Author Archives: Admin

How the New Health Care Law will Impact Oklahoma

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D.

Since Congress passed a new health care spending law people across Oklahoma and America are expressing grave concerns and confusion about the plan.  They are not alone.  In fact, many members of Congress do not understand the bill they just passed.  Unfortunately, my discussions with state and federal agencies have reinforced my concerns that the consequences of this bill will be severe and harmful for Oklahoma and every other state in the country.  

This plan is the most reckless and irresponsible piece of legislation
Congress has passed in decades.  At a time when we need to be lowering
health care costs and shoring up Medicare and Social Security, Congress
has decided to expand broken and bankrupt programs and create new
burdens for families.  

The bottom line is the typical Oklahoman can expect to pay more for lower quality health care with fewer choices.  Oklahomans can expect the following outcomes:

1)  84,980 Oklahoma seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage will have their benefits reduced by half according to the director of the Congressional Budget Office.

2)  Approximately 750,000 Oklahoma households making less than $200,000 will pay higher taxes, based on estimates by the Joint Committee on Taxation.  

3)  The youngest Oklahomans could pay 15 to 30 percent more as premiums go up in the individual market.

4)  Oklahoma small businesses employing 50 or more people will pay either higher health care costs or a new penalty because of new government mandates.

5)  About 200,000 adults in Oklahoma will be enrolled in Medicaid because the bill dramatically expands Medicaid eligibility.

6)  The Medicaid expansion will place a severe burden on Oklahoma’s state budget.  The expansion could cost Oklahoma more than $60 million a year once fully implemented, which could force the governor and legislature to raise taxes, raise college tuitions, decrease the quality of education, or all three.

7)  Each Oklahoman will carry the burden of $8,470 in new government spending under the plan.

8)  Every Oklahoman who pays taxes is going to be paying for abortions with their own dollars.  The President’s executive order will not prevent taxpayer-funded abortion, according to the National Right to Life Committee and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

9)  Oklahoma patients and doctors will have less control of treatment decisions.  The new bill gives the Secretary of Health and Human Services and a board of unelected bureaucrats vast new powers to decide the scope of coverage and which services will be reimbursed.  As a result, the government will effectively ration care and shorten life spans as federal bureaucrats overrule doctors.  In my own practice, patients I diagnosed with cancer and other diseases would have died prematurely if my treatment decisions were determined in Washington, D.C rather than my exam room.

10)  The bill’s micromanagement of doctors and reckless expansion of government-run health care will encourage more doctors to retire even as our nation faces a doctor shortage. Our nation could face a shortage of as many as 150,000 doctors in the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Yet, what is even more troubling than the consequences we can predict are the consequences we can’t predict.  When Congress interferes in the market and the sacred-doctor patient relationship, the negative ramifications are far-reaching.  We already see this throughout our health care system.
 
Medicaid, for instance, allegedly guarantees health care to low-income Americans.  In reality, however, 40 percent of doctors do not treat Medicaid patients so Medicaid patients receive substandard care compared to patients with private insurance.  The Medicaid reimbursement rate for doctors is so low that many doctors would go out of business if they saw every Medicaid patient they could.  Yet, because doctors care about all patients many practices, including my own practice in Oklahoma, provide health care to Medicaid patients even though we often lose money in the process. Medicaid proves that access to a government program is not access to health care. Yet, under the new law, half of all uninsured Americans will be forced into Medicaid.

I’m hopeful many of these dire consequences can be avoided if the American people demand that Congress repeal this foolish and reckless plan.  As long as I’m in the Senate, I’ll use every power available to me to repeal this bill and replace it with a reform plan – such as the Patients’ Choice Act I introduced last year – that will cover more Americans without bankrupting our country or putting the government in charge of health care.
 

Mullet Over #403

James White

Fishermen and others who frequent the Mediterranean Sea are reporting an increase in huge blobs of plankton-secreted mucus. These blobs, which are sometimes more than 100 miles in length, trap shrimp, small fish and other aquatic life. After a few days in the sun, the decaying masses emit foul stenches (or if small birds have been trapped, fowl stenches). Some biologists blame over-fishing (severe disruption of eco-systems) in the region for the odorous floating clutter.

Do you own a powerful flashlight?  If not, you may be interested in the newly introduced device that is the size of a large banana and is capable of lighting up objects ¼ mile distant for more than an hour.  I shall not soon be making such a purchase as the lights retail for $450 each.

A recent study indicates that 25% of women think that men who have lots of money are sexier than those who are simply average in wealth.  Some might have guessed 100%.

You can actually make your own water – simply combine hydrogen and oxygen atoms at the ratio of 2:1.  However, do be careful as that is essentially the reaction that took place when the airship Hindenburg was destroyed.

