Archive for the ‘Health Care’ Category

From the Freedom @ Work blog:

Jill Long Thompson, the Democratic nominee for governor of Indiana, is campaigning on the promise that her first action as chief executive of the state would be to impose union monopoly bargaining on Indiana state employees (and ultimately compel them to fund unions against their will, I presume). Her reasoning could even be viewed as sacrilegious by some:

“I think (collective bargaining) is a God-given right,” she said.

For the record, union monopoly bargaining is not even a constitutional right, but rather just a controversial statutory privilege granted by certain legislatures.

I must have missed that in the Ten Commandments.

Reminds me of the time that Baron Hill said that the Constitution contained a right to health care.

That was a declaration he was later forced to retract and replace with a pledge to make health care a constitutional right.

That pledge, in turn, he retracted and replaced with the idea of creating yet another commission to merely study health care. (more…)

Congressman Burton let his followers know he filled out a questionnaire on health care and it is posted for all to see HERE.

On his view of the health care system in general he believe significant changes are needed.

On addressing the cost of healthcare:

“I believe we can make a serious dent in health care costs if we focus on three initiatives; ending the medical liability crisis through reasonable limits on non-economic and punitive damages; reducing overhead through updated medical billing codes and greater use of digital health care records; and, lowering prescription drug costs through an international market regime (sometimes called reimportation) – with appropriate safeguards to ensure the pedigree of the drugs from manufacturer to consumer. In the interim, tax breaks – such as credits or deductions for health insurance premiums - and savings initiatives like Medical Savings Accounts and Flexible Spending Accounts can help more Americans purchase health insurance and take control of their health care dollars.”

[Emphasis Mine - ed.]

[More below the fold] (more…)

…or not.

He’s proposing yet another commission to study the issue.

Sort of reminds me of all of the commissions and studies (and studies to study the study, and then studies to study the study that studied the study; try saying that three times fast) that have been done for a bridge over the Ohio River east of Louisville.

So much for Baron actually doing anything that would really benefit Hoosiers.

Heck, it’s a partisan sham job, rather than a genuine or sincere bipartisan effort.

Republicans in Congress are completely shut out of the process, and the White House is given one appointment space to Congress’ four (and none of those four include any Republicans; just Democrat committee chairmen).

Indeed, the Democrats reserve to themselves positions as “co-chairmen” of the commission; Baron’s proposal makes no pretense of bipartisanship whatsoever, despite the importance of the issue and the need for both parties to work together to address it.

This is little more than a cheap election year political stunt by Baron to cover his rear and to allow him to back down from his earlier declarations regarding health care.

(Read more after the leap) (more…)