Taken directly from Minnesota Republican (& self-proclaimed Tea-Bagger leader) Michele Bachmann's alternative SOTU speech responsel:
And, the President should repeal ObamaCare and support free market solutions like medical malpractice reform and allow all Americans to buy any healthcare policy they like anywhere in the United States.
You can read the full text of her speech HERE.
Let's parse this one out.
"...repeal ObamaCare".
"ObamaCare"? The system proposed by the President would require people to buy PRIVATE health insurance. Maybe this should be "AetnaCare" or "CIGNACare", or just "MegaInsurerCare" because in the end, it is the PRIVATE insurance companies that get bigger here in the President's plan; there isn't any new healthcare delivery system called "ObamaCare" in the legislation passed last year.
"...support free market solutions"
We have had decades of "free market solutions" for heathcare and yet medical inflation has averaged something like 12% per year. Oh, it must be all the lawyers fault...
"...medical malpractice reform..."
You mean the thing that adds MAYBE 5% (my citation says 2%, but I will be conservative) to the nation's healthcare bill? Now I agree that there is a dire need for reform in this area, but I'm not STUPID ENOUGH to believe that eliminating some malpractice suites or limiting damages will actually make a dent in medical costs. By the way, don't throw the "but...but...defensive medicine" argument at me, because I'll ask for proof that doctors over prescribe/test solely as a result of malpractice threats.
"...allow Americans to buy any healthcare policy..."
This is the crux of what The Bachmann is saying, namely that it shouldn't be your employer that provides healthcare coverage for you, and it shouldn't be the government. No, it should be YOU that buys it as an individual. As I have said many times, I'd like to see the person among us who is better at negotiating premium costs better than, say, the Human Resources department at IBM. Anyone here think that they have MORE LEVERAGE than a company paying millions for employee coverage? Yet those same companies with all of their buying power haven't been able to keep medical inflation in check.
What The Bachmann is actually pitching here is a plan to get employers out of the healthcare benefit loop. That should scare the crap out of you, because if "MegaInsurance" has been successful in ripping off the IBMs of this world, just think what they will be able to do to you.
2 comments:
Michele Bachmann did not say how we got here from eight years of poor leadership, two wars without end, diminsihed Civil liberties. Its like she crawl out from under a rock just to complain about our current President. We all know that Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works started the Tea Party, grasroots, please. She like Sarah Palin, Christine O’Donnell, Sharron Angle and Linda McMahon, they are just not right but funny. I especially like the clip of Bachmann saying that the founding fathers abolished slavery, wow, what a liar, not the first or last time that will happen. Does anyone with self-respect real believe her?
Montana...thanks for commenting. To answer your question, apparently the people in her district do. That noted, there are people who actually believe in Astrology, that the Earth was created in 7 calendar days, that copper bracelets can give you "energy" and that by putting a sticky pad on the bottom of your feet somehow all the "toxins" will flow out of you.
Belief? America is full of people who will believe just about anything, as long as it is packaged the right way.
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