US politics
Jim DeWees
Description
Collection
Title:
US politics
Creator:
Jim DeWees
Date:
9/17/2009
Text:
Here's some more information on this Baucus bill, for those who haven't had time to look at it or see what it involves.
First off, a note about the author....Liz Fowler. I did another google search of her today (Thursday Sept 17) and found where she was named the Chief advisor to Max Baucus. She has been in similar roles in politics for other Democrats, and the first 3 articles on Google reveal all of that, and her educational background and some jobs in the private sector. BUT, she fails to mention that she is the VP for Wellpoint.
Living in Indiana, about 50 miles south of the Anthem headquarters, I am all too familiar with many of the names of the Anthem/Wellpoint crew, and what they stand for. In fact, the one that helped write the parity bill here in Indiana is Mike Murphy, a republican, but was the Pres. of Anthem Blue Cross of Nevada for a long time. He is buddies with the Anthem crew, as we all saw during the hearings and who he chose to hang out with during the breaks, their lobbyist and their Medical Director.
Mike Murphy is running for US Congress in the upcoming election (he currently is a state representative), and as I said, he is a republican and I am fighting his candidacy in a major way, even though I do not live in that district. I get the emails from him for some reason, which keeps me in the loop, but I do not want him to be in Washington, giving another big insurance person the opportunity to influence anything, even though he is a republican (which is where I would consider myself to be closer to as a party). I could care less what party these people are connected with, so it is not a partisan issue (or racial issue, heaven forbid, as a few have started saying about anyone that has concerns or opposes these bills).
So, having Liz Fowler from Wellpoint working in this position advising Max Baucus how to come up with a Bipartisan bill is not comforting at all. In fact, out of the Gang of 6, he was the ONLY one that was in the media yesterday to reveal this bill. Not even his fellow Democrats would stand beside him on this one.
Here's some of the points:
-Mandatory insurance for EVERYONE!!! If the person or family doesn't provide proof of coverage, they are subject to a penalty of $3800 a year.
-Cutting spending on Medicare and Medicaid by $508 billion a year (if I got that right, but it's only numbers right???? What's a billion or million or trillion these days), but this has many upset over cutting benefits for seniors and low income. But, here in Indiana, the medicaid program allows for more codes (including microprocessors) that Anthem does. And, Medicaid pays significantly more than Anthem as well....so if I have to choose (for business purposes) who will get better and faster care in my office, the Medicaid patients get priority over Anthem patients....this includes the president of the local university, or the president of the large factory here, or anyone that might have Anthem, including our congressman.
This is where the cuts in wheelchairs and power scooters comes into play, and if it is looked at more closely (which I have not had a chance to do), it most certainly will cut out expensive luxury electronic devices for prosthetics....after all, Anthem already doesn't allow them here in Indiana at least.....and the VP or this company is the one that wrote this bill with Baucus.
-They are going to tax (35%) any benefits that an employer provides for their employees that is more than $8000 a year per person, or $12000 per family (not exactly sure the EXACT amount, but roughly). This I kind of agree with, because this is considered a benefit just like having a take home car provided from an employer, which has to be declared as income. I understand the reason for that as well, because owning my own business, I could just purchase vehicles and count that as a business expense, and then I wouldn't personally have to make the payments on these vehicles, which essentially saves me like 36% through tax evasion. If my company provides me with a vehicle that I drive home, then I must declare that as a benefit from the company and pay tax on it.
Some of these really expensive, luxury, kinds of insurance plans that some big labor organizations get (including great dental insurance, vision and free glasses and contacts or lasik surgery, and everything else) are given to employees as part of a package deal and instead of paying the employee money and having them pay for insurance out of their pockets, it is a pre-tax deduction that the companies make. So, taxing these benefits sort of makes sense, but the big labor unions are not going to like this, which means it WON'T pass....the unions are too powerful.
But, there's the promise, that there will be NO tax increases on anyone making less than $248,000 a year. So, taxing the employers kind of helps keep that promise, right??? Not really. We all know that the employers are going to pass this on to the employees, and as a business owner, if I was in this situation of having to pay taxes (35%) for my employees benefits that are over a certain limit....well, that's an easy decision...I will drop it down to the bare minimum so that these taxes won't kill me. So that's a good service to these employees, isn't it.
