Tennessee Representative Health Care Votes

[seez52]

Welcome! - Lou Ann Zelenik for Congress

[robin48]

I think I have been spending too much time in the P.C. civilian world. Need to get back to the Goat Locker!!

Well what can one expect from a stinking Gunners Mate lol

[TomR]

Lincoln Davis is supposed to be one of the more conservative "blue dog" democrats. He is anything but. His position in the town hall meeting I attended and in response to my emails and calls has been consistently in support of the Pelosi health care plan. If you look at his voting record, he has supported Obama's ruinous spending bills. Pelosi gave him a pass on the health care reform bill to aid his re-election. His was not a vote of conviction. Davis needs to go in 2012. I hope to God the Republicans put up a strong conservative candidate that I can support.

[mcurrier]

Cooper is a sack of

I call and write him every day for past three years. I can't wait to get rid of this guy. He just ignores his constituents.

[Guest tnvolfan]

TGO members, we need to send these two reps packing! They basically have become Pelosi's errand boys and have followed her every direction. They have no backbone, and absolutely do not represent their constituents. Shameful, and disgusting! They have and will hear from me AGAIN!

[Guest botulism]

What a POS... because he taught at Vandy he is "smatter" (sic) than the people that vote his butt into office?

Most likely. As a professor of health policy, he's actually required to know what he's talking about, instead of just having a strong opinion. I don't think he's trying to imply he's an elitist, I think he's saying that he's studied this topic for a long time. By way of analogy, I don't take my car for repairs to a vacuum salesman who's a car enthusiast. I take it to an actual mechanic. I might think it's an engine timing issue, but I probably won't argue if an expert tells me it's the idler pulley. And either way I'll complain about cost.

[Guest emaho44]

I can understand and agree with the idea that government intrusion in our lives is nothing but a bad thing. However, as a RN of 30+ years, I've come to believe that government control of healthcare is a better option than some cold, impersonal, profit-motivated, stock holder-beholdin' corporation. In my experience, the corporate model of healthcare will do more to intrude on our lives, and more to decrease the quality of care, than any government system would.

For all its huge achievements, the healthcare system we have today falls far short of what it could be in terms of coverage, cost and care. Why??? Because, by and large, the system is motivated by profit. In spite of what we capitalist westerners want to think, there are a few aspects of human life and welfare that should NOT be dominated by the almighty dollar. And healthcare is one of them.

As piss-poor as our government is, I'm willing to take a chance on it delivering my healthcare far more than I am some multi-millionaire CEO and his minions who couldn't distinguish a headache from a friggin' hemorrhoid!

Healthcare is expensive, no matter what level it's delivered at. Why? Because somewhere in the chain somebody's got to make a profit. It shouldn't ought to be that way. I don't see many of our representatives, locally or in DC, thinking along these lines---maybe because the majority are dollar-suckin' pigs to begin with.

Far as I can tell, folks who rant against government/public option healthcare reform are just shouting "I demnad the right to crappy, unaffordable healthcare!!!"

I don't want the government in my life, but I realize it has to be in some way. I'm willing to stand and fight to define the limits.

[seez52]

Sorry emaho44, you're wrong.

Nothing government ever touches will work as well as something driven by a profit motive. There is no motive in government, anything without motive will never achieve any goals.

To make health care work you don't take the profit out, but develop methods of commerce so that smart minds can figure out how to effectively and efficiently manage outcomes. both on the provider's end and on the consumer's end.

No other business in the world works the way health care works in this country. You go to the Dr. because your leg hurts. The Dr. fixes you up, great. You leave happy. How much did your happiness cost?

It's impossible for you to find out. Did it cost $50 or $500? What other industry in the world operates in a way that masks the cost? Had you known that the pain in your leg was going to cost $500 to fix, you might have decided it really wasn't all that bad, or you might have said I don't care how much it costs ME, fix it! But when someone else is calling the shots, your decision to manage your own health care flies out the window.

How many estimates did you get the last time you had something done around the house? Maybe you needed a new roof, or some replacement windows installed. Did you just call up the first listing in the phone book and say "come on out?" No, you got estimates. You put a value on the service and then made a decision on what to do.

I went to the dentist last week. He told me to make an appt. to come back and have some bonding put on my tooth near the gum so it wouldn't be so sensitive. I said ok. I pay for all my own dental work so I asked the receptionist when leaving for an estimate of the bonding procedure. She told me about $200. Well, for me right now, it's not worth $200. I'll just be more careful when brushing on that side of my mouth. I did not make an appointment. By getting a cost estimate of the procedure I could compare the value and make a decision. I may choose to have it done later.

The point is, as long as we continue to demand service without knowing the cost, or just expect a third party to ante up and take care if it all, costs will never be contained no matter who is in charge-- CEOs or Uncle Sam.

With government health care reform we'll end up relinquishing part of our liberty and freedom for nothing more than a hollow promise. These are times to be willing to stand up and fight. Health care reform is an unlimited encroachment on both, take a stand against it now.

[Guest botulism]

Although I'm not in favor of Congress' reform package, the nurse is correct. I'm sorry you had a bad time at the DMV. Government isn't bad 100% of the time, and intervention is required where the free market fails.

If you have a heart attack and I'm a cardiologist, the profit motive says that I should charge you right up to the point of bankruptcy. You've got heart problems, what the heck else are you going to do? Pay up or die in the waiting room. Or perhaps I tell you that you need another x-ray to see how advanced the heart failure is. The test won't have any impact on your treatment, but I get a sweet $500 profit if I own an x-ray machine.

"Entrepreneur" is a dirty word in healthcare, because it usually refers to a scuzzy doctor that makes recommendations or buys equipment based on what pays him the most, instead of what's the best quality care. Because doctors (and other providers) have a paternal duty to the patient, the government has rightly restricted for-profit motives that look only for the high-profit procedures while relegating the rest of healthcare to the county hospitals that get worse and worse as they become stronger magnets for the uninsured.

The problem with "fuzzy" prices in healthcare is not a government problem, it's a free market problem. About 50 years ago when health insurance first came about, everyone paid the same price (more or less), which was whatever the list price was. The was obviously the cost of the healthcare plus x% on top for margin to reinvest. When costs began exploding, the government began looking for ways to pay a standard amount for the same procedure across the country. This is the point at which people stopped paying the same amount for a procedure. Insurance companies decided to stop paying 100% of the bill. Instead, they paid 90% and said "you'll give us a 10% discount for bringing you all these insured customers." When 90% became 80%, the providers raised the list prices to compensate.

Today, we're at the point that insurance companies pay 30-35% of the list price, and the list price is so high it doesn't reflect reality. But, like the price tag on a washer/dryer at sears, it's not supposed to because nobody pays that price. Insurance companies only pay 30% because that's the discount they get for being high-volume buyers. When you go outside of your benefits (or lose them), you're purchasing as an individual without benefit of group purchasing power - i.e., you pay full list price. List price has continued to climb to compensate for the high cost of healthcare supplies and labor. And to compensate for care given to people without insurance or people with government insurance. Medicare (for the eldery) pays 80% of cost, and Medicaid (for the poor) pays 50% of cost. People with regular health insurance have to make up for those government insurance losses.