As The Primary Elections are now behind us. Vic Stabile and Anne Covey, our two endorsed candidates for the Pennsylvania Superior Court and Commonwealth Court, respectively, won their elections overwhelmingly and will now move on towards November. We also saw Republicans in Allegheny County voice their opinions and select candidates for numerous positions around the county.

From this point, the Young Republicans will begin working with our selected candidates and provide them with any and all help that we can to make November a victory for them. We need to keep the momentum of 2010 alive not only to make gains this year, but also to keep the spirit alive for 2012, when we prepare for an election cycle to remember.

We also have a busy summer with our own organization. In June, the PAYRs will be holding their summer meeting in Hershey, PA, preparing for elections and preparing for another event in July, the Young Republican National Federation Convention, held in Puerto Rico. YRs from across the state will join YRs from all over the country to elect a new national leadership and to discuss the upcoming 2012 elections. Following this will be the PAYR Leadership Conference in August, which the YRAC will be hosting here in Pittsburgh. Each of these events is open to all YRs and we encourage you to take advantage of these opportunities if you can. They are not only times to share ideas and discuss ways to help the Republican Party, but are also times to make new friends and have fun!

To end on a bright note, every Young Republican on the ballot this year was victorious! Across Allegheny County, several of our own members, including myself, decided to take on a great responsibility and run for local office, being either municipal councils or school boards. This is very refreshing to not only see young people get involved, but also to see that people have faith in us to lead them. I leave you with a quote from our former RNC Chairman, Michael Steele regarding Young Republicans: “Do not accept the notion that you are the future, because you are not the future of this party. You are the present. You are the here and now of this party.”

Daniel Soltesz

4 and 0!!!

I’m very happy to report that the Young Republicans of Allegheny County had a very successful primary day on May 17. Four of our fellow YRs were seeking nominations and all four were victorious! Please join me in congratulating Bob Doddato (North Fayette Township Supervisor), Dan Soltesz and Fred Mullner (Pleasant Hills Borough Council), Tom Baker (North Hills School Board) and all who helped on their campaigns… great job! These four join a very strong group of Republican candidates on the November ballot including those in the following state and county wide races:

PA Superior Court Judge

Republican Vic Stabile vs. Democrat David Wecht

PA Commonwealth Court Judge

Republican Anne Covey vs. Democrat Barbara Ernsberger

Allegheny County Chief Executive (“the 3rd most powerful position in the state”)

Republican D. Raja vs. Democrat Rich Fitzgerald

Allegheny County Controller

Republican Robert Howard vs. Democrat Chelsea Wagner

Allegheny County Treasurer

Republican Ned Pfeifer vs. Democrat John Weinstein

Allegheny County Council

Republicans Michael Dell, Vince Gastgeb, Heather Heidelbaugh and Jan Rea

District Attorney

Interesting story here as Republican Chuck McCullough may have received enough write-in votes to secure a spot on the ballot opposite Democrat Stephen A. Zappala. The official write-in counts and results won’t be revealed for about a week so stay tuned!

This is certainly not an all inclusive list as there are many strong, well qualified Republicans seeking extremely important county, local, and school board posts. You can find primary results for every race in the county at:

http://www.alleghenycounty.us/elect/201105pri/el45.htm.

Throughout the summer and fall, YRAC will be highly involved in helping these Republican candidates get elected and re-elected. Please visit our website and facebook pages and read our emails for news, updates and opportunities. There will be many different ways to get involved and I encourage you all take advantage of them. I truly believe that our group and its members have the potential and abilities to make profound impacts in this and future elections and we should not shy away from that.

Let’s get it revvin’ in 20-11! (Ok, that was pretty bad… suggestions are welcomed for future one-liners!)

See you on the campaign trail!.

Michael Trettel

Run for Kids Sake – Young Republicans Continue “Something” Big

The YRAC Elephants took to the Pittsburgh Marathon course bright and early on Sunday, May 15^th. The conditions were perfect for running and the YRAC Elephants team of Mike Trettel, Bob Doddato, Kim Hanson, Allison Berger, and Katelyn King, sealed the deal and crossed the finish line in under four hours (3:50:35). The team’s time, placed them in 85^th out of 556 mixed (-sex) relay teams. However, this wasn’t the only outstanding effort.

Prior to running the race, the YRAC Elephants raised $2,210.00 for Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of Greater Pittsburgh, ranking them number one in fundraising efforts for the BBBS agency’s Run for Kids Sake (RFKS). Together and with your help the YRAC has raised almost $4,000.00 for the Pittsburgh agency this year.

Keep up the hard work!

Kimberly Hanson

Repeat Editorial: The Impact of the New Health Care Law on PA Physicians

The Affordable Care Act became law in March, 2010. There were several reasons for this law, including the lack of universal coverage, the high cost of health insurance, abuses by insurance carriers, and difficulty in obtaining insurance when a person really needed it. The situation was progressively worsening and the private sector seemed unable or unwilling to address these problems. Congress and the President acted. What can we expect from this act? Will it save money and lives?

The Affordable Care Act has a problematic provision requiring all citizens to purchase health insurance. This provision has troubled many, and is currently being appealed through the courts. If the provision is found unconstitutional, the entire law will have to be rewritten.

The high cost of health care is unlikely to be fixed by the Affordable Care Act. Indeed, the cost of care is likely to go up rather than down due to some of the provisions. The main causes of increased health care cost are not addressed by the Act.

