Congressional Budget Office Could Kill Health Care Reform, Again

tnr.com:

Everywhere you look, health care reform seems to be chugging along. Insurers and drug companies are visiting the White House to show solidarity with President Obama. House Democrats are promising to pass a bill by July 31. But, if you talk to senior staff in the administration or on Capitol Hill, you'll detect anxiety over one tiny agency--an agency that helped kill health care reform in 1994 and has the power to do so again.

Read the whole story: tnr.com

Comments

[jpinsatx]

Hmmm… Health Care for ALL Americans is Simple!

By Utilizing Existing Systems...

1) MERGE Medicare with Medicaide into one single "Income Based" system for poor and elderly citizens.

2) REQUIRE insurance companies to provide the same basic coverage for ALL Non-Medica­re/Medicai­de citizens, regardless of health status, at affordable rates.

3) ALLOW insurance companies to "Profit" by offering additional benefits and options to those who qualify and are willing to pay the difference.

As for Funding…

1) Changing from an "Emergency Treatment" to a "Preventive Care" system will save local communities billions, maybe even trillions of taxpayer dollars!

2) Small business will be able to compete globally and hire additional taxpaying employees!

3) Wealthy seniors will pay their fair share!

4) The tremendous burden on future generations will be greatly reduced!

[PhilipTaylor]

Which Senators have an incentive to Vote for PROFITS in Health Care?

% Tot Funding---­-Senator--­--
From Health care

26.9% Barrasso,John A WY R
21.4% Coburn,Tom OK R
19.4% Brown,Sherrod OH D
19.3% Hatch,Orrin UT R
17.9% Grassley,Chuck IA R
16.0% Burr,Richard NC R
15.6% Gregg,Judd NH R
14.4% Cardin,Ben MD D
14.3% Harkin,Tom IA D
14.3% Enzi,Mike WY R
14.0% Baucus,Max MT D
13.7% Ensign,John NV R
13.2% Rockefeller,Jay WV D
12.8% Lincoln,Blanche AR D
12.3% Specter,Arlen PA D
12.3% Wicker,Roger MS R
12.2% Conrad,Kent ND D
11.7% Kyl,Jon AZ R
11.2% DeMint,James SC R
10.7% Kennedy,Edward MA D
10.7% McConnell,Mitch KY R
10.7% Bunning,Jim KY R
10.5% Wyden,Ron OR D
10.4% Vitter,David LA R
10.4% Alexander,Lamar TN R
10.4% Snowe,Olympia ME R
10.3% Bingaman,Jeff NM D
10.0% Roberts,Pat KS R
9.9% Collins,Susan ME R
9.9% Cornyn,John TX R
9.8% Corker,Bob TN R
9.7% Crapo,Mike ID R
9.6% Mikulski,Barbara MD D
9.5% Feingold,Russ WI D
9.3% Sessions,Jeff AL R
9.3% Nelson,Ben NE D
8.8% Lugar,Richard IN R
8.6% Graham,Lindsey SC R
8.4% Stabenow,Debbie MI D
8.4% Voinovich,George OH R
8.3% Bennett,Robert UT R
8.2% Chambliss,Saxby GA R
8.2% Smith,Gordon OR R
8.2% Brownback,Sam KS R

[AlaninElkGrove]

This should be easy. Step on a few very noisy toes, cut the bloated defense budget in half and fully fund single-payer health care...

[PlaceboStudman]

Name ONE....just ONE program that the government *fully funds"

[avocats]

Another ridiculous headline. No one knows how much "reform" will cost, especially since no one has specified what "reform" is to be. But the CBO isn't likely making up ridiculous numbers. What government program ever cost less than its proponents estimated? And health care is the worst case. Compare what the 1972 Kidney Amendment was supposed to cost with what it costs us today. A large number of Americans clearly fall victim to wishful thinking about costs--look at the subprime mortgage mess. Why shouldn't we consider the costs of whatever "reform" plan we are asked to support?

[ncmom54]

After our "Stepford Congress" favored the Banking Industry over American Citizens.
Health Care Reform will probably go to the same way.

