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Hoosier biz groups oppose Senate health bill

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Four business groups told Indiana’s senators this week to vote against the health reform bill being debated in the U.S. Senate.

They join national business groups that have supported Congress’ health reform efforts, but are now turning against the final product. The bill would raise various taxes to fund subsidies to help more than 30 million uninsured Americans buy health coverage.

The presidents of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, the Indiana Manufacturers Association, the Indiana Health Industry Forum and the Indiana Hospital Association all signed letters sent to Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Indiana, and Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Indiana. The letter was released publicly on Thursday.

“The current Senate legislation, while expanding insurance coverage, continues and expands many of the dysfunctions of our current health care system,” wrote Kevin Brinegar, Pat Kiely, Kristin Jones and Doug Leonard, leaders of the four business groups.

They mainly faulted the failure of the legislation to change the way doctors and hospitals are paid. Government insurance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid now pay health care providers based on the volume of procedures they perform.

The business groups want the government to base those payments more on patient results or measurements of quality. They also want financial incentives to encourage hospitals, doctors, employers and patients to all work toward common goals.

Those kinds of changes are in the Senate bill, but only as pilot programs. Proponents of the bill say those efforts will expand in the future, but critics doubt that.

“If passed in its current form, it will add stress to an already flawed health care delivery system by increasing demand for health services by millions of newly insured without fundamentally improving the quality of care that patients receive or bend the total cost curve through smart reforms,” the business group presidents wrote.

The business groups also expressed concern about the Senate bill’s higher Medicare and medical device taxes. They also don’t like proposed expansion of the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs, saying these massive insurance plans pay doctors and hospitals too little.


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  1. Well, we could blame ABC because they haven't advertised the INDY 500....not during the HUGE TV rating shows like Dancing with the Stars (of which IICS driver Helio Castroneves is a former champion). He never won a CART championship, did he?

    We could blame the new car...because it's ugly and has a V6 that has less horsepower than the pace car. CART (to my knowledge) never had that problem with cars they presented at the speedway years 1979 through 1995.

    We could blame the fencepost, but that would be crass. Or maybe Danica? Or maybe Jean Alesi....or boost increases from constant rules tampering. Maybe we could blame Penske who still is winning everything as usual.

    Maybe we can blame the world for not understanding the the great Indy gods who regularly twist things in such ways that we mere mortals must only accept, but never question.

    So, it does beg the question....who is responsible if the series and Indy continues to flounder? Are the responsibilities so diffuse and complicated that no one really is to blame for it's fall from grace?

    I urge the speedway to sign on for 7 more years of ABC coverage and 7 more years of NBC Sports Network coverage. It been win-win so far....*cough* *cough*

  2. "They're problem was thinking they were bigger than the institution that made their existence possible. That turned out to be a mistake."

    The above quote made by Disciple shows his continued inability to grasp a simple concept: CART is dead. Twice. It provided a brilliant stage for some of the best open wheel racing in all the past century of racing. It's gone DOOD, get over it.

    PLEASE explain, Mr. Disciple of INDYCAR, why you continually hammer home, even on the eve of the 2012 Indy 500, this same point...over and over? Seriously, why does the legacy of CART haunt you so much?

    The same problems that affected the sport for over a century of AOW racing STILL affect it now. Your answers (or lack thereof) belittle the very sport you claim to love. Indy rots in your hands yet you request status quo. You negate salient points with drivel...always.

    Indy is not going to die. But, it is dying...are you willing to accept that? "Indy is a hot mess"....it's true. Yet you want it that way? What is wrong with you?

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  4. Triscuts...love um!

  5. Of course the fair will go on. Don't you big city reporters understand county fairs? Get outside the beltway and see what life is really like!

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