Sanity…

Depending on who you listen to, Tuesday’s election results in Massachusetts is either the second coming of Jesus or a catastrophe on the level of Haiti’s recent earthquake (I shit you not, it was on CNBC but I can’t find a link). I know nothing about Scott Brown, so I don’t know if his political beliefs will prove to benefit anyone (as someone I’m friends with posted on their FaceBook status: “Way to F it up MA: Coakley is far from perfect, but you just helped elect someone who hates gays, women, the environment, the poor and the elderly. Awesome.”), but I can say that the lack of a super majority in the Senate will bring some sanity back to our legislature.

I have to say, while I understand the progressive movement and the overwhelming desire to tow the party line, some of my more liberal friends/acquaintances are really surprising me. Some people really believe that the current bills on health care are exactly what we need… or at very least the things we “need” in the bill far outweigh anything bad in the bill. I have a small challenge for anyone reading this, please find me answers to the following:

• Why is Nebraska getting $100M to defer medicare/medicaid costs a good thing?
• Why is Louisiana getting $100M – $365M to defer medicaid increases a good thing?
• Why is exemptions for major labor unions from the “Cadillac” tax a good thing?

Other than literally buying votes for the bills, what good is any of that going to do except put a larger onus on the rest of America? I really want to know since the health care negotiations are still continuing despite an acknowledgment that no major votes would be made in the Senate until Brown is seated (maybe Maine will get a nice buyout too to gain Olympia Snowes vote?).

Here’s my suggestion (for what its worth). START OVER and pass the provisions that everyone knows we need and that we know we can agree on.

• Allow purchasing of insurance across state lines. The public option is supposed to add competition, but I think the market can do that on its own if we let it.
• Restrict or eliminate the practice of denying insurance based on preexisting conditions
• Regulate the way insurance claims are processed by insurers to protect claimants and restrict the ways in which an insurer can drop a client
• Enact a meaningful tort reform to bring down the costs of malpractice insurance. Perhaps beginning with a regulated version of “loser pays”.
• Eliminate group insurance or allow groups of people with similar insurable interests to pool their risk (i.e. allow multiple small businesses to group under one plan)
• Add a provision that requires the costs/benefits to be analyzed after a specific time period (after reforms are enacted) and require specific actions to be taken if goals are not met

Certainly, those ideas aren’t perfect and I’m certain there are others that everyone can agree on, but these ideas would make a meaningful difference in our health care system in likely a short period of time AND the bill wouldn’t have to be 2500+ pages long.