Health Care Reform: A Congressional Viewpoint

Rep. Jason Altmire, D-PA (and Blue Dog Democrat), gives his view of health care reform and his reasons for voting against the previous iteration of the bill in this article. It should be noted that Rep. Altmire has a Master's in Health Administration and worked for 7 years in the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center system. I'm having a hard time researching how many members of Congress have an MHA or health care administration experience, but only 17 Representatives and 3 Senators have medical degrees. I think it's safe to assume that Altmire knows what he is talking about, and only a handful of additional Congressmen. Sadly, his position is not on center stage in this debate.

I'll admit that I know next-to-nothing about health care administration nor the proper way to reform health care, but I can recognize that the bills that have been proposed will accomplish very little beyond raising our taxes and increasing the federal deficit. Many Americans are understandably scared to death about the "public option", so Congress is now debating dropping the idea and expanding the coverage of Medicare and Medicaid. What a brilliant idea. Let's expand two of our nation's largest entitlement programs that are already threatening to bankrupt our government before I hit the age of 40. Furthermore, the claim that health care reform is "deficit-neutral" hinges on cost-reducing reforms to Medicare and Medicaid. Exactly what those measures are, no one has been able to deduce. You can be sure that adding millions of Americans to those programs will not be "deficit-neutral".

Common Since: Where are the experts on this one? They are being drowned-out by partisan sound bytes. And how can we trust people with no health care administration experience at the forefront of this grand scheme? The goal stated at the beginning of this health care reform process was to reduce the cost of health care for every American, while providing a means to insure the majority of the uninsured (which would simultaneously bring down costs). I am of the opinion that this principle has been lost among the partisan bickering and backhanding. When this dog and pony show comes to a close, be prepared to bend over. 'Cause this is really gonna hurt.