An Open Letter

Dear Senator John Cornyn (R-TX),You are a moron. I am glad that I don't have the pleasure of voting in your state.Sincerely,AA*******************************************Excerpts (emphases mine) from his OpEd in the Austin American-Statesman on health care reform:There are two competing visions for making health care more affordable. One vision is to delay or deny treatment to patients who need care. In many nations, socialized medicine saves money by overruling the decisions of doctors and patients, or by placing patients on waiting lists for months or years. The same thing could happen here in America through "comparative effectiveness" policies that allow government, not physicians, to decide which treatments work best. Really? You think that the point of socializing our health care system is to save money by denying or delaying treatment? I thought it was to make sure that everyone had access to health care. Yes, it's true that there will be more demand on the system IF MORE PEOPLE HAVE ACCESS TO IT, and that this could lead to longer waits if we don't have a plan in place to deal with it. But supporting the socialization of our health care system is not a budget issue. (And whose money exactly are you trying to save here? The uninsured worker's who doesn't have paid sick leave? The couple who just filed for bankruptcy and now can't pay for chemo? Or your campaign fund from the insurance companies?) Last time I checked this wasn't about saving money, it was about providing a basic human right to the citizens of this developed nation. I believe there's a better a vision to make health care more affordable. First, we can get a handle on federal health care fraud. Taxpayers pay up to $90 billion a year in fraudulent and wasteful medical bills, about two-thirds of that in the Medicare program alone. As long as fraud remains such a serious problem in Washington, growing government will never be the solution to higher health care costs. I don't even understand this statement. What is federal health care fraud? Are you Congress-critters submitting fraudulent claims? Taxpayers eat these costs? Or do you mean policy-holders? The two groups are not interchangeable. I have to concede your last point - that fraud in Washington is a serious problem. But pretending that unaffordable health care comes down to some people filing fraudulent claims is patently ridiculous. Even without these fraudulent claims, the cost of health care would be nowhere near cheap enough for way too many people.Second, we can lower costs through lawsuit reform. Every victim of medical malpractice should have access to our courts, but our laws must ensure that patients receive reasonable compensation without enriching their lawyers. Texas can be proud of our record in this area, as lawsuit reform has reduced insurance premiums for providers, while still protecting true victims of medical negligence. Lawsuit reform is a great idea Senator. But again, lawsuits are not the real issue here. Someone in the position to hire a lawyer at all is someone who HAS HAD ACCESS TO THE SYSTEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. What about the people who cannot afford health care full stop? They cannot see a doctor at all, so they will not be in any position to file a malpractice suit. How is this going to help them really? Will it make insurance free for those who are only just scraping by now, when they don't pay premiums? These are the people we need to keep in mind, and you are pretending that they do not exist. Please stop dodging the issue.Third, we can get better value for our health care dollars by creating more choices for patients through the free market. The free market is the best system ever devised for spurring innovation and delivering the services consumers want at the most competitive prices possible. Government's role should be to make the system work for patients, by encouraging more providers to enter the market, and by ensuring that they are motivated by consumer preferences rather than by government reimbursement rates."The free market is the best system ever !!!!" Yes, because the free market competition has done a fantastic job of providing health care to the impoverished and uninsured up until now. Right now those people DON'T HAVE ANY CHOICE because they DON'T HAVE THE $$$$ REQUIRED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE SYSTEM AT ALL! But you're right. We should stick with the free market model because it is working so well.

Labels: Open Letter