Reports: Passing Universal Healthcare Could Kill The GOP

Barack Obama's selection of Tom Daschle as Health and Human Services Secretary, as well as "health reform czar," signals that the incoming president is serious about passing comprehensive healthcare reform. Over at the think tank Cato, Michael Cannon warns that blocking any such legislation is vital for the GOP's survival (h/t Kos):

Ditto Baucus' health plan. And Kennedy's. And Wyden's.

Why? Norman Markowitz, a contributing editor at PoliticalAffairs.net (motto: "Marxist Thought Online"), makes an interesting point about how making citizens dependent on the government for their medical care can change the fates of political parties:

A "single payer" national health system - known as "socialized medicine" in the rest of the developed world - should be an essential part of the change that the core constituencies which elected Obama desperately need. Britain serves as an important political lesson for strategists. After the Labor Party established the National Health Service after World War II, supposedly conservative workers and low-income people under religious and other influences who tended to support the Conservatives were much more likely to vote for the Labor Party...

James Pethokoukis, at U.S. News and World Report, draws the same conclusion as Cannon does from Markowitz's analysis of how universal healthcare changed the political dynamic in Britain:

The GOP strategist had been joking about the upcoming presidential election and giving his humorous assessments of the candidates. Then he suddenly cut out the schtick and got scary serious. "Let me tell you something, if Democrats take the White House and pass a big-government healthcare plan, that's it. Game over. Government will dominate the economy like it does in Europe. Conservatives will spend the rest of their lives trying to turn things around and they will fail..."

...Recently, I stumbled across this analysis of how nationalized healthcare in Great Britain affected the political environment there. As Norman Markowitz in Political Affairs, a journal of "Marxist thought," puts it: "After the Labor Party established the National Health Service after World War II, supposedly conservative workers and low-income people under religious and other influences who tended to support the Conservatives were much more likely to vote for the Labor Party when health care, social welfare, education and pro-working class policies were enacted by labor-supported governments."

Passing Obamacare would be like performing exactly the opposite function of turning people into investors. Whereas the Investor Class is more conservative than the rest of America, creating the Obamacare Class would pull America to the left. Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute, who first found that wonderful Markowitz quote, puts it succinctly in a recent blog post: "Blocking Obama's health plan is key to the GOP's survival."

Comments

[ConcernedJoe]

This is an Onion Post right? Not even the GOP can be that transparent.

But let's assume they are. What does this show other than the GOP has only power on their minds and the citizens be damned?

There are plenty of models for universal health care systems - many of them in operation. So what if they have a wart or two - basically they work well, economies survive and often thrive, people are reasonably satisfied, and the sky is still up there.

We are ingenuous and have the benefit of observing "experiments" after the fact. We can be eclectic and improve systems. What is so bloody scary - what is so bloody wrong? It is a challenge we can surely handle and come out with the best system of any.

I'll tell you what is scary - RWA leaders (read GOP and others of their ilk -- petty and power hungry all of them) and RWA followers who even when on the dole vote like brainless robots against the doles they survive on (check statistics on ordinary citizens who are TAKING more from social programs than giving -- bet you find a full barrel of Guns, God, and Country GOP lemmings)!!

I could get personal - experiences past and present. Still after MANY relationships with such people it amazes me to no end how people can be lead to vote against their own and their neighbors' best interests for no sane reason.

[donniebnyc]

USA is the richest nation on earth. We can afford to bailout failing industries. We can afford subsidies to big oil. We can afford two wars at once. But for some reason we cannot afford to provide healthcare (in the form of medical insurance) for 15 million American children.

GOP is the party of shame and selfishness. They are the reason we are the only rich nation that does not provide this basic need for our children.

I hope America is finally ready to overrule these right-wing ideologues.

