Speech to Blair County Tea Party Freedom Fest 2009
5 July 2009
Welcome Patriots!
To paraphrase Samuel Adams’ comments to John Hancock at the Battle of Lexington, “what a glorious afternoon this is”. It’s fitting to remember that day in April of 1775 for this is the peaceful equivalent of that day at Lexington where patriots, those who truly love liberty, gathered to defend it. Your voice will be heard today.
First we should thank the many members of the Blair County Tea Party steering committee and the volunteers who helped them today for the hard work and dedication that was needed to make this event happen.
Nest, we should welcome Pastor Gary Dull and Dr. John McGinnis, two fantastic advocates for liberty and two people with far greater oratory skills than me, I might add!
My name is Jim Woomer. I’m a nurse anesthetist from here in Altoona. I serve on the board of the Pennsylvania Association of Nurse Anesthetists and I’m an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Pittsburgh Nurse Anesthesia Program. I’m not an economist, or an expert in healthcare economics or finance, but I am a passionate believer that the power of the individual is far greater than the tyranny of the state.
I’ve been a nurse for nearly twenty years and I know full well the problems that many of you face with regard to healthcare. These problems are real and often devastating to those who must deal with them.
In fifteen minutes I cannot describe all of these problems or provide the solutions any more than I could describe the function of the Cytochrome P450 Mixed Function Oxidase System to you in such a short time! However, we can touch on the key points of this debate and you can arm yourself with knowledge in order to defend against those who use lies and deceit in an attempt to convince you to turn one-fifth of the American economy over to government.
Let me read you this headline from the Daily Mail on 11 June 2009:
Fury as NICE refuses to lift restrictions on drugs for Alzheimer's sufferers
“Outraged doctors have condemned the Health Service's rationing body for refusing to lift restrictions on drugs for Alzheimer's sufferers. They claim new evidence showing the drugs are cost effective for patients with mild symptoms has been ignored by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
Since May 2006, NICE has refused to fund three drugs – Aricept, Exelon and Reminyl – for those with mild or severe forms of the disease. Although NICE admits the drugs work on those with mild symptoms, it claims that, at £2.50 a day per patient, they provide value for money only in 'moderate patients'. It means many sufferers in the early stages of the disease face having to wait until their symptoms are classified as moderate to receive treatment – only to have it withdrawn again as their condition worsens.”
Allow me to read you some others from Australian press this year:
“Thousand left to wait in parked ambulances” (The Age, Melbourne)
“Maternity units herding yards” (The Age, Melbourne)
“Longer waiting times for elective surgery” (ABC News)
Do these frighten you? They should.
We are witnessing a massive push toward further growth of government in the healthcare system in Pennsylvania and nationally. It amounts to the largest expansion of government intrusion into our lives in history. The argument waged is that the ‘free-market has failed’ and that we must entrust government to find the solutions to the problems we currently face. Given that government at some level pays for nearly 50% of all healthcare dollars spent in the United States each year, one can hardly describe our healthcare system as one that is based on the free-market. If only it were! The solution is less government, not more!
One only has to look to the lessons of history to see the catastrophic consequences that inevitably result when we allow government to expand its control over our lives. The disasters that are the public health systems in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia are a surprise only to those who willfully ignore economic fundamentals and the lessons of history.
In a nutshell, there are 3 reasons why you should vigorously oppose the further expansion of government into the healthcare system
·It is unconstitutional
·It is bad economics
·It is bad for patient care
We start with the Constitution.
1.Government-run healthcare is unconstitutional
The Constitution (if anyone even remembers what that is) clearly defines the role of the federal government and limits that role to specific enumerated powers. Providing healthcare to its citizens is not among the powers enumerated. Some argue that the General Welfare Clause of the Constitution provides the evidence that such programs and expenditures are indeed constitutional. This is an incorrect interpretation. It is a limitation of power, not a granting of power. Even the Monarchist, Alexander Hamilton, an advocate for broad federal power, recognized this in the 1790’s when he sought funding for public works projects and acknowledged that to do this would require a constitutional amendment as such projects would not benefit the ‘general welfare’ but would benefit only those specific areas of the country in which the projects were undertaken.
Some suggest that healthcare is a right? By what definition?Your rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion do not cost your fellow citizen a dime. Yet, somehow, we have been introduced to the concept that there is a ‘right to healthcare’ and that others are obligated to pay for that right. What’s next, a right to housing, transportation, employment, and food? How about a right to broadband internet access? Don’t laugh. Some have advocated for, and are receiving government funding to secure, these so-called ‘rights’ of man.
2.Government-run healthcare is bad economics.
What are we faced with in the near future? As Baby Boomers retire we will face economic demands that can be described as nothing other than catastrophic.The current unfunded liabilities of Social Security alone, as determined by the Trustees, exceed $100 trillion in 2009 dollars. The current obligation of Medicare and Social Security, in benefits already earned by beneficiaries, is $52 trillion. By 2030, over 50% of all revenue received by the government will go to pay for the Social Security and Medicare entitlements alone. These entitlements are unsustainable, and are bankrupting our nation.
We are told that a public plan will be more efficient, less costly, and provide better care than private plans. Really? How many of you think that government is more efficient than private industry? Can you give me a few examples? FEMA, the VA, the Indian Health Service, Fannie Mae, the IRS?
The non-partisan CBO’s own numbers last month predicted that the President’s healthcare reform plan would cost over $1.3 trillion. The original cost estimate for the universal coverage system in Massachusetts, the supposed Gold Standard of coverage, was $472 million last year. Current projections are that the cost will exceed $880 million. In fact, MassHealth is the slowest provider of reimbursements to physicians and has the highest rate of denials of coverage than any other insurer in Massachusetts.
