the deeds.
No matter who says it or what they say the Bamster already has a track record of backtracking.
Get anything he has said and then he chnages it. Maybe that’s what he means by “change.” No matter what he says he can “change” it. How they can ever say that a gubamint program is NOT going to be overbudget or expensive should be the FIRST red flag to anyone!
It doesn’t matter to this lying, deceiving totalitarian regeme. No matterwhat they say–it will ALWAYS change. There is no such thing as ‘concrete’ in this regeme. They have no credibility. And they keep on trying to dazzel the proletariet with their bull crap.
And Gibbs is one of the major a-holes. The “Minister of Information” from 1984.
They suck. All of them.
Why does the mainstream media still refuse to ask why Congress is exempting itself from the healthcare plan they want to force on the American People? Gibbs should get that question at every news briefing until it is answered.
Frightening line of thought: “Mr. Obama pointed to the situation of the diabetic who obtains nutrition advice and avoids an unnecessary amputation” (Washington Post “The Health-Care Sacrificeâ€)
Mr. Obama trivialized diabetes. A diabetic “who obtains nutrition advice” WILL loose a toe, foot, or leg because it is the nature of the disease not a result of poor nutrition. Under Obama Care how will a diabetic’s fate be determined?
I can’t help but think that if the real motivation of reform was to address the uninsured, it would dawn on someone to just use tax dollars to subsidize the costs of health insurance premiums. I’m thinking we could pull that off for a mere 240 billion $$$ or so – chump change compared to the trillions or so that Bozama is proposing.
Exactly. Goverment funds could also subsidize health care providers in various ways. It’s a power grab.
you only have to look at the state of MA. originally they claim they enacted the health care law because they were going to lose federal funds because so many were uninsured. their answer was exactly the same as the reform laws in congress- make it illegal not to have health insurance. presto- everyone has health insurance. what exactly was reformed in health insurance? nothing whatsoever. it was never considered that people in a state with a very high cost of living, high taxes and a limited ‘ market’ that was anything but free for insurance products simply couldn’t afford coverage.
nothing was put in place to control costs and everything was done to make it sweet for private insurance companies ( read : lobbyists) to make a killing on a legally captive group of victims. a board of ‘ health insurance experts’ decides what is acceptable care and you can’t get an non-approved product or an out of state product- HSA and high deductible emergency policies are not acceptable. Ma now has the highest insurance premiums in the country and the state is bleeding money in buckets because of primarily the health care reform . there are subsidized products here- subsidized by tax money and it’s helping to ram the state into a fiscal melt down. groups of legal citizens and legal aliens are being axed from the subsides in place and the mandate is put aside more and more frequently because the state has to admit- there really is no health insurance product people can afford and they make to much for the subsidized products. the subsidies do not work or save costs and are causing a health crisis worse than anything before the damn reform.
people who were shoved off of medicare/medicaid into insurance products with high deductibles are going without care because they can’t afford it. hospitals are being saddled with the costs of caring for the poor and those with these policies they can’t afford .
the reform does not work and it’s provable- in real time even. why is it not ok to have government have it’s hands all over a woman’s body vis s vis abortion but the federal government should get to have its grubby little paws all over everyone’s body over every medical procedure?
it’s a power grab and pay off to insurance companies and drug companies in the guise of messiah obama providing everyone with ‘health care’- bread and circuses while rome burns.
That mean ol’ CBO, always killing the dream with facts.
Here’s a solution: since the Fed wants expanded powers in order to “police” the financial institutions (cough cough), why not expand the Fed’s powers even more so they can take over the CBO.
Let’s forget about the facts and just feel good. Trust the Messiah (may he live forever).