Why “Medicare for All” Is a Pipe Dream

By Alieta Eck, MD

Dr. Alieta Eck

As I listened to the Town Hall where Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders proclaimed his dream of Medicare for All, I realized that he was speaking in vague generalities that were void of realism. Medical care would be “free at the point of service with no co-pays.” Would there be any brakes on the over-utilization of services? He had no answer. He thus needs to understand that the demand for medical services is limitless when other people are paying the bill.

A pipe dream is an allusion to the dreams experienced by smokers of opium pipes. The suggestion that “Medicare for all” would save money is surely an example of a pipe dream promoted by politicians seeking votes.

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Holt Bolts

Congressman Rush Holt announced this afternoon that h.e will not seek a 9th term in the House of Representatives.   In a statement posted on facebook, the rocket scientist/Jeopardy champion said it was a honor to serve and that there are no hidden motives in his decision to retire. “For a variety of reasons, personal and professional, all of them positive and optimistic, the end of this year seems to me to be the right time to step aside and ask the voters to select the next representative.”

Holt couldn’t debate healthcare with Rhoda Chodosh.  He certainly doesn’t want to debate Dr. Alieta Eck this fall.

Holt was a candidate for U.S. Senate for the Democratic nomination in the Special Election to replace the late Senator Frank Lautenberg last summer, losing then Newark Mayor Cory Booker, the winner of the nomination and the seat, and Congressman Frank Pallone.

Democrats are lining up to compete for the nomination to replace Holt in the 12 district which includes parts of Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset and Union Counties and is considered a safe Democratic district by most political experts.

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2014 Predictions

Happy New Year MMM readers!  2014 has been a great year so far!

Here’s what we expect in the year ahead.

Senator Cory Booker will narrowly defeat Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick in the U.S. Senate election.  Bramnick will be the instant front runner for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in the 2016 special election.

Marlboro Mayor Jonathan Hornik will be a speaker at numerous Democratic Clubs throughout New Jersey and will establish himself as a major fundraiser for Democratic candidates on the municipal and county levels.  Hornik will proclaim that the only thing he is running for is reelection as Marlboro’s mayor in 2015.

The 11 incumbent New Jersey Congressmen running for reelection will win. The Republican nominee in the third congressional district seat currently held by Congressman Jon Runyon, who is not seeking a third term, will be elected.  Tommy DeSeno will write a column complaining about gerrymandered districts.

Senate President Steve Sweeney will keep picking on Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean, Jr. 

Governor Chris Christie will have more public appearances in Iowa, South Carolina, Texas and Florida, combined, than he will have Town Hall Meetings in New Jersey.

Anna Little will seek the Republican nomination for Congress in the 6th district, hoping for a third shot at Congressman Frank Pallone.  Little will lose at the Monmouth and Middlesex nominating conventions and wage a primary. The Bayshore Tea Party Group will sit out the 6th district primary, citing their commitment to Dr. Alieta Eck’s campaign in the 12th district.  Eck will be unopposed for the 12th district nomination to take on Congressman Rush Holt.

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Eck Preparing To Challenge Holt In CD 12

Dr. Alieta Eck

Dr. Alieta Eck is laying the groundwork to run against 12 District Congressman Rush Holt.  She expects to make a formal announcement of her candidacy after the first of the year.  She was a candidate in the Special Senate Primary to replace the late Senator Frank Lautenberg this summer, losing to former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan.  Lonegan went on to lose to then Newark Mayor Cory Booker by 11%.

Eck told MMM this afternoon that she is setting up meetings with the Republican County Chairs of the distirct (Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset and Union) and the National Republian Congressional Committee. She hopes to avoid having to defend her nominating petitions come April.  She also hopes to be unopposed for the GOP nomination.  Eck said she is being advised by GOP consultant David Millner and former Congressman Mike Pappas.  Holt unseated Pappas in 1998.

[Aside: NRCC is selling Bush/Cheney 00 tee shirts for $25 if you’re looking for stocking stuffers] (sarcasm off)

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Forget trying to beat Booker, the NJ GOP should plan for the next gubernatorial election

photo via facebook

U.S. Senator Cory Booker is going to be elected to his own full term next November.