We hear that the President has no interest in a single-payer system and the ‘public plan’ will be an option for those who seek it. Nonsense. President Obama knows very well that the ‘public plan’ will soon be the only plan available, as it will crowd out private competition because the government plan does not have to meet the demands of the marketplace. Should it run short of funds, the government can simply print more money to fund it. A private business doesn’t have that option. The public plan is already being structured in such a way that regulations and restrictions on private plan options and reimbursement will drive ever increasing numbers of Americans into its grasps. Price controls and rationing would be inevitable. Let the misery begin.
3.Government-run healthcare is bad for patients.
Do you think our system is a nightmare? How would you like to wake up to this?
·In 2004, the average wait time for an MRI is Saskatchewan was 22 months
·In 2008, the average Canadian waited 17.3 weeks to receive care after his GP referred him to a specialist.
·750,000 were on waiting lists for care in Canada in 2008.
·In 2005, about 1 million waiting lists for care in the UK and about 90,000 in New Zealand. There are actually government websites in the UK to inform patients of the average wait time they should expect!
·The median total wait time for a total knee replacement in Canada is 312 days with more than 80% of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for surgery.
·The median total wait time for patients needing surgery to treat urinary incontinence is 247 days with more than 80% of patients waiting over 18 weeks for surgery.
·In 2000, a World Health Organization report noted that every year in the UK, 25,000 die of cancer due to delays in treatment.
If the care in the healthcare ‘utopias’ of Europe, Canada, and Australia is so remarkable, why are more people in these countries seeking healthcare abroad? Why did former Canadian Member of Parliament, Belinda Stronach, an opponent of privatization of the Canadian healthcare system, choose to have her breast cancer surgery in California? Why did Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi choose to have his pacemaker inserted at the Cleveland Clinic rather than in Rome? Why did Michael Moore’s hero, Fidel Castro, fly in a Spanish surgeon and medical team to perform his bowel surgery?
So, what are some possible solutions? The overall cost healthcare in the United States continues to rise each year, and yet the cost LASIK surgery and cosmetic surgery has been decreasing over the past several years even thought the numbers of people seeking these surgeries has risen over that same time?Why? The answer is that these surgeries are typically not paid for by insurance and therefore are subject to market forces. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that some lessons can be learned from this.
Insurance was not meant to be insulation. We rely on third-parties, insurers or the government, to pay for the costs of our healthcare. We take no responsibility for the costs. Someone other than the individual pays for over 80% of every healthcare dollar spent. We attempt to insulate ourselves from theses costs, which are real. Meaning healthcare costs money and someone must pay that price. When someone else is paying the bill, we have little incentive to keep an eye on the tab. Milton Friedman put it best with regard to this subject: “Nobody spends somebody else’s money as wisely as he spends his own.” Services are over-used and the bill gets bigger and bigger, requiring ever greater subsidies. At some point, it will all come crashing down around us. We MUST take a more active role in the management of our own healthcare and stop looking at others to pay by bill. Responsibility begins with us. But this is only part of the solution. We can look at several other suggestions that may also help:
·Healthcare Savings Accounts (HSAs). Younger member of the population can start using them now and save money for unanticipated healthcare costs in the future using a vehicle that can also help to save for retirement.
oThis would be done in combination with the gradual phase-out of Medicare. Those of you who are currently enrolled or nearing enrollment would continue with Medicare if you chose, while younger people can look forward to the ability to choose plans on their terms.
·Vouchers for the truly uninsured to allow them to choose the coverage that works best for them.
·Increased levels of market competition to decrease costs
oConcierge Medicine. Another example of having some responsibility for the costs we incur. We pay a fee monthly or annually to have increased access to physicians via office visits, telephone, or email (the last two being very uncommon in the U.S.). Customer service is a focus with an emphasis on education and the use of technology to efficiently manage your care.
oMedical Tourism. This is a rapidly growing segment of the healthcare industry where people seek care outside (and even within) their home country at facilities that can offer more cost-effective care with results equal to or better than what one can get at home.
oRemoving the artificial barriers to the purchase of insurance across state lines
oFurther development of specialized surgery centers who often provide care more efficiently than large hospital systems
oPermitting healthcare providers to practice to the fullest extent that their training allows which will increase access to healthcare
oMedical malpractice reform that will limit the excessive jury awards that we are all so familiar with and will help prevent the overutilization of services in an effort to practice defensive medicine.
What do we do with the uninsured? We are constantly bombarded with the ‘fact’ that there are 46 million people uninsured in the United States. The non-partisan CBO estimates that number is more like 31 million. In fact, when you account for the illegal aliens receiving care in this country, the youth and those who make over $75,000/year but choose not to pay for health insurance even though they can afford it, as well as the nearly 14 million people who are eligible for existing programs like Medicare or SCHIP but have chosen not to sign-up, there are about 10-15 million people who truly are falling through the cracks.
Should we not care about them? Of course we should.But the answer is certainly not to seek a solution from the very people who designed this current system where tax policy and regulation inhibit competition, increase cost, and limit access. The answer lies in market-based solutions, not more government programs that will result in rationing of care, higher prices, higher taxes, and ultimately far poorer quality of care.
The answer to our healthcare problems is liberty. The freedom to choose options based on sound economic principles and the Constitution. The solution is to place our faith in the American people, not in unaccountable bureaucrats or corrupt politicians in Harrisburg and Washington. The politicians desire control; we should demand freedom.
Thomas Jefferson put it perfectly when he said: "Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread." It is unfortunate that we continue to ignore his sage wisdom and we do so at our peril.
Please visit our website www.blaircountyteaparty.com where you will soon find many links to many resources you can use to educate yourself on the issue of healthcare reform and the promotion of liberty as the solution to the challenges we face.
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