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Originally Posted by yt  Tort reform and crossing state lines only increase corporate power. Tort reform has been tried in Texas and California and hasn't brought down costs one iota. Crossing state lines has been tried by the credit card industry and only drove all the banks to base their credit cards in the states with the weakest regulations.
These represent the hackiest of GOP "ideas" and do nothing to approach putting some stopgaps on industry greed and creating a path for 47 million uninsured. All they represent is another power grab by the industry. Everybody knows it. Why pretend those are ideas? Please. Grayson was right on the money. He's not a liar. Those aren't proposals to actually fix the problem and the GOP, with help from the conservadems, are doing everything they can not to fix the problem.
ps. I know you're not trying to insult the intelligence of this forum, but it is an insult to the intelligence of anyone paying attention that the GOP has come up with any form of comprehensive plan.
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As I said before when you mentioned CC's if that is truly the case then those loopholes need to be closed along with any legislation.
As to tort reform, in Mississippi I believe(cannot locate the article right now, may not be Miss. but is a southern gulf state) tort reform has dropped the number of malpractice lawsuits 90% from their peak. This measure will bring down costs because of defensive medicine practices. Physicians, I do it too, sometimes order unnecessary tests because of the perceived mindset of the patient. You get someone in your office who keeps badgering you about this and that and you cannot convince them that WebMD hasn't got all the answers for them and you order as much testing and perform procedures in order to stave off the perceived litigiousness of the patient.
Opening up competition across state lines will drive down costs much quicker than creating one more competitor under the guise of the government. You are ideologically blind if you think the Democrat proposals aren't beholden to your "corporate menace."
Either way the industry gets a shit-ton of new clients. The GOP way keeps choice in the hands of consumers and allows people to retain control of their lives, the Democrat plans wrest that choice from them and places it squarely onto the path towards single payer. Again, this isn't about giving people health care, it is a power grab of enormous proportions designed to insure Democrat majorities in perpetuity. When you control the very life and death decisions of people, who they gonna vote for? The Republicans know this too, they know if they lose this debate they will have only one choice, try to offer a better single payer master than the Democrats.
Single payer is not something this country wants. The majority of Americans are happy with their current plans. Make the insurance plan theirs, give
them the tax breaks(you neglected to mention this) instead of their companies, and you remove the fear people have of losing their jobs and health care in one fell swoop.
Remove the asinine regulations(you neglected to mention this) that force coverage riders that people have no use for and allow tailor made insurance plans to drive down costs. I have a female friend who at 28 got a hysterectomy because she never wanted to have children. Her insurance policy covers maternity care because it is mandated. Why? Without that coverage she could slash her premiums in half at least. Allowing buffet style plans would drive down the costs of premiums even in the face of pre-existing coverage and lifetime cap removal.
Expand Medicaid and SCHIP(you neglected to mention this although if I skimmed one of the bills properly there seemed to be some language stating to eliminate them. I hope I didn't read that correctly and if I did I need to read deeper to see what would replace them) and find those 12 million out of the inflated 47 million who are eligible for these programs but not currently utilizing them and put them on the dole.
The GOP plans offer tax incentives to offset premiums for low income people. They offer insurance exchanges to pool risk which is a given that has to happen if you are going to eliminate caps and cover pre-existing.
If by comprehensive you mean 1000+ pages of nearly incomprehensible red tape then yes, the GOP hasn't stepped up. If you mean consolidating the power of life and death in the hands of the government in order to have platforms, soundbites and talking points a-go-go for the entirety of election cycles in our future then yes the GOP hasn't stepped up.
If by chance you mean giving power to the people to control their own lives then the GOP is right there. Weakly, but they are there.
The only insult I see, and again thank you for your civility, is that the sides of this battle boil down to whether or not you value your personal choice as a human being and feel you control your own life or whether or not you feel the government can do a better job of running it than you can and are willing to trade your freedom for a little security.
Grayson is a liar. These proposals are ways to fix the problem. The problem however has been grossly overstated by the Democrats and the media beginning with the 47 million uninsured lie.
