AMERICAN CONSERVATISM IN 2008 AND BEYOND

Foxfyre wrote:

Good. Perhaps we can have a good discussion.

I don't know if I agree with every statement listed because I didn't evaluate that closely when I posted the piece. You apparently did since you seem to declare them all lies.

It was rather nice of Foxfyre to rewrite your words so they made sense Joe.

It would look pretty silly of her to agree there were lies in the piece and have to agree with you. Much easier to simply rewrite what you said to allow her to change her argument.

Really? I didn't think it was discussing Democrats at all.

Some of us have finally gotten it through out heads that Republican is not a synonym for 'conservative' and Democrat is not a synonym for "liberal'. Why don't you catch up?

I did say and I do believe that the list of statements is a good representation of what the tea partiers and taxpayer protest marchers are angry about. And, if I go back and evaluate them carefully, I'm pretty sure I would agree with a lot if not all of them.

Some of us have finally gotten it through out heads that Republican is not a synonym for 'conservative' and Democrat is not a synonym for "liberal'.

the tea partiers and taxpayer protest marchers

Why don't you catch up?

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=59927004259
Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party Rally
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Basic Info
Name: Taxed Enough Already (TEA) Party Rally
Category: Common Interest - Politics

Description: On the day you pay your taxes, Wednesday, April 15, join others across the country and in your hometown who will be participating in TEA party rallies in front of their city halls. The TEA party rally will begin at 6pm.
Contact Info
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Location: Williamson County Courthouse Downtown Georgetown 6-8 pm
Georgetown, TX

Recent News

A moral issue: New budget has $1.2 trillion deficit


April 3, 2009

Congress and President Obama just don't get it! The new $3.6 trillion budget includes a deficit of $1.2 trillion. One third of the budget is deficit spending, money we don’t have! That is on top of the $12 trillion we already owe.

How much is $1 trillion? Consider this: A million seconds is 11.5 days. A billion seconds is 32 years. A trillion seconds is 32,000 years. We must strongly oppose the move to make ours a socialist country.

This reckless spending is a moral issue. We are passing on to our grandchildren a debt that we created. Every man, woman and child in the country already owes $35,000, and we are piling more debt on them. We are robbing them of their right to enjoy the American Dream.

On April 15, we are sending a message to Washington that we want a fiscally responsible government. Attend our TEA PARTY RALLY IN GEORGETOWN AT THE WILLIAMSON COUNTY COURTHOUSE FROM 6-8PM and be sure to take a car load of friends with you to the rally.

You can find all the information you need at TEAPartyDay.com, including how to organize a TEA Party rally, location of rallies in your area. organizers and much more.





Are you fed up with a Congress and a president who:

** vote for a $500 billion tax bill without even reading it?

** are spending trillions of borrowed dollars, leaving a debt our great-grandchildren will be paying?
** consistently give special interest groups billions of dollars in earmarks to help get themselves re-elected?
** want to take your wealth and redistribute it to others?
** punish those who practice responsible financial behavior and reward those who do not?
** admit to using the financial hurt of millions as an opportunity to push their political agenda?
** run up trillions of dollars of debt and then sell that debt to countries such as China?
** want government controlled health care?
** want to take away the right to vote with a secret ballot in union elections?
** refuse to stop the flow of millions of illegal immigrants into our country?
** appoint a defender of child pornography to the Number 2 position in the Justice Department?
** want to force doctors and other medical workers to perform abortions against their will?
** want to impose a carbon tax on your electricity, gas and home heating fuels?
** want to reduce your tax deductibility for charitable gifts?
** take money from your family budget to pay for their federal budget?
If so, participate in the TEA party rally, the Taxed Enough Already (TEA) party.

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/05/19/doctors-flock-to-texas-after-tort-reform/
In the last three years, 7,000 doctors have moved to Texas. So many doctors want to practice there that the state has had trouble keeping up with the requests for licenses.

Texas Capitol
How come the flood? A clampdown on damages in malpractice suits has made Texas a very attractive place to practice medicine, says an opinion piece in the WSJ.

The most significant change is a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages per defendant, such as pain and suffering and loss of companionship. “Before the caps, the average award was $1.21 million; it’s been $880,000 since,” the Dallas Morning News reported last year.

Malpractice suits have plummeted. In 2003, before the caps took effect, there were 1,108 medical liability suits filed in Dallas County, the Morning News reported. Only 142 cases were filed in 2004. Last year there were 184.

Tort reform is an essential part of reining in the cost of medical health insurance.

