The Party of Know

“The Party of Know.” That’s how Rep. Paul Broun, MD (GA) characterized the Republican Party during a blogger conference call earlier this evening. Rep. Broun was joined by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA) to discuss health care reform and the many reform proposals offered by the GOP. Rep. Broun told us that the Republican Party knows how to bring down the cost of health insurance premiums without adding to the deficit or increasing taxes. Dr. Broun will be introducing a health care bill in the next few days.

Dr. Broun believes the Democrats wrongly see health care as a monolithic type of issue. Rather, he believes, we should be looking at the health care situation in parts. We have the best health care delivery system in the world. The health care payment system is what needs work. He believes the GOP is the party with answers to that problem.

Rep. Broun has been a family doctor for three and a half decades. As a general practitioner he’s seen first hand how Congress has marginally driven up the cost of care. He told us how he once had a lab in his office. For just few dollars he was able to run routine tests with immediate results. After Congress passed CLIA, physicians’ labs were shut down, forcing him to send his patients to a hospital for the tests for a cost of about $75.00. This is more than an inconvenience, it’s driven up the cost of care for all of us. And this is just one example of how Congressional action makes health care more expensive. Dr. Broun quipped that HIPAA regulations have “cost billions and haven’t paid for the first aspirin to treat the headache it’s created.”

As for the GOP being the “Party of Know”, Dr. Broun said they’ve proposed expanding HSAs (Health Care Savings Accounts) so the individuals are the owners of their HSAs and can pass the HSAs on to their heirs. Republicans have proposed tax deductions for all health care expenses. They’ve also proposed incentives and tax credits for physicians who provide care for free or at a reduced cost to the uninsured.

As to the bill introduced by Senator Max Baucus, Broun said “Baucus has a consensus of one – himself.” [That sounds about right.]

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers joined the conversation at about this point. She called President Obama’s big speech last week “the same and very partisan. His approach is not bipartisan unless you are willing to agree with him.” It sounded as if Broun and McMorris Rodgers are calling the president out on his own deceptions. They support Rep. Joe Wilson, who only expressed the frustration of the American people.

Rep. McMorris Rodgers called for a step-by-step approach to health care reform. Rather than quickly passing huge bills, that nobody has the time to read, she believes things should be addressed one issue at a time. The president admitted any public option won’t take effect for four years, so why rush through this legislation? She would like to see an end to these huge health care bills and stimulus bills and start anew.

The reason Ms. McMorris Rodgers was late for the call was a debate on the House floor over whether or not to eliminate the private sector from student loans. This issue hasn’t received the attention it should and it’s another example of the government taking over one more aspect of American life. The public option will be the only option. It makes you wonder what else they’re doing in Washington that we don’t hear about.

We were invited to ask questions. I asked about the Medicare Funding Warning that the democrats chose to ignore, with little or no press coverage. [You can read about it at Heritage.] Rep. McMorris Rodgers informed us that Medicare is scheduled to go bankrupt in 2017. By law when Medicare funding falls behind certain levels, there is a trigger, and Congress has a mandate to address the issue. The majority party for the past two years decided to ignore the warning signal.  Dr. Broun added that the Sustained Growth Rate in Medicare has forced cuts in payments to physicians and hospitals, to the point they are reimbursed for much less than what it costs to deliver care. The result is predictable - doctors dropping Medicare patients, and more Medicare patients going to emergency rooms for treatment.

Reps. McMorris Rodgers and Broun agree that Medicare is on a collision course with bankruptcy. They charge that Republicans have done a lot of work to address the issue while Democrats put blinders on and continue to refuse to deal with it.

The call lasted for nearly an hour and covered a range of issues, including tort reform, a shortage of physicians, and the threat of a greater physician shortage in the future. They called on Americans to contact your representatives and demand an open, transparent process. They called on bloggers to light a grass fire, because the only way to change Washington is to make those working for us feel the heat.

McMorris Rogers wants us to light a grass fire against the student loan bill. And Dr. Broun pointed out that we’ve had a greater nationalization of entities in America than Hugo Chavez has done in Venezuela. We’re federalizing the finance industry, the insurance industry, GM, student loans, energy and health care. We have a “steamroller of socialism driven by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and powered by Barack Obama.”

They would like to remind us that it’s up to the American public to turn things around. Dr. Broun quoted Everett Dirksen “When I feel the heat, I see the light,” and making our representatives feel the heat is the only way to make them see the light. On a final note, they thanked us for the work we do on our blogs, spreading the word to the American people.