Pie in the sky ‘Repeal and Replace’ will cost more and cover less

Everyone is aware that the Republican strategy for taking back power in November is obstruction and saying no to everything in the hope that President Obama and the country fail and falls back into a recession, but one unobtainable tactic they are campaigning on is to repel the hard won health care insurance reform.

The fact is if they managed to actually get a repel through and replace it with some of the so-called plans individual Republicans have floated and they are able to override the president’s veto, it will force a lot of people to pay higher premiums, it will lavish subsidies on the private insurance industry, it will put life-and-death decisions in the hands of bureaucrats and it will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the federal debt, said New Republic writer Jonathan Cohn.

Cohn has been writing about the health care mess long before anyone else, and when the Ann Arbor resident decided to write a book he chose to write about something no one else was writing about at the time, health care. Cohn traveled all over the U.S. and some foreign countries and read every study and every source on health care he could get his hands on in doing the research for the book to produce, “Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis — and the People Who Pay the Price,” published in April 2007.

Cohn is also a senior editor at The New Republic magazine. He is also a media fellow at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and a senior fellow at Demos a non-partisan public policy center. Cohn writes about domestic politics and policy with a primary focus on health care. Cohn has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone and Slate.

Cohn writes in a column in the magazine that if Republicans actually managed to pull off the impossible and replace reform with their plan of allowing the purchase of coverage across state lines and creating special insurance plans for people with pre-existing conditions, “studies have repeatedly shown that proposals like these would, at best, bring coverage to just a few million Americans. So if the Republicans succeed in taking the recently enacted reforms off the books, that means they are taking insurance away from a whole lot of people.”

Not only does the Republican so-called plan not cover as many people, which Cohn said is not a big deal to them, but it does nothing to reduce the cost of health care like the current reform does.

“The new law includes a bunch of measures designed to reduce the overall cost of care -- first by a little bit, and then by a lot.”

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) concluded that, “once you account for the subsidies; reform will mean lower average premiums for people with private insurance.” The Republicans unrealistic goal of repealing health care insurance reform will mean those people are stuck paying more. “The official projections also suggest that, 10 years from now, government spending on health care will be lower than it might otherwise be. Repeal reform and the deficits go back up -- by more than $100 billion over ten years. And while the nation as a whole will pay slightly more for health care over the next ten years, the rate of growth -- which is the figure we care about most -- will be lower. Take away reform and, according to the projections, health care costs will rise at a higher rate.”

Churches sponsoring rally to support equal rights for gays

A pair of Livingston County churches are taking the moral high ground and co-sponsoring a rally on Sunday to support equal rights for gays.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Community Unitarian Universalists in Brighton and Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) are sponsoring the rally set for 12:30 p.m. at the Mill Pond gazebo in downtown Brighton. Sunday is also National Coming Out Day, and it is also the day of the National Equality March in Washington, D.C. The public is invited to the brief ceremony that will feature speakers.

The Community Unitarian Universalists have a history of tolerance, acceptance and community service in the county, and they have sponsored past events that reflect that mission. In October of 2007 they co-sponsored a “Counter Coulter” event that brought in Ann Arbor author Jonathan Cohn to speak about health care reform that raised money for the free VINA Community Dental Center of Livingston County.

In September of last year they sponsored a forum on the expansion of embryonic stem cell research featuring former U.S. Congressman and medical doctor Joe Schwarz.

Book highlights the history of health care coverage in the U.S.

After more than a month of waiting for the July monthly selection of the Progressive Book Club because the demand was so heavy, I finally received the books last week.

The selections were Gov. Howard Dean’s “Prescription for Real Healthcare,” and “Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis — and the People Who Pay the Price” by Michigan author Jonathan Cohn.

I heard Cohn speak back in October 2007 at a “Counter Colulter” event that raised money for a free dental clinic, and I knew if the book was half an interesting as his lecture was, the book would be great. I was right. I have only read less than half the book in a week, but it has been informative, shocking and sad.

He goes through the technical aspects and history of health care in America, and he puts a human face on the consequences of decisions made by health insurers.

Cohn is a senior editor at The New Republic magazine. He is also a media fellow at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and a senior fellow at Demos a non-partisan public policy center. Cohn writes about domestic politics and policy with a primary focus on health care. Cohn has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone and Slate. A graduate of Harvard University, he now lives in Ann Arbor with his wife and two children. “Sick,” his first book, was published in April 2007.

