I slept on it.
Haven't read any commentary, rebuttals or supporters yet.
So as an average American who believes the current health care situation needs reform I woke up this morning with a few questions.
1. Can I trust Obama's numbers?
The reason I ask is twofold. First, last night he said 30 million are uninsured but in the previous weeks it was 45 million. When I looked up the research (Census 2000) I found that the measuring instrument was faulty. The uninsured questions covered people who were without insurance for even a single day. So if someone changed jobs, went out of the country and their personal policy lapsed, etc..they were included in the numbers. Not to mention the data is 10 years old.
Second, Obama said the public option does not affect my insurance or add "one dime" to the deficit. However, the CBO said in June 2009....
"Likely Effects of the Proposal
The proposal would have significant effects on the number of people who
are enrolled in health insurance plans, the sources of that coverage, and the
federal budget." Read the entire report here.
2. Obama said we could clean up medicare/medicaid and use that waste to fund health care, but then turned around and said the public option must be self-sustaining and run by a not for profit instead of the gov. I understand how not for profits operate, and also understand a large portion of them get some sort of government or private grants. Is the money savings from medicare/medicaid in the form of grants?
3. I don't mean to harp on this "savings" with the medis...but if we KNOW there is waste, they why are we just now getting around to fixing it? Can I as an average American hear my gov knows about waste but has done nothing about it yet, believe it will be any different with yet another gov program involving health care? Even children understand the concept that the best indicator of future behavior is past behavior.
4. Obama said that the public option would (especially) benefit people in states that only have one choice for Insurance. Doesn't that violate the going outside of state lines law? For instance, if the not for profit running the public option isn't in Alabama, and someone from Alabama signs up for that insurance, doesn't that violate the law? Or are we going to set up state agencies to administer this option? Why can't we allow people to shop outside their states for Insurance? If competition is REALLY the goal?
5. Could we get some paper on this please? Right now there seems to be a difference between what Obama said last night, and the actual bill that passed committee over the summer. Obama thinks people are mis-informed by talk show hosts etc, but I haven't seen a get out the information campaign from the supporters of this bill. Not every town hall was disrupted. And the congressmen who talked about the bill (that I heard) weren't discussing the same things as Obama last night. It's almost like they were talking about different bills entirely.
6. Illegals won't be covered? How can we make sure? What is the plan since some studies show up to 40% of the number of uninsured (45 million last week, 30 last night) are illegals. Can a system be outlined to the American people to prove illegals will be omitted?
That's all I can think of at the moment.
The speech last night was the best one I've ever seen Obama give. He was eloquent and sincere. But after letting it percolate over-night I have to ask myself if he has seriously looked at the numbers, at the potential issues, or is he just reading what he's been fed? Sometimes I wonder who is really running the White House.
I do believe not for profits can handle the uninsured in this country. Dayton Ohio has a host of them to provide health care, mental and dental, to people who can not pay for insurance. They charge by income and its free to people with no income. No one in the city has to be without health care or dental. Yes, they get grants from the government, but so do most public universities, hospitals, etc. Some people believe the free clinics are substandard, but in Dayton they are not. They operate from state of the art buildings, with state of the art equipment, and the salaries are comparable to public hospitals. My point is, there are successful models already in place. Studying them and adapting best practices at the local and state level might benefit Americans in the long run, and essentially make this issue moot.