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

[bluedog24]

What is not to like about reforming health care? If you remove the burden of paying for employee health care from small businesses, it will create money for business growth. For the employee, it would eliminate the "employee contribution" and increase disposable(or investIble) income. Where's the downside?

[wdw102]

how about i don't want my taxes going to lazy people........i say get a job that gets you insurance

[aluxeterna]

lazy people like those in the financial sector who ran our economy into the ground while they made easy money and gave themselves absurd bonuses?

[curly2]

Less jobs with health insurance are available every day. If you have a job with health insurance, and your employer, a small business owner, decides not to offer health insurance anymore, are you suddenly lazy?

[knowhelpnow]

If you haven't notice we have less jobs that offer medical insurance to their employees, we have high unemployment and many underemployed just getting by and can't afford health care, you maybe one of the lucky ones, especially if you work for any part of the government, city, county, state or federal at least for now and you know who pays for that we the taxpayers. So get off your high horse and think about what is good for this country because our health care system is broken.
If your in the military or go to VA for your health care you are already in socialized medicine and for sure the most comprehensive care you can find. I know because I put almost 20 years in the military and was medically retired and now use VA completely.

[jnah]

god i hate this argument so much. lets take this hypotheticaly shall we. Say today you wake up with a pounding headache which turns out to be a malignant brain tumor. Your insurance drops you like a sack of rocks, preexisting conditions of course. Now, you can't work due to your illness. Are you now one of these lazy people you wouldn't wanna support? Rest assured budy i would gladly pay higher taxs to help someone in your position. Moral of the story don't be an a-hole and maybe we can all lend a hand to one another.

[Connolly1916]

Tying health benefits to employment is destroying manufacturing in the U.S. It's a major reason why we don't export as much as we could. It's a major reason why our labor costs are so high. Tying health benefits to employment makes it very difficult for many American firms to be competitive with european or asian firms that do not have those burdens. What's paying taxes to support some lazy peoples' health benefits compared to the overwhelming benfit of making American businesses more competitive?

How much do we spend on defense? $600 billion a year? That's THREE times as much as Russia and China combined. Time to quit subsidizing the defense industry and put some of that money into making our economy strong again. You can't have a strong defense without a strong economy anyway.

[lja925]

So, let's say you get a job with employer paid insurance. Now, you get sick with, let's say, diabetes. Then you're told you have to take a new position or leave. The position you're offered really stinks. If you leave, you lose your insurance and you can't afford COBRA. So, now you're stuck in this lousy job because you have a pre-existing condition. You can't move, you can't change jobs, you can't better yourself. Is that fair?

Even if you don't get some kind of disease, you will get old and retire. I sure hope you have enough money in savings to treat the illness you're bound to get in your old age. Because with your thinking everyone should be on their own. So good luck to you.

[normalkid0615]

Oh lets not help the people cause we will lose power. GOP are SUCH DICKS!!!!

[wdw102]

how about help yourself

[jjordan]

Wow! You're such a rugged individualist!

[knowhelpnow]

Pray tell how do you do this when you are trying to make ends meet, have had to file bankruptcy because you either don't have insurance or your insurance won't pay anymore?
My brother is a fireman for the city he got cancer and he found out they will only pay so much for the treatment and he had no umbrella insurance, he is what they call cured because it hasn't come back in 5 years but he can no longer get the umbrella insurance because he had cancer once. If it comes back again and his health bills go over the limit for cancer then he has to foot the rest of the bill and he will probably lose everything he has worked for all his life. Is this fair?
I vote for single payer health care for all.

[lja925]

So, let's say you get a job with employer paid insurance. Now, you get sick with, let's say, diabetes. Then you're told you have to take a new position or leave. The position you're offered really stinks. If you leave, you lose your insurance and you can't afford COBRA. So, now you're stuck in this lousy job because you have a pre-existing condition. You can't move, you can't change jobs, you can't better yourself. Is that fair?

Even if you don't get some kind of disease, you will get old and retire. I sure hope you have enough money in savings to treat the illness you're bound to get in your old age. Because with your thinking everyone should be on their own. So good luck to you.

