Health Care Crossroads

Citing the recent failure of a Republican-supported amendment which, among, other things, outlaws cost-analysis or “placing a dollar amount on a person’s life out of rationing purposes as another indication of where this nation’s headed to with President Obama,” U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) advised Bloggers Briefing attendees at the Heritage Foundation on June 23 that networking activism and education by conservative bloggers has never been quite as imperative. Furthermore, the Senator from Texas expounded upon how technology may be the decisive factor for 2010 election outcomes. Recalling the time when the power and influence of blogging was first displayed to him during “Rathergate,” Senator Cornyn believes the tools of Twitter, Facebook, and mobile-texting are crucial to any plausible chance the Republicans may have in winning the swing-states of Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Colorado, and Nevada in 2010.

Bloggers regularly meet at the Heritage locale to receive briefings from newsmakers. Consequently, a substantively-challenged message by Obama was not a shock to most attendees at the briefing, but several voiced agreement that it is nonetheless crucial to blog about the presidential news conference and specify why it offered another bone without its meat. “It goes without saying (that) President Obama carries a great gift for rhetoric. He’s good at making broad 30,000-feet statements but when it comes to putting in actual work it looks like he wants nothing to do with it,” Cornyn said about Obama’s recent speech on healthcare reform.

Questioned as to what his alternative to Obama-proposed overhaul would be, Senator Cornyn praised the policies of Safeway and Whole Foods corporations and the success of preventive medicine approach. But the most pressing issue in need of redress is insurance reform, according to Cornyn. He stated that an interstate insurance policy would help ameliorate the costs through improved efficiency, transparency, and consumer cost-awareness. Moreover, he argues the ever-mounting malpractice insurance premiums have been destructively counter-intuitive not only due to their role in rising healthcare costs but also because “it causes doctors to live and work in constant fear.” The predatory practice of trial lawyers equally hurts doctors, patients, and insurance companies, Sen. Cornyn claims. Thus, he argues that tort reform would have an immediate and significant role in affordability for healthcare. Senator Cornyn will soon introduce a health-insurance reform bill along with U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ). More information on the bill can be found at nrsc.org.

Anthony Kang is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.