Health care is expensive for the following reasons:

1. There is an increase in chronic illness in society. In the past, most people died of acute illness or injury. As recently as the early 1950s 80% of all people died within a few weeks of an injury or illness. That number is now 20%. With chronic illness comes chronic expense. Imagine twins, one who doesn’t take care of himself and one who does. The reckless twin eats improperly, smokes, and doesn’t exercise. By age 55, his body is wearing out. First comes lung disease, robbing him of vitality, leading to early retirement. Then comes kidney failure, with dialysis and perhaps a kidney transplant. Then comes coronary artery disease with stenting and bypass surgery. By age 75, following several strokes and a prolonged stay at a nursing home, the reckless twin dies. The conscientious twin takes excellent care of himself, watching his weight, exercising, and not smoking. He does quite well, only to be struck and killed by a bus while jogging at age 83.

2. Increasing government interference with free market activity within the health care sector leading to unintended (and expensive) consequences. For example, consider the MRI scanner in Western Pennsylvania. The annual operating cost of a MRI scanner is at least 1 million dollars. MRI has many uses, but most significantly in imaging areas that are hard to see by less expensive modalities such as CT and ultrasound. MRI excels in areas of the body where dense bone interferes with visualization of soft tissue. The most useful areas for MRI are the brain and spinal cord. Physicians involved in treating diseases of the brain and spinal cord were quite interested in MRI when it first became available in the late 1970s. Within a few years of the availability of MRI scanners there were three in Western PA, eventually expanding up to about a half dozen. Physicians who had the most need for MRI (neurologists, neurosurgeons and orthopedic surgeons) banded together and purchased a scanner. Scan time was valuable and scans were performed around the clock and only on those patients who clearly had a need. This was efficient. Scans were interpreted by those physician-owners who had training in MRI interpretation. It was a joint, cooperative effort, with tough scans studied by multiple physicians. The remaining scanners were located in major teaching institutions, where interpretation of the scans was primarily by radiologists, only some deeply committed to the new technology. In 1989, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act was passed by the federal government. This law made it illegal for physicians to refer patients to facilities where they had a financial interest. The neurologists, neurosurgeons and orthopedists sold the MRI scanner, and official interpretation of MRI was largely ceded to the radiologists. With no allegiance to a common facility, many groups including local hospitals and investor groups purchased and installed MRI scanners. With the advent of teleradiology, a radiologist in a central facility could interpret MRI images from multiple sites, making it easier for the spread of MRI imaging. The number of scanners in Western PA burgeoned to 163 scanners as of 2010. With this proliferation of scanners, the decision to obtain a scan is no longer based on need, but upon fear of missing an obscure condition. The number and per cent of negative or non-actionable scans has greatly increased, meaning more tests performed with less benefit. The cost of just this one modality in a small part of America has skyrocketed, with the largest part of this attributable directly to the OBRA legislation. The belief in Congress was that physician ownership was a moral hazard. Just considering Western Pennsylvania, OBRA replaced the moral hazard of one joint venture on 1 MRI scanner with the cost of maintaining 163 scanners and paying for many thousands of unnecessary scans.

3. Lack of skin in the game. If you can have a piece of cake or the whole cake, both for free, which would you prefer? Those who don’t have to ante up co-pays utilize services more than those who have co-pays. It is no coincidence that the ERs are havens for those who have minimal or no co-pay responsibility for the visit.

4. Protection of insurance carriers from competition. Government regulations and bureaucracy limit entry of start-ups into the insurance industry and limit entry of out of state insurers. As an example of the government/insurance company collusion, consider the primary care physician in New York state who attempted to start his own limited form of insurance by guaranteeing his patients 24/7/365 care for a fixed amount per year. The state insurance commission filed charges against him for violating insurance laws. Such an arrangement would have been beneficial to both the physician and his patients and likely would have cost less than having a third party insurance company pay for this service.

5. Charity has been supplanted by entitlement programs. Charity is ennobling. The providers give back to the less fortunate. The less fortunate, in appreciation for the process, will feel obligated to pay it forward, thereby spreading good will. Entitlement demeans the provider (who often is paid pennies on the dollar) and damages the entitled by giving them the false belief of deserving what they haven’t earned. The argument that the poor, feeling less shame, would receive better care with entitlements was disproven in a study conducted in the 1970s which showed no improvement in overall health care among the poor, when charity care was replaced by entitlement programs.

Pennsylvania has a physician shortage. Medicine becomes more complex each year, with a need for specialists as well as primary care providers. A rushed physician does not satisfy the patient who wants time and attention, and a physician who takes time with each patient cannot maintain a practice when third parties have near monopolistic power to dictate fees. Indeed, time spent with the patient is poorly reimbursed by insurance companies although highly valued by the patient and family. Busy-work such as useless documentation is reimbursed, not compassionate care, mainly because documents can be examined for completeness, but compassionate care, the hallmark of quality medicine, is hard to measure. So, insurers pay for a chart that is complete, not for patient satisfaction or a job well done. The problem is complex. A fresh approach that increases personal responsibility for health maintenance, trusts providers to act as compassionate professionals, and returns charity into the healing arts is certainly an alternative worth comparing to the collaboration of big government with big insurance. Furthermore, we are lucky to live in the United States. Each state could serve as a place to test different solutions to the health care problem, with outcomes and costs being used to decide which approaches are best. This would certainly be more scientific than imposing a sweeping, untested national health care system.

As a youth, it is important to learn before acting, lest impulsiveness and immaturity lead to folly. In middle age, we feel as if we are at the top of our game and we feel compelled to do something in order to be somebody and to make a difference. In old age, we realize that sometimes the greatest wisdom is to do less to accomplish more. The interrelationship between diverse things becomes clearer the more we know. Health care is a piece of the social puzzle of politics, and as such, cannot be solved in isolation. I am hopeful that the young Republicans of today will thoughtfully lead America to a healthier and happier future.

Dr. Malcom P. Berger, MD

The

Young Republicans of Allegheny County

Newsletter

A Message from the Chairman