Partially Disecting Bill Sali's Mailing

Last week Idaho's 1st District voters were once again treated to an "Update From Congress" courtesy of Bill Sali and mailed at taxpayer expense.  This mailing followed the usual format, a letter with enclosed opinion ballot, that has been standard on many of his previous mailings.  The topics covered were: energy and fuel prices, health care, taxes and spending, 2nd Amendment and immigration reform—all interesting topics that Sali has addressed before, although in the energy portion, for some reason he didn't mention his amazing plan to get oil from trees.

In the health care portion, though, Sali does try to justify his votes against the Medicare bill (one of just 59 in the House to do so), and the veto override of the bill (one of 41).  He does this by saying that it "gutted" the Medicare Advantage program to pay for restoring what would have been an automatic ten percent reduction in doctor's fees for Medicare patients—putting millions of Americans' health care at risk by, in effect, pricing many doctors out of being able to care for Medicare patients—had Congress not acted.

Essentially the Medicare Advantage program allows private insurance companies to act as a middle-man between Medicare and seniors, in some cases providing services not covered by traditional Medicare, but at a higher cost to the government and often a higher cost to seniors.  Even a Government Accountability Office report says the Medicare Advantage program may not be a good deal for seniors or the government.

Though it was originally envisioned as a potential way to save the Medicare program money, the government pays on average 13 percent more to care for a Medicare Advantage enrollee than it would if that person were in traditional Medicare. This report only fans the flames of critics who maintain that the government is getting little bang for its buck. "Overpayments fatten company profits, even as many seniors face higher costs in MA plans than they would in traditional Medicare," said Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health. [emphasis added]

In fact, it was private insurance company lobbyists who argued hardest and loudest against the Medicare bill—they stood to lose the most—convincing many lawmakers and some seniors that this was an issue of patient/doctor choice.  In actuality it was an issue of allowing private insurance companies to continue dipping into lucrative government Medicare pockets.  Congressman Sali voted for insurance companies and against taxpayers and seniors. (Read Sali's press-release on the issue here.)

Sali's mailing also mentions that he's working on health care legislation that would "begin moving us in the right direction" on health care.

[M]y bill will encourage doctors to move to rural and under-served areas like Idaho so people can more easily see a doctor and get the treatment they and their children need.

If such legislation is in the works, you wouldn't know it by checking Sali's official website.  A search reveals no information on such a bill and clicking the health care link under his "Issues" tab (as of this writing) just brings up a page entitled "Energy and Economy."

You also wouldn't know that he supports such legislation by looking at his voting record.  In fact, in at least two cases he voted against bills addressing this issue.  One of the bills would forgive some portion of student loans for those who serve in an area of national need such as nursing, another directed the Small Business Administration to establish a program providing loans for medical professionals providing services in health care shortage areas.

His letter also touts other features of his health care bill without including specifics and again, none of these are easily available to constituents for review.

If Bill Sali actually has a plan to improve health care, and not some vague ideas put forth in a letter, he's keeping it to himself.  Hopefully it's not anything as wacky as getting oil from trees.

Comments

[Tom von Alten]

We really need a way to cut through the b.s. surrounding health care insurance, but of course the entrenched interests are well-served by complexity.

There is a mountain of "government is bad!" cognitive dissonance to overcome to get people to realize that Medicare meets its mission better than the private sector can.

[Bill Sali Fan]

I easily refute your so-called "claims" here: http://billsalifan.blogspot.com/2008/08/congressman-bill-sali-stands-up-to.html . The bottom line is that Bill Sali is better than all you Socialists, and as such he doesn't have to obey the "rules" that lesser people are expected to follow. Nowhere in the Bible - the only true source of law - does it say that Bill Sali can't mail brochures at taxpayers expense any time he wants to.