The next time you enjoy a drink of water, recall that approximately 97.5% of the water on earth is too salty for human consumption.  About 60% of the remaining 2.5% is inaccessibly frozen.

Many years ago movie studio MGM conducted a contest to propose a screen name for potential star Lucille LeSueur. That is how Joan Crawford got her name.

International travelers are sometimes surprised whenever they order sherbet in Sydney, Melbourne, etc. “Sherbet” is Australian slang for beer.

U.S. babies born in May are typically seven ounces heavier than infants born in any other month.  Possibly there is something special about winter gestation?

American adults spend an average of 77 minutes each day eating or drinking. More people may want to consider wearing earrings: Acupuncture folks claim that the ear is a vital area for controlling appetites.

The name Beelzebub translates as “lord of the flies.”

In Greece, there exists a belief that when one removes his/her shoes and one or both land upside down, the shoe-remover is required to immediately utter “skorda” (garlic) and spit. The shoes must then be set upright. Failure to do so is thought by some to invite horrible luck, even death. Well, enjoy sherbets of your choice and have a great week.

Fleet Feet Opens In Blue Dome

Staff Report

Fleet Feet Sports is announcing the opening of its second store in the heart of Downtown Tulsa Historic on Route 66.

The Blue Dome District is already the hub of Tulsa’s downtown growth. Fleet Feet Sports is adding to that mix by giving people another reason to spend time downtown. Along with the nightlife and dining that exists in the Blue Dome district, the addition of a high quality fitness store such as Fleet Feet Sports gives people a reason to turn to downtown to get in shape – especially since Fleet Feet’s next door neighbor is the new Lee’s Bicycle store.

Fleet Feet’s second store is scheduled to open this summer, but design, construction and permits aren’t holding up the excitement. Beginning May 18th, Fleet Feet will launch its popular No Boundaries class at the site of its future store location at 2nd and Frankfort. This “Couch to 5K” class has already helped thousands of Tulsans to get in shape and stay healthy.

"We are thrilled to bring our store and all of our training classes to downtown Tulsa," says Tim Dreiling, co-owner of Fleet Feet Sports. "We have always felt strongly about supporting Tulsa and we believe in the revitalization of downtown Tulsa that is underway. We are committed to Tulsa and hope our efforts to bring retail to the vibrant Blue Dome District will make a difference."

Fleet Feet’s new downtown location will serve as a second hub for our current training classes with its ample parking, and easy access to several trail heads as well as serving as a platform for new corporate and government health and wellness programs.

ABOUT FLEET FEET TULSA:
Fleet Feet Tulsa is locally owned and operated by Tim and Lori Dreiling.  The store has been named one of America’s 50 best running stores the past four years running. Fleet Feet Tulsa has numerous training programs geared to people of all levels of fitness. In 2009, more than 850 people took part in one or more of those training classes. Fleet Feet believes in what we call FITLOSOPHY® – an approach designed to find the right “fit” for every facet of your active lifestyle. 

US Fiscal Time Bomb and How To Defuse It

Dr. Tom Coburn

Edit Note:  Dr. Coburn’s op-ed in this week’s edition of the Christian Science Monitor outlines choices to address the current Federal debt and deficit crisis. The bad news is that Washington has hard choices to make now to avert disaster. The good news is that some members of Congress are showing real political courage.
________________________________________

American leaders on the left and right are increasingly acknowledging that unless we take dramatic steps to reduce our deficits and debt, we may face not just another economic crisis but the end of American prosperity and leadership as we know it.

No one knows precisely when we will reach this economic tipping point, but I would argue we have no more than five years to put ourselves on a sustainable course. Change on this scale does not happen overnight. The time to start making hard choices is now.

The urgency of this threat has been explained well by two leading economists, Kenneth Rogoff, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, and Carmen Reinhart, of the University of Maryland. They argue that when the ratio of debt to gross domestic product (GDP) reaches 90 percent in an advanced economy like ours, economic growth slows considerably – at least 1 percent annually – while interest rates and inflation rise.

Under President Obama’s own budget, we will reach this tipping point in 2020 according to the Congressional Budget Office. However, if you reject Washington’s Enron-style accounting and include the money we steal from the Medicare and Social Security trust funds, our total "gross debt" will reach 91 percent of GDP this year.

The only way to avoid this crisis is to cut spending, raise taxes, or reform entitlements.

Unfortunately, history shows that the preferred choice of Congress is to raise taxes and avoid the hard work of prioritizing spending and reforming entitlement programs.

