The Health Bill, The Price of Everything, and What to Do Next

[IndianaGreen]

The Health Bill, The Price of Everything, and What to Do Next

Richard (RJ) Eskow
Consultant, Writer, Health Analyst
Posted: December 19, 2009 04:39 PM

Hey, what's not to love?

The idea of raising payroll taxes on higher earners is a good one. But if you take that new revenue, add the unfair tax on higher-cost benefit plans (studies demonstrate its unfairness), throw in the pay cut for doctors, and toss the higher individual penalties on top of that, it still doesn't offset the fiscal recklessness behind killing the public option.

Why would the public plan have saved the government money? Because, as the CBO puts it, "it was expected to exert some downward pressure on the premiums of the lower-cost plans to which those subsidies would be tied. " In other words, it would have made other insurance cheaper by creating real competition. If it's costing the government this much money to lose the public option, can you imagine what it's costing the rest of us as individuals?

Remember: the CBO score doesn't include the personal value of these policies for each of us. The Senate's new bill won't just increase the Federal budget. We'll also pay higher premiums because we lost the public option, and face more out-of-pocket payments from the excise tax. Wasn't it Oscar Wilde who said a cynic is someone who "knows the price of everything and the value of nothing"? One issue dividing progressives now is that some see pragmatism in this bill and others see cynicism.

If Joe Lieberman can single-handedly be credited with most of these changes, is it fair to call him the Twenty Billion Dollar Man? Maybe. But remember, it's easy to hate Joe Lieberman - and it's a distraction. The Administration and the Senate leadership made a series of choices that give him this power. In fact, some say that the public option was always doomed - that the Administration cut a deal in which they'd make a half-heated attempt to fight for it and would then let it die, placating the always-compliant liberal wing with another mantric repetition of the phrase "we didn't get everything we wanted, but ..." In that scenario Joe's the Bad Cop to the President's (and Harry Reid's) Good Cop. If Joe Lieberman didn't exist it would be necessary to invent him. "Hey, I wanted to help you out - here's a cup of coffee - but my partner here ..."

So progressives are torn between the Good Cop/Bad Cop Scenario and the String (of Blunders) Theory. The reality's probably somewhere in the middle: mismanagement and a back-room deal or two. (We know there was a deal with Big Pharma.) There's an easy way for the President and Sen. Reid to disprove the Good Cop/Bad Cop Scenario, of course: They can fight like hell to win concessions in the House/Senate conference, bringing final bill more in line with the House version. That would mean, at the very least, a public option and no excise tax.

Think they will? Me neither - but I think they should be pressed to do so. I expect that the House will be put under enormous pressure to cave and accept the bill as it is. I think the President and other party leaders assume the left can always be counted on to cave in for the good of the country. I also think that anyone who points out the flaws in this bill will be subjected to another round of scoldings from party leaders and their supporters, charged with not understanding how the world works. Wouldn't it be better to debate the tactics on their merits instead?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/the-health-bill-the-price_b_398207.html