[Vision2020] Republicans need ideas for health care

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the Opinion section of today's (June 21, 2013) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with thanks and appreciation to Barrett Schroeder, a conserative with heart.

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Republicans need ideas for health care
By Barrett Schroeder 
I was interested in Ken De Vries' article, "Get government out of health care" (Daily News, His View, June 10), because of his experience in business and software development. Instead of ideas for free-market health care reform, I found name-calling and discredited theories.
First, he calls Republican Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter "incompetent" because the Idaho Health Insurance Exchange (a website to shop for health insurance) will not be ready by October. Federal health care reform passed in 2010, but Idaho's legislation only passed in late March. It was illegal to spend any money on Idaho's exchange before that time. In fact, the exchange just received its first payment two weeks ago - $385,000 against an expected $20 million budget, and opponents have attacked even that. As a result, parts of Idaho's exchange will be run temporarily by an agency that had three years to prepare but is offering plans from Idaho insurers and following Idaho laws. The delays were caused not by Otter, but by his opponents.
Otter's foresight and judgement earned our trust - warning us about government surveillance of U.S. citizens when he voted against the Patriot Act in Congress in 2001, and warning that "citizen militia" groups are legally "nothing more than gangs" as lieutenant governor in 1995.
Next, De Vries warns against "worshiping the beast" and says Idaho should "nullify" the federal law. Nullification is a pre-Civil War theory the U.S. Supreme Court found unconstitutional, and one the Idaho Attorney General's office compared to secession.
Finally, he claims the exchange was passed because of "corruption" in the Idaho Legislature and mentions contributions from medical and insurance groups. If you missed his point, the Liberty Caucus of Idaho's article, "Legislative Health Care Votes for Sale," features wanted poster-style pictures with "SOLD" and the price $5,050 stamped across the face of Sen. Dan Schmidt, D-Moscow. Nearby is Sen. Marv Hagedorn, R-Meridian, the son of Jim Hagedorn of Viola, a graduate of Potlatch High School and a 20-year veteran of Naval Intelligence, who is labeled as having "sold" his vote for only $4,650.
If a Legislator made this accusation in Boise, the proceedings would stop, and the accuser would be lectured in a back room. If anyone has evidence of legislators accepting bribes, they should contact a county prosecutor or the attorney general.
Health care reform passed in 2010 and survived several elections because we have a decades-long health care crisis. Our system is not cheaper or better than other industrialized nations. We spend around twice as much per person for health care, but a new underclass of mostly working Americans can only dream of visiting a doctor's office, let alone a dentist or optometrist. Millions of middle-class families have insurance but could still face bankruptcy or lose their homes due to serious illness. Most Americans find this unacceptable for religious or moral reasons or because they fear it could happen to them.
Republican state leaders nationwide have had 20 years and trillions of dollars to develop alternatives to former President Bill Clinton's centralized plan. The individual mandate is the only thing they have come up with. Some have suggested people invest health care funds in the stock market or barter chickens or labor for health care. These are not credible ideas: Poor people don't have money for risky investments, and doctors can't pay their student loans with chickens.
President Barack Obama once called Republicans "the party of ideas," and there are serious free-market ideas: subscription medicine, extreme localized care, doctor-driven managed care, unbundling routine and catastrophic care, pricing transparency, paying for wellness rather than procedures and the list goes on. Some include a role for government, but all put the focus on individuals and their chosen doctor, not insurance companies and bureaucrats.
Republicans can succeed by demonstrating these ideas work - not by demonizing the opposition or defeating fellow Republicans like Otter and Hagedorn and replacing them with neo- (or paleo-) confederate conspiracy theorists.
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To which Dan Schmidt responded:
"The delays were caused not by Otter, but by his opponents."
Sorry Barrett. Our Governor called for "Nullification" in his State of the State speech in 2011 and joined the suit against ObamaCare. He whipped up the Idaho Tea Party which functionally gave Idaho a start time of June 2012 when the Supreme Court ruled. Then the legislature had to get itself turned around. No wonder we are under the gun for implementation.

I agree we need to be working on solutions. Some of us are. Still, I am here at a conference hearing Republican state legislators hopefully speak of the feds "Delaying Implementation of ObamaCare"", seemingly oblivious of the requirements that such must pass both bodies and get a presidential signature, which ain't gonna happen. It is hard to stop being the Party of "no".
You are right, it is time for ideas. But more, it's the time for hard work and courage.
Thanks for the heads up by the way. I didn't know there was a price on my head.
DJSchmidt
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Thanks for the commentary, Barrett.  Hopefully we'll see your name on the next Republican primary ballot.

Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"There's room at the top they are telling you still 
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill 
If you want to be like the folks on the hill."

- John Lennon
 

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