Cohn said that when he decided to write a book he chose to write about something no one else was writing about at the time. Cohn traveled all over the U.S. and some foreign countries and read every study and every source on health care he could get his hands on in doing the research for the book. In fact, the book has 50 pages of references and sources.

This book should be required reading for anyone who cares about the health care system debate, no matter what side you’re on. He presents real middle class Americans who worked hard their entire lives and played by the rules being wiped out by an illness.

Even the introduction is chock full of information. He debunks the myth that anyone has health care just by going to the Emergency Room.

A 55-yeaold Cambridge special education teacher named Cynthia Kline died because she had to be diverted from a hospital ER that was capable of performing a “cardiac catheterization” to one that was not quaffed to perform it because the ER was overflowing.

Cohn goes on to document that in a one-week period before Kline’s death, 67 percent of Massachusetts hospitals had to divert ambulance traffic and declare emergency overcrowding procedures. Another 40 percent of administrators said overcrowding led to “adverse outcomes.” Ambulances have had to be diverted to hospital miles away, or wait by the side of the road while they searched for a hospital that can take the patient. ER’s are being slammed because the 50 million people with no health care coverage go there when a routine problem turns into a major problem because they could not go to a doctor and get it taken care of.

The model for health care in America for years has been employer provided health insurance, but that is falling apart as companies get rid of it in order to compete globally with every other industrialized nation that provides universal health care, downsize employees, privatize, hire contract workers with no benefits or simply offshore to Third World Countries where there are no rules and befits.

Cohn talks about Gary and Betsey Rotzler. Gary was an aviation engineer for years, but he was laid off. He worked for a few years at anything he could find until he was finally hired back at the same company doing the same job as before; only he was a “contract” employee receiving no health care coverage.

After hiding worsening back pain from her husband and three children for years, Betsey was finally forced to take action, and within three days she was dead from cancer.

Kohn traces the history of health care insurance in America from the 1920’s when it became apparent that medical bills were becoming more than many Americans could bear. In 1933, a blue ribbon panel made the recommendation for some kind of medical insurance, but other countries went the way of government sponsored insurance, spreading the finical burden of as widely as possible.

Hospitals were bearing the brunt of this inability of people to pay, and many were going out of business. A hospital administrator at Baylor Hospital in Texas in 1929 hit on an idea where any teacher willing to pay monthly contributions to the hospital would be provided up to 20 days of free care as long as three-quarters of the teachers participated. It saved the hospital, and other hospitals did the same thing.

The plan grew and evolved into the Blue Cross system. The plan worked when any large group was involved, such s the Elks or other groups, so it was a natural that it became an employer-provided plan that was billed as an employee-incentive when they could not provide higher pay.

Blue Cross was the provider of choice until the 1950s, and people paid a community rate where every one paid the same and the healthy subsided the sick until the healthy became the sick. Commercial carriers saw it could work after seeing the Blue Cross example, and they figured they could make money if they only covered healthy individuals. Their number one goal was to make money, not the public good like Blue Cross. So, they want after the healthily BC subscribers by offering them lower rates that reflected their good health.

In order to compete, the Blues started to back off their founding principals and offered the same kinds of rate structures as the for-profits.

As more companies drop health insurance, it has created the individual market where people have to buy insurance on their own. The price is sky high because they do not have the group benefit, and if they have a “pre-existing condition” the premiums will be sky high if they can find coverage at all. Someone with diabetes, the most common disease in America where the most health care dollars are spent is spent, is almost out of luck. They can accept their money, but they can deny coverage for just about anything; blaming in on the pre-existing condition.

In country that says it provides itself on entrepreneurs and small business, those people simply cannot find affordable coverage. That has made the market rife for scam artist, and Cohn tells some sad stories about the victims of the scams.

I’m just starting to get into managed care or HMOs where the insurance company bureaucrats routinely makes medical decisions and gets “between the doctor and the patient. Like the Blues, this was a great program fro the common good until the for-profits got involved and mucked it up.
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A pair of book club selections spells out that Health care in the U.S. is clearly broken and unfair

As the debate over President Obama’s much needed health care plan heats up, it seems fitting that the Progressive Book Club’s monthly selection for July is Gov. Howard Dean’s “Prescription for Real Healthcare,” and “Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis — and the People Who Pay the Price” by Michigan author Jonathan Cohn.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, the response has been so overwhelming that the club is temporarily out of stock, and I am waiting for my copies as soon as they come in stock. Although I’m not yet up on the debate as I should be, there is no denying health care in the U.S. is broken, and millions of Americans are without health care. As that debate heats up, you can rest assured private health care “insurers” will be spending millions to influence Congress. The number one motive of insurers is profit, and they will do just about anything to avoid paying a claim.

