Yes-23 » insurance companies

Letter to Charles Gonzales, 20th Congressional District, TX

RodZ — Thu, 03 May 2012 02:03:36 +0000

The Honorable Charles Gonzalez

Dear Representative, it has been reported by Dylan Ratigan of MSNBC in the Huffington Post that health insurance companies are exempt from the Sherman anti-trust laws.

If this report is accurate and true why is this the case? You have stated you want fair and open competition but I fail to see how this can be accomplished if the insurance companies enjoy protection under the law from competing insurance companies.

I also understand from the report that Texas is one of the states that allows this to occur. Why aren’t you trying to have this law changed in order to lower the costs.

Are you so bent on a government option that you cannot support fair and open competition?

I think that Tort Reform and eliminating the exemption from the anti-trust laws would go along way to reforming health care and not cost us billions of dollars.

What is your position on this?

Thank you for your time

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Honorable Charles Gonzalez, 20th Congressional District

RodZ — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 23:20:54 +0000

To the Honorable Charles Gonzalez:
Sir I am writing this message to implore you to make every effort to reinstate one thing into the health care reform bill during the reconciliation process. The one thing is to remove the exemptions the insurance companies enjoy from our anti-trust laws.
I believe this single change will do more to lower costs and improve coverages than any other provision in the bill.
The fact that one Senator sold his vote to remove this important section is appalling to me. It appears that one person has affected all of us to gain favor from the insurance companies. I don’t know if it is the case, but it certainly appears that way. Regardless this section must be reinstated.

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Washington’s View on Health Care

RodZ — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:24:23 +0000

I have been watching the health care wars for sometime now and believe that we have an administration that is sending a mixed message to the American people. If you listen to the President and all the others telling you that we must do something to cut costs because we cannot sustain doing nothing, you begin to see that this statement really applies to the governments spending on health care. I believe that Medicare and the governments handling of this program has caused our entire medical industry to become more of a government run program and less or a free market enterprise.
The politicians have a way of spending tax receipts on everything but the programs the money was intended for. If the money withheld from our paychecks was really in a trust and not sold as treasuries and then reallocated back to the general fund the crisis we now face would at least have been far less expensive than it is currently.
If you really ask questions of your medical provider and get a truthful answer you would also find that Medicare cost fixing sets the baseline for what the insurance companies negotiate with the providers. In addition the monopoly enjoyed by the insurance companies, created by our government, further negates competition and does not provide the consumer with the benefits of a free market place.
My question is simply, why not fix Medicare and follow up on the promise to end the wast, fraud and abuse of that program? Why not end the monopolies and lower the overall cost of medical insurance through competition?
We are still not being listened to by this administration. The President is still pushing forward with health care reform and the Congress is now developing another stimulus bill in secret. This is simply not acceptable and we the people must continue to make our voices heard. We have already seen that votes do trump dollars, we must not stop telling our representatives what we want in loud clear terms.

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Senate Health Care Still A Secret: Doesn’t Reed Get It?

RodZ — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 15:50:30 +0000

After a few weeks at home and some key elections you would think the leadership would begin to see that America is a fiscal conservative, socially moderate country. The liberals are about 20% of the population and control a hundred percent of the House, Senate and the Presidency. The Tea Party groups were dismissed as organized by the Republicans, called names and ignored. Harry Reed continues to push secret deals in back rooms and no one really knows what is in the making to move this bill forward.
Massachusetts is having a special election and if the polls are any indication, a message is being sent by the people of this state that I believe reflects the mood of this country. Stop treating the American people as ignorant and give us a bill that will actually accomplish health care reform. Do under the lights with full participation of both parties.
Republicans need to get off of their butts and contribute to this process and stop blocking everything put forward by the opposition as do the Democrats. We must have a compromise to move almost any bill through the system.
It is my opinion that this bill is very bad for the American people. If the Democratic Senators have to have special deals to vote for their own bill one has to wonder what is wrong with the bill. One also has to wonder if a Senator takes a deal like some have, are they no better than the special interest groups or insurance companies they are vilifying?
If Scott Brown is elected in Massachusetts the Republicans should not see this as their return to power, they should see the mood of the country and begin to see that we want workable health care reform. The Democrats need to see this as a indicator of the peoples mood and not try to hold up his certification and push this bill through.
It is the function of the government of this county to regulate industries in order to protect us from unscrupulous practices, not join in and rip us off in the name of social reform.