None of the Republicans said to be considering a challenge to Booker can beat him.

It’s not that Booker is invincible, as was widely thought prior to the Special Senate Election last October.  He is beatable.  Steve Lonegan exposed the fallacies of the Booker myth and Patrick Murray documented that Booker’s support is shallow.   Had Washington Republicans not followed Senator Ted Cruz’s lead to shut down the government in October and had State Comptroller Matt Boxer released his audit of Newark’s City Government which exposed millions of wasted taxpayer money and management practices that encourage fraud in September instead of this week, Lonegan might have pulled off the upset that Booker deserved.

There’s nothing wrong with 4 of the 5 Republicans reported to be looking to challenge Booker.  Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick, Senator Minority Leader Tom Kean JR, Senator Mike Doherty or Assemblyman Jay Webber would all serve New Jersey well in the U.S. Senate.

That Darryl Isherwood included Assemblyman Chris Brown is his list of 5 Republican of potential candidates to challenge Booker is more of a reflection of Isherwood’s sense of humor than it is of Brown’s viability as a candidate for any office in the future.  After blaming his Assembly running mate John Amodeo’s 39 vote loss on Governor Christie, Brown will be lottery winner lucky if he is even re-nominated for his Assembly seat in 2015.  “What will Brown do after politics?” MMM asked a senior Republican strategist after the gaffe.  “We’ll find out soon,” the strategist said with a laugh.

(Correction:  As a commenter pointed out, Isherwood was referring to a different Assemblyman Chris Brown (the LD 8 Brown) than the one who blamed Christie for his running mate’s loss.  My mistake makes my overall point.  MMM readers are more informed than the average voter.  How many knew there was even one Chris Brown in the Assembly prior to the LD 2 Brown’s gaffe?  There isn’t a member of the legislature with the statewide name ID to compete with Booker~ Art)

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Why Do We Have a Medicaid Program?

Dr. Alieta Eck

By Alieta Eck, M.D.

A Star Ledger headline reads: “ObamaCare fuels applicant boom for NJ Medicaid—Advocate hails 35% increase in October.” Almost 22,000 new applications were filed in October, up from 16,000 in September. Is this a triumph? Was a 990-page law needed to accomplish this? The taxpayers will have to fork over $5,000 per applicant to a Medicaid HMO—that’s $110 million—and what will the patients get?

I am a physician who volunteers at the Zarephath Health Center, a non-government charity clinic in central NJ, where volunteers care for the poor and uninsured. We see Medicaid patients who cannot find a Medicaid doctor. The other day I saw a 35-year-old mother with severe asthma. She is on Medicaid and had gone to the emergency room a few days earlier. She was instructed to find a physician for follow-up treatment. Unable to find a doctor who takes Medicaid, she was welcomed at our clinic. I saw her, spent time hearing her story, and was happy to give her prescriptions to keep her asthma in check.

The next day she returned with the odd complaint that no pharmacy would fill her prescriptions. Since I had not enrolled as a “non-billing Medicaid provider,” the pharmacies were told they would not be paid if they filled my prescriptions. I have a license, am board certified in internal medicine, and pay each year to keep my controlled-substances licenses updated, so why would they not honor my prescriptions?

When the patient called the Medicaid office, they instructed her to go back to the emergency room to get her prescriptions rewritten there—presumably copied by a physician enrolled in the program. Why would the Medicaid program deny her the medicines she needed? One would think they would appreciate the fact that a doctor was willing to see and care for her without costing the system anything. But apparently this is not how a bloated bureaucracy works.

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The Auditor: Christie to help Lonegan retire campaign debt, Buono loses Metuchen and more

The Auditor: Christie to help Lonegan retire campaign debt, Buono loses Metuchen and more (via NJ.com)

Gov. Chris Christie isn’t done helping Steve Lonegan, the former Republican U.S. Senate candidate. The Auditor is told that Christie — who endorsed Lonegan, his former rival, and held one fundraiser for him during his unsuccessful campaign against…

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Why ObamaCare Cannot Succeed

Dr. Alieta Eck

By Dr. Aleita Eck, MD

Question: If a $600/month   insurance policy only costs the individual $33, what does it REALLY   cost?

