Continuing Health Care Saga..

The saga of health care reform continues. I promised clarification by mid September. So far only snippets of clarification are possible. The promised clean bill for Congress may emerge this week in the Senate Finance Committee. We saw a typical eloquent speech from the President this past week where he threw out bones to various interest groups like the business community wanting tort reform. He said there would be no federal dollars used to fund abortions. He said there would be no "death panels" for the elderly. Then he said there would be no support to illegal aliens. This was the line that received the "You Lie" cat call from the South Carolina Congressman.

The President did say his plan would not go into effect until 2013. This is a cute trick. It will allow him to use the success of health care to be re-elected, or if not re-elected it won't be his job to manage the mess.

No matter how you address the total package, it will be a matter of health care rationing. Whether it is rural accessibility or triage at the desk in the ER; denial of care is the dollar management mechanism of choice. Right now there are people in the rural areas who have to travel many miles for a health examination. There are just not enough doctors going to these regions of the country. Many doctors are retiring because they don't like dealing with Medicare. Until this deficiency is addressed, there will be health care rationing. And unfortunately the President is now back-pedaling on "competition", so it does not appear that “reform” will be of much benefit for the uninsured or under insured.

It is difficult to see so many older people at these town hall meetings shouting and carrying signs, most of which are not made by themselves, decrying "ObamaCare", "Death Panels", "Tax Dollars will be spent on Abortions, and "Socialism"--------when it is clear the majority of them are on Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans Health Care or Disability. Do they truly not see the irony of their demand "I don't want the government to mess with my Medicare?”

Stay tuned for the next episode of this continuing soap opera.

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Speaking of soap operas, the closing days of the 2009 session the California State Legislature was rocked by a scandal involving an Assemblyman from Orange County. He was recoded bragging about his sexual conquests with two lobbyists. I guess in his orientation session he failed the course when you learn how to turn off the microphone when you are conversing with a colleague. Whether real or fantasy he managed to ruin the careers of two effective women lobbyists, since he named names. He quickly resigned.

And the Governor continues to struggle with the budget. He quietly gave orders this past week to eliminate several thousand state “positions”.

Have a good week!