SEIU Scripting Dan Lipinski on Health Legislation - It Sure Looks Like It!

Edwardian England -
Oscar Wilde - " I wish I'd said that!"
James Whistler - "You Will, Oscar. You will!*"

The Other Day -
Dan Lipinski - A Car Simile!
SEIU - Yes, a Car Simile. It's like when . . .
Dan Lipinski - I thought nothing was like when.
SEIU - Just read it and believe it.
Dan Lipinski - That, I can do!

Dan Lipinski is getting cover from SEIU - why not, money and crowds of XXXL Purple sign wavers.

Dan Lipinksi voted for Cap and Trade.

Now,Dan Lipinski is going all Progressive in his tag-along work for SEIU over Health Care Legislation that will lead to Government Medicine. Bad Medicine.

In STNG ( Pioneer Press)The Doings: LaGrange Dan Lipinski seems to have lifted his statement directly from the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) District 1199 on the Bureau of Workers Compensation payments to the medical industry from July 21, 2005 study that decries American Health Industry. Click my post title for that study. This study was reported in Environment Health and Safety Leaders EHS Today way back in 2004 - about the time that Congressman Lipinski states that he began his study of America's Health.

Many of the claims against the Bill's enemies - the Health Villains picked out by SEIU for Congressman Dan Lipinski - echo in the 3rd District's Congressman's statement printed on August 9, 2009.

However, Dan Lipinski even seems to have even lifted a witticism from the article.

In the STNG statement Dan Lipinski catalogs the evils of the Hospitals, Insurance Companies, and the Pharmecuetical villains but also adds this, "One reason treatment is so expensive is the near-total lack of price information available to health care consumers. These days, entering a hospital for treatment is like buying a car without looking at the sticker."
Yep. Smart Simile going on there, Dan. However, in 2005, an SEIU Spokes Folk said this

"It's like going to buy a car and instead of negotiating based on what the actual cost of manufacturing the car is and figuring in a slight mark-up, taking the sticker price on the window and negotiating something higher and then thinking you've done a good job," Courtney said.

While Ohio BWC's payment structure, which the agency implemented in 1998, seems reasonable at first blush, Courtney and SEIU allege that BWC is not paying a percentage of the actual cost of providing medical treatment to injured workers. Instead, SEIU asserts the agency is paying a percentage of a huge mark-up on the cost of those services as much as 300 percent, depending on the hospital. SEIU calls the mark-up a "sticker price," while hospitals call it a "charge."

Here is Congressman Dan Lipinski's full statement.

August 6, 2009

By Dan Lipinski
Ed. note: This is one of our regular essays from legislators. We've asked them to use the space to speak to their constituents. Rep. Dan Lipinski's 3rd Congressional District includes Indian Head Park, La Grange, LaGrange Park, Western Springs, Burr Ridge, Westchester.

Unrelenting increases in health care costs are creating an intolerable burden for individuals, families, businesses and the government, while tens of millions of Americans lack any insurance. People with pre-existing conditions are denied affordable coverage. The first time that hospital patients learn the price of their surgery is when the bill arrives in the mail, full of steep price mark-ups.

Insurers bury the details of their plans in the fine print, leaving people uninformed until it is too late. The pharmaceutical industry is hugely profitable, but taxpayers are subsidizing the advertising expenses of drug companies.

It is clear to me, and the many Third District residents who have contacted me, that change is long overdue. Every part of the health care system is in need of reform. That's why I am focused on fighting to pass comprehensive reform legislation.

As I scrutinize the reform proposals Congress is considering, I am focused on holding all the players in the health care industry accountable, making health care more affordable and improving the quality of care (including promoting preventive care and early treatment). Controlling skyrocketing costs must be a key priority. Surging costs not only hurt families, but threaten our government's financial stability and the vitality of our nation's economy. Just as I did when considering the ill-conceived bailout and the flawed stimulus, I continue to focus on fiscal discipline.

I have been working on repairing broken parts of the health care system since I was elected in 2004. As a diabetic, I am keenly aware of the importance of good care and insurance coverage. The first piece of legislation I introduced in Congress was the Hospital Price Transparency and Disclosure Act.

One reason treatment is so expensive is the near-total lack of price information available to health care consumers. These days, entering a hospital for treatment is like buying a car without looking at the sticker.

My legislation would end that, by mandating that hospitals disclose the prices they charge for the most common procedures and medications. This would allow people to shop for the best price, helping to drive down costs. I am currently working to ensure that a price transparency provision is included in the legislation Congress is considering.

Another issue I believe we must address is the tax break that health insurance and pharmaceutical companies receive for their advertising expenditures. Eliminating these subsidies would produce at least $6.3 billion annually that could be devoted to urgently needed health care reforms.

The pharmaceutical ads that fill our airwaves continue to generate concern about the accuracy of the information they contain, and their potential to artificially increase demand for drugs, sometimes even before dangerous side effects become known.

One recent study estimated that drug companies spend more on promotion than they do on research and development -- a clear example of misplaced priorities.

As pro-consumer, pro-taxpayer measures, both my price transparency and pharmaceutical bills are endorsed by Consumers Union, the independent, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine. No doubt they won't solve every problem in the system, nor do they represent all of my health care reform efforts. But they are examples of the kind of straightforward, common-sense improvements to our health care system that I am fighting for in Washington.

As I write this, I continue to work to improve the health care reform legislation that we are considering in the House of Representatives. It is critical that this bill constitutes comprehensive reform, and avoids pouring more money into a broken system. I will carefully examine the bill to make sure it meets my core principles for reform, cost-savings, and coverage, and improves health care for the residents of the Third District.

A tall fella like Congressman Alamo Dan Lipinski should not need lifts.

A Primary Run? Anyone?

*
*In a rare appearance as a 'straight man', Oscar Wilde complimented James Whistler on a quip with the words, 'I wish I'd said that.' Whistler devastatingly replied, 'You will, Oscar, you will.'



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