[Jimminynix]

Cynic weighs in; The right will indeed flex it's toxic muscles on exactly this issue; watch for mainstream media emphasis on words like "socialized", watch for obvious delaying tactics, watch for cries about how expensive as we go bankrupt (paying neoCon bills for Wall St and Iraq & war on drugs) watch as they gather slander&smear tactics and wacth as the citizens get distracted by something to do with celebrities and pedophilia (or something equally as impotant to the future of the republic) and after all the delaying tactics - are economy will be so destroyed by the Bushregimes intentional wreckage that it will actually FAIL to pass in congress as the cowards we elect do whatever they think will get them re-elected - same old - same old.... while the right dances with glee that it defeated another challenge to our sick status quo and watch as the blame for all these disasters of non-reform are placed on Obama's doorstep so they can win back the exec branch in 2012 just as his remedies are starting to help us recover from the right's excesses of stupidity

[justobserve]

They can use the word "socialized" as often as they want but who are paying for Bush's health care? Who are paying for generous health care for public servants? People can't afford their own health care had to pay for other people's in the form of the products' price, say 10-20% of a car price are for health care and other benefits for current and, even retired, employees. The same for other products we buy. In short, we ALREADY have socialized medicine.

[Gronamox]

I hope this is a promise. A guaranteed promise. I can't think of a better thing than a single-care provider universal health insurance program. If that's what it takes to kill the GOP then by God let's do it. No more fundamentalist inbreeds calling the shots, no more moronic drunks and closeted homosexuals pretending to be Senators and Congressman.
No more Wars based on lies. No more torture. No more thuggery. A real Justice Department with real lawyers. Rational Thought. Now there is something America hasn't seen in a long time. And dare I say it. No more Born Again God telling people what to believe and whom to hate.

[justobserve]

Well said!

[pangursperson]

Hear, hear!

[brt929]

As much as I would like to see some form of Universal Healthcare in this country, I think some of the posters are engaging in wishful thinking. Democrats had 3 candidates with healthcare reform, and they chose the candidate with the plan that did the least. (John Edwards' plan was by far the most comprehensive plan of all three.)

Ted Kennedy is involved now, so we may get something better that Obama's plan. However, the AMA, the Insurance Lobby, and the Pharmaceutical Lobby are very powerful in this country. I don't really expect much.

If the U.S. government would just take the step of providing grants instead of loans for Medical and Nursing Schools, I believe that the cost of healthcare would come down substantially.

[slugworth]

You had a valid point, up until Daschle was picked as the health czar. Daschle's plan was (and presumably still is) better than ANY of the presidential candidates.

Obama picked the right man for this job!

[tililek]

Some statements are just to silly to print. Republican voters and people around the country of all persuasions want and need health care, its the road there that is in dispute.

[markinaz]

One can only hope this headline speaks the truth!

[Kahni]

Regarding our new/old friend 101/102:

Aside from the excellent logic of just ignoring him, I am curious as to exactly what his EMP (I'm sure they appreciate his personal touch there, caps and all) think of his stated goal of resisting ("obstruction is the way" he says, and clearly demonstrates with his timewasting, fact-free monologues) an available healthcare policy that would let them evaluate working for him without having to consider threats to their health care should they decide to look for more rational EMPloyers.

[Mulvaney]

While we debate the automotive bailout, we should consider that health care costs add about $2000 to the price of each car they produce. If we want to save and restore this country's manufacturing base, we need to move to a single payer health care system. The bottom line is that we are paying more in this country and getting far less.

If only the rumors were true and Obama really was a socialist . . . .

[BEN FRANKLIN]

If we could get thousands of Americans, no 10's of thousands to phone & email their representatives in Washington, democrats and republicans alike demanding Universal Healthcare I believe within a year or two you would see great progress toward this fulfillment.. Once you get a massive grassroots effort going, either party would be stupid to stand in the way of Univerasl Healthcare. Unfortunately most people just like to gripe instead of taking action. As much as anything what has prevented Universal Healthcare in this country is the stranglehold special interest groups have on our government. It's time to stop listening to the propaganda against Universal Healthcare and break the stranglehold special interests have to prevent universal healthcare.

