Compromise is not always a good thing

The much anticipated Senate “Gang of Six” bill was put forth today by Montana Senator Max Baucus. Follow the Link to the PDF . I took most of the day to read it and I must say I am not happy. This is not the plan we were promised during the election. If this is what passes for reform than we are pretty much boned.
There is no public option in the bill, there is a provision for cooperatives but no public option. We were promised in writing.
“Specifically, the Obama plan will: (1) establish a new public
insurance program, available to Americans who neither qualify for Medicaid or SCHIP
nor have access to insurance through their employers, as well as to small businesses that
want to offer insurance to their employees; “ from the Obama plan PDF page2
There is a tax placed on the reciprocation of drugs.
The Chairman‘s Mark would increase the rebate for non-innovator, multiple source drugs to 13 percent of AMP. Page 53
The Chairman‘s Mark would impose a fee on any person that manufactures or imports prescription drugs for sale in the United States. Page 217
What we were promised during the campaign.
Drug reimportation. The second-fastest growing type of health expenses is
prescription drugs.46 Pharmaceutical companies should profit when their research
and development results in a groundbreaking new drug. But some companies are
exploiting Americans by dramatically overcharging U.S. consumers. These
companies are selling the exact same drugs in Europe and Canada but charging
Americans a 67 percent premium.47 Obama will allow Americans to buy their
medicines from other developed countries if the drugs are safe and prices are
lower outside the U.S. from page 10.
Looks like the drug dealers made a pretty good compromise. Protectionist policies continue and now they will have a captive audience.
The worst part of the bill in my opinion.
Beginning in 2013, all U.S. citizens and legal residents would be required to purchase coverage …. “ page 31
The mandate with a fine. $750 per year. For the poor, 100 to 300% of the poverty level. However, the maximum penalty amount a family above 300 percent of FPL would pay is $3,800.
The mandate was supposed to come later and only after lower premiums failed to get everyone to purchase coverage. The trigger was supposed to be for the mandate not the public option.
The details are still sorely lacking but the general tenor of the bill is full of loopholes and grandfathering. The fees tend to kick in in 2010 and any benefits tend to begin in 2013.
Hospitals that have physician ownership and a provider agreement in operation on November 1, 2009 and that met other specified requirements would be exempt from this self-referral ban. Page 177 for example.
And the big one Pre existing conditions. This for many the point of reform. What we were promised :
“Guaranteed eligibility. No American will be turned away FROM ANY
INSURANCE PLAN because of illness or pre-existing conditions. “
What we get under Baucus:
Within a year of enactment, any uninsured individual who has been denied health care coverage due to a pre-existing condition can enroll in a high-risk pool. Page 5
If you have cancer or other progressive type disease you might be dead in 6 months or bankrupt.
The rules for the small group market would be the same as those for the individual market, except that they would be phased in over a period of up to five years beginning January 1, 2013, as determined by each state with approval from the Secretary. Page 6 so the pre existing thing may not go away until 2018?
The ambiguities in the bill are going to lead to more government takeover nonsense but I am not going to be specific as the lunatic fringe on the right doesn’t need my help.
We are being sold out to the corporate masters in this bill. Will The President make good on his promises? We await his response. Bear in mind that the Missouri compromise preserved slavery for 40 odd years.

Town Hall

Spent a pleasant Wednesday afternoon. at a Town Hall meeting on health care reform. The event was sponsored by California Congressman Mike Thompson. The sun was shining for a change and by the time I pulled the last hill into Redwood Acres I was a bit on the sweaty side.

There was quite a line when I arrived about an hour before the scheduled start time. Most of the signs were pro-reform, actually the greatest number of signs were for some kind of single payer system but the congressmen made sure everyone knew that single payer was not even on the table when he began his remarks. This was not received warmly. There were no outrageous or even witty signs for either position. 10 people pushing Michael Moore’s film, “Sicko” on one side and Reform Health care on the other created a little levity in line when it was pointed out that they had misspelled Helth care. A quick laugh and a felt pen, problem solved. Signs were not allowed in the building but I did not see any of the radical posters prevalent at other Town Halls.



