More Government Is No Solution For Healthcare

September 10, 2009

No amount of speech making can hide the fact that Obama believes that federal government is the solution to America's healthcare problems. Common sense tells you that adding trillions of dollars to the deficit will not reduce federal health spending, but since when has common sense been used by those who want to dramatically expand the role of government.

In his 1981 Inaugural Address, President Reagan presented the opposite view, proclaiming, "Government is not the solution to our problem, it is the problem." Reagan was as right as rain. Obama is dead wrong and the public tide is turning against him and his healthcare proposal.

Look at the government's track record: Social Security has no money to meet its long term obligations. If an insurance company were operated like Social Security, its executives would be charged with fraud. Medicare and Medicaid are financial sinkholes. Amtrak is broken and broke. So were Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Post Office loses money every year and can't compete with FedEx or UPS. What makes you think that socialized healthcare would end up any different?

Despite these facts, Obama continues to proclaim that big government can save us from our health problems. He and his socialist comrades must believe that there are enough gullible Americans who will believe their hype.

Government insurance programs, government regulations, entitlement programs and HMOs are leading us down the road to socialized medicine which dead ends at poor quality of care and rationing of services. Some government bureaucrat will determine what type of care your doctor may provide you and whether you qualify to be cared for by him. You may be too old or not well enough connected to get the medical procedure you need.

Obama has tried to frame the argument that his view of health care reform must be passed quickly or Americans will suffer. He forgets or ignores that we are a super power that was built by hard working entrepreneurs and the best ideas have always come from free enterprise, not government.

In 1960, only 21% of personal medical care expenditures were paid by the government, 24% by insurance companies and 55% were paid by consumers out of their own pockets. Today, the government pays for over 50% of all medical expenses while consumers pay for only 15% of care out of pocket. HMOs and other insurance schemes pay the rest.

As a physician, I have witnessed private medical practice being choked by corporate socialism, which is the cooperative effort of insurance companies and government to destroy competition and replace it with central planning called "managed care."

Private enterprise encourages businesses to compete for consumer dollars. This system of independent economic actions, freely taken by millions of consumers and businesses, has produced the highest standards of living in every country where it has been adopted. Free enterprise capitalism is the soil in which liberty flourishes.

Everywhere socialism has been tried it has discouraged innovation and led to shortages and rationing of goods and services. Socialism is the drought in which liberty wilts and dies.

Socialism undermines the doctor-patient relationship. If you are covered by an HMO or by Medicare, then your doctor no longer works for you but for whoever pays his bills. The doctor must follow their rules and accept their fees. This is why you may feel that your doctor is not listening to you or doesn't seem to care. Your physician can only serve one master and it's not you. Do you want a doctor who works for the government?

The only thing that will save health care is a good dose of free enterprise, with doctors charging a fee for service, just like any other business. Treatment is consumer-based and permits the patient to choose how to spend his money. This can be easily achieved through the use of a Health Saving Account (HSA) coupled with a high deductible catastrophic insurance policy. HSAs are tax free and what you don't spend you can save.

Medical insurance can be made more affordable by allowing it to be purchased across state lines, providing more competition and lowering premiums.

Here is an idea that can be implemented to help those who need medical care but cannot afford it. Before the government became involved in healthcare in the 1960s, there was an abundance of hospitals operated by various Christian denominations and charitable organizations. These organizations should be encouraged to once again provide medical care for the poor and indigent as was done in the past. Those who donate to these organizations should be given a tax credit. This would stimulate the private funding of these organizations keeping them independent of government control. You can be sure that they would operate much more efficiently and effectively than the government.

The real intent of the socialists in attempting to take over the healthcare industry, which represents 17% of our gross national product, is to consolidate and centralize their control over the economy. They desire the power that comes with the control.

Our founding fathers fought the American Revolution to break the power of centralized government and establish a Republic which decentralized the powers of government. We must follow in their tread by exerting whatever political force is necessary to defeat Obama's radical socialized healthcare plan.

