Biden Making US Better

 Since this is an election year let’s review some of the most important accomplishments of the Biden administration in the last year and how the American people were affected by it. 

In the area of prescription drug and health care costs; 15 million Americans now save $800/year on health insurance and insulin cost for seniors for seniors is now capped at $35 per month. Drug companies are now required to pay rebates to Medicare if they raise prices faster than inflation. Pharmaceutical companies now must allow Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices, starting with the 10 costliest, most widely used drugs used to treat blood clots, cancers, arthritis, diabetes. The Biden administration successfully encouraged 42 states to expand Medicaid postpartum coverage from two months to 12, but not Texas. A record number of Americans now have health insurance and we’ve just had the strongest Obamacare enrollment ever.

Regarding the costs of living; inflation spurred by the pandemic has fallen 65% since last summer and gasoline prices are down more than $1.90 from its peak. Grocery inflation is at its lowest level in two years; egg prices are down a $1/dozen. Americans are saving billions of dollars a year due to crack downs on hidden junk fees in airline tickets, banking, investment advice, health insurance and apartment rentals.

In the area of employment and pay the Biden administration’s economic policies created over 14 million jobs, including 800,000 manufacturing jobs, while unemployment has stayed below 4% for 22 straight months. Biden supported unions and collective bargaining making him the most pro-union president in history. The economy is so good that the country set a record of 14.6 million applications to start new businesses. Wages, wealth and the share of working-age Americans with jobs are higher than before the pandemic. The US has had the fastest post-COVID economic recovery of G7 industrialized countries.

In only three years the Biden administration has made more progress on the climate crisis than any prior administration while lowering energy costs. The Inflation Reduction Act, provided for the largest investment in climate action ever by created 210,000 new clean energy jobs in 2023 alone. While there is much more to do Biden deserves credit for helping to secure a historic, international agreement at COP28 to transition away from fossil fuels, triple renewable energy globally by 2030. The administration’s fiscal and other policies spurred hundreds of billions of dollars in private sector investment in wind, solar, electric vehicles, saving families an average of $500/year on energy costs. Biden took executive action to cut emissions across the economy, including issuing standards to reduce methane pollution.

The Biden administration made higher education more affordable by approving $127 billion in debt cancellation for 3.6 million Americans, more than any President in history even in the face of Republican-led lawsuits. Biden’s SAVE plan will cut undergraduate loan payments in half and prevent student loan balances from growing due to runaway interest. Administration policies helped 700,000 people access public service loan forgiveness programs. The administration invested $7 billion in Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Biden signed Executive Orders to protect access to abortion, contraception and the right to travel across state lines to obtain care in reaction to state abortion bans that followed the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, like here in Texas. The administration strengthened privacy protections for patients and doctors.

There’s plenty more that Biden and Democrats have done in the face or Republican obstruction, just think of how much more could be accomplished if we re-elect Biden and a Democratic majority in both the House and Senate.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - January 3, 2024

Democrats The Right Choice

There’s still time to conservative leaning independent voters to come to their senses and reject the extremism that has taken over the Republican Party both nationally and here in Texas. There are a few things that they should be reminded of when deciding on whom to vote for this election.

In May, 68 Republican members of the House and Senate voted against military aid to Ukraine. A week ago House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made it clear that if the Republican Party takes power after the election; Ukraine will receive less support from the United States as it tries to defend itself and re-capture territory taken during Vladimir Putin's unprovoked invasion. At a recent Harvard Kennedy Center even Republican Representative Liz Cheney ripped into McCarthy for signaling support for slashing aid to Ukraine and former vice president Mike Pence called out GOP “Putin apologists” who have sympathized with Russia even as it invades a sovereign nation.

Can you imagine how different Europe and the U.S. would be today Franklin Roosevelt had been prevented from sending weapons, ammunition, and ships to the Allies while Hitler was invading country after country? If Putin isn’t stopped in Ukraine, which country will be next? How would the citizens and leaders of any other nation continue to consider the U.S. to be the leader of the free world?

Leading Republicans, including Representative Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), have stated that next year’s deadline to raise or suspend the debt ceiling is a point of leverage they'll use to cut Social Security and Medicare if their party can win control of the House in the November midterm elections. The debt ceiling is an artificial limit on the government’s ability to borrow money. That may not sound like a big deal or it might sound like a good idea until you realize that in reality it just limits the ability to pay for services and products that have already been delivered. It’s like ordering pizza delivered then when the driver arrives you take the pizza into the house and start eating it then tell the driver your spouse won’t let you use the credit card to pay for it.