In fact the entire proceeding was pretty civil. One individual could not let a particularly odd speaker get his message out and was removed. Representative Thompson made a concerted effort that everyone have their chance be heard for about an hour and a half. In order to let as many people speak as possible demonstrations were discouraged so gauging the crowd’s position was sometimes difficult. I would put it at about a 60 40 split, single payer /pro reform being the 60. The other forty were a combination of concerned about the government taking over healthcare with a smaller percentage of, “healthcare violates the constitution “ way out types. One was wearing a , “Comrade Obama” bumper sticker on his T-shirt but there was not a lot of that type hyperbole. I went mostly to listen as for me the battle was lost when our fearless leader took single payer off the table with, “If we were starting from scratch of course single payer is better but we are not starting from scratch.”

The crowd chatted amiably waiting for the start. I spent a few minutes correcting a Reagan lover on the subject of deficits and selling arms to terrorists but all very polite. When Rep. Thompson began he laid out a few items then went right to questions. He stressed that we were not getting single payer socialized medicine and that the Government was not taking over health care. He gave his support to the public option again explaining that the public option was a premium supported alternative to private insurance and would not replace private insurance. He stressed that the reform would be paid for up front. As questions were raised he stated over and over that those happy with their Insurance could keep what they had.

The crowd laughed off the Republican woman that tried to bring up, “Death Panels” in the form of quality life year projections and the one nut yelling socialism periodically was met with derision. Of course it wouldn’t be Humboldt county without at least one person brining up legalizing cannabis. Tonight it was a young Marine that was discharged for using pot to treat his PTSD. His position was dismissed with laughter and Thompson made a bit of an ass of himself about it. There was also the obligatory protect the fetus cult member. I am sorry to say that all the house bills have the same defect in that none will cover the reproductive health of women.

Many people had nightmare stories about denied care, bankrupting deductibles and co-payments, and getting preexisting conditioned almost to death. A few had complaints about government care either the VA or military medicine but most were about insurance companies. Everyone on it was thrilled with Medicare. Mike was explaining to one individual that wanted the government completely out of health care that when it was put to a vote not one representative could be found to vote for the repeal of Medicare.

I am glad my Rep supports a public option. I am glad that my local community can have a productive dialog without the fringe hijacking the venue. That being said I am not confident that what I am hearing will go very far to solving the problems in our health care reimbursement system.