(this is where I originally meant to post my comment. My apologies to bluedog24).

[Connolly1916]

How about you shut up and leave this forum unless you have something positive to contribute besides emotional, inflammatory arguments?

If you have a sound economic reason why you think single payer health care would be detrimental to the overall economy, then speak up.

"I don't want my taxes to pay for health benefits for people who wouldn't othewise be able to obtain them" isn't going to cut it.

[truthynesslover]

hey thanks for the 2 unwinnable wars and the depression.You should be very proud!

[Politisizer]

Universal healthcare killing the GOP would be a nice side-effect but the most important benefits would be the positive effects on the economy and the health of the general public.

The only people who benefit from keeping healthcare in the private sector are those who are employed, or otherwise paid, by the healthcare companies - pretty much everyone else suffers, as does the economy as a whole.

[SeanGardner]

wow...

[R2D2-51]

Reaganomics:

Graduated from H.S. 1969, buy a carton of cigarettes $1.75, fill tank $2.50, and get a job included 1st class healthcare allowing me to be primary breadwinner to get married, start a family and buy a house for 40 K that sells for .5 million today.

Those days are gone. “Globalization” & corporate strategies to compete with foreign cheap labor and employee healthcare costs subsidized by foreign countries, led to outsourcing, states right to work laws, union busting, mergers, and U.S. plants moving to these countries who pay healthcare.

Affluent built fortunes in foreign American Mkts. raised std. of living in developing countries on the expense of middle-class worker in U.S., where free trade agreements-NAFTA & GATT sold out the American worker where COLA income has lagged so far behind inflationary dollars, only a matter of time before Reaganomics would tilt..

A metaphor for burning a candle at both ends, Reaganomics fueled the disease of over consumerism, , greater debt creation, and tweaked the capitalist system on society’s ability to keep pumping money into material acquisition and services. Its out of balance as middle class households have less disposable income to keep the system solvent, reflected on Wall Street.


Audacity of Congress to wonder why Big 3 are failing-CEO’s stated, “ its impossible to compete with foreign carmakers whose government pay the healthcare tab” ought to signal that single payer healthcare is long overdue.

[rpr]

I don't get it.
Why does having to participate in a cumbersome inefficient money wasting health care system make me an investor?
The effect that they're afraid of is "Hey, the Dems did a really good job with the new health care system, it's saving me several grand per year. I'll vote for them again!"

[canucklivinginUSA]

I spoke to my mom today about the cost of universal health care in Canada and she told me that you pay a little over 20$(she didn't precise monthly or yearly, but I am guessing monthly). 20 bucks! Canada has 30 millions inhabitants and it only costs 20$, the US has 300 millions, do the math. It won't be that costly to adopt a similar system as Canada

[Kiba]

The reality is that American taxpayers pay more for health care than any other country except Switzerland. We already pay for Universal Health Care, we just don't get it.

Nooooo, of course not... it's Teh Socialisms!!!!! Americans better smarten up fast, or it's going to be hard times for all of us.

[wdw102]

don't touch the health care coverage that i have or that my EMPs have........i will not pay more either

[wdw102]

wow read your post please........

[lmaointx]

I don't get it. When has the government ever done a good job at anything? From the Veteran's Administration, to the Social Security Administration, to the IRS, Fannie, Freddie - the list goes on. Why on earth would people believe the government could do a good job with a national health care program, and who would want the government all up in their business re: their health care?

BTW this article isn't really just about how the passage of nationalized health care will affect the GOP - it is about how it will affect all Americans. I don't want the government to provide my job, my health care, etc. Any government big enough to give you everything can also take away everything, including individual liberties. There are health care solutions that don't require the government to "take over." Too bad none of those fit the agenda of the incoming POTUS.

[rpr]

It works well in every other country.

