Wyo Dems refute Enzi health care facts
April 2, 2010 by Phil Noble
Filed under Recent Posts
CASPER–In statement on Mar. 31, Sen. Enzi suggested a list of bold numbers in relation to health reform, but there are a few numbers Sen. Enzi forgot to mention, according to Wyoming Democratic Party Communications Director Brianna Jones, some of which are;
-128.8% – Increase in health insurance premiums for working families in Wyoming from 2000-2007.
-27.9% – Increase in Wyoming worker’s wages between 2000-2007, a difference of almost 100% from the previous figure
- 71,000 – The number of uninsured in Wyoming as of 2008
-$250 – Under reform, the rebate for Medicare recipients who fall in to the Part D donut hole
-26 – Under reform, the age until young adults can stay on their parents’ health insurance plan
-$40 billion – Under reform, amount of tax credits available to small businesses to help them offer coverage beginning in 2010
$40 billion – The investment which will be invested in Pell grants to help low income students attend college under the reconciliation legislation.
- $100 billion – Reduction of the federal deficit with the health reform legislation over the next ten years as estimated by the CBO.
- $2 billion – Investment in community colleges in the next four years, which today serve more than 6 million students.
Sen. Enzi’s rhetoric does not fit with reality and we see that time and time again, She said. For example:
· RHETORIC: Wyoming residents will pay higher taxes.
REALITY: It is agreed by economists that by taxing the highest cost plans this provision will lead insurance companies to be more efficient and provide quality care to consumers at lower prices. [White House blog, 12/16/09; PWC, 2009; CBO 2009]
· RHETORIC: Wyoming residents who have insurance will see their premiums rise.
REALITY: For a vast majority premiums would go down 14-20 percent as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Subsidies will lower costs for as much as 59 percent for 18 million people buying their own insurance, said the CBO. [Wall Street Journal Washington Wire, 2/25/10; New York Times, 12/4/09; Bloomberg, 12/1/09]
· RHETORIC: Medicare enrollees will see decreased access to care because of cuts.
REALITY: Health reform strengthens Medicare by cutting wasteful spending. The doughnut hole is closed and affordable coverage will be more attainable, says AARP. [AARP letter to Sen. Harry Reid, 12/15/09; FactCheck.org, 11/3/09; CMS Report, 12/10/09]
· RHETORIC: Health insurance premiums for Wyoming’s small businesses will rise.
REALITY: $40 billion worth of tax credits will be available to small businesses to help them offer coverage starting in 2010. According to a study by The Third Way Economic Program, “Over the next 15 years, American businesses would collectively spend $637 billion less on their share of health insurance premiums, and their workers would save a collective $177 billion. [Time Magazine, 2/22/10, Bending the Curve: 12 Ways Health Reform Will Tackle Runaway Costs, 1/12/10]
· RHETORIC: Medicare Advantage enrollees will see their benefits reduced by half.
REALITY: Reforms to Medicare Advantage will end wasteful subsidies to health insurance companies without affecting benefits and would reduce or eliminate the difference in part by introducing a competitive bidding system to pay the plans [AP, 9/22/09; Boston Globe, 9/24/09]
· RHETORIC: Wyoming will be burdened by Medicaid expansions.
REALITY: Health insurance reform will pay for 100% of Medicaid expansion for states through 2017, then 95% for 2018-2019, and then 90% for 2020 and beyond. [White House, 2/22/10]
· RHETORIC: Wyoming college students will pay more on student loans to fund health care.
REALITY: Student lending reform will make higher education more achievable and will increase Pell grants, cap repayments, and invest in community colleges. Before students payed 6.8 percent on their unsubsidized federal loans and will continue to pay the same rate. [Politifact, 3/30/10; New York Times, 3/30/10; New York Times, 3/30/10; New York Times, 3/30/10]
I find it disingenuous and dishonest to only site articles that pre-date the passage of the bill. Senator Enzi has responded to the bill as passed. According to an article in the Washington Times dated March 26, the CBO (after getting the REAL numbers) reports that “President Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget will generate nearly $10 trillion in cumulative budget deficits over the next 10 years, $1.2 trillion more than the administration projected, and raise the federal debt to 90 percent of the nation’s economic output by 2020.”
All these old references are the “rhetoric”.
A real analysis of this bill is very different than the bill of goods that the likes of AARP tried to persuade us to buy. I don’t want any part of it!
So why isn’t wyoming suing the federal govt. like all the other states surrounding wyoming? could it be that our current governor is a money whore and took all the stimulus monies without regards to the concequences and paybacks that wyo. citizens would be faced with. Our Atty. Gen. better get off the stick and start suing the feds like the other western states, or did we cease being a western state and become a liberal nanny state huh????
It seems to me that rhetoric and reality in the article have been switched. Interesting how predictions of economic impact vary so greatly. To me, Enzi’s predictions is based on life experiences and principles inherent in a free economic system.
Unfortunely our medical care system hasn’t been part of that system. A couple reasons? One is that it has been influenced and distorted by incentives and disincentives created by past and current the Federal government programs that make up about 1/3rd of the market. And now we are in for even more.
The second is that we don’t pay for medical care like we do for everything else in our lives. We expect health insurance to act as prepaid medical care (so they do and deal with providers for most expenses) and not an insurance product that pays when the cost get so high that we might have to sell our house to pay for the care.
The authors contend that federal central planning and taxes will make insurance companies more efficient, improve medical care quality, decrease insurance costs, provide subsidies, cut wasteful spending and this is less than half the list. The only way to find out is to save this article for a few years and do the accounting. Unfortunately for us all, I bet Enzi will be proven right.
There are steps we could take to improve access and affordability of medical care. We could set consumers free of business provided insurance policies. Keep health insurance as insurance (so you don’t have to sell your house), not prepaid medical care. Allowing individuals to purchase their insurance would have the effect on the insurance market that the author is looking for, just as it currently works in all other types of insurance, and as a bonus it is portable, its yours. Allowing a market between health providers and consumers would result in a more efficient use of medical resources and the better quality of care that the authors also desire. If central planning met individual need, distributed resources as consumers demanded and did so in an affordable manner, citizens in the former Soviet Union and East Germany would have the highest standard of living on the planet.
Wyoming is one of the smarter states … why spend money on a lawsuit that you cannot win? Just to put your name on something? To make a statement? I think by NOT joining in the lawsuit that Governor Freudenthal is making a huge statement … Wyoming DOES NOT HAVE THE MONEY to sue the federal government. Why put more money into lawyer’s hands. They are the only people who see anything good come of this lawsuit. The lawsuit will just line their pockets with gold; money that can be better used for Wyoming’s citizens.
Shane – The Atty General is in the Governor’s pocket – he’s NEVER going to do anything that would upset Freudenthal.
Our Governor will not move an inch in opposition to anything Obama wants because the Governor nominated his wife for a judgeship to Wyoming’s Federal Court. Guess who gives the thumbs up on that? You guessed it. PRESIDENT OBAMA.
As pathetically TRANSPARENT as all this is, nonetheless, there you have it.
Thank you Brianna Jones for exposing the rest of the story. Sen. Enzi is a master at innuendo and partial truths and twisting things to fit his bias. Only trouble with this is that 99% of it is not truel. The fear tactics that are being used by Enzi and Lummis are typical of the party of NO….always ready to disagree but never ready to provide a better way.
As to the unwarranted attacks on Dave Fredenthal by the two trolls Shane and Heidi……the governor is a lot smarter than you and doesn’t want to jump off the cliff with the rest of the lemmings!!!
About time there are some facts to counter the misinformation out there. Thank you Demo’s!