Tom Corbett: Conspiracy Theorist

Governor Tom Corbett traveled to Washington yesterday to participate, along with Governors Paul LePage of Maine and Scott Walker of Wisconsin, in a Small Business Summit sponsored by the U. S. Chamber of Commerce. Not surprisingly, the three Republican governors expressed a negative view of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The ACA requires firms with 50 or more employees to provide health care coverage for their workers or pay a fine. Gov. LePage stated that he is actively encouraging Maine businesses to break the law in the hope that the ACA will fail. “I tell Maine businesses to pay the penalty,” he said. “It would be cheaper by just writing a check for the penalty and then let Obamacare fall on its own weight.” Gov. Corbett was more circumspect. He said he didn't have to encourage Pennsylvania businessmen to defy the law, as they had already arrived at that decision on their own.

Gov. Tom Corbett

The Governor went on to suggest that the ACA was designed to fail, the motive being to pave the way for a single payer health care system. “I see the whole thing collapsing and, potentially, in the long run that may have been the plan,” he opined. “I'm a prosecutor. I believe in conspiracies.”

A lot of us probably wish the Governor's speculation were correct. However, I've completed five weeks of an eight-week course, “Health Policy and the Affordable Care Act,” taught by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, one of the architects of the ACA, now teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. If Dr. Emanuel is typical of the policy makers who wrote the bill—and I believe he is—they were a lot more interested in saving money than saving lives. Of course, they expect it to do both, but he emphasizes the fact that only two of the ten titles in the act deal with expanding access to health care. The majority of the bill is about improving efficiency and lowering cost. It is clear from his lectures that he expects the ACA to be successful, and that he has no interest whatsoever in moving the country to a single payer health care system.

In one respect, I agree with Gov. Corbett. I believe in some conspiracies, too. For example, I believe there was a conspiracy to delay the Jerry Sandusky indictment until after the 2010 gubernatorial election.

You might also be interested in reading:

Medicaid Expansion Update

Tom Corbett to PA's Working Poor: “Drop Dead!” Part 3. What Medicaid Expansion Would Mean to Pennsylvania.

Who Pays?

New YouTube video on Health Care for All PA

Rebecca Pruveadenti of Erie has written many articles, letters to the editor, and made many media appearances to advocate for single payer health care in Pennsylvania.  Here is her latest youtube video.

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Vermont Green Mountain Plan Video

As demonstrations were held today in Pennsylvania to urge Governor Corbett to expand Medicaid under the affordable care act for 700,000 of Pensylvania's 1.2 million uninsured, DoctorsWeKnowVT has produced a 20 minute video on the status of it's single payer health care plan. 

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An Explanation of Washington Post Graphs on the Cost of Procedures

The Washington Post has come out with a post in Ezra Klein's blog titled 21 graphs that show America’s health-care prices are ludicrous.  Two of them are posted here showing how the average prices of angiograms and angioplasties are double those of the next highest country.  For example an angiogram costs an average $914 in the US while costing  an average $378 in the next most expensive country, Chile.  The graph also shows the range of costs in the US with the 25 percentile cost being $173 (between Spain and Switzerland, possibly at the Veteran's Administration) and the 95th percentile being $2,430.  Prices are set in the other countries.

Likewise the average cost of an angioplasty in the US is $28,182 while it is $14,366 in the next most expensive country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain.  At the 25th percentile in the US the cost is $16,533 which is close to Great Britain.  The upper end of the scale cost (95th percentile) is $61,649.  This is four times the cost of Great Britain.

There is a similar pattern in the other 19 graphs that are presented in the article.  The range in costs suggests that price gouging does not occur everywhere in the US system.  Stephen Brill has a good expose in Time Magazine on why medical bills are so high.  

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America's health care system is sick

HealthCare 4 All PA Vice President Bob Mason has written a letter to the editor in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette which was published on March 21.  It can be read here.

Our health care system is sick and every day we receive reports of dire symptoms. Gov. Tom Corbett balks at Medicaid expansion that would provide health care coverage for 700,000 uninsured Pennsylvanians. Commonwealth Court ruled that some of the tobacco settlement money has to be devoted to health care, a long-awaited victory for the 42,000 Pennsylvanians who lost Adult Basic when Gov. Corbett began his administration. Since this decision probably will be reviewed by the state Supreme Court, our fellow citizens will have to wait still longer to find out if they will regain coverage. Finally, the behemoths, UPMC and Highmark, continue to squander our premiums on a feud reminiscent of the Hatfields and McCoys that includes doctors being forced to turn away patients. ("Medical Ethics Focus of Insurance Dispute," March 8.)

There is only one cure for what ails our health care system, a one-payer (also termed "single-payer") plan that would provide comprehensive care for all our citizens, allow true competition by freeing us to choose any provider, and save $17 billion by eliminating inefficient administration, excessive CEO salaries, insurance company profiteering, marketing and legal expenses, etc.

The financial viability of this approach has been supported in a study conducted by economist Gerald Friedman of the University of Massachusetts. Check out the details at www.healthcare4allpa.org. It is time that our health care system receives the effective medicine it deserves.

BOB MASON

More Media Coverage of the Sen.Ferlo Press Conference

Here is coverage from the Harrisburg CBS affiliate.



An online article from Pittsburgh's NPR affiliate can be read here.  You can see another video of the press conference on Senator Ferlo's website at:

http://www.senatorferlo.com/contusvideo?vid=38

More media coverage to come as a Kaiser Family Foundation poll shows that confusion still reigns among the American Public over the Affordable Care Act on the third anniversary of its passage and Governor Corbett continues to refuse to expand Medicaid of  which 78% of the public continues to be unaware.  Nationally 52% of the public favors expanding Medicaid which is about the same percentage which favors a stronger health care law.  The numbers do differ across party lines.

	National 2012 N=5,043	Pennsylvania 2012 N=1,019	Pennsylvania 2010 N=2,627 (tot. sample)
Expand  or keep it the same	44%	51%	52%
Repeal some or all of it	48%	46%	45%
Margin of Error (+/-)	1%	3%	2%

Via: The Advisory Board Company

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