The basic problem with the American health care system is that it is so fragmented and the interfaces between the zillions of different entities are not automated, meaning lots of people have to do this job manually. My dentist has 2 full time admins who basically do nothing but manage patients' insurance issues all day. In other countries you have one insurance card that basically holds just one identifying number like your SSN and a central entity sorts these things out automatically. If you're insured, who your insurer is etc. And there is *one* plan plus a couple of options that you can choose to insure against or not and that's it (the basic plan would be like a 99.9% PPO plan without per-treatment or lifetime limits here.)
And, OBTW, there's generally nothing government-run about it. There are several insurance companies in addition to the big government-backed (but private) nonprofit, some nonprofit and some for-profit. You are free to buy your insurance wherever you want as long as you qualify.

[truthynesslover]

I dont hear the geezers calling for an end to s.s. do you?medicare?If you keep voting for people who deliberatly underfund and hate government and DONT want it to work properly what do you expect?heck of a job!

[Notawingnut]

"I don't get it. When has the government ever done a good job at anything? From the Veteran's Administration, to the Social Security Administration, to the IRS, Fannie, Freddie - the list goes on. Why on earth would people believe the government could do a good job with a national health care program, and who would want the government all up in their business re: their health care?"

When was the last time private insurance did a good job with health care? As has been said several times, doctors staff lots of administrative assistants just to deal with insurance companies. Every doctor I know, personally and medically, generally hates them.

"Any government big enough to give you everything can also take away everything, including individual liberties."

So lets make sure the government doesn't do anything. The people on your block can take up a collection to replace the roads. We can go back to an all volunteer fire department and just give everyone a gun so we can get rid of the police.

And for those that say Europe and Canada don't have a good system, ask 95% of them if they'd like to give it up in favor of our system. We can learn from their examples and try to make improvements where warranted. We really need to get past the times when my parents have to decide which medications they can afford this month, and which they can't. Strict adherance to ideology is what our enemies have.

[csavage]

The ACP-American College of Physicians-advocate a single payer system

Sixty percent of practicing MDs advocate a single payer system-and not a bunch of for-profit insurance companies, either

I've sat on board meetings for IPA where we've discussed contacts with insurance companies. Believe me, the companies don't spend their time wondering how to pay for coverage or expand coverage. They spend their time figuring out to how to deny coverage to their clients-otherwise known as patients. Start thinking about your life in terms of "per member-per month" costs/negative revenue, and you'll know just what your health insurance company thinks of you.....

[Erdgeist]

Actually the government does a very good job at many things. Your information about Social Security, etc. must come from windbag Rush Limbaugh or Sean "Peabrain" Hannity. Right now the private sector is going belly up from sheer incompetence. And keep in mind that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac didn't make a single loan -- it was the idiots who work on the private enterprise side of the equation, who practice predatory lending, who made all the bad loans.

[billw8017]

When Enron was gouging Californians, the pain was less than it might have been because major cities ran their own utilities and passed through the crisis with ordinary costs. Why should it be more efficient to stop every couple miles and hand over a couple bucks than to support the highways with gas taxes? Does sending 20c of every highway dollar to New York or Europe really make the highways more efficient? Sure, the wages can be cut and maintenance scrimped, but why do you think that is such a good thing?

Today, the government pays almost twice per capita what the British government pays, and while Americans suffer intermittant, insufficient coverage, or no coverage at all, Brits have universal care. Studies indicate that ordinary Brits are healtier than the wealthier Americans. What's there not to like about "Socialized Medicine?"

[scubafox]

Republicans deregulate and then complain when there are failures. Good thing Bush didn't privatize SS. What needs to be understood is that there's a difference between national health care and national, single-payer health insurance. The latter is required to overcome "adverse selection" ... google "Invisible Hand Drops Ball & Economics 101" and read about it. You want corporations to provide health insurance and spend your money on figuring out how to "NOT cover you", but I don't. Glad you love paying for William McGuire's $1.6 billion stock options retirement package. Conservatives are quite insane.

[Grannysue]

GOOD better sooner rather then later!

[R2D2-51]

As Professor Morissy emphasized on the same panel, “the Big 3 can never be competitive with foreign automakers” unless they follow the model for example, of Honda Indiana. In other words, how can GM compete with Honda or any other foreign automotive competitor where employee healthcare & benefit costs are picked up by these foreign governments.

