The Blogging Councilor

Below is the response I was provided from Representative Carol Shea-Porter to the six specific questions I asked in my last letter. You will notice as you read through this response that she did not answer my questions and merely sent a boilerplate letter. Is this because she doesn't know the answers or that she simply doesn't want to answer questions from one of her constituents?

My next letter I am sending out today will address this new question and ask her one more time to answer the questions directly or to let me know that she won't answer because, as it appears, she doesn't care what I ask

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April 7, 2010

Dear Mr. Knytych:

Thank you for contacting my office regarding health care reform.

On Sunday, March 21, 2010, I voted to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act (H.R. 4872).  These two bills together represent comprehensive health care reform.  Although this health care reform package, like any legislation, is not perfect, I am confident that it helps middle class families, seniors, and small business. 

The following is a letter I sent to CSP with the questions I wasn’t able to ask at her town hall event at the Laconia City Hall on Thursday, April 1, 2010. I will post any response I get.

RE: Questions and Comments from the April 1, 2010 Town Hall Meeting in Laconia, NH

Please provide a response.

I would like to thank you for holding a town hall meeting here, in Laconia on April 1^st. I am a City Councilor for Ward 1 in Laconia and attended the meeting. I was not able to ask questions at the event but wish to now. Some of my questions are from personal concerns and some are from concerns I have for my city and the businesses here.

1) To start off you mentioned the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in your opening remarks and in response to a question posed during the event. I have looked through the bill and the CBO scoring that has been provided. I was wondering why you supported a bill that according to the CBO will cause the loss of an estimated 1.6 Million jobs in this country? It seems to me that there was a much better way to achieve the main goal of providing affordable coverage for insurance and eliminating the “pre-existing condition” practice with a more free-market approach that was offered and outright rejected on partisan lines as amendments at the beginning of this process. These approaches would not only have achieved the stated goal but also created jobs in the health care industry.

2) This bill does absolutely nothing in the area of torte reform and we both know that the skyrocketing costs of medical malpractice insurance, along with the practice of extra testing to eliminate potential litigation, are large drivers in the overall healthcare costs that grow faster than the rate of inflation. Why was nothing done to address this issue other than an advisory commission to explore the issue? We both know that there are a few different ways to kill a proposed legislation and among them are creating a commission that will only meet a few times and will provide a meaningless report that will just sit there with nothing done.

3) This bill will change the enrollment criteria for Medicaid, which will put additional expenses on the states to pay for the people newly qualified individuals. I am sure you are aware that the low Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements are another large driving force in the high medical inflation rate. I am also sure that you are aware that NH can’t afford the Medicare/Medicaid it currently has, as reflected in the lowest reimbursement rates in the nation. The state passes these costs onto the property taxpayers and hospitals to absorb the loss. Was this one of the “good” aspects of this healthcare legislation you voted for?

4) When asked at the event about why anyone would trust a government run program given the fact that Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are near insolvency you responded about other government entities that run well. You spoke about the military and the highway system. 

First off, the military is not an entitlement program but is required in the constitution. Secondly, do you expect me to believe that the federal highway system, which also is not an entitlement program, is an example of proper management? It was not so long ago that we were told that our highways are in serious disrepair with bridges failing and that we needed an extra $109 Million to help restore them. This doesn’t sound like it is properly run system to me.

I would like for you to answer the original question as it relates to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

5) The revelation that this healthcare bill will actually increase premiums on younger individuals by 17% sounds like this bill doesn’t even achieve the state goal of reducing healthcare costs. Why is this legislation better than one of the alternatives that would actually reduce the costs across the board?

6) The recent revelation that this bill could single handedly kill the ski industry because of the extra expenses or fines for seasonal employees extends well beyond the winter ski industry. As a City Councilor I am especially worried about the summer tourist industry, which is the largest economic factor in Laconia and the Lakes Region. Can you explain to the lodging, restaurant, and attraction businesses that participate in the summer tourist season what you will do to help them avoid the added expenses that will need to be met due to your vote?

I have many more questions concerning healthcare but I will just stick to these six for right now. I would like a complete response to each of these questions in writing and not one of your generic boilerplate letters you usually send out when you don’t want to answer questions. I would also like the answers to be on point and not the talking points that are so often used in answering the tough questions.

Sincerely,

Greg Knytych

Ward 1 City Councilor

Laconia, NH 03246

To start off I need to say that I am writing this letter as a resident of Laconia, NH in the 1^st Congressional District and not in my positions of City Councilor and Laconia Republican Committee Chairman.

I sure hope the new Obamacare health plan covers hearing aids because it appears that our ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE needs some. How does Carol Shea-Porter not hear what we, her constituents, are saying? Let us review her record this session.

During the August congressional recess the healthcare debate was going strong (one sided of course) and the elected representatives left Washington to hear from their constituents back home. That is the representatives of the other 49 states had meetings. Since OUR representatives in New Hampshire refused to meet with us until the media pressure became so great that they conceded. Carol Shea-Porter only held 2 meetings at Federal Buildings in Manchester and Portsmouth where she felt safe. These meetings were not publicized; were filled with people from Massachusetts (not her district or state); and the questions asked were, for the most part, limited to her supporters only. How can you determine what your employers (the people in your district) expect from you if only one side is presented? Was it too scary to actually hear from the people that she represents?

She voted for the original House Bill that included bribes to legislators. She apparently has no problem paying OUR tax dollars as favors to other states. I am trying to remember who she represents, since I thought it was NEW HAMPSHIRE.