These are only a few of the items of concern, and there is nothing mentioned about what Insurance Companies need to do to change their ways and control their overhead and profit margins.
This bill will FORCE everyone to have to buy a policy, which will greatly increase the business for these large insurance companies that have been the ones that deny benefits for many people, or the premiums are so high that people just cannot afford them.
The reason for posting this here is because there has bee NO direct mention of anything with O&P, but it does target DME in general, and does mention cutting the Medicare and Medicaid spending by a HUGE amount of money.
And, the other thing that really kills me here is how they keep on talking about all the fraud and abuse and that they can cut that out and collect these funds back, and that will pay for this entire healthcare reform. IF THERE IS SO MUCH ABUSE, WHY ARE THEY NOT STOPPING IT NOW!!!! Why are they waiting on getting this expensive reform done first, and then say they will go after this fraud.
Even it they cut off ALL medicare and medicaid spending, it will not even come close to paying for an additional 47 million people, which is according many economic strategists.
We all need to pay close attention to what is being passed and talked about, and we need to be vigilant about protecting this field of prosthetics, not just because it's how we make money here and feed our families, but we NEED to be here to serve the amputees and provide them with good quality prosthetics. We cannot let the big insurance companies be the ones that are writing these bills, and advising the president on these reforms.
Here's the double problem.....Liz Fowler, VP or Wellpoint (Anthem) is writing the bill with Sen. Baucus, AND we have Tom Daschle advising the president (one on one) on these issues, and he is the owner of Alston and Bird, the lobbying firm that represents Anthem/Wellpoint.
Do we think that we are going to get any fair bill passed when we have such a heavy representation of the insurance companies doing this work??
Or am I the only one that struggles with many of these big insurance companies to get paid fairly and accurately for the work and service that I provide to these amputees? I don't think I am alone here, but nobody seems to want to talk about this at all, at least not in public. If we all just sit around and are not involved, then we have no room to complain later about being a victim, which is what I see all the time around me (not in this field necessarily, but too many people love to play that victim role in their life).
Let's all be vigilant and watch closely what is going, please.
Jim DeWees, CP
_________________________________________________________________
Microsoft brings you a new way to search the web. Try Bing™ now
<URL Redacted> bing_1x1
First off, a note about the author....Liz Fowler. I did another google search of her today (Thursday Sept 17) and found where she was named the Chief advisor to Max Baucus. She has been in similar roles in politics for other Democrats, and the first 3 articles on Google reveal all of that, and her educational background and some jobs in the private sector. BUT, she fails to mention that she is the VP for Wellpoint.
Living in Indiana, about 50 miles south of the Anthem headquarters, I am all too familiar with many of the names of the Anthem/Wellpoint crew, and what they stand for. In fact, the one that helped write the parity bill here in Indiana is Mike Murphy, a republican, but was the Pres. of Anthem Blue Cross of Nevada for a long time. He is buddies with the Anthem crew, as we all saw during the hearings and who he chose to hang out with during the breaks, their lobbyist and their Medical Director.
Mike Murphy is running for US Congress in the upcoming election (he currently is a state representative), and as I said, he is a republican and I am fighting his candidacy in a major way, even though I do not live in that district. I get the emails from him for some reason, which keeps me in the loop, but I do not want him to be in Washington, giving another big insurance person the opportunity to influence anything, even though he is a republican (which is where I would consider myself to be closer to as a party). I could care less what party these people are connected with, so it is not a partisan issue (or racial issue, heaven forbid, as a few have started saying about anyone that has concerns or opposes these bills).
So, having Liz Fowler from Wellpoint working in this position advising Max Baucus how to come up with a Bipartisan bill is not comforting at all. In fact, out of the Gang of 6, he was the ONLY one that was in the media yesterday to reveal this bill. Not even his fellow Democrats would stand beside him on this one.
Here's some of the points:
-Mandatory insurance for EVERYONE!!! If the person or family doesn't provide proof of coverage, they are subject to a penalty of $3800 a year.
-Cutting spending on Medicare and Medicaid by $508 billion a year (if I got that right, but it's only numbers right???? What's a billion or million or trillion these days), but this has many upset over cutting benefits for seniors and low income. But, here in Indiana, the medicaid program allows for more codes (including microprocessors) that Anthem does. And, Medicaid pays significantly more than Anthem as well....so if I have to choose (for business purposes) who will get better and faster care in my office, the Medicaid patients get priority over Anthem patients....this includes the president of the local university, or the president of the large factory here, or anyone that might have Anthem, including our congressman.