The United States used to have the highest credit rating in the world because unlike other nations we always stood behind our debts. That credit rating has been damaged repeatedly over the last decade by Republican obstruction when it comes to raising the debt ceiling. You may remember when the federal government was shut down for 16 days in 2013. Or you might remember the 2018 shutdown that lasted 35 days which was caused by Donald Trump being unwilling to sign the appropriations bill that didn’t fund his useless border wall even though Senate Republicans passed the bill unanimously. Some of my customers were affected because their businesses operate on federal property, some of my neighbors were left without paychecks and had difficulty making mortgage payments.

If House Republicans take control of congress and get their way anyone on Social Security or Medicare and those who will become eligible in the next few years will suffer reduced income and higher medical bills. In contrast Democrats have raised Social Security benefits almost 9% this year to cover inflation.

So I have to ask, which party really cares about the economy? Which party cares about the health and welfare of our senior citizens? Which party truly supports in national security? Only Democrats can be trusted to address those concerns at this time.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 26, 2022

Trump Attacks HealthCare He Promised to Protect

During the 2016 election Trump repeatedly claimed he would help people with pre-existing conditions yet his direction to Attorney General Barr to attack the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act says differently. It is the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, that protects people with pre-existing conditions from being charged outrageous and often unaffordable premiums.

Trump also campaigned promising, “I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid.” His proposed 2020 budget cuts all three.

This isn’t just about breaking campaign promises it’s about people’s lives, their physical well-being and their financial health. If Trump succeeds in overturning the Affordable Care Act in court and his proposed budget is passed there are a host of the negative consequences to the lives of most Americans.

Without the Affordable Care Act, most young adults 18-26 will lose the option to be covered under their parent’s insurance plan. Many young adults work part time while going to trade schools or college and aren’t eligible for employer sponsored health insurance and individual plans are notoriously expensive so overturning the Affordable Care Act via the courts will cause tens of thousands of young Americans like my daughter to lose their health insurance.

Do you know anyone with cancer or other expensive life threatening conditions? Should the courts overturn the Affordable Care Act insurance companies would once again be able to set annual and lifetime limits on the amount they’ll cover. Between two episodes of blood clots, one of which involved open heart surgery, a staph infection the nearly killed her and various other surgeries my wife would long ago have busted through the caps that many insurers were once allowed. In other words people like my wife would either die from lack of care or their family would go bankrupt or both.

The Affordable Care Act requires insurers to maintain at least an 80% medical loss ratio; that means at least 80% of premiums have to be spent on actual medical care. If an insurance company ends the year with less than that they have to refund you the difference. The first two years after the ACA first went into effect I got substantial refund checks. My insurer finally got the hang of not overcharging. Without the ACA you can bet medical loss ratios will fall and meaning premiums will go up just to so the insurance company can have higher profits.

Trump’s 2020 budget cutting Medicare and Medicaid would also impact many of us either directly or through our loved ones and friends. Medicare is already the most efficient provider of health insurance spending upwards of 95% of premiums on health care as opposed to the 80% allowed to private insurers. Cutting Medicare will mean cutting coverage or cutting physician reimbursement or both. Considering that Medicare already pays most physicians less than other insurers you can see it won’t end well.

Do you know someone in a nursing home? If so, chances are that Medicaid covers some or all of the cost since it covers 2 out of 3 nursing home residents. Trump’s 2020 budget cuts Medicaid, are you ready to care for you parent or grand-parent when they are kicked out of the nursing home?

Trump’s actions are just cruel and heartless. Let’s hope his enablers in the Senate at least see the electoral downside of this and stop him before it’s too late. If they don’t the 2020 election will be a blood bath at the polls.

Published in the Seguin Gazette April 5, 2019

CHIP Funding Fail

The party claiming to represent “family values” also known as the Republican Party is once again showing its hypocrisy. Nearly two months ago the funding for the decades old Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expired and the funding bill Republicans in the House passed would simply take the $8 billion a year from Medicaid and more from other public health programs to pay for it. Senate Republicans knew that wasn’t going to fly and have even filed bill that continues funding without sticking it to the poor and other vulnerable Americans but there have been no hearings on the bill, nor have they scheduled a vote on it.

