I'm on CA-12th telephone town hall (Jackie Speier)

[CreekDog]

Jackie Speier's office called me and invited me to join.

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705pm: someone in San Mateo is asking a question saying that they had to stop doing surgery in Ireland and England because there aren't enough doctors because they aren't paid enough. doesn't like socialized medicine. says she is a nurse at California Pacific Medical Center, husband retired firefighter. (sorry i didn't catch the answer on this one too much going on here).


714pm: she just got a question from someone in El Granada who asks if she has read all 1017 pages of the bill and asking her to tell us what section she disagrees with.
js: yes, has read it and went over provisions with experts too. no does not agree with every single thing in the bill, like any bill that's not how it works.

717pm: ryan from daly city wants to know if public option will be dropped. she says this is dynamic. explaining the various bills in process and that they will have to pass and then go to conference and will take 2-3 months. most of this likely not to go into effect until 2013. says that certain elements like vulnerable people 50-64 and exclusions for preexisting conditions need to be dealt with quickly.

720pm: caller saying medicare has problems and cannot pay for this and will result in rationing. knows has healthcare. "we are going to be losing our freedom". "private healthcare cannot compete with government...private will be phased out...why obama has not addressed...tort reform...this is going to ruin our country and result in the bankruptcy of our country"

js: ca has micra law (limited pain and suffering...ca malpractice limited to 250k and is cheaper to insure...willing to look at on national level)
disappointed obama cut a deal with pharma..."easy to say it will cut 80 billion dollars"
talking about problem of government prevented from negotiating discounts on drugs.
house bill doesn't embrace deal with pharma (yes, she used term "big pharma")
says senate health committee is the non budget neutral, not the house bill because kennedy's bill included long term care
says confusion about cbo scoring
cbo scored house bill as "deficit neutral"

726pm female from burlingame: what can be done to bring both sides together. worried about polarized. "concerned that it needs to be more bipartisan".
js: gives credit to baucus. fair amount of misinformation on this.

728pm male from san mateo: supporting house bill and asking if she will support public option.
js: blue dogs require that public option compete on level playing field with other health plans. devil is in the detail on that. medicare first introduced in concept by harry truman, lbj actually pushed it through. takes time.

730pm female in redwood city: financing and says passage in bill says illegal immigrants will not be covered. says it will save us lot of money if they aren't. if the public option is so good will congressmembers use it.

js: bill says sec 246 excludes illegal immigrants and 242 only includes legally present...however federal law says that legal status cannot be asked if soemone shows up in an emergency room. house bill provision requires congressmembers through the exchange. speier gets her coverage through her husband because it's better than what she would get as a house member.

733 female: wants to live to see single payer. insurance companies are gouging us. what is conceptual framework...how in the world keep insurance companies honest (and that we failed on the banking side in this respect)?
js: health choices commissioner has authority to insure plans are meeting standards and regs...congressional oversight...ability to regulate them as ca regulates its hmos. we deregulated banking and regulators were not doing their job. her job to see that they are doing their job for financial services and health care.

736pm female colma: says 85% satisfied with health care. happy with medicare. why not concentrate on 15% that are unhappy. totally happy with medicare.
js: says she is in "single payer" system...government system (caller agrees says "that's true")...says costs are going up too fast and we need to bring the cost down. medicare unsustainable in long term without creating some savings and will do it through changes to medicare advantage.

738pm female in redwood shores: health care bill do anything to keep cost of cobra down?
js: cobra costs are high. effort to continue it for more than 18 months if age 50-65 (to happen immediately). not the best news but all she's hearing is that costs might stabilize rather than go down. "many people can't afford to continue it (cobra)". not finalized on this.

740pm female san mateo: medicare patients don't have same options. talks about how cataracts are not covered same way as private insurance.
js: says bill is not detailed on such specific items but that there will be a panel.

742pm female in redwood city: concerned bout cost of healthcare in this country. astounded that to control cost of medicare is to offer everyone coverage. says biggest cost is malpractice and doctors protecting themselves by doing every test possible. heard nothing about.
js: tort reform not in tort reform. it exists in ca and cap on how much can receive for pain and suffering. real cost increaes related to overutlization and increased use of technology.

744pm male: why the big rush? bill doesn't take effect until 2013. ma and tn have state program and they underestimated cost and now have tax problems. in economic depression. says 1.6 trillion of taxpayer funds to fund the program.
js: 1.6 trillion is senator kennedy's proposal and that bill is not going anywhere. even included long term care. house bill scored by cbo as deficit neutral. half from savings and half from revenues. revenues from third charge on person making more than 350k-500k get a 1% surchage, over a million pay 5.4% --doesn't know if that will go through.

747pm male san bruno: caps for lifetime care, people go bankrupt. 60% personal bankruptcies related to health care crisis. does this bill address this?
js: out of pocket expenses individual limited to 5k, family 10k and no lifetime cap. says people should ask their employers about the "lifetime cap" and says most policies have one, some as low as 200k..."can reach those caps pretty quickly". "good thing about this bill is that there will be no lifetime caps."

749pm male san fran: cobra unaffordable, what's for the unemployed?
js: individual access to health insurance exchange, out of pocket limited to 5k. flat rate of $300-400 perhaps/month. if unemployed subsidized up to 400% of poverty (44k). limited to 11% of income for premiums.

751pm female from san mateo: feds bad record on medicare, va, indian reservation health insurance. why should we believe this?
js: medicare is single payer gov't program and it has worked for over 45 years. cost needs to be dealt with. trying to move to effectiveness and focus on geographic differences in cost for medicare patients.

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this gives you an idea of how our town hall went. i'm going to stop there. our congresswoman will keep going for 10 more minutes.

she certainly knows a lot about the bill.

[Critters2]

1. How did she respond to the bullshit about not doing surgery in England and Ireland? nt

[CreekDog]

2. i don't remember her talking bout England or Ireland.

[NYC_SKP]

3. Thank you for posting this here. nt

[CreekDog]

4. sorry the notes aren't that clear in places

i was editing as i went and then my hour to keep updating expired before i could fix all the unclear parts.

but thanks! :hi:

[NoSheep]

5. Thanks!