It would be nice if the tax payers could vote for what we want.

http://www.pnhp.org
Physicians for a National Health Program

www.healthreform.gov
Speak up! for yourself and then stand up for someone who is no longer able.

Why shouldn't we have the the same publlic funded plan we provide Congress?
(any who vote against it, should explain why they deserve it and we don't)

stay focused... this isn't going to be easy

I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it." FDR

[ChelseaC]

I agree. A public option is REAL reform. If we go public it would save MILLIONS, help the economy and take the burden off businesses both large and small.
Let's PUSH BACK and demand a public option be put on the
table.
Start with signing Dr. Howard Dean's petition.
If WE don't DEMAND, the insurance industry and Big Pharma
will continue to run medicine.Tell your elected officials you want a public option.
It's the only fair way--allow We The People to decide.

http://www.standwithdrdean.com/credo

[oregonhills]

Ahh that dirty Congressional Budget Office! They just keep counting beans and noticing that all of the various insurance plans that Obama and industry propose add up to enormous costs.

But a number of studies conducted by the CBO concluded that a single payer system similar to that proposed by HR 676 could provide expanded coverage to all Americans without any increase in health care spending after an initial period. In fact, more recent studies conducted by the Lewin Group and other economic consulting firms predict immediate cost savings after implementation of single payer financing.

HR 676, sponsored by Rep John Conyers, has some 86 co-sponsors. Senator Bernie Sanders has proposed S. 703, a more decentralized single payer plan, administered by the states. That bill is in the hands of the Senate Finance Committee, chaired by Max Baucus, who is one of the biggest recipient of medical industry funds in Congress and is determined to keep single payer health care off the agenda.

The US has the most expensive yet skimpiest health coverage of any country in the developed world largely because the public has been deliberately kept uninformed or deliberately misinformed. Let the CBO and let the GAO count beans. But let them include single payer in every financial analysis. The results will be so clear the politicians will step out of the way or be swept out of office. And the morale, health and economy of this country will be lifted, measurably and immeasurably.

[ChelseaC]

Oregonhills,
Thank you!

[StillAmused]

To PlaceboStudman, working this thread furiously since morning, a repost of my earlier response...

From your profile:

"I am also an avid lobbyist for health care reform, and the concept of personal responsibility by the insurance companies, rather than giving them a pass by switching to a governmental run health care system."

I'm afraid you've succumbed to right wing wordsmithing, which deliberately mischaracterizes "single payer insurance" as a "governmental run health care system" with all of its ominous, Orwellian overtones. One can almost envision doctors, dressed uniformly in black jumpsuits featuring a red lightning bolt across the chest, dispassionately choosing who receives treatment and who doesn't.

Stop kidding yourself. Same doctors, same hospitals, same clinics, same "health care system"... just the substitution of an infinitely more efficient insurance pool (see: Medicare) not driven by a corporate, profit-seeking impetus to DENY payment wherever possible.

With genuine sympathy for your self-described physical challenge, it MUST be offset by a very comfortable level of personal wealth if, as you proclaim, "... there is no price to be paid that is too high to retain one's dignity and self respect."

Thankfully, most of us don't feel the same curious calling to cheerfully support the gouging, duplicative, bureaucracy-ridden corporate profit centers presently masquerading as private "health insurance".

Conservatives so often display a puzzling willingness, in the name of ideological cant, to pull as hard as they can on the rope that ends in a noose around their own necks.

[PlaceboStudman]

You really think that ANY insurance reform is going to reduce or stop suffering and dying??? Because that is EXACTLY what you are saying when you talk about insurance reform without talking about health care reform. The ONLY thing that will change is giving more people access to medicine, technology, and treatments that are killing many of us. It does nothing, not one thing, to prevent cancer, prevent strokes or heart attacks, or congenital disabilities. It does nothing to prevent us from receiving medication for a heart condition that causes kidney, liver and heart failure. It does nothing to prevent someone diagnosed with depression from receiving antidepressants that cause suicidal thoughts, which some people will act on. But, sure,if you want to continue to fool yourself and believe that insurance reform and lowering costs is going to prevent people from suffering and dying, by all means, go right ahead. But don't expect me to support ANY reform that does not include improving medical R&D, because that actually WILL reduce and prevent suffering and dying

[StillAmused]

"You really think that ANY insurance reform is going to reduce or stop suffering and dying???"