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Arizona Mayo Clinic Drops Medicare Patients.

RodZ — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:57:04 +0000

Fox News reported that the Mayo Clinic in Arizona is no longer taking Medicare patients because they are only recovering about 55% of their costs. I see this as a trend that is not likely to end anytime soon. The Congress thinks it can fix health care but has never done anything to fix Medicare. They establish prices for participating health care providers and the insurance companies use these as a guideline to establish what they will pay the same providers.
We have heard about the evil insurance companies and their exorbitant profits and yet no one talks about the high cost of service from the health care providers. I know doctors spend many years and dollars to learn their craft and no doubt they deserve compensation. I know it is extremely costly to run a hospital, but what are the limits.
The market would determine pricing if the government and insurance companies were not paying the bills. We have created a third party payment system that begs to be abused.
I don’t have the answer to the problem because I know when your sick or injured you want care and will try to get it no matter what. Congress has created a monster that will only keep getting worse because they don’t have the answers either. I do know that regardless of what anyone does medical care will continue to get more expensive as will our health insurance.
I am facing Medicare in a few years, I have no choice even though I currently have a private insurance plan. What will I get when I join the ranks of a government run system that is going broke and will not be accepted by the health care industry?
The Congress is returning to session and will complete work on this bill, we will get a bunch of laws that make the current system more expensive and cumbersome than it is now. I honestly believe that our representatives have no concept of how the average American lives. I really think they believe that a cost $400 to $600 a month for folks making $20 to $30K a year is no big deal. I really don’t believe Nancy Pelosi even needs health insurance. She is very rich in case you didn’t know.
Well folks we are going to get something none of us wanted at a price we can’t afford simply because certain elements of our population feels the government is better equipped to take care of us than we are. They are doing it because they want to control us and maintain or increase their perceived power over us. I know many of you don’t believe this to be true and think we should have health care for all. I don’t disagree with this in principle, I only disagree with how our leadership is going about the process. You see they have lost sight of the original premise, which was, lower cost, cover all.
I believe if you look at what is being forced on us by Congress you will see it doesn’t even come close to meeting the President’s stated goals.

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New Letter to the Honorable Charles Gonzalez, 20th Congressional District

RodZ — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:06:59 +0000

This is my latest communication with my Congressman. I truly believe the one thing that will lower the cost of coverage is competition. The fact that the health insurance industry enjoys an exemption and is allowed to establish monopolies is ridiculous. The fact that one Senator had it removed from the Senate version to enhance his campaign coffers is criminal. Instead of getting a good bill for the people of this country we are being forced to suffer through too many political games.
“Sir, I am writing this message to implore you to make every effort to reinstate one thing into the health care reform bill during the reconciliation process. The one thing is to remove the exemptions the insurance companies enjoy from our anti-trust laws.
I believe this single change will do more to lower costs and improve coverages than any other provision in the bill.
The fact that one Senator sold his vote to remove this important sections is appalling to me. It appears that one person has affected all of us to gain favor from the insurance companies. I don’t know if it is the case, but it certainly appears that way. Regardless this section must be reinstated.”.

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Health Care Reform What IS IT Really?

RodZ — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:44:32 +0000

I have been watching our Senators debate the health care reform bill for a while now and wonder what we are really getting. Do you know? If so would you tell me?
All I see is the insurance and the pharmaceutical companies getting richer, the congressmen and women getting deals for votes and 45 thousand folks still don’t have insurance and by 2019 29 thousand will still not be insured. I see the process in action and no change in sight, except to our incomes. They will be going down as insurance cost go up as do the taxes we will all pay. There are just to many back room deals being made. If you question the Democrats they just say it is always this way, the Republicans do it. Well my friends, like I used to tell my kids, “I don’t care what the other kids are doing, your not going to do it.”. Two wrongs still don’t make a right.
The single biggest item that would have lowered insurance cost was dealt out early in the process to secure one vote. One Senator screwed the entire population of this country. What was the single biggest thing, what was the one thing that would have substantially lower our premium costs? Taking away the insurance companies protection from the anti trust laws. Letting us buy insurance from any insurance company that would offer us the best deal.
Think about how high your car insurance would be if they had that sweetheart deal. It is my opinion that, that one change would have lowered premium cost and increased benefits substantially, but that one Senator had a large insurance industry in his state and put his pot of gold before the American people.
I will be on Medicare by the time all these changes are put in place, I hope they did not destroy it. I hope there are doctors still taking Medicare patients. I don’t know what is ahead except we will start paying for it for several years before we see one benefit.
There are many more government programs going to be pushed by this Congress and Administration, I hope we the people will see the outcome of health care reform and take a stand against this type of whole sale sell out of the American people.
You will now hear all the Democrats out there selling this bill as the greatest fundamental change in the history of this country. They will be right. It does fundamentally change this country. We are going to look more like Europe than we ever wanted to.

