Health Care Tiger Team Meeting Notes 10-3-09
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009MINUTES OF HCTT MEETING 10/3/2009
Attendees:
Harry Sims
Stan Thompson
Margaret Zucco
Laura Mullaney
Franklin Sullivan
Nita and Jon Kaplan
Cynthia Konicek
Sharon Hall
Gloria Johnson
Deputy Team leader, Jon Kaplan, opened the meeting with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. Jon welcomed new HCTT member, Gloria Johnson, who came to us from the 2nd Amendment Tiger Team. Gloria is a Physician Assistant who brings much to the table of the team’s understanding of health care in the trenches. Jon recapped the Four Prong Strategy that the team adopted at its previous meeting.
1. Congress
2. State
3. Judiciary
4. Private Sector
1. Congress
Jon reported on Steve Baysinger and Jon’s meeting with Shannon Cantrell, District Manager for Congressman Lamar Smith and Jonathan Huhn, aid to Senator John Cornyn. He shared that he and Steve made clear that the SATP saw them as allies in the Health Care debate in Congress and hoped that they saw the SATP as an ally. Jon and Steve asked how the SATP could help them. The aids said that until the bills were more solidified, they did not know specifically. We also asked them if they had sources of Constitutional law input to ascertain where the bills could be vulnerable Constitutionally. They said that they may have a source that gave them input in DC and that if the SATP were to present a letter to them asking for direct contact with that source, they might provide us with access to it. In the same breath, however, they said that they saw no Constitutional challenge until and unless a health care bill became law. We all observed that both the Tea Party movement and they were in the minority at this point in the effort to slow or defeat existing bills under consideration. The main accomplishment of this meeting was to open the door for further coordination as we all go forward. They seemed to appreciate that open door.
2. State
Jon reported in behalf of Hope D’Amore her meeting with Doug Miller, Texas Representative for Comal County, who is also an insurance broker, which fell into three categories – State Sovereignty, Texas Politics, and Healthcare. See Attachment 1 for a summary. Hope also has a meeting scheduled for Tuesday of this week with State Representative Frank Corte. She has a positive email response from Constitutional Scholar, Richard Epstein, who will contact her soon for a discussion. Hope is working on contact with San Antonio Constitutional lawyers, Allen Parker, and Clayton Trotter, of the Justice Foundation. Allen has spoken before the SATP and at the Alamo and may offer a local source of input. Jon reported that he had spoken to Mike Ariens, a Constitution Law Professor at St. Mary’s Law School, who offered insight into the Supreme Court’s historical position on Tenth Amendment issues. Ariens said that since the 1940’s the Supreme Court has broadened the federal government’s authority in its interpretation of the Constitution. One would therefore need new and persuasive arguments to pursue challenges from states based on 10th Amendment rights. There was discussion in the HCTT about proactive State pushback against federal intrusion into state’s rights, eg. getting the Governor to declare that Texas was going to relieve the federal government of the burden of administering Medicare and collect that portion of Social Security withholding allocable to Medicare, ie. play offense, rather than defense. Hope will follow up and report back to the HCTT on options.
3. Judiciary
Jon shared the idea of “using the law to enforce the law”, eg. trying to get a judge to issue a ruling that directly challenged or enjoined the federal government from creating an unfunded mandate to the states. This dovetails with the need for good Constitutional law input to know if this can be done. The general rule is that federal law, if Constitutional, trumps state law, but either by going to court or by governors acting de facto and throwing down the gauntlet to the federal government to try to enforce what they may assert as their authority is worth considering. Jon shared that Mike Ariens said that the Supreme court has upheld the authority of the federal government to regulate health insurance, but has delegated that authority to the states. As the Tea Party movement connects within Texas and eventually the nation, the fundraising resources to retain legal services for advice and action will be more supportable. SATP cannot finance this type of effort on its own.
4. Private Sector
Jon, Harry Sims and Laura Mullaney reported on efforts to first understand and second to make allies of the health related private sector, including the AMA, TMA, Bexar County Medical Society, doctors, hospital associations, and others. Laura and Jon attended the Bexar County Medical Society’s meeting where AMA(and former TMA) President, Dr. James Rohack, a cardiologist and a Texan spoke. Dr. Rohack says that the AMA has been characterized as supporting OBAMACARE and the public option. He backed off from that absolute characterization by saying that the AMA did not endorse HR 3200, but simply wanted to be a player at the negotiating table over how health care reform was ultimately done. He did a Power point presentation on the increased cost of Medicare by 2017 when more of the baby boomer generation reaches Medicare age. He said that if reform is not accomplished enough in advance of that point, Medicare will go broke. He said that he is concerned that Medicare reimbursements are not reduced as a cost saving measure by any of the bills. He said AMA was for tort reform which benefits doctors. He said that AMA was for mechanized medical records systems and alluded to $44 million that was allocated in the TARP for this purpose. He referred to the concept of an “accountable care organization” that would presumably decide what medical and diagnostic procedures were acceptable and what weren’t. He said that without tort reform to protect the doctors, this would both violate anti trust laws and place doctors in greater exposure to medical liability. He addressed the impact of illegal immigration in only the most cursory way by saying that illegals could buy insurance if it was affordable. He said the AMA was for Health Savings Accounts owned by the individual and for preventive care. He said AMA was for lowering health care administrative costs, but did not get specific on how this should be done. He referred to the Declaration of Independence(versus the Constitution) giving the citizenry ”the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. I believe he was making the case for health care being a right, rather than a privilege. Dr. Rohack will be back in San Antonio for a presentation at the Health Science Center on 10/19/09 from 5-6PM. Perhaps we might piggyback a private visit with him.
Other topics discussed were as follows
1. Tiger Teams Leader/co leader meetings planned once per month to coordinate.
2. “NO SOCIALISM” signs.
3. Terrell Hills neighborhood meeting, which Jon and Nita attended, showing (T. R. Reed of Washington Post)PBS video of “Sick Around the World” in which the socialized healthcare systems of Japan, Taiwan, England, Germany, and Switzerland were compared to the American system. It was actually informative and something the HCTT might want to view at some point. All of the systems have cost containment problems.
4. Sharon Hall explained the workings of the Texas Board of Insurance.
5. Dr. Stan Thompson and Gloria Johnson will work on finding out where the waste and fraud in Medicare is and how it can be eliminated. As of the date of these minutes being written, there was an item presented on Fox news that addressed a wheel chair that can be bought on the open market for $1800, which Medicare reimburses for $4600. The federal procurement program needs to be looked at. Gloria also reported on medical procedures that are not allowed to be reimbursed doubly for two in the same day, even though it would be efficient to do so for the patient. Therefore, providers make the patient return later for a separate appointment, so they can get reimbursed by insurance, ie. we reward inefficiency.
6. Texas Tea Party leaders will meet with SATP leaders in San Antonio later this month to coordinate our efforts.
7. We all need to recruit new members. (At the SATP General Meeting on Sunday, 10/4/09, we met Davis Jackson, who will join our Tiger Team). Welcome, Davis. If anyone knows lawyers, Constitutional and otherwise, who have an interest in our movement, please recruit them for the HCTT.
8. I have attached a wikipedia list of health insurers in Texas and Blue Cross’s FAQ for your review. Harry Sims and Laura Mullaney will be working to make contact with them so that we may get an opportunity for Q & A.
A closing prayer was said and the meeting adjourned. Next meeting will be at Eyes Of San Antonio (thank you Stan and Joyce) from 2-5PM on Saturday, 10/10/09.
Blue_Cross_FAQ_on_Health_Care_reform_Oct-05-2009.pdf
San Antonio Tea Party
