Bush's Cousin Opposes anti-Outsourcing Bill
Bush's Cousin Opposes anti-Outsourcing Bill
Date: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 4:09 PM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
by Rob Sanchez
February 23, 2005 No. 1203
Jonathan Bush, President George Bush's cousin, argues that outsourcing
data-entry to cheap workers in India actually improves privacy for
Americans. That's because companies will save so much money by
employing cheap labor that they will spend their immense profits on
helping us to keep our personal data secure. Hey, I'm not joking,
that's what he said!
Bush said Markey's bill could actually harm patients' privacy,
because money now being spent on protecting privacy would
instead have to be spent to pay higher wages to American
data-entry workers: "Because we have [the low-wage workers],
we can afford to do a very sophisticated and elaborate blinding
system to separate identity from the information."
Jonathan Bush says that it's easier to hire workers in India because he
doesn't have to deal with the "costly bureaucratic requirements" in the
USA. He is probably complaining that American workers burden employers
with costs such as social security and medical care. Give Dubya four
more years in office and that might not be a problem anymore.
He said athenahealth's partners in India also give the company
the flexibility to hire additional workers whenever they are
necessary, something that would be more difficult to achieve
in the United States, which has costly bureaucratic requirements
whenever a new employee joins a company. Plus, many of the
Indian workers hold advanced degrees, making them far more
qualified for the job than the pool of talent that would be
available in America, Bush said.
Excuse me for getting on the soapbox but I need to say more about
Jonathan Bush's comment. He began by saying that he wants to outsource
to India because he enjoys the profits from using cheap labor, and then
he exits with a parting blow to American workers by saying they aren't
qualified for these jobs. Even if he was correct that Indians have a
far better educated populace, how much advanced education is necessary
to work at a call center?
Before you start thinking Bush is right about the Indian education
system, let's just stop that thought right now! The most common method
used to compare international students is with the TIMSS test. You can
see the results yourself but you won't see India or China. That's
because they would do so poorly that they refuse to participate in the
test.
Here are some TIMSS results. See for yourself if India has a rating:
http://nces.ed.gov/timss/TIMSS03Tables.asp?Quest=1&Figure=1
The denigration of American education and skills seems to be so
accepted that nobody gets outraged anymore when they hear it. It's so
pervasive that even Lou Dobbs recently pushed the education button.
It's almost as if to dispute the claim that Americans are poorly
educated is like arguing that the Earth orbits the Sun.
I implored all of you that get this newsletter to demand that Dobbs
have a debate with Dr. Norm Matloff so that the public can hear an
alternative point of view to the mainstream mythology of American
inferiority.
A few of you emailed Dobbs requesting a debate but my perception is
that my request was akin to shouting in the wind - and unfortunately
apathy prevailed. This is a shame because Lou Dobbs is about all we
have out there, and if you allow him to be pushed by the education
button we have truly lost the debate. The shills for outsourcing and
H-1B will win by default.
You should be keenly aware that Jonathan Bush's attack against American
education is the primary argument the promoters of American job
destruction use to justify their actions. If we allow this myth to
continue then we are condoning the employers that are selling off our
jobs to the lowest bidder.
While I'm thankful that a handful of you have sent Dobbs some e-mail
messages asking for a debate, there is a danger that we have done more
harm than good. That's because the low numbers of complaints "confirms"
to the press that those of us that think Americans have the best
education and skills are a tiny minority. Dobbs will get the message
from you one way or another - he will either get the message that we
are offended that he pushed the education button, or he will get the
message that we think Americans don't have the skills and don't deserve
the jobs.
------ I have one more thing to say about Jonathan Bush. His global
vision of redistributing our wealth to India would be fine if the money
came out of his pocket but it won't. CEOs only want to send the money
out of our pockets overseas. He wants to help India by taking down the
American middle class. Surely there must be a better way to help 3rd
world countries than by destroying our middle class, isn't there?
Bush said the jobs he is creating in India are contributing
to a boom in that country, with new schools and medical
facilities being constructed with the wages he is paying. He
sees his company as taking advantage of the best that
globalization has to offer -- lifting up a developing country
with jobs that would be difficult to fill in the United States,
and forging a new path in the US with an industry that didn't
exist a few years ago.
Note: The Boston Globe article is followed by a biography of Jonathan
Bush.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/02/17/bush_cousin_opposes_markey_on_bill/
Bush cousin opposes Markey on bill
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff | February 17, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Representative Edward J. Markey, who has been touting a
bill to keep thousands of data-entry jobs generated by healthcare
companies from going overseas, ran into a spirited opponent between the
sushi boat and the open bar at an inaugural party last month: Jonathan
S. Bush, the Waltham healthcare entrepreneur and President Bush's
cousin.
Bush is the president of athenahealth Inc., which employs about 200
low-wage workers in India to enter medical data for its clients,
including many doctors and hospitals in Massachusetts. Bush insists
Markey's proposal would put his company out of business, leaving 370
workers in Markey's own district out of work.
The contretemps between the two men offered a glimpse into the
increasingly heated politics of outsourcing, and whether global free
trade creates US jobs or takes them away. It also could be a preview of
a larger debate to come, when the president launches a planned
nationwide system of medical records, creating tens of thousands of
data-entry jobs, jobs that, barring the success of Markey's bill, could
easily and cheaply be filled by workers in India.
Markey and Jonathan Bush engaged in an impromptu debate at the
reception hosted by Governor Mitt Romney at Washington's Mandarin
Oriental last month. Bush, the son of former President George H. W.
Bush's younger brother Jonathan, said Markey would drive up healthcare
costs in Massachusetts; Markey countered that he is trying to protect
privacy and save jobs that could go to lower-income people in Eastern
Massachusetts.