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Keith Oblermann: Impassioned Plea or Spin

RodZ — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:18:25 +0000

I watched the Keith Olbermann show, Countdown, for several nights in a row and listened to his moving plea for healthcare reform. In this hour long program Keith spoke passionately of his father’s brush with death and how he was thankful that he was able to get one of the top five surgeons in the world to save his fathers life.

I commend Keith on taking care of his father and agree that Keith was fortunate to be able to pay for his fathers medical services. Keith Olbermann had the ability to pay these bills because of the success in life afforded him by the opportunities of living in America. The high quality of care available to him was also because he lived in this county.

This story moved me until I realized that there were several things I didn’t understand because Keith did not mention them on his program. These omissions raised some questions in my mind.

Keith Olbermann is advocating healthcare reform, he is advocating Medicare or a Medicare like program for everyone in America and here is where my confusion begins. Keith’s father is 80 years old, does he have medicare coverage? Does medicare cover kidney transplants? Did Keith’s father get a transplant or some other type of surgery? Did this surgeon accept medicare? If medicare coverage was available why did Keith’s father not use the medicare system and it doctors? What did Keith pay for, medicare share of costs? The overage of costs that medicare did not cover? Did Keith pay all the costs because medicare didn’t cover this procedure? The bottom line is why did Keith have to go to this highly skilled surgeon? The simple answer in my mind is because he could afford the best to save his fathers life.

I understand that even if Medicare would pay for the transplant the donors would probably be responsible for their own medical cost and possibly their insurance would not cover the procedure. I understand further coverage could or would be denied to them under the preexisting condition clause of their policies. But lets look at why. If you have a major surgery, do you not open your self up to the possibility that you may have future health issues as a result of the surgery? These problems may take years to manifest themselves. The insurance companies would have to cover you in your time of need. This may be a cost that would not have been incurred had you not been a donor. Others under the plan would see increases in their premiums and co-costs. I only bring this up to give you a different prospective on this issue.

Keith brought up a number of interesting and valid points concerning the insurance industry. I agree that a major reform of the insurance companies and our healthcare system is in order. I am not sure what the answers are, but I would not advocate for a government system that seemingly failed my father. No matter whether we have a government program, private program or a combination of both, you can be sure that it will have it’s faults. You can be sure it will be expensive and you will pay for it. You can also be sure you will have a form of premiums, copayment, exclusions of coverage and all the other things we currently have to deal with.

We all hear about the obscene profits insurance companies get by denying coverage or payment for a multitude of reasons. If this is the case, perhaps our lawmakers should change the law to prohibit this practice. There are many things we could change in the system to create an affordable inclusive healthcare system. I believe we can do these things without have a government run system of healthcare. I have worked in a government bureaucracy, there are a lot of hardworking folks, but, I for one do not want a career civil servant making decisions about my healthcare.

Keith Olbermann’s plea did cause me to think about this issue. I think that he is passionate and sincere in his desire that good medical coverage is available to all of us. All I am asking is if the government is going to change the current system please don’t screw it up worse than it already is! Please don’t add additional cost to us! Please don’t add billions or trillions to our country’s debt.

I titled this blog as, Keith Oblermann, impassioned plea or spin. In my opinion it is a little of both. The only difference between Mr. Olbermann and all the extreme conservative talking heads is that he is an extreme liberal. Most Americans are not! we find it hard to believe what either side is saying when they continuously shout, scream and shade the truth. Just a thought to all of them….

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Health Care Reform Past and Present

Lady Kathleen — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:49:35 +0000

HealthCare and the Capitol

On Oct 13^th there was a vote in the Senate Finance Committee for President Obama’s health care reform. The Senate Finance Committee voted 14 to 9 to move the 5^th and final health care reform proposal through the conservative panel.