Answer: $600, with $567 less in purchasing power for the hard-working taxpayer who is subsidizing it.

Smoke and mirrors make for bad   policy. When we buy any type of insurance, we weigh the benefits of the policy   against the loss of the money we must put out to purchase the policy. When we ask the taxpayers to subsidize our policy, all such reasoning   disappears.

Most of us have limited funds, so we must choose carefully. Wise people insure against major loss, such as our house burning down. Most of us believe that paying $1,000 per year is reasonable, as the cost to rebuild a house is hundreds of thousands of   dollars. Insurance gives us peace of mind, even though the chance of our house burning down is statistically very low.

For many reasons, we have allowed health insurance to defy all the principles of insurance. There is something emotional about health insurance. Maybe it is because we fear death and want to be sure it does not happen to us any time soon. Maybe it is watching others suffer from illness and want insurance to assure that they get well, do not suffer, and have all their bills paid.

We have actually been duped into thinking that someone else ought to pay for all the health care we need.   Politicians gain support and votes when they assure the masses that they care   about their health. And insurance companies are more than happy to offer generous policies since commissions and CEO compensation are a percentage of the premiums.

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Eck Clarifies Her Position On Abortion, Says She Can’t Imagine Lonegan Getting Elected, Will Run For Senate In 2014

At Steve Lonegan’s press conference on Saturday, the front runner in tomorrow’s GOP primary to replace the late U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg said that his opponent, Dr. Alieta Eck, first presented herself the party as pro-life but recently announced she was pro-abortion.  Lonegan said Eck should leave the Republican party.

The confusion arose out of comments Eck made during a meeting of the Long Hill Republicans last week wherein she said that there was no practical way for the government to prevent abortions during the early stages of pregnancy.

MMM wanted to clear up the confusion and understand Eck’s position.  She granted Art Gallagher an interview yesterday at her free health clinic in Somerset.

Eck said she is unabashedly pro-life. We spoke about her work with the poor, her experiences campaigning for Senate, and her political future.

Eck said she can’t imagine that Lonegan will be elected in the  October 16 Special Senate Election, if he defeats her, as the polls indicate he will tomorrow.  She said she will be a candidate for U.S. Senate again next year should the Democratic nominee selected tomorrow be elected.  She wouldn’t rule out another primary against Lonegan, even if Lonegan is elected in October.

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Lonegan Takes The Offensive

“I have a handicap, you know.   I’m a white guy, running in the State of New Jersey.  That’s my handicap. “

“I took down an inappropriate, silly tweet after 20 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes.  5 months later, Anti-Semitic, hate filled videos are still posted on Cory Booker’s website. Where’s the race card now? Where’s the media now? “Where’s the liberal left now in defending us against this kind of hate filled Anti-Semitism?”

~Steve Lonegan

Former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, the front runner in the August 13 Republican primary for the nomination to replace the late U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg,  held a press conference in Kinnelon yesterday afternoon to address the reaction to the tweet(pictured to the right) posted by his campaign on Thursday night during the Democratic Senate Debate.

Lonegan billed the event as a “press conference on political correctness” but the tweet and his opponents “pulling the race card” was the topic.  In classic Lonegan fashion, the candidate confronted the problem and flipped the criticism back on his opponents.  In this case, his opponents being Booker, who is expected to win the Democratic nomination on Tuesday, the “liberal media” and Dr. Alieta Eck, his opponent for the Republican nomination.

Lonegan said the tweet, which was removed quickly, was posted by a young staffer who remains employed by the campaign. “He made a mistake. I’m not going to ruin his career by firing him.  I don’t do that. I will help him learn from it,” Lonegan said.

“Racism, racism, racism. They can’t wait to play the racist card,” Lonegan said of the Booker campaign and the media, “They couldn’t wait for the opportunity, any opportunity at all, a silly map, which is meaningless, sent out by some kid in a campaign, that had no intent other than to ah, whatever the intent was, I don’t even know what the intent was. But they can’t wait to pull the race card. Cause that’s how they play politics.

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