Alliance for America`s Health

Update 04/12/10 - On saturday mitt romney beat 2010 cpac presidential straw poll winner ron paul by one vote. Both candidates received twenty four percent of the vote in the 2010 southern republican leadership conference presidential straw poll. Former speaker of the house newt gingrich was not far behind with eighteen percent of the vote. He also received nineteen percent of the vote for second choice, receiving the highest percentage in this category. In his speech, he recommend republicans become the party of yes. That part of the speech certainly expressed a much different political strategy, compared to the delay tactics he recommended at the national cpac conference. Maybe resulting from the four percent of the vote he received in the 2010 cpac presidential straw poll? Has he changed strategies or is this part of the stall and delay plan? I recommend winning debates on policy merits, not by trying to defeat political opponents with bureaucracy. If a policy / bill needs to be defeated, then proudly announce you are going to stop it and the american people will help you make that happen. The only ones who usually win with delay tactics are special interests. For example during the cpac conference newt gingrich mentioned he directly negotiated with the president for thirty five days on health care when bill clinton was in office. The republican alternative health bill to bill clinton`s health reform efforts is where the insurance industry`s mandate was introduced. In the later months of 2009 newt gingrich along with his center for health transformation were pushing themselves as the republican leaders on health care, at the same time the insurance industry`s mandate was inserted into the bill. Sometimes we do not focus enough attention on the person in charge, who can overrule everyone. But it is also important to remember it is not always the top person who is the problem, a fair point which business / political leaders have recently made. I believe the boss / party leadership holds the ultimate responsibly to make sure their employees / representatives are honest. But to be fair they are busy people who can not be everywhere at once. It is their job to hire leaders they can trust to work hard and make decisions without being miro-managed. If they are making money, the boss may have a tendency to stay out of their way. On the other hand it is the bosses responsibility to make sure the strategy is sustainable long term. It could be current leaders sending an unelected politician to do their dirty work. It also could be that newt gingrich is the one who is pushing the strategy, thinking it will help him regain political office. Remove the cancer that ails the body, and the brain has a great chance to survive.

Update 04/06/10 - Two more states are suing over the health care bill, but that was hardly mentioned by the media. When it was mentioned the outlook for victory was downplayed. Ever since legal opinions have come out stating that the only thing lawsuits can win is striking the insurance mandate from the bill, the calls for a lawsuit are being silenced. I think it is clear the number one thing we the people want repealed is the insurance mandate. Unfortunately it is one of the only things some politicians do not want to repeal. We can not trust any politician to practice what they preach. We need to force them to represent the people by letting them know we are paying attention to their actions and will be voting. Where is the congressional republicans campaign of repeal they promised? If any politician says they are against the insurance mandate, I recommend investigating them to confirm they fight for the policies they claim to represent. I also recommend asking them the questions special interests do not want brought up. Ask them what they are personally doing to repeal the insurance mandate. Ask them where you can go to read the text of a standalone bill to repeal the insurance mandate. Ask them why they have not yet brought a bill to the floor of congress.

Update 03/31/10 - The global health insurance giants say they want to help lower the unsustainable health costs in america. They have always had a seat at the negotiating table but have constantly run commercials against a health bill. Their latest ad campaign has a new goal, assigning blame. They downplay any role health insurance companies have on constantly rising health costs. Putting much of the blame on doctors and hospitals. We need a free market that empowers the individual to lower costs with transparency. A few health insurance companies have very large market percentages in all states. I think it fair to assume the companies that dominate the market have room to improve. Doctors complain about the time, staff and money needed to fill out insurance forms. They complain about having to argue with insurance companies on the phone in order to get medical procedures approved for their patients. Health insurance companies causing delays and making decisions instead of the patient/doctor. That sounds like a prescription for health problems and more costs long term. Too many times health insurance companies are only concerned about short term profits and personal bonuses. Too many times health insurance companies have no concern for their customers long term health because they plan on dropping them when customers need expensive or long term care. If the global health insurance corporations had their way, we would do nothing. They love the high levels of personal income that comes with operating in an antitrust exempt and risky unsustainable system. When the system collapses, they turn to the american tax payer for a bailout. Then their honest competitors never get the free market bounce from the bankruptcy of the corrupt companies that largely caused the problems. Then they can take tax payer money and buy out or intimidate the honest companies who are weak because of the scam. Giving them more people for their pyramid scheme. Sound like the same strategy wall street used in 2008? If the too-big-to-fail companies had failed in 2008, they would have lost their name and reputation. But it is the insurance companies that would have lost allot of the money. I would like health insurance corporations to explain why they demanded the mandate and were not satisfied with the four year fix idea or high risk pools.

