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yesterday. I was waiting for Boehner or McConnell to hyperventilate about health care before posting it.
The health care portion has good stuff too, and I think the COBRA part is added in that tax cut figure. I need to check that out because I didn't add it to my tax cut page.
Obama Moves Deftly On Health Care
I think the folks at Heritage are getting a little nervous. I’ve never seen such a rapid makeover, Bush lovers last week, “Change We Believe In” this week. That's right, check out the banner on their web site, big as it can be.. Of course I don’t believe for a second that anything about the Heritage Foundation has, or ever will, change. They just use the old Republican trick of co-opting Democratic policy lingo, like detaching health insurance from employment. A closer look and you see that all their plan really does is leave you high and dry to pay your health insurance on your own. The new health insurance proposals in President Obama's stimulus package must have them quivering to go to such extremes. I mean really, President Obama has proposed extending Medicaid to the unemployed.
The Horror!
Don't you know what a catastrophe this would be, after all “workers overwhelmingly prefer private health insurance”. And there is no doubt Heritage wants to keep it that way based on the fear campaigns they have been running for the last 30 years. As someone who has received both Medicaid and employer sponsored health insurance, I am here to tell you Medicaid is ten times better.
No deductibles, minimal or no co-pays, a dollar or two per prescription, near 100% coverage. Health care that doesn’t leave you bankrupt, imagine it. And yes you will most likely keep the same doctor you have right now. Holy Cow! Of course the Republican front groups, like Heritage, don’t want you to know any of this.
The health care proposals in the stimulus package would grant Medicaid to those on unemployment whose family income is 200% of poverty, which is around $42,000 for a family of four. That is anywhere from 35% to 50% of families, depending on state and ethnicity. All these people aren’t unemployed, of course, but the ones who are unemployed and below the 200% income level, will finally have health care.
For those who had health insurance through their employers, the stimulus package will offer 65% subsidies to pay for COBRA health coverage. Once again, Heritage contorts itself by pointing out how expensive COBRA health insurance is, which of course is why it is wrong to subsidize it. Families on unemployment may choose not to carry this very expensive insurance, and that would be another horror!
So let me get this straight, we shouldn’t have Medicaid for the unemployed because workers prefer private insurance; but we also shouldn’t have subsidized private insurance because it will still be too expensive.
What is their solution? Well, believe it or not... private insurance. But not employer based private insurance, they propose you find some magical plan that exists in your state and doesn't care whether you have a pre-existing condition or not. And don't even ask these Heritage Experts to consider that any employer has already scoured the insurance companies for the best rates and policies. Unemployed workers won't find anything better. I don't know why they can't understand the obvious, insurance is expensive. It is just that simple.
The good news in here for you and me is that we are on our way to affordable health coverage for everyone. Between the new insurance options for families of the unemployed and the expansion of SCHIP, we will be well on our way to affordable health care for everyone. Of course, we will have to continue with President Obama and Secretary Daschle’s proposals in order to fully cover everyone, but the more people have coverage, the more they will want the peace of mind it brings.
Rounding out the health care proposals in the stimulus are moneys targeted at infrastructure, $5 billion for health care Research & Development, which is more than the total R&D Science Budget for 2008. Much of that money is designed to improve laboratories Another $20 billion would be dedicated to implementing Health Information Technology Systems, digitizing health care records across the country to reduce gaps in patient medical information.
While I believe that the best stimulus this country could have might well be to implement a full single payer health plan, and remove health costs from business altogether, I think these proposals are great ideas and we will need to be prepared to counter the nonsense that comes out of right wing stink tanks like the Heritage Foundation.
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