Tierney's Choice

The insurance companies with their perennial double-digit rate hikes are easy to loathe. Which is why President Obama on his latest barnstorming effort to save his health care bill has torn into them with such gusto. When you look beyond the president's rhetoric, the picture isn't nearly as clear as he would make it seem. The combined profits last year of the 10 largest of those "evil" health insurers was $8.3 billion, giving them an average profit margin of 2.5%. This is hardly the makings of modern day robber barons. So, if the insurance companies aren't making huge profits where does all the money from those outrageously expensive premiums go? The biggest drivers of rate hikes are: demographics,government mandated coverage and defensive medicine.

The Baby Boomers, even the ones with Peter Pan issues are beginning to retire. It's pretty simple to understand that the older a person gets, the more medical services they will require. As our country's largest age cohort, this represents a large increase in costs. The other major culprit in driving costs up is the sad fact that nearly a third and growing of our fellow citizens would qualify as contestants on the Biggest Loser. With America's expanding waistline come greater medical costs for diabetes, high blood-pressure, heart disease etc.

Nationwide, state legislatures at the behest of lobbyists have mandated services that must be included in all health care coverage. In MA the list is as long as your arm and includes expensive procedures like in-vitro fertilization and drug and alchohol rehab. Most will never need these services, but we are required to pay for them, making insurance more expensive than it needs to be. Just imagine how expensive it would be to insure your car if your policy had to cover oil changes, tune-ups, tires etc.

In America, doctors spend $26 billion annually on medical liability premiums, with the rates increasing roughly 12% a year. To protect themselves from frivolous lawsuits they order tests and give referrals that aren't medically necessary. This defensive medicine costs in excess of $100 billion every year. The MA Medical Society released a study in which 83% of MA physicians admitted to the practice. Frankly, I'm surprised it wasn't higher.

The bill that Congressman Tierney will be asked to vote on addresses none of these issues.

It does cut Medicare by half a trillion dollars which the Conressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates will cause 20% of our nation's hospitals to go bankrupt.

As Democratic Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) admitted, the bill won't rein in rising health care premiums. You can bet he didn't make this confession out of the goodness of his heart. The CBO estimates that rates will increase by 8% a year for those with employer based coverage an 10-13% for those in the individual market.

The New England Journal of Medicine just released a study with this gem:

"nearly one third of physicians responding to the survey indicated that they will want to leave medical practice after health reform is implemented."

The ranks of primary-care doctors would be decimated as 46% indicated they would leave. An overwhelming 63% of doctors want the government to take a more gradual approach.

At $2.5 trillion over 10 years this bill is simply too expensive and does too much harm to our medical infrastructure.

As bad as the provisions of this bill are for the medical community it is also a terrible deal for the middle class. It does provide subsidies to help pay for insurance, but they are a devil's bargain. These subsidies penalize marriage, work and investment. Many Americans will find themselves in a situation where it will cost them more to accept a promotion because their new income won't equal the lost subsidy. This is the same formula used in welfare that has been so detrimental to the poor in this country. The government promises and provides benefits that will disappear if you try to better your lot in life.

So Rep. Tierney it's time to choose. The voters of your district, in an election that was largely a referendum on the government takeover of health care gave Scott Brown 60% support. You need to decide if you represent the people of the sixth district or the special interests: trial lawyers, big labor,left-wing pressure groups like moveon.org. The people are watching.