Update 03/26/10 - Main stream media outlets like cnn spent much of the week trying to paint all health care opponents as irrational extremists. Starting fights between parties, labeling and vilifying groups of people may be good for tv ratings and preserving the status que but it does not solve problems. America is the land of the free, where everyone can voice their opinion. Take a look at the tea party movement, in general a large amount of anger but not violence. In america we rally our fellow citizens and vote the corrupt politicians out of office. A limited government for the people and by the people. That can be a tough accomplishment to reach with the special interests constantly running ads and paying the main stream media for stories, trying to tell us what to think. But that can be exactly what empowers we the people. The special interests and elitists think they can lie and confuse the american people. But we are smart, following the money trail in order to consider the source of the information. The special interests and elitists who try to impose their rules will end up spending themselves broke. All the accounting tricks in the world can not produce enough money to repeatedly buy elections, as long we are willing stay informed and vote. America`s wealth is not paper money, numbers on balance sheets or gold. Our wealth is something much more valuable, the american people. Without the american worker, there is no special interest money. A hard working american can not be mass produced on a printing press. We can not be lost in a bernie madoff pyramid scheme. Only the american people can cast a vote. We need to use anger to get motivated not frustrated.

Update 03/23/10 - The public option is dead, our next target is the strong armed special interest deals. Did the global health insurance giants really think they could use us to stop the public option, and then turn around to mandate their anti-trust exempt monopoly on us? Allying with free market people and then turning their back on us to further kill the free market in health care. The good news is the american people benefitted by having the special interests at the negotiating table and admitting there is a huge problem. But they have constantly been sending millions of dollars out the back door to fight the deal, they claim to be working for. It is time to address these bad faith negotiating giant gorillas sitting at the table. Making demands before the american weigh in and buying out / intimidating both political sides is no way to build a long-term sustainable system with the american people. They may have made it impossible to pass common sense updates without entertaining their demands. But no congress is bond by the actions of the previous congress. The final bill in the senate does not have to follow previous deals. The representatives in washington, are just that representatives. Special interests know the american people hold veto power. If the special interests use their anti-trust exemption money to illegally buy and force votes, we the people have every right to step in declaring the deals null and void. The american people will remove the special interest deals that were forcefully inserted by lobbyists. The final bill will be written by a bipartisan group of people, with the american people coming out with the edge in the end. Do not believe it is possible in the current political climate, who is going to stop we the people? The pharma deal and insurance mandate will be removed. If lobbyists go on tv lying, we will gain strength as we push the political canon along the money trail and take aim against those who promote the lies. Multiple reports say pharma has made a very smart decision to produce an agreement that works for them and the american people. Not surprising with an issue that directly affects the powerful senior voting block, but we will stand ready to make sure they follow through. Look at the senate health bill, normally we do not find out about the last minute deals until it is too late. With this personal issue for everyone, the anger against congress and the speed of the internet. We find out about the deals before the bill passes. We the people will get the last word.

On 03/21/10 the house passed the senate bill. This is big because the house is accepting the bill without the public option. But the real action is where it always has been, the senate.

Update 03/12/10 - Small business owners are a fundamental solution to the unemployment problem. Small business owners face a constantly increasing gap between the price they pay to employ a worker and the price large corporations pay. At the same time large corporations are facing the same problem with foreign competitors. How about the washington insiders work to produce results for the american middle class worker? Where have the leaders in congress been this week? I have never heard any member of congress say we do not need a health bill. Unless everyone is in agreement, we should be seeing multiple ways forward. No surprise, the lobbyists are fighting from both political sides to preserve the status que in washington. Elitist republican talking heads go on tv and call the bill a government takeover, despite the fact the senate bill is fundamentally based on the private market. Talking head elitists from the left justify this republican argument by going on tv and pushing for the public option. Despite the fact that we have been working with the senate / finance committee based bill. Where the public option has failed with every push. I realize not every member of congress supporting the public option is trying to preserve the status que by starting a fight. Some democrats believe the public option will help the american people. It is one thing to support a public option because you believe in it but to try push for it after it has been repeatability rejected is a whole different story. Do not turn america`s health into a political fight. News flash democratic house members and the left wing, the house bill with the public option is going no where.

Update 03/05/10 - Congress is taking a four day weekend starting today. No news from the health insurance companies today, after yesterdays meetings. The american people do not want to make villains of the insurance industry. We are with the insurance industry against the government public option. We want a free market system that not only has moral incentives but also profit incentives to making americans healthy. The health insurance industries blame the health system in general for increasing premiums, a statement which has allot of truth to it but does not solve the problems. We want health insurance companies to succeed by providing a valuable service. But we are tired of people in the health industry being limited to doing their best in a broken system. Why is it so hard for political and corporate sides to come together and work for their constituents or customers? Compromising to create a system that lets the middle class succeed and the health companies make a steady profit.

Update 03/04/10 - Five of the largest health insurance companies appear to have allot to say. Meeting multiple times with kathleen sebelius, the health and human services secretary. Kathleen sebelius called on the insurance companies to post information about rate increases online.

Update 03/03/10 - Obama held a press conference on health care today. We still do not know the final details of the bill, or who will vote for it. I think a compromise on the final twenty percent of the bill has not yet been reached with republicans or democrats and a final bill has not yet been written.

Update 03/02/10 - Yesterday reports started to surface about a new updated health bill. In reports today we learned some details about the proposed changes including health savings accounts.