Rebut follow up

This is a follow up to my original cash for clunkers posts. For those that can’t seem to write a comment without racial or ethnic slurs, I moderate my pages on the web and delete that type of screed. If all you want to do is scream F bombs at the top of your voice I delete that type of thing as well. Bring facts to the discussion and the occasional swear is part of the language, shouting obscenities because you have no ideas is par for the conservative cause I find it tiresome.
The program was a huge success. 690,000 cars were sold in a month due to the program but auto sale were pushed above the rate of 10 million for the year for the first time since 2008. This has reduced inventories and sped up production for several auto makers. This was the primary purpose, Temporary filling of the demand gap caused by the recession. Will it last? We will have to wait and see. The car lots here are empty of New small fuel efficient vehicles.
The average fuel economy increase was 58 % from 15.8 to 24.8. We did better at 70% but the total while better than nothing is small in the total scheme of global warming.
I was surprised at the hatred shown for a couple of disabled veterans. The idea that those living on fixed incomes are some how irresponsible. The idea that a couple of guys that took responsibility for defending the nation are not responsible enough to pay their bills seems counter factual.
The economic activity that the program produced was huge but it did point out some problems that need to be addressed.
The contacting out of services has been a total disaster. The private sector is so incompetent that it cannot seem to do anything. that’s right the private sector. All this complaining about bad web site design and poor service should be directed at the Citi Group, a private contractor doing a typically haphazard job just as the private sector always does.
The car dealers that knew they would have to front the cars were typical corporate scum and screwed the consumers to the wall. It was not the government screwing up at every turn but the vaunted private sector.
The Idea that 1.4% of the market would have a devastating effect on a market that was already 22% off seems preposterous on its face. This is the CARS is killing the poor and destroying mom and pop used car dealers.
People are getting rid of all these great cars for the 4500 dollars is the most common lie I come across. In 2005 I bought X good mileage car and my neighbor bought Y gas guzzler and he can trade his in and I can’t get a new car and I am paying for his. Bull from the jump. As you only got 4500 dollars maximum the trades were crap. Every time the blue book proved them to be misinformed ,to be kind ,although most of these sock puppet commenter’s were simply lying to create propaganda.
Could it have been done better? Yes, but large bureaucratic structures are not conducive to rapid movement. The economic modelers are either no good or are not being listened to. The bill was written very craftily to encourage rapid movement and to require the industry to bear part of the risk. The Dealers being skanks was obvious to anyone outside looking in. Car dealers are conservatives, they hate the government that hands them subsidies hand over fist so they want Obama to fail but they will of course profit from it. That and gap financing would have eaten into the profits and good capitalists always externalize the cost. I can understand them not getting this as they are not the kind of people that deal with corporate scum from the bottom.
The not being ready for the panicked rush is about their models. They built in the uncertainty factor to maximize the multiplier effect. They simply would have had to include the line that all compliant deals within the time frame would be honored but they deliberately didn’t. Having taken that step not being ready for a stampede shows that they had a bad model or they ignored what the model told them. We need to find out which. These guys are supposed to be the best around but they can’t do a little math. They had $50 million for overhead, band width and servers are cheap but profit maximization corporations step in on a no bid contract and we will now never be able to find out what the truth is.
The losers in this are not entirely clear but some of the complainers would seem to be attributing things that aren’t there. The charity car market crashed when they stopped allowing you to deduct book value for cars that were trash. As soon as they began only giving realistic deductions the adds went away overnight. The crashing of the used car market was in place long before this program began. The program has not helped it but numbers do not support it.
The arguments against stimulus lost at the ballot box and in the legislature so either you do not like democracy or you are just a bunch of sore losers. Either way I do not expect the facts to have any effect on the vast majority. I can only counter with what facts I can find and see what happens.
Those that complained that they had a clunker that didn’t qualify I tend to be sympathetic to your plight. If a second stimulus bill is proposed I would alter the program to include a larger range if the improvement is 50% MPG improvement or better. I do not favor another bill. The current bill has at least 18 months remaining so it is way too early to asses the effectiveness of the total package. That and the technical economic data show that it might be working as well as it can and consumer confidence is already beginning to rebound.
As to the buy American Buchanites out there you lost that battle when Nixon went to china. Nissan employs more Americans than Chrysler . Everyone at the dealership was an American worker. Our local credit union employs American workers. The concept that one corporation is American and for America and that some other corporation is a foreign devil against us is just so much nonsense to me.
It was not a good buy from an environmental standpoint and we should have spent the money on transit or renewable energy. The standards could have been tougher but the majority went way beyond the minimum standard anyway . Taking the money for the additional 2 billion from renewable funds was a bad idea but that happens in a compromise bill. The amount of funds that could be spent quickly on transit was finite.
Poor people that have to drive shitty cars. They may have less choice in their old beaters but there will be a glut of non drive train parts. I still maintain that the percentage of the market in used cars is so small as to be negligible but when you are poor it is the cumulative effects that keep you down.

Whitewashing

Putting myself on the record as saying this is the beginning of a whitewashing of the war crimes of the Bush years. By limiting the scope and not allowing it to go up the chain to those that wrote the memos and asked for them to be written we get nothing. The way to prevent torture is to prosecute all those involved in torture. War crimes must be taken seriously and prosecuted or the spew of all those America is exceptional scumbags must cease. I am deploying the, "Rally Hamster" on behalf of human rights. Hoping he does better than he did over the weekend.