All one has to do is realize in the era of globalization, that having a single payer healthcare plan becomes economic reality if you expect wall street to survive, and is crucial if we plan on maintaining a middle-class strata in this country, and take the profit incentive out of the health insurance industry where denying medical care is the only way they can stay in business.

If we are going to subsidize 25 billion dollars to our Big 3 automakers to remain competitive in light of off-setting healthcare and pension payouts, we ought to be getting the picture that Universal Healthcare should be on the front burner for President Obama if we are going to help stem the economic tide against decreasing household disposable income and workforce factors of competing costs to make a profit without severe unemployment and economic stagnation we got to wake up. I am not a Republican or a Democrat but a realist, and one thing is clear. What your seeing go down in this country is what people have been talking about for at least a decade, if not for the last two.

[Harry Scrote]

Ok, so what's the hold-up, then? C'mon, let's get to it already!

[Grunty1]

Which one? The health care or the last breath of the GOP?
Never mind, I'm greedy and want both!

[PresidentBeeblebrox]

What? You mean high-deductible health insurance policies and Health Savings Accounts aren't the solution?

Man, I miss my $5,000 deductible something fierce...

[Zengeist]

How appropriate that the first essential benefit of universal healthcare coverage in this country might help decimate the virulant stupidity of the far right, opening the way for restoration of a healthy, functioning moderate GOP. It's always those who are welded to an ideal on either so-called side of the political spectrum that are the greatest obstacle to conscious, effective functioning. "Socialism... liberalism... family values... the real America... " Boogity-Boogity! It's great to read the headlines every morning now. They are filled with stories about new leaders making genuinely intelligent considerations about huge issues. Been a long time, ain't it?

[wdw102]

obstruction is the way

[Grunty1]

For those who want to help the GOP go extinct.

[canucklivinginUSA]

I would welcome a moderate GOP. Lets get it done!

[DonCosenza]

Perhaps had the GOP actually developed some real reform of the health care system when they were in power of all branches of federal government, *they* could have been the ones to benefit from establishing a new and popular entitlement. Of course, this would be anathema to their ideologues, but it sounds to me like they are crying over spilled milk now.

The GOP dropped the ball on health care, so much so that now even businesses support some government system, and now they're afraid that the Democrats might pick the ball up.

Boo hoo!

[wdw102]

yes, only because the businesses think they can dump costs on the EMPs

[Grunty1]

They were too busy trying to steal the money for themselves.

[Bitsko]

The premise of this article is based on the idea that Americans of today are just like the post WW 2 Brits. I find that more than a bit of a stretch.

[canucklivinginUSA]

I expect nothing less from the Cato Institute

[justShareandbeNice]

I would get excited about a grass-roots "whisper" campaign where we all talk *as if* the GOP were dead.

I was having dinner with my family just before the election and I went out on a limb and predicted that in 10-20 years the Republican party would be weakened to the point that they were virtually powerless. I was just making one of those "pretend I can predict the future" comments but most of the family was like "OH, no.....". Laughter all around. They are all Dems, quite liberal. But older. I don't think the older generations can really see the writing on the walls like younger/middler folk.

The party has dug itself a hole in terms of demographics, their fake "values" votes, and the general trends in what people want and will demand. Their leaders may want to change with the winds in order to remain in power, but their "message" is all about no change. Whoops!

Mostly, though, the death-knell is when more and more people can see through the scam that is trickle-down economics. And, I predict, more and more people are going to be against war on principal. Our world can take no more.

Oh, and I totally agree with the health care analysis. Bring it on!

[brt929]

JustShareandbenice:

I hate to burst your bubble, but your family is right. Living in a state like Idaho, they often start the right wing indoctrination very young. I have met many more conservatives at the local University than liberals. This state gave 62% of their vote to McCain. Wyoming gave 66% of their vote to McCain.

Not only that- if Obama gets 8 years- everyone will have forgotten the incompetence of the Bush administration. Not to mention, Republicans rationalize that Bush is not a true "Conservative."

The GOP works by honing in on the voters' fears. They also lie, a lot.

They will be back. I promise you. In many states, they never lost control.