Obama’s Health Care Plan as a Consolation PrizeNationally, we should start out for real universal health care, as proposed in the Conyers/Kucinich bill HR 676.
A common objection to this is that Republicans are going to fight this, so why not start out with something that they might accept? The reality is that Republicans will fight any health care plan that Democrats propose. Reviewing the history of Clinton’s attempted health care reform in 1993, it is important to remember that it was not really universal care, but a plan concocted by large insurers that would have involved massive public subsidies to themselves combined with a government request that they insure more people, pretty please with sugar on it and a cherry on top. Small and medium insurers would have been put out of business, so they launched the Harry and Louise ads.
Republicans absolutely refused to compromise under any conditions. "The plan should not be amended; it should be erased," conservative pundit Irving Kristol advised the GOP. And not merely because Mr. Clinton's scheme was (in his view) bad policy, but because "it will revive the reputation of the party that spends and regulates, the Democrats, as the generous protector of middle-class interests."
They are planning to do the exactly the same thing this year. Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute, put it succinctly in a recent blog post: “Blocking Obama's health plan is key to the GOP's survival.” He claims that if Obama succeeds in passing health care, then people who might have been conservatives will like it, and will be more likely to vote for the people who passed it.
The biggest single problem with the Obama plan is that it requires an infusion of funding for a public health plan that would be better used on his green jobs program and other stimulus initiatives. We are already paying for universal health care, we just aren’t getting it. Real universal health care is possible without any more money than we are now spending, as long as we can get access to the money that is now going to private insurers and being wasted on profits and administrative expense. The only “choices” you get from private insurers are which 50 page piles of paperwork you want to plough through in order to figure out the various ways that you might be cheated out of claims payment. Provider networks and risk pools are so fragmented that you don’t get the choice you really want, that of your health care providers. Change jobs or retire, and you will very likely be forced to give up the providers you now see.
I think that the best way to help Obama here is to demand that he support real universal health care. Republicans are very afraid that their constituents might demand it, and we should mount an intensive lobbying campaign targeting members of both parties. Republicans were swamped by constituent calls the last time that the minimum wage was raised, and enough of them joined the Democrats—even after the 1994 “revolution”—to get it passed. Adam Smith and Dave Reichert need to be contacted frequently, starting now.
If we can’t get single payer, then Obama’s plan would be a consolation prize, better than the status quo. If you will accept $3000 for your used car, you’d better ask for $5000. I can’t for the life of me figure out why so many Democrats think that good negotiation consists of leading with your weakest compromise. Let’s not do it. If you want single payer health care, say so on www.change.gov.
On the state level, the Basic Health Plan is being cut because of the Republican recession. Governor Gregoire is a solid administrator, but far too cautions to advocate a progressive state income tax. As our own Rep. Hasegawa has been saying for the last few years, our regressive taxation system makes it impossible to fund anything adequately. Given that serious tax reform is not in the cards, we should advocate for the Washington Health Security Trust. Senator Keiser’s Healthy Washington plan is similar to Obama’s, requiring extra state funding dollars, and in the current fiscal crisis is going nowhere. If a state agency that pays for health care cannot get access to the wasted dollars that go to private insurance, it will never be able to afford to cover everybody. The current proposal is below.
http://www.healthcareforallwa.org/health-security-trust-summary/• Employers pay a health security assessment of 10% of payroll above a threshold of $125,000 per quarter. (In other words, the first $125,000 of payroll doesn't count.)
• Residents 18 and over pay a health security premium of $75 per month, with state subsidies available for low income people. (My COBRA payment is now $767. How many idiots out there can there be who hate taxes so much that a $75 “tax” is worse than a $767 “premium”? )
• Medicare enrollees pay a premium of $50 per month to add trust benefits beyond their Medicare benefits.
• State funds for health programs are transferred to the trust. Whenever the trust obtains federal waivers, funds for federal health programs will also be transferred to the trust. Until then, federal coverage remains in effect.
• Patients will pay small co-payments for outpatient and emergency visits, and prescriptions.
• Certain exemptions are included for low income families and employers facing financial hardship.
• Employers may purchase private health coverage for their employees. However, the trust benefits package is intended to give employees better coverage than even the best current health benefit plans, which now cost employers 12-14% of payroll.
Such a deal! Talk it up among family, friends and coworkers.
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