There’s no telling when Republican leaders will get around to pursuing a funding solution for CHIP but it looks like they’re going to hold the lives and health of 9 million poor children and pregnant women, more than 400,000 of them Texans, as hostage to get concessions like budget cuts from Democrats. In the interim, 11 states expect to run out of funds by the end of December and are preparing to send letters telling the parents of these children that if they get sick don’t expect them to receive medical care. How’s that for a Christmas present? Ebenezer Scrooge would be so proud.

The CHIP program only covers persons under age 19 and pregnant women who are either citizens or legal U.S. residents. If the family has only one child the total annual income must be less than $24,473 so we’re talking about folks on very low incomes.

CHIP covers primary health care, prescriptions, mental health, vision, physical and occupational therapies and dental care for children under 19. Additionally women receive CHIP coverage for prenatal and postpartum services.

Some states have enough funding to last a few more months but some don’t. Several states have already made emergency requests for funds to hold it over until February by which time they hope Congress gets around to deciding if the program will be retained.

The Senate and House are now very busy working toward providing massive tax cuts to billionaires while claiming they’re going to put more money in the pocket of working and middle class Americans. Of course, tax breaks for billionaires didn’t do anything to help working families under Reagan nor under George W. Bush. Republican leaders must think Americans are like Charlie Brown to their Lucy promising to hold the ball for him to kick this time.

One of the provisions getting a lot of attention will allow deductions for private jets. This is the same bill also takes away the deduction for school supplies that teachers purchase for their classrooms so it’s clear who Republicans really care about and it isn’t you and me.

CHIP has had bi-partisan support since its inception, yet this time around Republican leaders are so focused on the tax cuts they promised to their wealthy benefactors they just can’t find the energy to do the right thing. I guess we shouldn’t really be surprised at the heartless greed exhibited by congressional Republicans, after all they’re still trying to gut the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Medicaid. Apparently they’re idea of right to life doesn’t include actual living people.

Published in the Seguin Gazette, November 25, 2017

Comparing Democrat and Republican Tax and Budget Proposals

Congressional Republicans have released some of the details of their proposed rewrite of the federal tax code, and the Texas Association of Realtors responded with a study showing the vast majority of homeowners in this state would pay more taxes if the current proposals are passed into law. The realtors’ study also shows the Republican plan would cost Texas more than 22,000 jobs and $3.4 billion in economic activity, mostly due to the distribution of tax breaks being weighted to the top 5%.

Republicans are also promoting a budget that cuts Medicaid by $110 billion a year. Remember that a substantial fraction of Medicaid covers costs for about two thirds of nursing home residents. That means many of us could end up with our aging and ill parents and in-laws living with us. Are you ready for that?

In addition to those cuts the Republican proposal calls for $47 billion a year in Medicare cuts and raising the eligibility age from 65 to 67. While the proposal doesn’t say exactly how those cuts will manifest themselves they are guaranteed to come out of the pockets of retirees who depend on it for their healthcare. As to raising the eligibility age well that just means higher private insurance costs and industry profits as those of use reaching that again see our premiums rising rate of illness with age. Employer based insurance coverage will also cost more small companies with older employees.

These proposals haven’t gone unchallenged, Democrats in Congress have offered “The People’s Budget”. Where Republicans would cut the healthcare for seniors and reduce the number of people eligible for Medicare/Medicaid Democrats would expand Medicare by offering the Public Option which would allow every American to buy their insurance from Medicare if they can’t find a better deal on the private insurance market.

The Democrats proposed budget permits the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to negotiate cheaper drug prices with pharmaceutical companies. This will significantly lower the price of prescription drugs for seniors and save Medicare $429 billion. The People’s Budget also combats monopolies held by drug companies and the use of patent settlements to block generic drug competition for a growing number of branded drugs. The People’s Budget ensures Americans have access to affordable prescription drugs.

The Democrats proposal would eliminate the preference for investment income over labor income which allows a hedge fund manager to earn the same amount as salaried employee and yet allow them to pay a lower tax rate. Currently, the tax code gives preferential treatment to income from investments, long-term capital gains, and qualified dividends. The People's Budget ensures the rich pay their fair share by creating new tax brackets for millionaires and billionaires. It preserves existing marginal tax rates for middle-class families while restoring Clinton-era tax rates on annual incomes above $250,000. For annual incomes above $1 million, it would adopt new progressive tax rates topping out at 49% for $1 billion and over.

While the Republican budget cuts billions from public education spending The People's Budget provides universal access to quality pre-k programs, which will expand social mobility by helping low-income and at-risk students read and write at the same rates as their peers. It would also provide $41 billion a year to eliminate undergraduate tuition and fees at public colleges and universities.

