Friday
Oct302009
Palin Announces Game Changing Health Care Plan to Debut
Friday, October 30, 2009 at 3:49PM 
Sarah Palin has announced that there will be health care solutions revealed tomorrow that she claims will be "the game changer." From her Facebook page:TUNE IN TOMORROW TO HEAR A HEALTH CARE REFORM PLAN THAT WILL PROVE TO BE THE GAME CHANGER
Mark my words - tomorrow is the game changer! Tune in to hear common sense solutions that bury the false accusations that conscientious members of Congress have no solutions to meet America's health care challenges.
If you're like me, shaking your head wondering why all the miscommunication between Washington and the American people who have been saying, "Please hear what we're saying about our desire for health care reform," then tomorrow will be a refreshing time of clarity for all.
All Americans, and especially colleagues of House Republican Leader John Boehner: please listen to tomorrow's weekly GOP national address. Rep. Boehner will highlight a common sense alternative to Speaker Pelosi's 1,990-page government takeover of health care. I urge you to watch for it. For a preview, go to: http://healthcare.gop.gov/
You'll hear solutions. You'll hear of real choices based on America's proven free-market principles. You'll know once and for all what the GOP and Independents have been saying all along about alternatives to another big government take over. After tomorrow, you'll know that accusations against the GOP and Independents for not providing solutions are false. Those claims are bogus. There are alternatives. Tune in to Rep. Boehner's address tomorrow to hear them.
I look forward to the game changer!
- Sarah Palin
The link takes you to the website for the GOP in the House where they currently propose the following:
■Number one: let families and businesses buy health insurance across state lines.
■Number two: allow individuals, small businesses, and trade associations to pool together and acquire health insurance at lower prices, the same way large corporations and labor unions do.
■Number three: give states the tools to create their own innovative reforms that lower health care costs.
■Number four: end junk lawsuits that contribute to higher health care costs by increasing the number of tests and procedures that physicians sometimes order not because they think it's good medicine, but because they are afraid of being sued.
More to come tomorrow.
Reader Comments (1)
Republicans were promising a bill since at least June. They decided not to develop a monolithic bill so they could try to land a political blow to the Dems by blocking their efforts. Now that some sort of reform seems all but certain, they want to offer a substantive alternative? I'm shocked!
On to their outline:
1: I've been hearing R's say this should happen for years, and D's that it shouldn't; R's haven't convinced me it'll make a substantive difference, but D's haven't convinced me it isn't a good idea. For example, insurance companies will end up flocking to the states with the most lenient laws/regulations. Therefore, premiums may improve, but services covered, minimums, maximums, etc, may deteriorate further.
Besides, wouldn't buying products/services across state lines be considered interstate commerce and therefore fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government anyway? Can you provide any more information on this?
2: In other words, co-ops. According to the National Cooperative Business Association (in their letter to Senator Rockafeller), there are "more than 25 states [that] have statutes that promote state or employer-sponsored purchasing cooperatives." Republicans don't seem to mention this.... Furthermore, there are five currently operating health insurance co-ops: Group Health of Washington (Seattle area), Health Partners (Minnesota), Group Health of Eau Claire, First Plan (Minnesota and Wisconsin), and Group Health of Southern Wisconsin. The framework is there already, and USED! This point is utterly moot.
3: What laws are preventing states from initiating their own reforms? It seems that many/most already, to some extent, have - see point 2.
4: I agree that junk lawsuits and ridiculous malpractice payments are a problem. Unfortunately, we live in a litigious society where everything that goes wrong is someone else's fault. I don't expect this cultural problem to be fixed by making it harder to sue, only made less bad.
However sensible, tort reform is a red herring. The CBO recently released a report that an approximate 0.5% reduction in premiums would be realized with tort reforms. I didn't read the details to see what constituted reform in their analysis. Case in point, Missouri has had tort reform laws since 2005, and their premiums have been all but unaffected by it (which also never seems to be mentioned by Republicans). 0.5% is better than nothing, and I think it should be a part of any reform legislation, but it is not a smoking gun like the R's have been claiming.
Cheers!