My wife and I are those among the uninsured, although as retired military, I always have the VA hospital in Ann Arbor to fall back on. The lack of full-time work has led us to take two part-time jobs apiece, and of course, none provide health care benefits.

A recent episode occurred to an acquaintance this weekend that really drove home the health care crisis to me. This person is in their early 50s, and since high school he has worked at a small tool and die shop, made a decent living and raised two children. A few years ago, his wife began working there, too. Unfortunately, the shop recently closed and moved its equipment off shore, leaving him without a job and career for the first time in more than 30 years.

Now, since this person lost their job, they also lost their heath care benefits. Well, while helping his son-in-law paint this weekend, he collapsed. The son-in-law told him he was going to call an ambulance, and my friend said no. Why, because he did not have coverage. After he passed out again, it was a moot point.

Once he got to the hospital, he tried to refuse treatment because he had no coverage. He was told he would need a pacemaker at a cost of $50,000. The last I heard, he is looking at cheaper alternatives at his peril. When the cost determines the mode treatment above all other considerations, the system is broken. All Americans should have access to quality health care. We do have the some of the best health care in the world, but access to it is another story.

I don’t see how we cannot afford to not reform health care. If a person can’t pay, the hospital eats the cost. The good news for my friend is that because he had the foresight to buy a home as soon as he was able, it’s probably paid off so he can mortgage it to pay for life-saving medical care. But, I’m not sure who will give him a second mortgage with no job.

Cohn’s book is chock full of examples like that. He spoke in Howell in October 2007, and I should have bought his book then. He gave an excellent presentation on a subject many people consider dry.

The Ann Arbor resident traveled all over the U.S. and some foreign countries and read every study and every source on health care he could get his hands on in doing the research for the book, and he has become a walking encyclopedia on the state of health care in America.

He told some truly horrific stories from his book of middle class families playing by the rules all their lives then losing their health care coverage when a parent's job is downsized, and that is happening more and more as companies trying to compete in the global marketplace try to shed costs and doing so by cutting and eliminate health care benefits. Or, working almost there entire life, and just because a person lost that job, they have to turn down life-saving health care like my friend.

Cohn said The U.S. spends about 16 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health care, more than any other industrialized nation in the world, but millions of Americans have no health care coverage at all. The U.S. spends more on health care than those nations that have quality universal health care. The system is broken.

Even though the President is not advocating for a universal health care plan like he should, we are hearing the ridiculous talking points from Republicans about “socialized medicine.” I am baffled by their protection of insurance companies that will look for any excuse not to honor their commitment if they needed it over middle class working families.


I saw on the official GOP blog, wrongmichuigan, a post about a man whose two-year old daughter was allegedly receiving a chemotherapy treatment. They claimed this person said,
“To him, it doesn't matter what health care costs. He works hard to be able to afford good health care, he says, and if he can't afford it, he'll go into debt to make sure his little girl gets the best treatment money can buy. His biggest fear is that in an effort to lower the costs of health care in America, politicians and bureaucrats will deem the best care "wasteful" or "inefficient." "Don't mess with my right to medical choice," he pleaded, "If I have the money , or even if I don't, I want to be able to buy that care."

What if this person loses his job like my friend? His daughter dies? What if he has a lower wage job; his daughter dies or gets less treatment that the person with more money? Why should anyone go into debt and lose their home just because a child got sick? Chances are, they would deny her coverage because the cancer is an “existing condition.

The system is broken.

Long shot U.S. Senate challenger begs for free publicity

State Rep. Jack Hoogendyk, R-Kalamazoo, says he wants four debates in his long-shot attempt to unseat popular and respected Democratic U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, according to subscription only MIRS.

Apparently, the only official invitation has come from Grand Rapids public television station WGVU, which has invited both Levin and Hoogendyk to take part in a 60-minute televised town hall debate that would be broadcast on PBS stations across the state. Now, as much as I would love to see Levin wipe the floor with the conservative Republican, the question is why would Levin give an unknown like Hoogendyk the free publicity?

In the latest poll, Levin, the chair of the powerful Armed Service Committee, has a 26 point lead over Hoogendyk. You have to wonder what state GOP chair Saul Anuzis promised Hoogendyk in exchange for being the sacrificial lamb.