Even with the cuts proposed by congressional Republicans their budget would increase the deficit $200 billion each year because they also increase tax breaks for big corporations and the 400 or so wealthiest families in the nation. This is the era of Borrow and Spend Republicans.

Guadalupe Rallies to Defend the ACA/Medicaid/Medicare

Last Saturday more than 80 area residents rallied at the Guadalupe Regional Medical Center on E. Court Street in support of maintaining the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and Medicare. The group acted because of the threats to those programs posed by actions of the Republican controlled Congress. Republicans have begun the process of repealing the Affordable Care Act. They’re also working to turn Medicaid into straight block grants to the states and convert Medicare to a voucher system.

The goal of the event was to send a message to newly elected Congressman Vicente Gonzalez that many of his constituents rely on various parts of our current healthcare insurance system and drastic changes will be unwelcome. Doctor Sarah Typhair held a sign stating “This M.D. proudly supports the A.C.A.” Many in attendance have children or grand-children covered through the provision that allows them to stay on their parents insurance until age 26. Some rely on the fact that A.C.A. forced insurers to drop the lifetime cap that meant people like my wife who have had multiple serious health issues no longer lose coverage after $1 million dollars of healthcare.

Congressional Republicans have been using the phrase “Repeal and Replace” for quite a while now so you’d think they’d have most of the details figured out but you’d be wrong. While Republicans have the repeal part down they can’t agree on the replace part at all. The Congressional Budget Office analyzed one of the more widely accepted proposals and found that if enacted it would increase deficit spending by $171 billion or force a 26% cut in the subsidies available to those who get their insurance through the exchange meaning that many would once again find health insurance unaffordable.

Turning Medicaid into a block grant is sure to fix the number of dollars spent and therefore further limit the number of people who benefit from it. Texas has the highest rate of uninsured in the nation at 17% due to Governor Greg Abbott’s failure to expand Medicaid which the federal government would have paid for 90%. That’s 4.6 million Texans whose only option for healthcare is the emergency room and no follow up care or prescription coverage. Converting to block grants means our rate of uninsured will climb higher still.

The proposal to convert Medicare to a voucher program would mean that seniors would get a fixed amount of money to use in order to purchase health insurance on the private market. There are a host of problems with that not the least of which is insurers don’t want to insure seniors in the first place because of their numerous and expensive health problems. Another problem is that there’s no guarantee that the voucher would cover the entire cost of the insurance premium so those seniors who are already struggling to pay their bills or for their prescriptions will have an even greater costs shifted onto them.

Rally participants urged Congressman Gonzalez to come out strong as a defender of the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and Medicare. Every there understands that those programs aren’t perfect but the Trump Republican proposals to abolish or dismantle them are moves in the wrong direction. Gonzalez would do well to become a champion for improving those programs.

Published in the Seguin Gazette March 3, 2017

“Hands off Obamacare, Medicaid and Medicare”

On Sunday afternoon more than 20 people from New Braunfels and other parts of Comal County rallied in support of the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid and Medicare outside Congressman Lamar Smith’s office. All the participants are worried that access to healthcare will be lost for themselves or family members or friends if Republicans in Congress pass legislation to dismantle the Affordable Care Act without even having a replacement for it.

It is widely understood that the Republican plan to convert Medicare to a voucher will jeopardize the health and lives of many seniors. The problem is there is no guarantee that they’ll be able to acquire comparable insurance even with higher premiums since many of those on Medicare are much sicker than the average population. Since insurers make their profits by avoiding the sickest people some will find healthcare unattainable.

Don’t forget that a significant fraction of Medicare participants, like my wife, aren’t retirees, they’re people who are totally disabled and frequently unable to acquire health insurance on the individual market at any price. Even the Texas high risk pool didn’t want her and pushed her off to Medicare.

Let’s not forget about Medicaid, Texas Republicans have already cut reimbursement rates for some of the most vulnerable children in Texas. Now those children can’t get the physical therapy and other services they need to be even remotely healthy or self sufficient.

Lamar Smith needs to be told “Hands off Obamacare, Medicaid and Medicare”.

A Little Socialism is Good for America

Socialism has gotten a bad rap in the U.S. over the last 60 years, so much so that we don’t even recognize how much socialism we rely on every day. Did you drive to work or ride a bus? Did you get your mail? Do you have a borrowed library book on the table or perhaps download one to your mobile device? If so, you’ve taken advantage of socialism.

