Friday, October 30, 2009

Long: Free market approach needed for health care

In a news release issued today, Seventh District Congressional candidate Billy Long, R-Springfield, criticized Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's health care plan and said he favored a free market approach:


Today, Billy Long remarked upon House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 1,990 page health care proposal, saying, “Yesterday’s revised health care proposal released by Speaker Nancy Pelosi is just as bad as the original HR 3200. This bill does nothing but interfere with the relationship between patients and their physician. Government should not have a role in every part of our lives. Regrettably, it has become clear that liberal Democrats do not share this belief. All this bill will do is lead to rationed care, a decrease in physicians, and a massive increase to the already nearly $12 trillion national debt.”

He continued, “Instead of trying to force a bill that is 1,990 pages long and eight inches tall through the House next week, why not spread it out over a couple of weeks by having eight separate votes on one-inch bills? That would allow the public and members of Congress to take the time to read the legislation, debate all of the contents, and see what is really going on. If this bill were any good, the process would be transparent. Instead, the liberals are trying to use political chicanery to force their big-government agenda through Congress. I just hope they don’t decide to drop another several-hundred-page amendment the night before the vote like they did with cap and trade.”

Instead of the liberals’ government-centric approach, Billy supports free market measures that would reduce health care costs by creating tax credits to allow families to purchase health insurance that works for them, allowing state-to-state portability of coverage to create more competition, and allowing high-risk people who have difficulty getting insurance to pool together to purchase insurance. He also supports Small Business Health Plans, which would allow small businesses to pool together to purchase insurance, giving them the same negotiating power as larger corporations and allowing them to negotiate more-favorable rates. In addition, Billy supports focusing on integrating information technology into the health care system by digitizing records to reduce administrative costs, allow physicians to have ready access to important patient records, and make treatment more efficient.

2 comments:

Darling Billy said...

Uhh,I'm just not so sure I want a congressman representing me who calls himself "Billy" and wears a cowboy hat.

Just seems like someone who has never grown up.

Oh, but I forget, he's an auctioneer, they get to wear white hats and tell corny jokes, it's in their rule book.

Oh, and they are fast talkers too.

Anonymous said...

So he wants "state-to-state portability of coverage to create more competition."

For about 100 years, every state has had an insurance commissioner. Laws regarding insurance are different or written differently in each of our 50 states. That's the reality of the situation.

To write a bill that will allow state-to-state portability will have to UNDO those state laws/regulations and REDO them all to match one another. You can't just snap your fingers and do it.

It would involve months and months of time, thought, legislation, regulation and the creation of a new paradigm to get the job done and protect the interests of consumers and insurance companies AND comply with state laws.

It's easy to talk about state to state portability but very difficult to get the job done. It's like saying, "let's send a man to Mars." We can do it but it won't be easy.

It might require a bill of two thousand pages to get the job done.
And Billy wouldn't want that, would he?