Sincerely yours,

Steven F. Hotze, M.D.
President
Texans for Patients’ and Physician’s Rights
20214 Braidwood, Suite 215
Katy, Texas 77450
281.698.8679 - Stacey Bandfield, Director of Public Relations
stacey.bandfield@hotzehwc.com 
www.txppr.org

House Democrats’ Six Day Filibuster
Prevents Passage of CSSB 2397

Attempt to Amend Senate Bills blocked

Capitol Update
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Austin, Texas

Our efforts to revise the Texas Medical Practice Act in the 2009 Texas Legislature have been blocked.  The struggle in this legislative session was one in a series of battles in our war to require transparency of the actions of the Texas Medical Board, ensure legal due process for physicians subject to complaints and to protect patients’ and physicians’ rights.  Although CSSB 2397, which contained many provisions from CSHB 3816, was set on the Major State Calendar in the Texas House, it did not come up for a vote prior to the Tuesday midnight deadline. 

Last Thursday, May 21st, the Democrats decided to prevent any action on the Voter ID bill which was also on the Major State Calendar.  The tactics they used were to extensively debate hundreds of bills for six days on the Local and Consent Calendar until the Tuesday midnight deadline.  Because of this, no bills on the Major State Calendar or General Calendar, of which there were hundreds and hundreds, were ever brought up for a House vote and effectively died this session.  CSSB 2397 was one of those bills.

When the House Democrats started to filibuster, known as chubbing, we realized that we needed to amend some provisions from CSHB 3816 onto bills that were already in the Senate.  HB 732, by Rep. Hartnett, was the most likely vehicle.  Rep. Hartnett agreed to have Sen. Dan Patrick co-sponsor this in the Senate.  Before he could do this the bill was intercepted and the chair of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, Sen. Jane Nelson, passed the bill to Sen. Joan Huffman.  I met with Sen. Huffman personally and requested that she place the following amendments on her bill:

Section One: Seven (7) year Statute of Limitation on complaints.
Section Two: Elimination of confidentiality of complainant with exceptions for patients, employees or subordinates.
Section Three: Elimination of anonymous complaints; requires insurance companies to notify a physician if files a complaint against him
Section Four: Allows physicians 45 days to respond to the TMB after receiving a complaint; members of the TMB expert witness panel must be actively practicing medicine.

Despite appeals made by Lt. Governor Dewhurst, Rep. Hartnett and numerous co-authors of HB 3816 in the House, Senator Huffman declined to allow us to offer any amendments.

The TMA, their in-house governmental affairs team and army of hired-gun lobbyists worked against us every step of the way.  They are a formidable enemy.  The health insurance companies also opposed our efforts behind the scenes.  One health insurance lobbyist told one of our insiders that “we use confidential complaints to go after doctors.”  There appears to be an unholy alliance between the TMA, Texas Medical Board (TMB) and health insurance companies.

We then turned our attention to another bill, HB 2845, sponsored by Rep. Riddle and co-sponsored by Sen. Robert Nichols in the Senate.  Lt. Governor Dewhurst was a great ally in our efforts and set up a meeting with Senator Nichols, me and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons’ (AAPS) lobbyists, Allen Blakemore and Stephen Raines, which occurred Monday night at 9:45pm. At that meeting Senator Nichols reviewed our amendments for thirty minutes. Sen. Nichols said he supported the amendments but said he would have to find out if they were germane to the bill itself.

At 5: 30 pm on Tuesday, May 26th, we had a meeting with Lt. Gov. Dewhurst, Sen. Nichols and Karina Davis, Senate Parliamentarian in the Lt. Governor’s office. We were told that our amendments to SB 2845, co-sponsored by Sen. Nichols, were not germane. This means that we could not amend our language onto HB 2845.

Lt. Governor Dewhurst promised to order an interim hearing of the Texas Medical Board chaired by Senator Nichols. Sen. Nichols was in full agreement with this proposal and animated when he agreed. We will be working with Lt. Gov. Dewhurst and Senator Nichols to set up an interim hearing. Lt. Gov. Dewhurst also promised to bring media attention to the need for substantial reforms at the TMB.  

The members of the 2009 Texas Legislature knew that we were here. We exposed the injustices of the TMB to the legislators. Strong relationships with numerous legislators were also developed.

We must continue to press the battle to its successful conclusion!

Confident of our ultimate success, I remain, as always,

Sincerely yours,

Steven F. Hotze, M.D.
President
Texans for Patients’ and Physician’s Rights
20214 Braidwood, Suite 215
Katy, Texas 77450
281.698.8679 - Stacey Bandfield, Director of Public Relations
stacey.bandfield@hotzehwc.com 
www.txppr.org

Keep Pressure on Senator Huffman