If there’s anyone in your family over 65 there’s a good chance that the reason that the only reason they have affordable health insurance is that there have enrolled in Medicare, the socialist insurance organization. If you’ve got a family member who is over 67 it’s sure thing that at least part of their income is from Social Security.

Cold War propaganda against the Soviet Union and Cuba, both totalitarian communist countries, has many Americans convinced socialism is evil. Communism is an extreme version of socialism just like oligarchy is an extreme version free market economics. Socialism is an economic system that thrives in democratic republics like Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium.

The common thread found between all countries with varying degrees of socialism is that absolutely necessary services are provided for the good of the community rather than expecting a profit. Many of these services couldn’t be provided at a reasonable price by a private company. Can you imagine the cost to mail a letter to a rancher in Loving County population 82?

Quico Canseco wants seniors to pay more for medical care

Quico Canseco’s recent ad claims that President Obama is advocating changes to the Medicare drug plan that would cost seniors more. Well that’s calling the kettle black since it was Mr. Canseco who voted for the Ryan budget which would have killed Medicare as we know it entirely and cost seniors $6,000 a year more.

The Ryan budget would have replaced the entire Medicare program with a voucher that paid a fixed amount with no connection to the cost of insurance premiums. So while the amount the voucher was worth would increase as overall inflation increased it would not have kept up with medical insurance increases because those costs have increased at two to three times the rate of overall inflation. In no time at all seniors would be paying $6,000 a year more than they do now and it wouldn’t stop there.

So I ask you who’s really advocating for increasing the cost of medical insurance for seniors? Canseco, that’s who.

Dismantling the Social Safety Net - A Republican Theme

Not only do Lamar Smith (R-TX) and the Republican Party want to destroy Medicare which provides guaranteed health care to millions of American seniors, now Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) has filed a bill to dismantle Social Security as well by turning it into a privatized system. Sessions calls it the SAFE Act but it should be labeled the UNSAFE Act due to its failure to protect seniors by ensuring that they have enough income to avoid poverty in their last years. Just think the benefits guaranteed by our current system would instead become bets in the casino known as Wall Street.

I don’t know about you but my private investments in mutual funds still haven’t fully recovered from the losses caused by the Great Recession. Let’s not forget that these are the same folks who also believe that Wall Street is over-regulated even though we’ve had to jail Bernie Madoff and numerous others for stealing from investors who will never receive full restitution. Even Alan Greenspan now admits that lax regulation of Wall Street didn’t work.

Do you want to trust the financing of your last years to that bunch of sharks? Are you willing to risk having nothing at 78 years old?

Reponse to letter to the editor in the Herald-Zeitung

Arvin Brehm’s recent letter to the editor he says, “Obama took $500 billion from Medicare to pay for the so-called health care bill that the Democrats passed”. That is a patently false assertion, the $500 billion referred to is from restraining growth in spending as shown here by Factcheck.org http://www.factcheck.org/2010/08/misdirection-from-crossroads-gps/

“Growth in future spending of the program is being restrained to less than it would be under current law, over 10 years. But seniors’ basic Medicare benefits packages wouldn’t be cut – in fact, the law doesn’t allow it: Section 3601 says: ‘Nothing in the provisions of, or amendments made by, this Act shall result in a reduction of guaranteed benefits under title XVIII of the Social Security Act’ (the part of the U.S. Code that establishes the Medicare program).”

The savings comes from reducing payments to for profit insurance companies who offer Medicare Advantage which provides additional benefits and often unnecessary inducements like health club memberships. The insurance companies get an extra 15% above what Medicare would pay for similar benefits.

Brehm also takes issue with my claim that the Ryan plan is terrible but then doesn’t refute any of my reasons for saying that. The Ryan plan makes no provision for requiring private insurers to cover people like me with several chronic conditions or those with a history of heart attacks or other acute medical issues. The Ryan plan would cause millions of seniors to lose access to any kind of health insurance at all.

Lamar Smith responds in the SA Express News and my response

Smith's letter:
A recent letter to the editor wrongly accused me of wanting to end Medicare. That is false. The House budget would save Medicare to ensure it is available for future generations. We know that if we do nothing Medicare will become insolvent in 10 years, according to recent estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.

Under this budget proposal, anyone 55 or older would keep their current Medicare system for the rest of their life. And for those 54 and under, the Medicare system would be saved by providing retirees with the ability to choose from a menu of government-supported options.

