Yo! Bama: The cause and the cure of the health care crisis -- Part One

June 22, 5:18 PMExtreme Weight Loss ExaminerMark Rubi

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Dear Mr. President, or more appropriately, Yo! Bama, listed here are many reasons for the health care crisis: in addition, here is the cure which must be used or true reform is destined to fail. You are a brilliant man, and there is no doubt you are aware of most of these details. But some may come as a surprise. Most importantly, though, you must use that bully pulpit to make sure the American people know the truth. Some of your predecessors had some great insight into these kinds of situations and you would do well to heed their words.

What follows are a listing of some key enemies to true healthcare reform. But you must understand that true reform does not depend on the healthcare industry alone. Their greed is not the cause of this disease. Their greed is just a symptom. And their greed will make them do everything in their power to maintain the system that will soon represent 20% of America’s Gross Domestic Product, a figure you pointed out in your speech to the AMA last week. They desperately want to work with you to publicly reform healthcare, but they will wave vast amounts of money around to make sure that any hit to their corporate pocketbooks is minimal. In fact, don' t put it past them to try to make any reform even more lucrative than the system is now.

These are some of the greed merchants who stand in your way:

The American Hospital Association (AHA): NPR reported on June 18th that “AHA President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock discussed the association’s deep concern with the president’s proposal to cut an additional $220 billion in hospital payments over 10 years to help pay for health care reform.” How much money do you think these people will spend to save that $220 billion?

America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP): The Chicago Tribune reported on June 18th that “America's Health Insurance Plans launched a blog Wednesday and quoted media reports from AMA immediate past-president Dr. Nancy Nielsen espousing the importance of private health plans. ‘We want private insurers to remain,’ Nielsen is quoted as saying.” Of course these people do not want a public health insurance option. They, along with the AMA, would hate to compete with or have government oversight to one of the most lucrative systems ever devised by man.

American Medical Association (AMA): The New York Times reports that “the American Medical Association is letting Congress know that it will oppose creation of a government-sponsored insurance plan, which President Obama and many other Democrats see as an essential element of legislation to remake the health care system.”

The only reform these guys (and the hospitals) want is to limit their liability when their mistakes maim or kill their patients. As you pointed out in your speech to the AMA, they do this about 100,000 times a year. Using the government to limit liability would be so much cheaper than the current legal expenses.

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA): According to The Huffington Post’s Robert L. Borosage, “the drug companies have one of the most powerful lobbies on Capitol Hill.” Billy Tauzin is the head of PhRMA. He took the multi-million dollar a year job shortly after pushing through the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill in December 2003, which Former US Comptroller General David M. Walker called "...probably the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s... because we promise way more than we can afford to keep."

Wikipedia says that Bush administration official Thomas A. Scully conspired to keep the real cost of the bill hidden after conservative members of Congress vowed to block it if it cost more than $400 billion. In January 2004, the estimate jumped to $534 billion, and by early 2005, the estimated had grown to 1.3 trillion dollars. Scully, like Billy Tauzin, soon left their government jobs for the windfall of riches offered by the private healthcare sector.

Borosage added about the Medicare reform that, “In all, 15 congressional representatives, aides and administration officials involved in the debate left shortly thereafter to take jobs with the drug lobby. With a $9 billion increase in annual profits at stake, the drug industry got an amazing return on its investment.”

The people that stand out as heroes in stark opposition to many in the healthcare industry are the folks at the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed). These people have consistently improved their products and devices while also making them more economical. While the rest of the industry was growing at double the inflation rate for decades, these guys were doing their excellent work while growing at only half the rate of inflation. You should publicly applaud them for their efforts.

All told, true healthcare reform which puts us in line with other countries’ healthcare expenses stands to cost those in the American healthcare industry a trillion dollars a year. If they decide to invest as little as 5% of that money to defeat these changes, they will easily do so with a war chest of 50 billion dollars.

According to a NBC/WSJ poll, 76% of Americans support a public health insurance option. Your own party seems to be leading the fight to make sure that a public option will never be available. Too much money is being thrown at congress for them to allow something that is in the public interest. A healthy nation is vital to the national security of the United States. You need to make sure the nation knows this.

President John F. Kennedy said “when restraint and sacrifice are being asked of every citizen, the American people will find it hard, as I do, to accept a situation in which a tiny handful of… executives whose pursuit of private power and profit exceeds their sense of public responsibility can show such utter contempt for the interests of … (300 million) Americans.”

Kennedy was speaking of executives in the steel industry, but the quote is perfectly apt today. With the number of uninsured Americans approaching 50 million citizens, Mr. President, it is up to you to do something.

A perfect analogy of Congress is that it is largely made up of bellhops in high priced suits. They work for tips, also known as campaign contributions. The 50 billion dollars the healthcare industry could have at their disposal could fund every campaign in the next eight years. As a group, do you think our elected officials are going to do anything except work to be re-elected?

What we are facing, however, is the bankruptcy of our country. Abraham Lincoln warned us that “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” Greed can certainly lead to innovation, but greed at the expense of your fellow citizens has catastrophe written all over it. John F. Kennedy pointed out the fact that, “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.”

© Mark Rubi, June 22, 2009

For more info: Part Two of this article will deal with the underlying cause of our current healthcare crisis, and what must be done to make sure we address the disease and not just the symptoms.