Wake Up! Waukesha
Jay, who has lived in the Waukesha area for over 20 years, is an active volunteer who has served on numerous local boards and committees. He's married to Colleen with three kids having gone through the Waukesha schools. He is the VP of a local distribution company.
"National" Healthcare will save money?
Our president proposes and asks for bi-partisan support of his National Healthcare proposal on nation-wide television. He asks for this support while blasting Republican programs, people, and past policy decisions.
Our president explains that his plan will cost $900 billion over 10 years. Amazingly, this is proposed one day after the federal government announces they might recover their investment in Chrysler, but there was no possibility the government will ever recover their much larger investment in General Motors!
Speaker of the House Nancy (a compelling example of why any plan should never include plastic surgery or botox injections...) Pelosi states "We (the government) will squeeze this $900 billion money out of the system..." That's it - No examples, no plan whatsoever, nothing but a self-serving/no accountability concept. If you know where these savings are, why not "squeeze" these savings out of the system immediately?
Our president's plan makes no mention of tort reform as part of his plan. Amusingly, even lay people understand malpractice lawyers are steadfastly against tort reform because it would put an accountability factor into the medical lawsuit process. Lawyers who were found to have filed frivolous lawsuits could be compelled to pay the expenses associated with these suits. It's no wonder the lawyers (and by association - the government) are against tort reform...
Let's localize - Ask any Waukesha area business executive and we will all acknowledge the need to control ever-increasing healthcare premiums. Ask any executive from any of SE Wisconsin's Hospitals and they will readily acknowledge the need to contain healthcare costs, but will ask for answers on how they reduce costs while providing more and more "free" healthcare to the growing ranks of uninsured patients. And while speaking with all of these area businesspeople, ask how many have had their businesses positively impacted by the government's "Stimulus Plan"?
Summary: Almost everyone agrees the need for healthcare reform is urgent. But let's be fair - this government has provided an emotional, partisan response completely lacking in factual detail to this issue. "Promising" to find savings later by "squeezing" the system while spending $900 billion is inane... It's time to get the private sector involved and have "businesspeople" bring factual data and proposals to the table before acting.
My take: To our government - Demonstrate a competency in problem-solving by following basic business rules. Get buy-in from all parties; have a concrete basis in fact for your proposals; run a "trial" beta test on a smaller scale to ensure the plan will work; remedy any unexpected quirks during this beta cycle; and have defined goals by which to measure the plan long-term.
And, to our government - Please, please...Don't tell businesspeople that a track record of borrowing trillions of dollars without a plan of repayment now qualifies the government as an expert in anything...
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