In the past about 1912 Theodore Roosevelt was the first U.S. president to have a version of universal health care. He was out of office when he did this. Roosevelt’s progressive platform advocated health insurance for all Americans alongside other liberal ideals such as women’s suffrage, but none of his plans really got started.

Between 1934 and 1950 during the Great Depression, illness was one of the largest and fastest-growing causes of poverty. This is when Truman tried to pick up where Roosevelt left off, but with a difficult economic environment, anger over the Korean War, and paranoia about communism kept a bill from ever coming close to passage.

In 1974 it was Nixon’s turn to state, “Now, for the first time, we have not just the need but the will to get this job done. There is widespread support in the Congress and in the Nation for some form of comprehensive health insurance.” But as we all know the Watergate scandal was raging and wrecked Nixon’s career so this one never got off the ground.

Then coming next, Bill Clinton in 1993 and 1994 that took office with a majority in the Senate and House and reforming health care in his campaign. But universal health care legislation never got voted on.

Now we have Barack Obama in 2009 even stating, “I am not the first President to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last.” There are still many battles in the future of the Health Care Reform and the biggest is how to pay for the plan. The least generous package will cost $900 Billion over 10 years and this does not include a national public health insurance option.

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Senator John Cornyn’s Position on HealthCare

RodZ — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:45:10 +0000

Write Letter

The following is Senator Cornyn’s response to my question of what his position is on healthcare reform. I find it interesting that he makes no mention of trying to overturn the exemption from the Sherman anti-trust laws that insurance companies enjoy, especially since the law affects Texas. What you see in the response is the typical BLAH BLAH poly-speak we all get when listening to our representatives. I asked specific questions and as usual a staffer gave me the generic letter response.

Well at least they responded, my Congressional Representative, Charles Gonzales of the 20th district,TX did not bother to even do that.

Dear Mr. ZaGALA:
Thank you for contacting me about efforts to reform our nation’s healthcare system. The American healthcare system faces a myriad of complex challenges: rising medical and prescription drug costs, a lack of stable insurance coverage, and a medical bureaucracy that is increasingly difficult to navigate. I appreciate having the benefit of your comments on this important issue.

I am well acquainted with the frustration of many Americans struggling to meet their healthcare needs within the current cumbersome system, and I understand the urgency to implement sound revisions. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), spending on health care will account for nearly 17 percent of Gross Domestic Product in 2009—totaling as much as $2.6 trillion. Health care costs have more than doubled over the last ten years and far outpaced wage growth, and I believe that meaningful health care reform is very important. However, I believe reform can be achieved by lowering the cost of health care without spending more money and without giving Washington more control over the decisions of doctors and patients.

Health care affects every American and I believe we need to take the time to listen to the patients, providers, families, and small businesses who will be significantly impacted. America has a highly complicated system and it is important to ensure that changes are thoroughly considered and not hastily passed by Congress. It may interest you to learn, that I am helping lead a Senate health reform working group that meets regularly to discuss the most pressing areas for reform in our nation’s healthcare system. It is important that Americans have access toaffordable health insurance and therefore, I believe we must reform our healthcare system, emphasizing individual choice and trusting patients, their families, and their doctors—not lawyers or bureaucrats—to make health maintenance and treatment decisions. I am committed to improving access to quality, affordable health care, and you may be certain that I will keep your views in mind as I work my congressional colleagues, as a member of the Senate Finance Committee, to address this critical issue.

As Congress works to reform our healthcare system, I will adamantly oppose the creation of a Washington-run government health insuranceplan, which I believe is unequivocally a gateway to a single-payer system. I believe that a new government-run health insurance plan will devastate private insurance markets by acting as a competitor, regulator, and funder. Independent estimates have found that such a plan could result in 118 million Americans losing their current health benefits, and leave 130 million Americans to rely on a government-run health care plan. Additionally, I cannot support punitive health benefit taxes on small businesses, which will hurt wages and jobs.

Successful health care reform will put patients in charge, and improve the insurance system so that providers will compete for their business by delivering high quality care at affordable prices. I appreciate having the opportunity to represent the interests of Texans in the United States Senate. Thank you for taking the time to contact me.

Sincerely,

JOHN CORNYN
United States Senator

517 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Tel: (202) 224-2934
Fax: (202) 228-2856
http://www.cornyn.senate.gov

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