Well, Hodes is certainly in the tank for Pelosi….

I just attended Congressman Hodes (D-NH, District 2) "tele-Town Hall". The theme for the hour was basically a group of people asking softball questions to Mr. Hodes concerning the Healthcare bill. No, I didn’t get to ask a question; I’m not in his District and I did identify myself correctly from my home town (I’m in CD-1).

The full audio is here:

My question was going to be more on the philosophical:

My enumerated rights in the Constitution / Bill of Rights are, President Obama said, negative rights – what the Government cannot do to its citizens. Do you believe, similar to President Roosevelt (FDR), that healthcare is a Right (similar to FDR’s Second Bill of Rights)?

There was a good question from Heather, a nurse, so I was going to change my question to follow up on her’s – Hodes claim was that nothing should be getting in the way of patients and their Doctors and Nurses:

Even though you are against the upcoming 20% cut in Medicare payments to Doctors, already Doctors are rejecting new Medicaid patients because renumeration is already way below their regular fees (I know, as a couple of years ago my step-dad was rejected). With a $60 Trillion hole for Medicaid, how can you pay Doctors what you want to with 50 million more patients (Universal coverage) for the same number of doctors?

From Hodes, the message was clear:

Insurance companies are bad:

They OVER charge

They are IN charge (not you or doctor)

They are bad!!! To the point of demonization

The Government option will level the playing field – a competitive plan

He kept reassuring the elderly that their healthcare will not change

Along with that, it was funny to see what he did NOT talk about:

Medicaid / Medicare / VA government health system are already $30-$60 Trillion underfunded for future benefits

This bill will cost $1 Trillion over the next 10 years (according to the Congressional Budget Office)

Failed to note that Medicare / Medicaid has about an $80 Billion rate of fraud.

Failed to note that a number of items that insurance companies have to tag for overhead are provided "free" (e.g., Cost of the buildings are not counted for Medicare).

That there are over 1,300 insurance companies in the marketplace already

Much of the higher cost is due to the over 2,300 state and federal mandates add to the highly regulated environment for insurance companies (even as Hodes claimed that insurance companies are the LEAST regulated).

The only way that the Government option can be "competitive" is by:

offering the same coverage at a lower cost

offering more coverage at the same cost (which IS a lower cost)