For the sake of our seniors, we cannot afford to wait to fix Medicare's impending insolvency. Those who oppose the House budget have not proposed any solutions of their own.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/article/Your-Turn-May-28-2011-1399243.php

My response:

Congressman Smith’s letter published May 28 falsely states that he’s protecting Medicare when in fact he’s ending it for anyone 54 and younger. While a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet, calling a voucher program Medicare is disingenuous at best. Mr. Smith fails to inform us that the program he voted for will only pay a fixed amount to private insurers who can charge any amount they want for any level of coverage they to choose to offer and deny coverage to anyone they wish all in the name of making a profit.

I hope regular readers will note that he didn’t bother to respond to the question posed in the original letter. “I’m 44 years old and can’t get private coverage now due to several medical conditions; what insurance company do they think will want to cover me when I’m 67?”

There are any number of ways to address the projected funding shortfall including raising premiums, raising co-pays and forcefully prosecuting Medicare fraud. Mr. Smith needs to understand that handing us steaming longhorn droppings and calling it roses doesn’t make it roses.

Lamar Smith doesn't remember voting to kill Medicare last month

Wednesday evening at a Town Hall hosted by WOAI a constituent asked Congressman Lamar Smith why he voted to end Medicare and give more tax breaks to the rich when the majority of Americans were opposed. Smith responded: “What vote was that?” The constituent’s reply was: “Aren’t you in the House?”

What a short memory Smith must have, the vote to pass the Ryan budget bill occurred on April 15. Congressman Smith and 234 other Republicans voted to end Medicare and give away tax breaks to the wealthy. Since then Smith has claimed that ending Medicare is necessary to protect our children’s future when in fact it actually makes things worse for their parents.

Smith and Ryan claim that the voucher provided in lieu of actual insurance coverage will allow seniors to seek private insurance. I’m 44 years old and can’t get private coverage now due to several medical conditions; what insurance company do they think will want to cover me when I’m 67? On the odd chance that seniors can find coverage on the private market what makes them so sure that the voucher will be enough to cover that insurance?

Congressman Ryan wants to do for Medicare what W failed to do, PRIVATIZE it

Congressman Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican member of the House Budget Committee, has put forth a budget plan that seeks to privatize Medicare which is the most efficient provider of medical insurance coverage in the country. Medicare spends 98% of its budget on health care while the typical private insurance company spends less than 80% of its budget on health care. Ryan’s plan would offer tax credits and vouchers with the amount indexed for inflation. Some would say that it sounds pretty good even though coverage under private insurance would cost substantially more than comparable coverage under Medicare due to the significantly lower efficiency of private insurance.

So let’s say that Congressman Ryan’s bill was accepted as the law of the land, last year inflation was so low that Social Security didn’t even increase payments under what is known as Cost of Living Adjustments, so we would expect that there would be no increase in the tax credits or vouchers. But what would stop insurance companies from raising rates just like Anthem Blue Cross just announced. In California they are hiking insurance rates as much as an astounding 39% and where in the past they’ve only raised rates once a year, they’ve warned that future rate hikes could come at any time.

So the Republican plan for health care reform consists of giving away tax dollars to private companies who can still charge Americans as much as they want and jack up rates as often as they want.

Fehrenbach repeats teabagger and secessionist rants as analysis

In T.R. Fehrenbach’s Sunday article, “The core questions might make you sick”, he cites three core questions and claims to answer them. Unfortunately Mr. Fehrenbach, who claims to be a historian, seems to be using teabagger propaganda as source material.

On the question of cost he states that any extension of benefits will be enormously expensive. If we assumed that those not presently covered by insurance were also getting absolutely no unpaid care he would be correct, but that’s not the case. Hospitals and doctors frequently provide services for which they aren’t compensated and therefore charge everyone else more to make up the shortfall.

On the question of benefits Mr. Fehrenbach states “Every country with cradle to grave coverage dilutes or rations care” and then goes on to say that “In Sweden, top specialists are usually available only to the political class or famous people.” How is that different than in the U.S. except you should add “the wealthy” to those who have the luxury to seek out the finest care?

Finally like the teabaggers and secessionists I’ve met at demonstrations Mr. Fehrenbach claims “Government can’t manage Medicare now – why trust it with greater responsibility?” What other entity in the U.S. spends health care dollars more efficiently than Medicare which achieves 95% while private insurance companies do no better than 70 – 80 %?

If Mr. Fehrenbach wants to lay claim to being a historian he’d do well to choose his sources more carefully.