Hoogendyk was briefly a Republican candidate for governor in 2006 before perennial GOP nominee Dick DeVos and his money ran the rest of the Republicans out of the race.

Levin is highly respected, and he has even been mentioned as a possible Vice-Presidential candidate. Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic, and an Ann Arbor resident, makes a pretty good case for Barack Obama choosing Levin for the ticket. But the only problem with that is who would run for the Senate seat? Democrats are trying to get enough Democrats in the Senate so they can actually accomplish something over GOP obstructionists.

Counter Coulter event raises money for free dental clinic

A few miles west and six hours later more than 150 people gathered in the historic Howell Opera House in downtown Howell Monday evening and heard a positive message and raised more than $1,500 for a planned free dental clinic in response to rightwing author and commentator Ann Coulter calling half the U.S. population traitors.

Coulter spoke at Cleary University’s Economic Club Speakers Luncheon Series earlier in the day at a cost of $30,000 plus expenses. Many Livingston County residents were concerned that welcoming someone who has made numerous racist and hatful remarks in her books, columns and on TV and radio would further reinforce the county’s undeserved reputation as a place that welcomes racists and bigots of all ilks.

The Community Unitarian Universalists in Brighton and Voter's Voice - a group for independents, moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans – co-sponsored what they called “Turning a Negative into a Positive” at a Counter Coulter event that brought in Ann Arbor author Jonathan Cohn, a senior editor at The New Republic magazine, to talk about his book “Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis --- and the People Who Pay for it,” and the health care crisis in the United States. Cohn spoke for free, and admission was the price of any size monetary donation.

Jim Swonk, the president of Voter’s Voice and the President of the Board at the church, said he issued a challenge to Cleary President Tom Sullivan and the sponsors of the economic series that brought Coulter in to see who can raise the most money for a charity. Swonk said he has not heard from anyone. Still, Swonk was very pleased with the large turnout on a very wet and rainy evening.

“I’m very, very pleased to see this turnout,” he said. “I think it really speaks to the kind of people that live in Livingston County.”

The money raised will go to the VINA Community Dental Center of Livingston County that is under construction in donated space at the First United Methodist Church of Brighton. It is being organized by Dr. Samuel Daniels, and he said the space, equipment, labor, materials, architectural work and even the legal work to establish a nonprofit are being donated. He said the clinic should be ready to accept patients who have no dental insurance or are low income in about a year.

“Almost every dentist in town and their staffs have volunteered their services,” he said. “It has been talked about for about 25 years. The problem has been dentists are reluctant to treat these kinds of cases in their own offices.”

In addition to being a senior editor at The New Republic magazine, Cohn is also a media fellow at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and a senior fellow at Demos a non-partisan public policy center. Cohn writes about domestic politics and policy with a primary focus on health care. Cohn has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone and Slate. A graduate of Harvard University, he now lives in Ann Arbor with his wife and two children. “Sick,” his first book, was published in April.

“When they called to ask me to be the counter to Ann Coulter I didn’t know whether to be flattered or insulted,” he said. “I certainly don’t want to be the counterpart to Ann Coulter.”

Cohn said when he decided to write a book he chose to write about something no one else was writing about, but since then health care has become a major political issue. Cohn traveled all over the U.S. and some foreign countries and read every study and every source on health care he could get his hands on in doing the research for the book, and he has become a walking encyclopedia on the state of health care in America.

“I was thinking maybe we should not talk about Ann Coulter because if we do she wins,” Cohn said. “That's what she does; she denigrates.
“She doesn’t want us to talk about health care, so I hope you will indulge me if I don’t talk about Ann Coulter anymore.”

Cohn spent almost two hours talking about health care to an attentive audience, answered questions and signed copies of his book.

He traced the origins of heath care insurance in America, how the employer-based health care system is failing and he advocated for universal health care. He told some truly horrific stories from his book of middle class families playing by the rules losing their health care coverage when a parent's job is downsized, and that is happening more and more as companies trying to compete in the global marketplace try to shed costs and doing so by cutting and eliminate health care benefits.

The U.S. spends about 16 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health care, more than any other industrialized nation in the world, but millions of Americans have no health care coverage at all. The U.S. spends more on health care than those nations that have quality universal health care.

The auto industry has really felt the effect of health care costs because they are competing with countries that have universal health care, and the cost of providing employee and retiree health care benefits is not added to the purchase price of the car. Cohn said universal health care has been a liberal issue in the past, but more and more conservatives are beginning to take up the cause as they realize U.S. companies cannot compete globally carrying the high cost of health care insurance without the same help other countries have, and they also need healthy workers to drive the economic engine.