The video below is from Representative Parker Griffith (R - Al). Rep. Griffith is also a Doctor and understands the problems in the health care industry and what the bill proposed by the Democratic leadership will do to America.

This video was done on March 6th and according to Rep. Griffith: "In the next 10 days, Democrats in Washington will try and jam through a massive government takeover of health care. It would raise taxes, slash Medicare benefits and destroy American jobs. It would put federal bureaucrats in charge of medical decisions that should be made by patients and doctors. And it must be stopped."

Watch the video and you decide...

This is a copy of the Op-Ed that has been submitted to The Union Leader today. I have also submitted a similar letter to the editor in the Laconia Daily Sun, Citizen of Laconia, Fosters Daily Democrat and Concord Monitor.

The primary sponsor of NH Senate Bill 505, establishing a commission to set rates at private hospitals in NH is State Senate Majority Leader Maggie Hassan (D – Exeter). This bill creates a “Health Services Cost Review Commission” to “review and approve or disapprove hospital rates and rate schedules” and is to be funded by an assessment (see Tax) levied on hospital revenues.

This commission has the ability to determine how large it becomes and is given its own authority to assess and collect a tax on hospital income, identified as “administrative assessment” on “net operating revenues.” Let me repeat that, this commission has the ability to determine it’s own size, how many employees it will have, how much money it needs to operate and to collect that money directly from the hospitals in without legislative oversight. This sounds dangerous to me.

Sen. Hassan, in her press release identifies “Maryland and other states with similar commissions study all the factors that go into hospital costs – including things like the population of Medicaid patients, uncompensated care, severity of illnesses and cost of living in a given region.” What she fails to mention is that Maryland is the ONLY state with a commission like this and that they have a special federal waiver that allows them to set all rates at hospitals including what the state must pay in Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements. Why doesn’t her bill provide the authority to force NH to pay its fair share of the Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements?

One of the driving factors in the disparity charged patients is the fact that NH has one of the lowest reimbursement rates for Medicaid and Medicare in the nation. This disparity has to be made up elsewhere. Hospitals have negotiated reimbursement rates for different procedures from the insurance companies and Sen. Hassan’s point is that an uninsured person receives a bill for the full amount of the cost but misses the point that what the uninsured actually pays is reduced more than the discounted rates insurance companies pay.

The following is the letter I have submitted to the Laconia Daily Sun and the Citizen of Laconia.

To the Editor:

I read the article (Laconia Daily Sun, Tuesday, February 16^th) about the local impact of the budget cuts being pursued by the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) with quite some interest and feel compelled to share my thoughts of this story. 

I agree with Senator Sgambati calling these reductions in payments to health care providers as “unacceptable”. I don’t know why DHHS is always looked at to compensate the lion’s share of expenditure cuts for the ridiculous spending our state legislators put into the state budget. This policy only shifts costs from the state to private institutions, which then have to pass that loss onto higher costs for services which we all pay through higher health insurance premiums. This helps to create the call for completely changing our health care system into what will ultimately be a single payer system. I have a feeling that this cost shift is what we are to expect with the current federal plan being negotiated behind closed doors in Washington, until there comes a point when no private health care provider or insurance company exists to pass the costs onto. Then the rationing will start.

This morning on my way to work I met with a dear friend. We spoke about today’s remembrance events scheduled across the country to remember those who died on this day eight years ago. We spoke of where we were when we learned of the attack on our country and watched these things unfold. 

We spoke of how this is a special day in history that requires somber reflection on the events of the past and not a day to “volunteer” as this administration would like us to do. Remember it is this administration that let us know that the attack on this day was not an act of war by the Radical Muslims, but merely a “Man Caused Disaster” that cause some people to die.    REALLY?!?!?!

In case you aren’t sure what you should do to “volunteer” a web site has been set up to help identify an organization that you can volunteer for, such as helping to sort “dropped-off” materials at a recycling center.

My friend gave me a copy of a letter he has written to the editors of several local newspapers and said that they refused to publish this letter. I think it is important to read so we can understand what the individuals responsible for the “Man Caused Disaster”, excuse me DECLARATION OF WAR! were thinking. 

To: The Editor

From: Bill Tobin, Sanbornton, NH

Lest We Forget: Attending a supper last weekend I was reminded by lapel pin (Never Forget 9/11) of a recent remark by Obama saying we are not at war with the Muslim world. This is true. We did not attack them. They declared war on all who do not profess their religion. It matters not whether you are a Christian, Jew, Buddhist or any other belief. It matters not whether you are good, loving and caring. They will do everything possible to exterminate you who do not praise Allah. You are the dirt under their feet. They are blowing up their children to get at you. Read the history books and remember these words:

I was ordered to fight all men until they say “There is no god but Allah”.

Prophet Muhammad’s farewell address, March 632

I shall cross the sea to their islands to pursue them until there remains no one on the face of the Earth that does not acknowledge Allah.

Saladin 1189

We eill export our revolution throughout the world… until the calls “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah are echoed all over the world”

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeni 1979

“I was ordered to fight the people until they say there is no god but Allah, and his prophet Muhammad”

Osama Bin Laden, November 2001

“That it is founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it is written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that is their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and make slaves of all they could take prisoners, and that every Mussel man who should be slain in battle are sure to go to Paradise”

Thomas Jefferson to the Continental Congress 1786

Lest we forget