Hamster dance

A little levity

Woodnot

We had both Woofstock and A concert on the square for local treats this weekend. I opted for Moogot2 over the puppies. I was not disappointed here is a little video.


I am a little young for Woodstock but the idea of Woodstock has always been much larger than the event. Time passes the idea of peace and justice fades and you have the corporate state that we live in today. We are back to the greatest wealth disparity in America since the gilded age. Woodstock being the mid point in time. The promise never materialized and the world has remained cold and dark for most of its' billions of inhabitants. The same people that screamed at the antiwar protesters now scream at the health-care reformers. The question is will we follow the Reagan retreads bullshit or will wetry another way? So far I am not encouraged.

Our New Car

Welcome to our new car courtesy of the CARS program. In spite of a problematic start this was a very good deal for those that qualify. With a little effort and research the program made a new car possible for us.

Let me start by saying that my roommate and I are on fixed incomes due to disability. Our vehicle while still serviceable was old, inefficient and worth very little on the retail market.
First step on the road for us was to check our eligibility. We went to the cars.gov web site. Be sure you are at a dot GOV site. This ensures you are dealing with the government. There is a list of Qualifications for your clunker. Less than 25 years old. Still drivable, street legal paper work for the last year, registered and insured. The idea of the program is to remove old gas guzzlers off the road and replace them with safer more fuel efficient cars so your combined MPG needs to be 18 or less. Our 1991 wrangler met all the requirements so we read the details, available as PDF files and then set out to find a new ride we liked and could afford. We checked a few sites like car and driver and consumer reports and talked to our insurance company to get the new rates for the top 4 finalists.
Armed with our research we went for some test drive’s
We needed maximum rebate and minimum cost so we were somewhat limited in our selection. We looked at the Hyundai accent, Toyota Yaris, Kia forte, Chevy cobalt and the Nissan Versa. We settled on the Versa base model sedan. We liked the size, feels like a mid sized, the handling was superior and our insurance company gave it it’s very highest safety ratings. The 5speed transmission shifts very smooth and the variable valve engine has horsepower to spare. The others were OK but all had some drawback for us. A tip for car designers. Back seat windows that don’t open suck. Cars that you cannot get anti-lock braking systems on are not my favorites either.
We picked our model and color then went home to wait for the rules to be set on the 24th of July.
After deciding on a car make your best deal. Keep in mind. The $4500 or $3500 ( and do your best to get the full amount. It will make the environmental part of the program more successful.), is just like cash to the dealer. A little effort that he will get compensated by the salvage yard for. He doesn’t have to sell your old car to get paid. In addition all the offers and discounts they are offering to non cars participants applied to us as well.
On the whole we liked our dealer with one exception, the trying to sell $3000 worth of insurance on a $13,000 car seemed excessive. Extended warranties are a bad deal and trying to sell me is an insult to my intelligence. We struck a deal produced the paperwork and waited for the website to approve us and that is when the fun began.
For those of you going now most of those problems are a thing of the past. The demand overwhelmed the system. I think if the 4 billion originally proposed had been appropriated people wouldn’t have been so stressed and the dealer would have been willing to deliver the cars when the contracts were signed as they were supposed to. Having to wait ten days foe the approval was not part of the deal and cast a bit of a shadow on the buying experience but we will get over it.
We got a new fuel efficient car (29 mpg combined rating is a 70% increase), that is much safer for us and everyone else on the road,( airbags and abs). The state of California gets a big chunk of sales tax. Mike and the guys at the local Nissan dealer sold 13 cars in a weekend when they hadn’t been doing squat. We have some domestic content but it was a NAFTA baby from Mexico. We would have liked to buy home made but could not afford the entry level Ford or GM products.
With the new funding approved and the kinks in the system solved this would seem to be one portion of the Recovery act that is working for the average American.