Rep. Goodlatte is still digging the Health Care hole..

I just got a thoughtful response from Rep. Goodlatte to my concern about the SCHIP program that was recently voted down in Congress.  He voted against the bill AND voted to support the Presidents veto. His talking points are the standard Republican Party responses that are being repeated verbatim by every Conservative pundit and politician that still support what Tony Blankley of the Washington Times says is “political suicide.”  

Point one is made in the first sentence of the first paragraph (also by the way in the Daily News Record Forum on October 23).

“I have several concerns with this legislation, which takes the first steps towards pushing all Americans into government-run health care.”

This point only underlines Rep. Goodlatte’s complete allegiance to corporate profit and the privatizing of government services.  The term “government-run health care” is the new user friendly term that Republicans use instead of “socialized medicine.”  It’s pretty arrogant to simply assume that the words “socialized medicine”  can be the only debate.  Two words….  No discussion… Stop the presses, no need to go further.  Hmmm..

Point two was somewhat of a surprise to me.  It revealed a little more of the conservative ideology that frankly, surprised me.

“The authors of the CHAMP Act intend to pay for this massive expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) by making substantial cuts to Medicare Advantage, a program that accounts for 20 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries.. Specifically, this legislation cuts funding for Medicare Advantage by $200 billion over the next ten years.”

Rep. Goodlatte’s support of the Medicare Advantage plan simply points AGAIN to his worship of corporate welfare.   Will Parry and Pat Scott in the Seattlepi.com Opinion page weigh in on this typical conservative ideological dogma. 

“Like all privatization schemes, so-called Medicare Advantage was developed under the false promise that private insurers could provide the same services as Medicare at lower cost. The reverse has been true. Costs have gone up, and, in many cases, available services have disappeared.

According to an analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, private Medicare Advantage plans cost taxpayers an average of 12 percent more than normal Medicare. In Washington, the average overpayment is 21.5 percent.

That overpayment isn't surprising -- it's exactly the kind of expensive waste that comes from funneling valuable public resources into the pockets of insurance industry CEOs -- but its scale is a cause for serious concern. The CBO report estimated that overpayments will total $54 billion over five years, and $160 billion over the next decade.

And the extra cost doesn't even necessarily mean extra benefits. The higher prices in the private plans come with promises of improved flexibility and benefits, but some beneficiaries discover after signing up that they're actually getting less than traditional Medicare offers.

Everyone agrees that Medicare Advantage is more boondoggle than benefit.”

Next Rep. Goodlatte stands up strong for that conservative ideology that that is most dear... 

“Furthermore, the "CHAMP" Act, which includes large tax increases..”

This must refer to the “repressive” tax on cigarettes.  Since when does Rep. Goodlatte show concern about the lower income folks?  Isn’t corporate welfare all about “screw the middle class?”  This just sounds fishy because according to the good Congressman, it encourages folks to smoke, smoke, smoke, those cigarettes in the name of the children.  Sigh…  Friends, remember?  Virginia?  John Rolfe? Tobacco?  Goodlatte and corporate tobacco?  ‘Nuf said.

“... and even includes a new tax on private health plan policies, creates incentives for families to drop their private insurance coverage and force the taxpayers to foot the bill.”

Never mind that the proposed SCHIP legislation requires eligible families to PAY A PREMIUM to a PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANY. From Dan Froomkin in the Washington Post: But as the New York Times editorial board writes today:

"nobody who enrolls in S-chip would be living on government handouts. The families would all be paying appropriate premiums and co-payments. It is also highly unlikely that a lot of people would drop private coverage to enroll in S-chip."

“The legislation expands the original SCHIP program in some states by providing coverage to children whose families have an annual income up to $82,000.”

Conservatives everywhere are using this $82,000 threshold as the demarcation line for the “needy.”  Some others throw around percentages like 200% or 400% of the poverty line…  Anybody want to guess how much a catastrophic injury with associated surgeries and after-care costs?  How big of a bite would that take out of that 82 grand?  I make a little more than that and if that type of health disaster happened to me, my nest egg is gone.  Rep. Goodlatte is for reducing human need to cold cash and arbitrary ideology. 

“ The Congressional Budget Office estimates that over 2 million children currently covered by private insurance plans would now rely on an inefficient government-run health care system.”

Rep. Goodlatte leaves out the unfortunate fact that if the current Bush version of the SCHIP is passed, more than 5 million FEWER children will be covered than under the present legislation WITHOUT the increase. Again from Dan Froomkin in the Washington Post:

"The president's own budget proposal for maintaining the current S-chip program is so stingy that it would not even cover the number of children currently enrolled -- and would probably increase the number of children forced to go without health coverage by hundreds of thousands."

  And of course, go back and check the above quote from Seattlepi.com to find out more about those “inefficient government-run health care systems.”  Remember Point 2, Rep. Goodlatte is FOR this one…..

Rep. Goodlatte is very much for squeezing the illegal immigration issue for every ounce of political gain.  Never misses a chance to play on prejudice. 

“..but the "CHAMP" Act removes previously enacted reforms which require states to verify lawful presence in the U.S. before approving a benefit under Medicaid. This important provision has done much to decrease taxpayer dollars funding health care for illegal immigrants but its repeal paves the way for illegal immigrants to access government benefits.”

I always question the sincerity of this particular conservative talking point.  In reality, they are for privatization, corporate profits, and corporate welfare, yet they rail against one of the economic engines that drives the agribusiness in the Shenandoah Valley!  Over and over Rep. Goodlatte’s voting record supports big Agribusiness, the very industry that relies on this cheap and sometimes illegal labor pool.  Here again, Rep. Goodlatte is advocating conservative ideology over pragmatic legislative policy.

Rep. Goodlatte’s conclusion:

“When Congress first created SCHIP there was no question that this new program was intended to help low-income, uninsured children. Unfortunately, those same principles are not evident in the "CHAMP" Act. By pitting children against seniors, the "CHAMP" Act will jeopardize seniors' access to the high-quality care that they expect from Medicare and force individuals who already have private health insurance into a one-size-fits-all government-run health care program.”

So the whole objection is “pitting children against seniors?”  Folks this is what is called, “shoot it full of shit and kill it for stinkin’.”  First let’s create a boondoggle for a Medicare program that is so bad it stinks.  Make sure the private insurance companies get to rake in profits by making it very difficult for seniors to get benefits.  Now let’s point out in every debate that in order to expand coverage for children, these so-called benefits for seniors need to be cut??  Amazing!  

Amazingly, the Shenandoah Valley is a staunchly conservative stronghold and yet….

Scoreboard:  For expansion of the SCHIP and against Rep. Goodlatte: 78.9%;  for Rep. Goodlatte and cuts to the SCHIP 22%.  This poll is borrowed from Cobalt6 and was taken at the Staunton News Leader.  

And finally, from the opinion pages of the same Staunton News Leader, Mike Radiou: 

“The president's (and Rep. Goodlatte’s) claim that this program was too expensive rings hollow in the face of the massive deficit spending resulting from a war in Iraq — now in its fifth year and costing between $6 billion and $9 billion each month to prosecute, according to the Congressional Budget Office. It is profoundly hypocritical to have government employees, who enjoy federally controlled health care, deny the same to their constituents on the grounds that it will lead us down a slippery socialist slope. Finally, claiming that SCHIP's expansion will benefit too many "wealthy" kids neglects the fact that many of those kids belong to the long beleaguered middle class whose families find it increasingly difficult to carry on the American dream in light of skyrocketing medical bills through no fault of theirs.”