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THE SYSTEM AT WORK
Re: Philip Klein's GOP's Health Care Strategy Is Short-Sighted:

As a physician, and Republican, I have seen the "system" at work.

People with free insurance tend to overuse the system so minor ailments clog up the waiting rooms, thereby preventing the really sick from seeing the doctor. (Look at the military system if you want a good example.) There is no disincentive against using the health care you paid for. Unlike other forms of insurance such as disability, home, auto, where you hope you never have to use them, health insurance almost encourages the patient to ask for "all the tests" every time they visit the doctor.

The "cuts" always seem to come at the expense of the doctors. No one seems to know if any jobs were cut at Medicare or Medicaid during the recent job cutting.

Give doctors incentives to treat patients with health insurance such as better pay, tax credits for the deep discounts they are forced to accept and other incentives, and you will see them lining up to care for patients.

It is time for an end to large monopolies such as AARP, who reap billions by servicing those worthless secondaries and drug discounts (with kickbacks from Big Pharma). I know for a fact that they got over one BILLION dollars last year for advertising "cheap" life insurance with New York Life, a company which signed up 10-15 THOUSAND policies per week at an exorbitant cost.(The buyers figured it must be a deal because AARP was behind it.)
-- Robert Mandraccia MD

No doubt the GOP and conservatives can do better, but not unless they get the present Baucus bill and all of the anti-democratic elements of the raucous Baucus process defeated.

Here's what I wrote to my Pennsylvania senators (easily fit on a post card!):

Dear Senator Specter [Casey]:

Please do not allow the Baucus Healthcare bill to be voted on unless and until the full and final version has been published on the Internet, along with the cost as determined by the CBO.

Our Constitution is being savaged by people in Washington who have sworn to uphold and defend it, just as they are savaging our priceless tradition of being a nation ruled by law and not by men.

Please stand up for the Constitution, our country, and the citizens whom you represent.

Please do not be a party to this desecration of American values.

There. Inasmuch as it fits on a postcard and is not a thousand pages of "arcane legal language" so dreaded by all the lawyers in Congress, do you think either Senator will read it, let alone the bill itself?

Of course, if Baucus has his way, they'll never even see the thousand pages of "arcane legal language" until after they have passed it. Nor know about the extra stuff he'll pack into it after they have passed it, and cannot possibly know that he did so.