“You can have a debate about this, but let’s do it with the facts,” he said. “There may be a good case against universal health care. We have a good system, but we can do better.”

To donate to the VINA Community Dental Center send donations to 305 W. Main St.
Brighton, MI 48116.

Coulter Quote of the Week: Dedicated to the organizers of the Counter Coulter event

This week’s Coulter Quote of the week is dedicated to the good folks at Livingston County Voter’s Voice and the Community Unitarian Universalists in Brighton who are sponsoring a “Counter Coulter” event to provide a positive counter to the queen of hate’s appearance in Livingston County.

Jonathan Cohn, a senior editor at The New Republic magazine, will appear at the Howell Opera House at 7 p.m. Oct. 1 to lead a discussion on the state of health care in the country. The price of admission is a donation. Cohn is appearing free instead of charging $30,000 plus expenses like Ann Coulter. The proceeds will go to The Livingston County Free Dental Clinic for Children. Coulter’s process will go to fuel more hate.

Cohn is also a media fellow at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and a senior fellow at Demos a non-partisan public policy center. Cohn writes about domestic politics and policy with a primary focus on health care. In April he published his first book “Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis --- and the People Who Pay for it." Cohn has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone and Slate. A graduate of Harvard University, he now lives in Ann Arbor with his wife and two children.

Without further ado, here are a few recent gems of hate from the queen of all hate commenting on the Iraq report. I have no idea why they would ask her to comment on that either, but they did.

"They want us to lose. They hate the troops. They think the troops are a bunch of illiterate, toothless rapists. ... They've been against this war from the beginning. The same people who say the surge isn't working didn't want us to go in. ... They want America to lose. They are rooting for al Qaeda." ---Fox News 9/10/07

"I don't know that Americans are so against the war. ... We keep having votes from our representatives [to keep funding the war] while I hear about these mysterious polls showing that the nation is ablaze with anti-war fervor. ... I don't think I'd count on MoveOn.org having much influence with authentic Americans. This is just, you know, a well-funded group of people without jobs. ... They want anarchy. ... They hate the United States of America." ---Fox News 9/10/07

Group holding a Counter Coulter event

Livingston County Voter’s Voice and the Community Unitarian Universalists in Brighton are sponsoring a “Counter Coulter” event to provide a positive event in response rightwing pundit Ann Coulter’s appearance at Cleary University’s Economic Club Speakers Luncheon Series in Howell on Oct. 1 at the cost of $30,000.

Jonathan Cohn, a senior editor at The New Republic magazine, will appear at the Howell Opera House at 7 p.m. on the same day Coulter is speaking to lead a discussion on the state of health care in the country. The price of admission is a donation. Cohn is appearing free, and organizers say once the $100 cost of renting the venue is met the rest will be donated to The Livingston County Free Dental Clinic for Children.

“A number of us decided back in May there should be something positive instead of the hate speech and racist comments from Coulter,” said Jim Swonk, the president of Voter’s Voice and the President of the Board at the church. “We’re just trying to do something positive while she’s in the county.”

Livingston County has suffered with a lingering reputation as a racist community because the former Grand Dragon of the Michigan Klan lived on a farm in rural Cohoctah Township just outside of Howell, as well as having a very small minority population in the county.

“There are a lot of people in the community upset that she is coming,” Swonk said. “We hope to get a good response, and we have room for 200 people.”

In addition to being a senior editor at The New Republic magazine, Cohn is also a media fellow at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and a senior fellow at Demos a non-partisan public policy center. Cohn writes about domestic politics and policy with a primary focus on health care. In April he published his first book “Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis --- and the People Who Pay for it." Cohn has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, Mother Jones, Rolling Stone and Slate. A graduate of Harvard University, he now lives in Ann Arbor with his wife and two children.

Although organizers here began the planning for the event five months ago, they were buoyed by the recent "Thank Ann Coulter" campaign at Xavier University in Cincinnati where a coalition of student and progressive groups raised the same $25,000 speaking fee Coulter received and donated it to student groups at a Counter Coulter rally while Coulter was speaking.

The Voter's Voice is a group for independents, moderate Democrats and moderate Republicans formed in 2002 for people concerned about politics and public policy.

“We try to take out the spin from both the right and the left,” Swonk said, who is also a former Democratic candidate for state Senator.

Howell Opera House is located at the corner of Grand River Avenue and Walnut Street in downtown Howell.