dan maffei

I have been on the phone trying to get through to my Congressman, Dan Maffei (D), all day long to voice my opposition to what is going on in Washington. His phone was busy and I finally got his voice mail which was full, but I wanted to give him a piece of my mind so I kept calling until I got through. I left him a scathing message with less than polite language so if you do not hear from me send care packages to GITMO c/o Ray. I really do not care what side of the issue you are on, but I hope you are voicing your opinion to your representative. I am opposed to the current bill and want them to start over. I am not in the camp of “there is nothing wrong here,” but this thing has gotten way out of hand.

Many of you know my position on this bill, it is bad news for the country, and even more shockingly is the fact that Congress went back into hiding to hammer out the details again. This whole thing is like watching a plane crash and you have 2 choices, get in front of it so it ends quickly or stay where you are and risk catching fire, both choices are bad. What is worse is the fact that they may not actually vote on the bill itself, but use a procedure that “deems it approved” which is crazy. Again we are hearing, well the Republicans did it hundreds of times, I am sure that is true, but on something this big? I think not.

The people deserve to know how their representatives are voting on this bill, either for or against, so the voter can voice their opinion at the polls in November, either for or against. To me this whole thing is just amazing and unreal as we just wrapped up the worst 8 years in American history, well, that I have been alive for at least, and now just as we thought we got rid of a tone deaf administration another tone deaf administration has taken its place. What makes this dangerous is the fact that Obama is an ego maniac, in my opinion, and refuses to admit that he is going against the peoples will, so much for change.

As many of you know, I have also been in the insurance industry for many years, I know how this stuff works. I am well connected in the research area and do a ton of consulting, which is why I am not posting as often now. I often get calls from Senators or Congress members seeking opinions on various topics, they know who I am. Now, here we are in the midst of one of the most important legislative changes ever to hit the insurance industry and guess how many calls I have received? None. Not only have I not received any calls, but neither have any of my other geeky friends who work in this industry. Now, how can this be? How can this bill be vetted by people in the industry when, myself not necessarily included, some of the brightest people I know of in the insurance industry never got one call from even the lowliest intern from Congress?

It makes no sense and it should make you concerned because lawyers are great at lawyer stuff, but they are not good at figuring out insurance issues. Most probably do not even know what the mortality tables look like or what tables we are even using now. They have no idea on how to balance risk or spread it around and I got news for you, there is no way you can insure everyone, pre-existing conditions or otherwise, without raising premiums through the roof. Especially if you eliminate annual or lifetime caps, it is just not possible because you need to pool the risk. To make matters worse, if we continue with the archaic state system that we have now it will be a complete disaster as there is no way to spread geographical risk. It makes my head hurt just thinking about what they are doing.

We need to do something, I agree with that, but this is insane and I guarantee you it is not what you think. Premiums will go higher now until 2014 and then, who knows what will happen because we have not seen the bill yet, however I am sure it is not good news for you. I am extremely sensitive to this topic as it impacts me more than it does the average person, but it is not possible to insure everyone and maintain good quality care. This is where I get into the argument I hear a lot from the left, they claim the U.N. says we are 37^th in terms of the quality of health care. First, the U.N. holds little weight with me as they seem to not really like us. Second, how can we add another 31M people to the system and expect to improve the quality of health care? It is not possible.

If what I think happens actually happens, many doctors will leave, the New England Journal of Medicine says one third of doctors will leave the business if this thing passes. Again, how would this increase the quality of care? With Dennis Kucinich all of a sudden signing on to this thing it makes me wonder what really happened when he was on Air Force One. Dennis is a public option fan and he was dead set against this bill, which is the Senate bill, but again, who really knows. Did Obama promise that the public option was on the way in the future? I suspect it is at some point and if it is doctors will leave the business. Medicare pays $26 an office visit, do you think doctors can stay in business at $26 a pop? Not a chance.

Maybe we could do it better than a Canada or a UK, but at the end of the day, I am not a fan of the government involved in my life. I do not want the government to know what drugs I am on, prescription I mean, or what health issues I might have. We also know that Medicare is a favorite for politicians to cut funding from, they tend to do it a lot, so when it becomes so large, on top of our debt, what do you think they will do to save money? They will cut health care, it is that simple. History shows what our elected officials will do and it is always in their best interests, never yours. I do not want even a stepping stone to a single payer system. However, I want some things down and you cannot tell me that you could not win an up or down vote on outlawing a preexisting condition clause on insurance contracts.

The last thing we need is more secrecy in Washington, but that is what we are getting. We have lazy politicians who do not want to start over because it is too hard, they do work for us you now, but that is what needs to be done. I highly recommend you call your representative and let them know where you stand and that you will remember their vote in November. However, I encourage you to say no to this bill, mostly because they keep changing it (!) and tell them to start over.

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