"Markey's bill would kill us," Bush said later. "We're providing a very
valuable service, and we're netting a huge number of jobs. This is
crazy."
Markey, a Malden Democrat who is cochairman of the Congressional
Privacy Caucus, is seeking to outlaw the transmission of any health or
financial information about US citizens to people in other nations: The
bill would prohibit outsourcing of jobs in financial services and
insurance as well as in healthcare.
The congressman justifies outlawing the outsourcing of medical-data
jobs on the grounds that other countries do not have nearly as
extensive privacy laws as the United States. His bill, which he filed
last year and intends to reintroduce in Congress this year, aims to
protect consumers' privacy and American jobs in a single measure,
according to the congressman.
"It's becoming increasingly clear that both our jobs and our privacy
are being shipped offshore, and federal regulators aren't doing nearly
enough to stop it," Markey declared. "If their business is in Boston,
the bill doesn't affect them. If the business is in Bombay, then they
need to get the individuals' permission."
The measure was bottled up by the Republican-controlled Congress last
year. But it is part of a package of measures supported by the
Democratic leadership to slow the offshoring of jobs, and Markey said
consumer privacy and offshoring are bipartisan issues in an era of
identity theft and the loss of US jobs to distant countries.
Though athenahealth has not had any problems with personal records
leaking into the public domain, incidents involving other companies
have drawn alarm. In 2003, a Pakistani woman who entered data for the
University of California-San Francisco Medical Center threatened to
display patients' medical records publicly unless she was paid more
money.
Jonathan Bush argues that the bill is not needed, because US-based
companies are covered by health privacy laws regardless of where they
hire workers.
"If that data, while under our control, was in any way compromised,
we're dead meat if something goes wrong with that information," said
Bush, who cofounded athenahealth in 1997.
Bush said Markey's bill could actually harm patients' privacy, because
money now being spent on protecting privacy would instead have to be
spent to pay higher wages to American data-entry workers: "Because we
have [the low-wage workers], we can afford to do a very sophisticated
and elaborate blinding system to separate identity from the
information."
Athenahealth hires about 200 workers in India to enter medical records,
lab results, and billing and insurance claims into computers. Bush said
those workers cost between $6 and $8 an hour to hire -- including
overhead associated with their work stations and managers -- and
estimated that similar work would cost twice as much in the United
States. He said he did not know how much the individual workers make
because the work is contracted through another firm in India.
He said athenahealth's partners in India also give the company the
flexibility to hire additional workers whenever they are necessary,
something that would be more difficult to achieve in the United States,
which has costly bureaucratic requirements whenever a new employee
joins a company. Plus, many of the Indian workers hold advanced
degrees, making them far more qualified for the job than the pool of
talent that would be available in America, Bush said.
Markey concedes that healthcare providers could face steeper costs
under his measure, but he insists that electronic data are still
cheaper to process than paper records, and that cost should not be a
factor when it comes to protecting personal privacy.
"We don't have federal marshals in Bombay," he said. "These records are
the most sacred information a family has, and Americans don't view
privacy as a commodity. It's not a razor blade. It's not an automobile.
It's a value. It's the identity of their family."
US companies are covered by federal privacy-protection provisions, but
the problem comes in enforcement, said Jonathan Bogen, president of
HealthCIO, a consulting company on health privacy issues. Workers in
India may not be properly trained, and the federal government has no
way to check up on how private data is being handled by overseas
workers, Bogen said.
Bush said the jobs he is creating in India are contributing to a boom
in that country, with new schools and medical facilities being
constructed with the wages he is paying. He sees his company as taking
advantage of the best that globalization has to offer -- lifting up a
developing country with jobs that would be difficult to fill in the
United States, and forging a new path in the US with an industry that
didn't exist a few years ago.
"This is the best thing that could ever happen to the Commonwealth,"
Bush said.
But Markey said the data-entry jobs should be back in Massachusetts --
and with medical privacy involved, the importance of bringing the jobs
under US oversight is heightened.
"Every method of reducing cost is not equally acceptable," he said.
Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.athenahealth.com/Home/AboutUs/Biography
Biographies
Jonathan S. Bush President and CEO, Co-founder
Jonathan S. Bush
President and CEO, Co-founder
As chairman and chief executive officer, Jonathan Bush formulates the
strategic direction for athenahealth and oversees all operations,
business development and technology initiatives. In 1997, Bush
co-founded athenahealth, a physician enterprise management service that
integrates workflow, billing and collections. Bush's own firsthand
experience - and frustration - as a medical practice administrator led
him to the conclusion that healthcare needed a unique remedy for its
error-prone, paper-laden business processes. athenahealth was born, and
has focused on eliminating administrative inefficiency by empowering
physicians with knowledge delivered through Web-based technology. To
date, Bush has raised $43M in venture capital funding to support his
endeavor.
Bush brings solid experience in healthcare consulting and start-up
ventures to athenahealth. Most recently, he served as an associate with
J. Bush & Company, Inc., an investment management firm, and as a
consultant with Booz-Allen & Hamilton. As a founding member of
Booz-Allen's Managed Care Strategy Group, Bush led a team in the
creation and implementation of corporate growth strategies. Bush earned
a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors from Wesleyan University and a
master's degree with distinction in business administration from
Harvard University. Bush has spoken at numerous industry events,
including CHIM, TEPR, the Symposium for eHealthcare Strategies, TIPAAA
and Internet Healthcare 2000. Bush has authored articles published in
Group Practice Journal, Medical Group Management Journal, Managed
Healthcare News, Health Management Technology and Advance for Health
Information Executives.
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