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Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Health Care Reform Bill: Have Your Say

Now that you've read the opinions of our panel, have your say by leaving a comment.

6 comments:

  1. GranOf4January 05, 2010

    I don't want Obamacare! I want free choice! If this passes the Senior population will be killed off!

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  2. Art HastingsJanuary 05, 2010

    I see Ms. Frangione has committed the same error -- I am insufficiently acquainted with her or her work to guess whether it was purposely mendacious -- of confusing opposition to this particular legislation being synonymous with opposition to health care reform altogether. Are in fact many of the people who expressed dissatisfaction with the proposed Senate bill in the CNN poll opposed to reform in general, or just to this particular form of it, because so many meaningful aspects have already been removed? She doesn't refer us to the particular poll so we can see how the questions were framed -- which always makes a difference in the supposed results.

    Finally, where did the $871 billion figure come from? The General Accounting Office, a study by a private insurer which has its own axe to grind, or perhaps one of the many carping radio commentators who pluck so many of their statistics out of thin air? Does it represent the cost of the federal program alone, or the new program PLUS the cost of health care that is expected to continue to be covered by private insurance alone? Where is the estimate of how much private insurance will cost Americans in the next ten years? How much does it cost right now, without projecting increases through the next decade?

    I challenge Ms. Frangione to answer any one of these questions. Answers to all of them might give us a sense of whether she has a valid point to make.

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  3. Art HastingsJanuary 05, 2010

    I meant to say up top that Ms. Frangione committed the same error as Austin Lee did in his Dec. 23 commentary, with regard to the difference between opposition to current legislation and opposition to health care reform in general.

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  4. Art HastingsJanuary 05, 2010

    And once again, GranOf4 shows he or she hasn't been paying attention. No one's choice will be diminished a jot by this legislation. If she can show me how hers will; I'll gladly apologize, but the whole point of health care reform is to expand people's choices, not cut them back. The only operation that takes away people's choices with regard to health care and coverage is a private insurance company -- which is pretty much what we've been stuck with until now, if we're less than Medicare age.

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  5. Roseanne FrangioneJanuary 05, 2010

    Mr. Hastings, this is the poll: http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/12/10/rel18h.pdf

    As you can see the question asked is "As you may know, the U.S. Senate is considering a bill that would make major changes in the
    country's health care system. Based on what you have read or heard about that bill, do you
    generally favor it or generally oppose it?"

    The 871 billion figure not only comes from every news outlet, but from Mr. Weiss' introduction as well. From the summary of the Senate's bill (courtesy of the Associated Press):

    COST: Coverage provisions cost $871 billion over 10 years.

    It sure sounds like drive-thru McHealthcare to me!

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  6. Art HastingsJanuary 07, 2010

    Thank you for directing us to the poll.

    Now I see that the question asks absolutely nothing about whether those polled are in favor of or opposed to health reform at all, which is the big logical leap you made. That a majority of those polled is opposed to THIS BILL is not at all the same thing as saying they "do not want this kind of radical change that is being shoved down our throats." Quite a few Americans are quite vocal about their anger and disappointment that the legislation has been gutted of several reform options and programs, but the poll didn't ask about that. You simply presumed that most other people agree with you. Perhaps they do not.

    In fact, I see that question 15, further down, asks about whether the person being polled would "favor or oppose creating a public health insurance option administered by the federal government
    that would compete with plans offered by private health insurance companies" -- and what do you know, 53 percent favor it in the Dec. 2-3 poll, and 46 percent oppose it. The numbers have bounced up and down a little in the five times CNN has asked it since August, but they haven't changed substantially. It's still a majority in favor. Ms. Frangione chose to overlook that small detail.

    Additionally, Ms. Frangione remarked that "only" 22 percent of those polled felt the legislation would help them. That's beside the point, of course (which the commentator inadvertantly admits when she says she's got decent coverage but doesn't want to help out "every crack-whore that can drag herself to a doctor can get affordable penicillin." This is a classic conservative ploy -- dragging out an exceptional, negative poster child as if that constituted a substantive argument. The point of the legislation is to help out our fellow suffering Americans; elderly who are losing their savings, middle-income families who are having their homes foreclosed on because of massive unforeseen medical bills.

    And that 22 percent figure? That comes from a question (#13) that established that an additional 46 percent polled believe that the legislation would help other families in this country. That makes 68 percent who think the bill will help SOMEBODY, as opposed to a mere 29 percent who think it will help no one. I'd say that's fairly strong support for the intent of the bill, if nothing else.

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