By now, everyone should be aware that the health care reform fiasco bill was voted for by the Senate and can now go forward for a full Senate debate.  Of course, it will be a better bill or the Senators wouldn’t have voted for it to go forward!

We also know that there is a stipulation in the health care bill for states to carry more of the burden of Medicaid, with the exception of states that were declared an emergency disaster area.

That would seem to indicate that Cedar Rapids, and almost of all the second district of eastern Iowa, having been declared a presidential disaster area last year, would fall into this category.

But wait, our Senator Harkin was fully on board with health care reform that will cost all of us more, and ultimately give us less and didn’t even hold out his vote to help his state.

Understand that the emergency disaster flooded area had to be declared 7 years ago!  How interesting that Louisiana fits this stipulation.  Senator Landrieu held her vote close to the vest, and then went all in.  $300 million all in that is!

To be clear, this is exactly what we as a country should not be doing!  It is this type of quid-quo-pro that has led to trillion dollar deficits.  We cannot afford this pay off to Louisiana, and most importantly this health care reform.

New Orleans has raked in millions of dollars in gambling receipts and could have paid for its own flood protection and levy modification.  Although we expect our elected officials to advocate for their state, this has gone too far.

Once elected, they swear an allegiance to the constitution and the United States. Therefore, the most important vote, would have been NO!  We cannot afford this plan and it is unconstitutional.

This is true for those spending increases during the Bush administration, but even more so today.  Our urgent priority is fiscal reform, simplified flat taxation and job growth to increase revenue to the treasury.

Pare down some federal agencies and redundancies.  Cut the fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid before altering the current system.  By all means, quit spending.  We cannot afford to pay off friends or special interests.

So it is tongue in cheek that Senator Harkin should have demanded more for his vote.  The floods of last year pale in comparison to the flood of money flowing out of Washington.

Very soon we will have to close the gates on the dam because this flood of easy money will lead to an erosion of our credit status, further declines in the dollar, loss of its’ reserve currency status, rising interest rates and a banana republic.

Flooded?  The tide has only begun to rise.

“Health Care Reform” should be dedicated to controlling costs and increasing affordability and accessibility.  However, we are presented with trillion dollar reform that does none of the above.

It will take our exceptional, innovative system and dismantle it, while dramatically increasing the federal deficit and national debt.  The majority party is going from exceptional to exceptions!

How so you ask?  In order to score under a trillion dollars over 10 years, more of the cost burden for Medicaid is shifted to already strapped states.  Guess which 4 states are excluded? Would it surprise you to learn that Nevada is one?

Exception No. 2:  the 40% tax on “cadillac”  health care plans will exempt union employees. This comprises 16 million in the workforce.

Exception No. 3:  proposed yesterday, it would exclude government employees from the tax levied on “cadillac” plans.  This is another 2 million workers.

With so many exceptions to paying for reform that does not control costs or cover everyone, who will pay and at what cost now?  Should not the Baucus bill, which is not yet a bill, be remarked by the CBO before debate?

This means taxes on young adults, working families and seniors will all increase.  Seniors will also see cuts in Medicare and less availability of care, and others will not have discretionary income to afford health services.

Despite the profound increase in taxes on the “rich” and businesses, ultimately the average working class American will pay for all this health care.  The majority party and administration knows it will be in the trillions!

They are continuing to give payoffs and bailouts to special groups. There is neither transparency nor fairness!

Prepare yourself for exceptional taxation for unexceptional health care!

Haven’t  we heard repeatedly that we need health care reform because the costs increases are unsustainable?  Isn’t the purpose to bend the cost curve downward?

As I have been giving health care talks around eastern Iowa during the past 4 months, I frequently remark that I am most disappointed that costs aren’t contained.  It will not be more affordable.

Of all the 3 bills passed out of committee and up for consideration, the 10 year cost estimate has been in the billions or trillions of dollars, but even that is an underestimate.

This is an objective commentary as “they” are cleverly obfuscating some facts.  If you read these “bills” (the Baucus bill is only a compilation of ideas, not a written bill), the taxes, fees and fines are collected immediately.

However the services aren’t expanded or delivered until 2013. Upon inquiry, the politicians state that it takes time to set up the exchanges or co-ops and these should be done thoughtfully and with caution.

So the actual bill doesn’t need to be done thoughtfully or even written.  The true rationale is to disguise the actual cost.  The Baucus bill is actually almost double the $829 billion when you factor the expenditures over the full 10 years.

Another important revelation emanated from Price Waterhouse Coopers (an international accounting firm) today detailing the premium cost increases if the Baucus bill is enacted.

The average family can expect their costs to increase from $12,300 today to $15,500 in 2013.  By 2019, the increase would be $4000 greater than without reform.

Between 2010 and 2019, the cumulative increases in the cost of a typical family policy under this reform proposal will be approximately $20,700 more than it would be under the current system.

