As expected, yesterday the Senate Finance Committee passed their Healthcare Reform Bill, voting 14 to 9 with Republican Olympia Snowe joining the Democrats on the Committee in the majority supporting a bill that is not even written. Below are three responses I received to the original subject message that I tied together to make a not so obvious point re this Healthcare debacle facing our nation . My comments are in red.
---Response # 1---
Illegal immigrants are already eligible for emergency care through the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), signed by President Reagan in 1986. No one can be turned away currently by a hospital - private physician's office, yes, but not a hospital ER. They treat people every day, legal citizens , visitors and illegals, who have no health care coverage.
The writer is oh so correct - according to Wikipedia EMTALA requires hospitals and ambulance services to provide care to anyone needing emergency healthcare treatment regardless of citizenship, legal status or ability to pay. There are no reimbursement provisions. Although EMTALA technically applies to "participating hospitals" defined as those that accept payment from government agencies or programs in practical terms EMTALA applies to virtually all hospitals in the U.S., with the exception of the Shriners Hospitals for Children, Indian Health Service hospitals, and Veterans Affairs hospitals. The combined payments of Medicare and Medicaid, $602 billion in 2004, or roughly 44% of all medical expenditures in the U.S., make not participating in EMTALA impractical for nearly all hospitals. EMTALA's provisions apply to all patients, and not just to Medicare patients.
More than half of all emergency room care in the U.S. now goes uncompensated. Hospitals write off such care as charity or bad debt for tax purposes. Increasing financial pressures on hospitals in the period since EMTALA's passage have caused consolidations and closures, so the number of emergency rooms are decreasing despite increasing demand for emergency care. There is also debate about the extent to which EMTALA has led to cost-shifting and higher rates for insured or paying hospital patients, thereby contributing to the high overall rate of medical inflation in the U.S.
It should be obvious that BO's Universal Healthcare program will only exacerbate all of these conditions reported by Wikipedia & more to our detriment.
---Response # 2---
You may not like this but a health bill WILL be passed, and as time goes on if Democrats are still in power, benefits will be extended.
Any elected representative, knows what he has to do to stay elected. Endorse the health bill.
WHY
No one is saying it - I thought I did in the original message , but Latinos are the fastest growing population in the USA, and they normally vote (f they vote) for Democrats
If a Representative does not have large numbers of Latinos in his or her district, then they can vote against it. If they do, then it would be a death sentence for them to be re-elected. They would lose
because of the Latino vote.
You might not agree - I told the co-founding member of this e-mail club in 2004 that Republicans may very well never win another national election because statists simply outnumber traditional Americans, but Latinos can tilt elections in years to come, especially in large population states.
But, if the economy declines a lot, then they might vote for Republicans - I have to see it to believe it. Jobs are the key issue - unless government dependent welfare programs remain the incentive for statists to gravitate to.
---Response # 3---
Doug,
Good to hear from you & what a great editorial.
BO's Administration is unraveling…in a few months he will be recognized as a joke. The first part of the original message only re the Nobel prize. Healthcare reform will take longer since it does not go into full effect until after the 2012 Presidential election.
On a slightly different subject, a friend of mine who you know said something very profound. New Jersey's problems are the fault of the Republican Party. The Republicans cannot effect change. Take State Senator Kip Batman - he is on record as being undecided re same sex marriage legislation currently pending in Trenton. Tell me, how can an elected Republican be undecided about same sex marriage? The problems w/this state & by extension the Country is the Republican Party not the Democrat Party. The great SC Senator Jim DeMint said that he would rather have 30 senators like himself in a party than 70 senators like Arlen Specter. With only 30 such senators you will lose every vote in the short term but you will have a real solid base to rebuild & that is what America needs if it is to have any chance @ all to continue to exist as a free land.
No comments:
Post a Comment