August 27th 2009
IT IS TIME FOR OBAMA's TEAM to CREATE THE POSITIVE VISION FOR HEALTHCARE & GET OBAMA's HEALTHCARE STORY OUT...INSTEAD OF PLAYING DEFENSE...
Obama did not get elected by responding to every smear but by getting out an overwhelming message of hope, and taking action to make a better world...
Maybe he can start with his Eulogy at Ted Kennedy's Funeral
We Need to Tell OUR OWN STORY - Instead of PLAYING DEFENSE.
Bill Moyers made a good start last week.
See: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08212009/profile.html
NEED some POSITIVE and some SCARY STORIES that both create sympathy and outrage at the inefficiency of the present system and the cruelty of Today’s system to appeal to people’s hearts not just their heads as Obama (and you) have been doing.
Like some of these 8 Topics for Ads and Speeches:
1.Seniors who love their Government supported Medicare Program and Efficient Government “Insurance” Payments
2. Poor people desperate for care – going to Emergency Rooms and costing everyone 3 to 5 X what Preventive Care would – Examples of Diabetes or Infections with associated $$$
3. People dying because they denied Care for Pre-Existing conditions (that were not related to treatment)
4. Insurance company Whistle blowers describing how the Insurance bureaucrats control Doctors decisions and Ration Care arbitrarily TODAY
5. Examples of Outrageous Pricing which show:
(a) that there is No Standard Insurance Pricing and portray how Small businesses pay 20% more than large companies
(b) Doctors who have to hire one administrator for every 2-3 nurses to handle paperwork of 30 different fees from different Insurers for the same procedure
(c) Why the Uninsured (Poor & Unemployed) pay 20 - 40% more than Insured for the same procedure –Must Pay entire Bill instead of Negotiated Rate
(d) Examples of Middle Class People who cannot afford deductibles for hospital stays
(e) Stories of Nice People going into Bankruptcy caused by normal illness or treatment
6. Shock people as to Why Status Quo is Unacceptable
(a) Healthcare taking over the Economy 17% GDP going to 25% - Scare People with size of the Deficit + Insurance Cost in 2020 and picture 1 in X people working for Insurance companies
(b) Inefficiency of spending 16% of healthcare dollars on Insurance company bureacrats vs. 5% in Germany (which has a Government paid Independent Insurance Model)
7. Portray the Insurance companies as Profiteering Monopolists
(a) Lack of Competition in many states means that a single company has 65 - 75% share in Many States (List them)
(b) Insurance Companies in the ‘90s paid out 95% of Premiums for care now they are paying out 80% and keeping the rest for administration and Profits
And finally
8. POSITIVE STORY ON MAKING A REAL INSURANCE MARKET FOR HEALTHCARE
I am a Conservative/Independent Voter that believes like Obama that we need to:
(a) Create Competition from a Non-Profit system (Public Insurance Option or Co-OP or Non-Profit Managed Care) to counter the Insurance Monopolists
(b) Get Doctors the information and incentives to use the “best” treatment for each patient based on
(i) Statistical evidence (Care/Outcome Comparison) and
(ii) Encourage Flat Rate Coverage that maximizes long term health NOT the more expensive tests and treatments based on (consciously or unconsciously) maximizing short term earnings from ‘Fee for Service’
(c) Publishing the Costs/Prices for the same procedure - Today No-one not even the Doctor knows what a patient will pay until AFTER the procedure. would also allow patients to “shop” for care – which they cannot do today. [French Hospitals – also Private Insurance based - post Rates for 100 most common procedures. See NPR Interview with author of ‘Healing of America’ See: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112172939]
So To counter the ignorant Republicans we need to show that There is No free Market today:
• No Competition
• Doctors controlled by Insurance Bureaucrats and motivated to overtreat
• Patients cannot even try to shop for efficient care - if no-one knows the prices
We need Obama’s plan to make a real insurance market for care that will:
• Drive down prices and
• Minimize administrative cost
……but with
• Care and
• Compassion to care for Sick and Dying Normal People!@!
Let’s STOP PLAYING DEFENSE and GET THE EMOTIONAL STORY OUT – not just the facts.
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