[inorbit]

The govt. does not pick up healthcare in Japan. It requires that all health insurance companies be nonprofit and cover everyone. All insurance is obtained through private health insurance companies. The health insurance companies then negotiate with the hospitals (all private) and doctors for their fees. If you are employed your employer covers about half of the fee - which is much lower than in the US because health care costs are much, much lower in Japan. If you are unemployed - only then does the govt. pick up the tab and you get the exact same coverage.

[inorbit]

What a bunch of BS. Providing universal access to healthcare isn't socialism - it's providing a basic right to all people. Germany, Japan and Switzerland - to name a few countries provide this through private health insurance companies.

The Cato Institute is a crock.

The GOP will die because it's underpinnings are rotten - it's let the free market determine everything without any regulation theory has turned out to be complete failure that has caused catastrophic failure of our economy.

The GOP will die because it deserves to die.

[BlackWidowPilot]

"Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness."

How can one enjoy the blessings of Liberty, which so many have sacrificed for over 200 years of our nation's history, when one is too sick to work, cannot afford the healthcare they need through no fault of their own, or are so indebted to a corporate middleman that they are reduced to functional indentured servitude?

The "Greedy Old Perverts" remind me of a mastodon trapped in a tar pit, bellowing with impotent rage at its impending demise.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[Mark701]

The for profit health care system in this country is the conservatives baby way back to Richard Nixon. If they are so damned concerned about national health care kicking in, then maybe they should push their wealthy friends into providing meaningful health care at an affordable price. If not, they better get used to sleeping in the car.

[shiv23]

to the author of this article - let's clarify that single-payer insurance is not the same thing as socialized medicine. single-payer just means that one entity (and this could be a non-governmental or semi-private third party) insures all of us. it does NOT mean that the government provides our healthcare. the UK has "socialized" medicine because the government runs their hospital and clinic system. canada does NOT have socialized medicine because the docs and hospitals are private, and people can go where they want to get their medical services. the principle of free market competition are used to improve quality in that situation.

to everyone who is SO afraid of big bad socialism - this country will never be fully socialized, and i'm sure none of us want it that way. but what's the problem with healthcare being accessible to everyone, the way schools, police, etc. are? that should hardly be scorned as socialism - it's just looking out for each other. and it's been proven over and over that it really does improve the health status of the whole population to have healthcare available to everyone.

sure, the government makes mistakes. but why would anyone want a for-profit company running their health insurance plan, knowing that they are doing everything they can to deny you your benefits and make money off of you? at least the government is not profit-driven and therefore can truly look out for our best interests in the area of healthcare financing.

[lebec]

Thanks, shiv23, for a well-written and educating post.

[saami]

I agree, plus there aren't the huge salaries for the CEO, etc. plus their bonuses and amenities. The government can do it cheaper and better and most importantly everyone will have coverage. We have lots of young adults without healthcare insurance because their jobs don't provide it and they don't make enough to afford it. Many of them have health issues from asthma, diabetes, etc. that need medications and treatment that they ofter go without, not to mention depression and bi-polar disorder which are the ugly stepsisters of healthcare (even though mental health is no different from "physical" health. We need healthcare for all. Healthcare is a right.

[Fudgefase]

I'm surprised anyone can really find it in themselves to carry on voting for a system that really only serves to look after you in a crisis situation. The US system cannot, and does not, cope with those with long term illnesses. If houses, ranches, futures have to be sold in order to pay for operation after operation because your healthcare company won't pay any more, then the system does not work. All you who say 'let them pay themselves' - that's true to a degree - but there are some things that I hope you never have to find out you will not be able to treat because you can't afford it.

[Dubois651]

Universal Healthcare is long overdue. It makes me sick to see hard-working people going into bankruptcy due to sickness and outrageous doctor bills. Univeral Healthcare would be one of the best political decisions the Democrats have ever made. Sure, the GOP will be destroyed, cry me a river. At the same time, a new political party or parties will emerge to represent the diverse interests of the public.