This is where the cuts in wheelchairs and power scooters comes into play, and if it is looked at more closely (which I have not had a chance to do), it most certainly will cut out expensive luxury electronic devices for prosthetics....after all, Anthem already doesn't allow them here in Indiana at least.....and the VP or this company is the one that wrote this bill with Baucus.
-They are going to tax (35%) any benefits that an employer provides for their employees that is more than $8000 a year per person, or $12000 per family (not exactly sure the EXACT amount, but roughly). This I kind of agree with, because this is considered a benefit just like having a take home car provided from an employer, which has to be declared as income. I understand the reason for that as well, because owning my own business, I could just purchase vehicles and count that as a business expense, and then I wouldn't personally have to make the payments on these vehicles, which essentially saves me like 36% through tax evasion. If my company provides me with a vehicle that I drive home, then I must declare that as a benefit from the company and pay tax on it.
Some of these really expensive, luxury, kinds of insurance plans that some big labor organizations get (including great dental insurance, vision and free glasses and contacts or lasik surgery, and everything else) are given to employees as part of a package deal and instead of paying the employee money and having them pay for insurance out of their pockets, it is a pre-tax deduction that the companies make. So, taxing these benefits sort of makes sense, but the big labor unions are not going to like this, which means it WON'T pass....the unions are too powerful.
But, there's the promise, that there will be NO tax increases on anyone making less than $248,000 a year. So, taxing the employers kind of helps keep that promise, right??? Not really. We all know that the employers are going to pass this on to the employees, and as a business owner, if I was in this situation of having to pay taxes (35%) for my employees benefits that are over a certain limit....well, that's an easy decision...I will drop it down to the bare minimum so that these taxes won't kill me. So that's a good service to these employees, isn't it.
These are only a few of the items of concern, and there is nothing mentioned about what Insurance Companies need to do to change their ways and control their overhead and profit margins.
This bill will FORCE everyone to have to buy a policy, which will greatly increase the business for these large insurance companies that have been the ones that deny benefits for many people, or the premiums are so high that people just cannot afford them.
The reason for posting this here is because there has bee NO direct mention of anything with O&P, but it does target DME in general, and does mention cutting the Medicare and Medicaid spending by a HUGE amount of money.
And, the other thing that really kills me here is how they keep on talking about all the fraud and abuse and that they can cut that out and collect these funds back, and that will pay for this entire healthcare reform. IF THERE IS SO MUCH ABUSE, WHY ARE THEY NOT STOPPING IT NOW!!!! Why are they waiting on getting this expensive reform done first, and then say they will go after this fraud.
Even it they cut off ALL medicare and medicaid spending, it will not even come close to paying for an additional 47 million people, which is according many economic strategists.
We all need to pay close attention to what is being passed and talked about, and we need to be vigilant about protecting this field of prosthetics, not just because it's how we make money here and feed our families, but we NEED to be here to serve the amputees and provide them with good quality prosthetics. We cannot let the big insurance companies be the ones that are writing these bills, and advising the president on these reforms.
Here's the double problem.....Liz Fowler, VP or Wellpoint (Anthem) is writing the bill with Sen. Baucus, AND we have Tom Daschle advising the president (one on one) on these issues, and he is the owner of Alston and Bird, the lobbying firm that represents Anthem/Wellpoint.
Do we think that we are going to get any fair bill passed when we have such a heavy representation of the insurance companies doing this work??
Or am I the only one that struggles with many of these big insurance companies to get paid fairly and accurately for the work and service that I provide to these amputees? I don't think I am alone here, but nobody seems to want to talk about this at all, at least not in public. If we all just sit around and are not involved, then we have no room to complain later about being a victim, which is what I see all the time around me (not in this field necessarily, but too many people love to play that victim role in their life).
Let's all be vigilant and watch closely what is going, please.
Jim DeWees, CP
_________________________________________________________________
Microsoft brings you a new way to search the web. Try Bing™ now
<URL Redacted> bing_1x1
Citation
Jim DeWees, “US politics,” Digital Resource Foundation for Orthotics and Prosthetics, accessed November 6, 2024, https://library.drfop.org/items/show/230779.
