- Jun 6, 2007
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Secretary Sebelius practically got away with a crime with her appearances on this past Sunday's talk show circuit. On these programs she was challenged by her hosts time and again about the costs of the Senate Health Care Reform bill which Democrats are pulling out all the stops to pass which most Americans believe the Democrats' estimates wil be woefully short and the revenue the bill is expected to raise will not hit projections by a significant margin. The Secretary was permitted to get away with her colorful spin, which was garbage, where she would say things like the Congressional Budget Office you know the neutral, non-partisan, professional budget scoring organzation for the Federal government produced a report concluding that over the first decade of the bills enactment the bill will produe a $100 billion surplus and over the second decade some multiple of this $100 billion number.
Most of the hosts are great news people but they really dropped the ball on this issue. They should have said to the Secretary the CBO's report is not persuasive to the American people because the CBO's report doesn't consider the fact that that the Federal government will have to make a permanent fix to the automatic cuts in doctor fees which the current Medicare law mandates but the Medical profession and the vast majority of politicians across the political spectrum agree is out of the question and continually has undergone short term fixes. This permanent fix will cost over two hundred million dollars over the first decade so where is your first decade surplus now Secretary? Or the hosts didn't confront the Secretary with the assumptions the CBO made on the participation of young people and middle class families which are way too optimistic. Nor was the Secretary challenged with the real speculative nature of projecting health insurance premiums into the future. If nine months ago a health care expert said that in 2010 a major health-insurance company in California is going to raise premiums thirty-nine percent and one in Illinois sixty-percent practically everyone would say that person is nuts and doesn't know what they are doing and yet that is in fact what has happened. Secretary Sebellius was allowed to beat her critics over the head with this CBO spin when on this issue she should have been figuratively knocked out cold!
The other thing which is ridiculous on this whole health care matter is how President Obama is running around the country saying if we don't pass my parties health care reform bill now it will be a generation(s) before America gets this close again to passing such a bill. What a bunch of nonsense! I can tell you right now and everyone can bet all their chips on it the Congress that is sworn in 2011 will definitely be passing a health care reform bill that stops egregious health insurance industry abuses like dropping people when they become sick or having lifetime claim limits, etc.; it will close the dough nut hole in the Medicare Prescription drug program and it will have tax credits for small businesses to be able to afford buying health insurance for their employees because if it doesn't there will be a mutiny by rank and file members of Congress against Congressional leadership and the public outrage will be so great it will make the past year seem like a love-fest, think Vietnam era anti-war protest type of public outrage!
Most of the hosts are great news people but they really dropped the ball on this issue. They should have said to the Secretary the CBO's report is not persuasive to the American people because the CBO's report doesn't consider the fact that that the Federal government will have to make a permanent fix to the automatic cuts in doctor fees which the current Medicare law mandates but the Medical profession and the vast majority of politicians across the political spectrum agree is out of the question and continually has undergone short term fixes. This permanent fix will cost over two hundred million dollars over the first decade so where is your first decade surplus now Secretary? Or the hosts didn't confront the Secretary with the assumptions the CBO made on the participation of young people and middle class families which are way too optimistic. Nor was the Secretary challenged with the real speculative nature of projecting health insurance premiums into the future. If nine months ago a health care expert said that in 2010 a major health-insurance company in California is going to raise premiums thirty-nine percent and one in Illinois sixty-percent practically everyone would say that person is nuts and doesn't know what they are doing and yet that is in fact what has happened. Secretary Sebellius was allowed to beat her critics over the head with this CBO spin when on this issue she should have been figuratively knocked out cold!
The other thing which is ridiculous on this whole health care matter is how President Obama is running around the country saying if we don't pass my parties health care reform bill now it will be a generation(s) before America gets this close again to passing such a bill. What a bunch of nonsense! I can tell you right now and everyone can bet all their chips on it the Congress that is sworn in 2011 will definitely be passing a health care reform bill that stops egregious health insurance industry abuses like dropping people when they become sick or having lifetime claim limits, etc.; it will close the dough nut hole in the Medicare Prescription drug program and it will have tax credits for small businesses to be able to afford buying health insurance for their employees because if it doesn't there will be a mutiny by rank and file members of Congress against Congressional leadership and the public outrage will be so great it will make the past year seem like a love-fest, think Vietnam era anti-war protest type of public outrage!