Quote:

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/05/19/doctors-flock-to-texas-after-tort-reform/
In the last three years, 7,000 doctors have moved to Texas. So many doctors want to practice there that the state has had trouble keeping up with the requests for licenses.

Texas Capitol
How come the flood? A clampdown on damages in malpractice suits has made Texas a very attractive place to practice medicine, says an opinion piece in the WSJ.

The most significant change is a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages per defendant, such as pain and suffering and loss of companionship. “Before the caps, the average award was $1.21 million; it’s been $880,000 since,” the Dallas Morning News reported last year.

Malpractice suits have plummeted. In 2003, before the caps took effect, there were 1,108 medical liability suits filed in Dallas County, the Morning News reported. Only 142 cases were filed in 2004. Last year there were 184.

So, where is your data showing that health insurance rates in Texas, or the amounts doctors charge for their services, has dropped accordingly?

Cycloptichorn

So, where is your data showing that health insurance rates in Texas, or the amounts doctors charge for their services, has dropped accordingly?

The Texas Medical Liability Trust, the biggest insurer of Texas doctors, reports that it has dropped its malpractice rates 26.5 percent since 2003. The average general surgeon in Dallas, for example, is paying $35,417 for a policy that cost him $48,147 in 2003.

[...]

In 2006, the state's 26,497 commercially insured doctors saved roughly $49 million in premiums, an average of about $1,811 each, according to the Texas Alliance for Patient Access.

The caps have saved hospitals millions also. Texas Health Resources, the largest health system in D-FW, now pays $6.9 million in yearly malpractice premiums, down 41 percent from 2004, a spokeswoman said.

Baylor Health Care System, the area's second-largest system, has seen its malpractice insurance premiums fall an average of 25 percent, said Paul Convery, Baylor's chief medical officer.

But not one of the hospitals or doctors interviewed for this article said they are cutting the prices they charge to patients or health insurers.

[...]

For Texas patients, the cost of personal health care " from hospital stays to prescription drugs " continues to increase, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. From 2003 to 2004, the most recent data available, personal health care costs increased 7 percent, from $98.7 billion to $105.5 billion, the third-largest year-over-year increase since tracking began in 1980. The largest growth in spending occurred between 2000 and 2002.

Personal health care spending jumped from 10.6 percent of the state's gross domestic product in 2000 to 11.7 percent in 2004, according to the bureau.

Mr. Black, the UT professor, was not surprised by the lack of savings for patients. The promise of lower prices was a red herring from the start, he said. Medical malpractice costs " both in defense and in payouts " account for at most 2 cents of the health care dollar, he said. Others peg the percentage slightly higher.

Cycloptichorn wrote:

So, where is your data showing that health insurance rates in Texas, or the amounts doctors charge for their services, has dropped accordingly?

That "data" is available here:
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/05/19/doctors-flock-to-texas-after-tort-reform/

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121097874071799863.html

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-medmal_17bus.ART0.State.Edition2.43983f4.html

The Obama plans for helping rescue the USA economy will not rescue the USA economy. These Obama plans will make the USA economy far worse than it is now.

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/05/19/doctors-flock-to-texas-after-tort-reform/
For Texas patients, the cost of personal health care " from hospital stays to prescription drugs " continues to increase, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. From 2003 to 2004, the most recent data available, personal health care costs increased 7 percent, from $98.7 billion to $105.5 billion, the third-largest year-over-year increase since tracking began in 1980. The largest growth in spending occurred between 2000 and 2002.

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/05/19/doctors-flock-to-texas-after-tort-reform/
May 19, 2008, 7:44 AM ET
Doctors Flock to Texas After Tort Reform
...
Malpractice suits have plummeted. In 2003, before the caps took effect, there were 1,108 medical liability suits filed in Dallas County, the Morning News reported. Only 142 cases were filed in 2004. Last year [2007] there were 184.

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/05/19/doctors-flock-to-texas-after-tort-reform/
In the last three years [May 2005, 2006, 2007, May 2008], 7,000 doctors have moved to Texas. So many doctors want to practice there that the state has had trouble keeping up with the requests for licenses.

None of your links include the data you claim they do. None of them show that the rates doctors charge for treatment has dropped. Not even a little bit. This is very, very harmful to your case, Ican, that Malpractice reform leads to lower health care prices for consumers; indeed, it only at this time seems to lead to higher profits for doctors and hospitals.

Tort reform is an essential part of reining in the cost of medical health insurance.

I am now claiming--based on a very limited informal survey of me and my acquaintances--that it already has in Texas contributed to lower cost medical health insurance.