Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Weekly Pulse: Public Health Insurance Would Be Too Good, Republicans Warn (1:20 pm)
A common thread is emerging in the right wing response to healthcare reform. Its opponents aren’t claiming that public healthcare will be bad. Rather, they are terrified that the new system will be so good that no citizen would buy expensive private insurance—or vote for politicians who wanted to take public insurance away.
The Obama team is sending clear signals that healthcare reform is a core economic issue, and the health insurance industry is becoming increasingly anxious by the future administration’s determination to bring healthcare costs under control. Some Americans are seeing their healthcare premiums rising at four times the rate of inflation, if they have insurance at all. Healthcare reform is a pocketbook issue for all of us, according to the Obama team.
In tough economic times it might be tempting to postpone healthcare reforms, but Obama is adamant that delay would be a false economy.
In the American Prospect, Joanne Kenen and Sarah Axeen support claims about the high cost of doing nothing:
A recent report by the New America Foundation’s health-policy program estimates that the cost of doing nothing about health care, including poor health and shorter lifespan of the uninsured, is well above $200 billion a year and rising. That’s enough to cover the uninsured and still have some left over for other public-health needs.
If healthcare costs continue to rise at their current rates, it will cost $24,000/yr to insure a family of four by 2016, an 84% increase from today. At these rates, half of American households would have to spend at least 45% percent of their income to be insured.
In the Nation, Willa Thompson describes how a bicycle crash made her appreciate the connection between healthcare and politics. Thompson was 21 years old when she suffered major injuries after a collision with a truck. Luckily, she was covered by her parents’ medical insurance until she turned 22. She later realized that if she had been just a few months older when the accident happened, she wouldn’t have been able to pay for her medical care.
We all agree that something needs to be done. Let’s briefly review the options that have been proposed so far. Obama wants to provide healthcare for all by requiring private insurance companies to cover everyone and creating a public health insurance plan to compete with private insurers. The second part of his plan is the public option that Republican opponents are so scared of.
Insurance companies love the idea that we’ll all be forced to buy their expensive product. They’re not so keen about competition from the public sector.
Ezra Klein writes, “If you’re looking for the coming fault line on the left of health care politics, keep an eye on what happens to the public insurance option in the health reform bill.” Will the public plan survive? Not if the Republicans and the insurance lobby have anything to say about it. As evidence, Ezra cites this passage from a recent article in Congressional Quarterly:
Mark Hayes, a Republican health policy adviser to the Senate Finance Committee, said Republicans have concerns because the government plan might have access to price controls and other tools not available to private insurers. This could lead to lower premiums in the government plan, which would cause most consumers to migrate out of the private market, he said.
“Over time the effect the government option could have [is an] erosion in the private market, [making] other choices not available,” Hayes said.
The consensus among progressives is clear, the public plan must prevail. In fact, many advocate going all the way to single-payer health insurance. Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee argues in the Progressive that Obama and Daschle should opt for single payer health insurance. Now is no time for piecemeal solutions:
Such a path would perpetuate the crisis and deal a cruel blow to the hopes of Americans for real reform. Those in Congress and liberal policy organizations who are embracing caution or promoting more insurance, not more care, are playing a risky game. It could jeopardize the health security of tens of millions of Americans and, in the process, fatally erode public support for the Obama administration.
Ezra links to a candid post from the blog of the right wing Cato Institute wherein Michael F. Cannon argues that blocking Obama’s health plan is the key to GOP survival. Why? Because, history shows that once people start getting good healthcare from the government at a price they can afford, they want to keep reelecting the politicians who make that possible. Cannon calls the phenomenon where people reelect governments that give them good healthcare “becoming dependent on the government,” we call it “voting our self-interest.”
In other healthcare news, public health advocates are not pleased about rumors that Obama may ask Mark Dybul to stay on as US Global AIDS Coordinator for the first year of Obama’s term. Dybul is responsible for implementing the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which funds AIDS prevention and treatment in 15 poor countries. Advocates say that Dybul, a medical doctor, is too focused on medical interventions and behavioral changes for individuals, and not sufficiently concerned with broader public health initiatives.
posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Media Consortium blogger
Reader Comments
1. I got laid off in 2003 due to off shoring.
2. I maxed out my Cobra benefits in 2005.
3. While not insured and not finding any work I built a small business that was just starting to take off and had found an investor.
4. I had congestive heart failure in 2006 and had to declare bankruptcy losing my credit.
5. I qualified for Medicaid (I couldn’t afford healthcare without it).
6. I’m reasonably healthy as long as I take about $600 worth of medications every month and don’t miss regular tests and Doctor visits.
6. If I can find someone who will hire a 60 year old with a bad heart, no credit, who made $140K a year on his last job the pre-existing condition crap will make insurance out of my reach and I’ll lose Medicaid coverage.
The dilemma: Work underground and stay on Medicaid OR turn to crime to pay for my own healthcare and expenses?
The system has put me between a rock and a hard place and I refuse to go down without a fight.
posted by Jim on 12-20-08 at 10:48 PM
“who made $140K a year on his last job”
did you say $140K/yr?? curious, here, and now….\for repost sake
it never fails to amaze me the complete and total brazenness of the GOP in using all measures to consolidate the interests of the corporate class at the expense of the majority.
They do it with such passion, occasional eloquence and emotion. But it’s completely devoid of any moral and ethical compass. It is a shell game.
And still, it’s one that continues to prod millions into repeatedly voting against their own interests as if they were playing three-card monte.
This is the only interpretation I can muster given the last eight years, recent union-bashing and busting, and continued hostility to a universal and/or national healthcare system that a clear majority of Americans support.
posted by southern progress on 12-18-08 at 2:35 PM