Option No. 1: Raise taxes
Congress has raised the payroll tax that funds Social Security 20 times, while the tax that helps fund the hospital insurance portion of Medicare has been raised eight times. Unless the American people demand that Congress take a different approach, we will once again see politicians propose new taxes, such as a value-added tax (VAT), to avoid a catastrophe.

In spite of Congress’s tendency to raise taxes and put off reform for another day, I’m optimistic that the scope of our long-term debt problem will lead to true spending restraint and reform.

First, we’ve run out of taxpayers. There simply are not enough workers per retiree to fund the status quo. Taxes would have to be raised to wildly unrealistic levels – rates would have to double – to keep these programs afloat.

Second, the American people will not tolerate tax increases while Congress squanders at least $350 billion every year in wasteful, duplicative, and inefficient spending.

Option No. 2: Cut spending
It’s true that cutting spending alone won’t solve all of our problems but it is the place we must start. The American people will never trust Congress, an institution with an approval rating of 20 percent, to reform entitlement programs when we spend billions on failing programs and earmarks that benefit no one other than a member of Congress and a campaign contributor.

Those who claim it is too hard to cut domestic spending are misreading the electorate and misrepresenting history.

Over the past decade, federal spending has doubled. Yet few Americans would say we’re better off.

If politicians in Washington had the will, the American people would back an effort that deemed much of the past growth in government as gratuitous, unnecessary, and reversible. In fact, 53 percent of the likely voters in a January Rasmussen poll said cutting spending would help the economy.

Third, politicians in Washington are already moving in this direction. New members such as Republican Sen. Scott Brown are being elected in "big government" strongholds like Massachusetts, and incumbents are warming to the idea of spending restraint.

For instance, the Senate recently came within two votes of paying for an extension of unemployment benefits with reductions in spending instead of borrowing more money from future generations.

Also, the number of members of Congress seeking earmarks – the gateway drug to spending addiction in Washington – is declining.

Option No. 3: Reform entitlement programs
Finally, members of Congress are increasingly willing to touch "third rail" issues such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which are driving our unsustainable deficits.

Last year, I introduced a comprehensive health-care reform bill, the Patients’ Choice Act, with Sen. Richard Burr (R) of North Carolina, and Reps. Paul Ryan (R) of Wisconsin and Devin Nunes (R) of California.  It is the antithesis of ObamaCare. Instead of building on a broken system, it would renovate a broken system and put the individual, not the government, in charge of his or her own health care.

Representative Ryan also has a more comprehensive plan called "A Roadmap for America’s Future," which is a serious, specific proposal to put our major entitlement programs on a sustainable path.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R) of South Carolina has an innovative plan to save Social Security. Sens. Judd Gregg (R) of New Hampshire and Ron Wyden (D) of Washington have a bold plan to simplify our tax codes and lower tax rates.

I’m also drafting a plan that will lay out 12 specific steps to break Congress’s addiction to spending. What is lacking in Washington is not solutions, but the courage and political will to enact real change.

Over the next two election cycles, the American people have an opportunity to mount a historic and heroic rescue of the American experiment. This is not a Republican or Democratic challenge. It is an American challenge. None of these challenges are insurmountable, but the time for action is now.

 

About the author:
Tom Coburn, a physician and Republican senator from Oklahoma, is a member of the president’s debt commission. To read the article in the original posting, click here.  

Corp Commissioners Donate Pay

Staff Report

Oklahoma Corporation Commissioners Bob Anthony and Dana Murphy today informed Gov. Brad Henry they want to each give the state part of their pay to match wage losses experienced by furloughed Commission employees.

They are asking Gov. Henry to accept the money on behalf of the State and direct the funds back to their agency so the money can be used for other Commission costs, pursuant to sections 383 and 384 of Title 60 of the Oklahoma Statutes.

Commissioners may not reduce their pay under state law, Commission General Counsel Andrew Tevington said, so they have opted to write checks back to the government.

“The Commissioners believe it’s only fair to be included in the unpaid furlough days the agency’s employees have had to take in the second half of this fiscal year,” Tevington explained.  “Because the furlough days are the result of cuts to the agency, Commissioners Anthony and Murphy have stipulated their gifts go to the specific use and benefit of the agency, rather than to the General Revenue fund.”

State law does not allow the Commissioners to make the gifts to their agency without going through the governor, Tevington said.

The state’s budget shortfall has forced the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to cut approximately eight percent of the agency’s work force, place the Commission’s remaining 440 employees on eight unpaid furlough days through June and institute $400,000 in additional cuts over those mandated for all agencies.

The Commission’s budget was cut 18 percent at the beginning of the current fiscal year compared to five to 10 percent for other agencies. The state’s current fiscal year ends June 30.