This doesn’t account for the increases in our income taxes and sales taxes, and fines on “luxury” policies which would now capture these previously standard policies.

It looks like bending the cost curve will be in the wrong direction as if they strapped it to the space shuttle launch.

Your checkbook will be orbiting the drain, especially with stagnant wages in an economy that isn’t growing.

The president and elected officials have recanted, including Rep. Loebsack as recently as last night in his tele-conference, that abortions would not be federally funded under the health care reform bills under consideration.

It has been repeated so often and vigorously, that these politicians and media types must believe that lies repeated often enough become truths.  One merely needs to go to FactCheck.org to underscore the validity of the claims made by pro-lifers.

The mechanisms within these bills will ultimately create an avenue to bypass the Hyde Amendment and there will be federal funding of abortions.  Further, private insurers that pay for abortions are permitted within the co-op exchanges.

Additionally all attempts to insert an amendment stating that abortions will not be federally funded have been voted down in a party line manner without passing out of committee.

However a new twist in the “debate” has arisen.  It comes from the democrats own party and is a thorn in their side.  Especially given President Obama’s speech at Notre Dame calling for “open hearts” leading to common ground.

Specifically, the President stated “common ground” that would reduce the number of women having abortions.  But the democratic party typically silences its members who are pro-life. Such is the case with Rep. Stupak.

Rep. Stupak is a Catholic democrat from northern Michigan and has been pushing his stand for life by fighting against tax dollars for abortion.  His own party won’t let him bring an amendment to the to the floor for a vote.

Earlier this year they blocked a similar effort by Rep. Stupak on a financial appropriations bill that ended up removing restrictions on D.C. taxpayer funding for abortions.

Rep Stupak, with 24 democrats and 158 republicans, sent Speaker Pelosi a letter last week asking her to make good on her pledge that no “Member should be silenced on the floor,” and allow members to debate and vote their conscience.

He is making people anxious enough that he has been called by President Obama and was recently invited to a meeting with Speaker Pelosi.  Other pro-life democrats recently elected in republican districts are rightly concerned.

The goodwill of some pro-life Catholics developed after President Obama’s appeal for “common ground” may dwindle in the event that the party treats Rep. Stupak harshly.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if health care reform legislation is aborted over abortion?

Most people are unaware that Karen Ignani, the CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) proposed to the administration in December 2008 that their members would guarantee universal coverage.

Their companies would remove exclusions for pre-existing conditions and offer same premiums based only on age, geographic location and benefit structure.  In exchange they asked for an insurance mandate.

Despite this offer, my Representative Loebsack and our President pretend that no offer existed and only they can protect us from these evil-doers.  Other inconsistencies were in the President’s speech on last Wednesday night.

Professor Harrington at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business in health care management offers some insight into the example of abusive insurance practices illustrated in the President’s speech.

Recall the story told repeatedly in his speeches about an Illinois man who lost his coverage during chemotherapy because he hadn’t reported to his insurer that he had gallstones of which he was unaware.

The President concludes that the gentleman died because they delayed his treatment.  It is a powerful story of which we can all commiserate.  But that’s not the rest of the story!

In a transcript of industry practices from a June 16 hearing before the Subcommittee of Oversight and Investigation of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce the deceased’s sister testified that the insurer reinstated her brother’s coverage.

Upon intervention of the Attorney General’s office, coverage was reinstated, he underwent a prescribed stem-cell transplant within the desired timeframe by “one on the most renowned doctors in the whole world on the specific routine.”

The transplant procedure was extremely successful and it “extended his life nearly three and a half years.”  The second example given by the President was also inaccurate according to the transcribed testimony.

These cases were presumably the most egregious identified by Congressional staffers’ analysis of the document’s 116,000 pages. Company officials testified that less than one half of one percent of policies were rescinded.

Certainly if existing regulations are inadequate, they could be bolstered to prevent abuse without adopting federal control of health insurance or government top down control of health care.

Insurance companies could also be required to have guaranteed renewability. This would protect patients from escalating premiums in the years following development and treatment of a catastrophic condition.

The current reform efforts discussed by traditional media outlets do not seem to examine the underlying causes of health care costs and inaccuracies in statements made by elected officials.

Responsible reform mandates analysis and informed debate over the problems of health insurance, sources of high costs and the benefits of targeted policies.

Traditional media outlets have forfeited their obligation to be the watchdogs and have lost credibility on these issues, just as elected officials have!  The role of a free press is to do precisely this, as they did with war in Iraq.

But when citizens are called names, denigrated, dismissed and chastised for speaking out and inquiring, you know they have foregone their mission.

Remember that tone-deafness is not a pre-existing condition and is covered under the current federal insurance plans.  Our elected officials should listen and then do the honorable.

Enact real reform offering portability and controlling costs. Then KILL THE BILL!