No... I think single-payer will put an end to the worst sort of profiteering by private corporations on the backs of citizens and dramatically reduce the cost of health insurance. I'll leave the purification of the actual health care delivery system to holistic savants such as yourself (once you've figured out how to convince everyone else).

You're entitled to your somewhat obsessive preoccupation with the failings of modern medicine -- and there are doubtless many -- but it's a classic case of "the perfect being the enemy of the good".

Give it a rest.

[alabaman]

Excellent post, right on point. But Obama had the bad luck of trying to reform health care in the midst of a financial crisis. Unless he is extremely skillfull, the only reform we will get is when a Republican president and Congress enact legislation that gives everyone tax credits or deductions to buy their own policy on the open market. It's the "ownership society" at its worst.

[PlaceboStudman]

And what woud they get with that tax credit or deduction? Medications that end up killing them in the long run. Heart medication that causes liver kidney and heart failure, and antidepressants that cause suicidal ideation. Not my idea of health care!

[dwright]

actually that is why it makes it the best time to try and push it through.

[LeeCalif]

It won't be bean counters that kill public healthcare, It will be insurance companies.

[PlaceboStudman]

Public health care is dead in the water anyway, so long as selfish greedy Americans insist on an "I want it all and I want it now" mentality. No system where money comes first is sustainable

[Shaddup]

Too true. Isn't it funny that most American people want single payer and most economists think it would save the government the most in the long run, but instead of doing what's best ALL THE POLITICIANS ARE KOWTOWING TO THE INSURANCE LOBBY!

[Emlyn]

Because, if they want to get re-elected to office, they have to kowtow to the insurance lobby and other lobbists. It would be good in this country if we had public financing for the senate and congress. That's the only way we can ever break the lobbists.

[feliznavidad]

Bingo. We have 1,400 "health " insurance companies in the USA today. Their role seems to be limited to siphoning off fuding from patients for executives, marketing, and lobbying against we the people, without produding a single productive galue add for health care. If the government were doing as poorly as this, that is all Faux News and the Stall Street Journal would ever cover!

[BluePrideStephen]

We already have socialized medicine. Hospitals charge enormous fees to the well-insured and lose money on the under and uninsured patients. Nothing but elective and cosmetic operations should be at a profit. Basic healthcare must be offered to all.

Combine uninsured, workers' comp, liability cases, accident victims, under-insured all into once basic category. Imagine the saving by not faking the illness/injury just to be treated. Economies of scale alone will realize tremendous savings. Keep your employer OUT of your healthcare. Why should your employer decide your healthcare? The selections they make are capricious and not in the best interest of employees.

[rabiddog6708]

Healthcare is to the Dem party as Abortion to the Repub party. An issue to run on but never do anything about. Wait and see, Universal Healthcare will not happen. The Dems will toss out some weak entitlement or tax rebate and that will be it.

[PlaceboStudman]

Far as Im concerned, the entire insurance racket has become one giant entitlement that is used and abused and set up a situation where we've allowed the insurance companies to gouge us financially, because we demand immediate solutions to relatively minor problems

[kinnycut]

This is a promise the Democrats can't go back on this time. Health care is a serious problem that is going to get worse irregardless of the economy, and without universal care for everyone there will be no way to control costs at all. You can't create a plan that leaves one third without coverage because than you are not much better off than you are now. Their has to be some control over those thieving insurance companies because their actions do nothing but increase premiums, deductibles, co-pays, and the end result is medical bills go unpaid which result in ever increasing medical costs for everyone.

[PlaceboStudman]

Why am I the only one who sees the flaws in trying to compare and contrast cross national health care systems? Of course Europe has better health care. They have fewer people to be concerned with per each country, and each country has their own unique system. When you consider the difference in lifestlyes, it's pretty obvious why European countries have better care. So let's not apply their criteria to us, because we are a much larger population and have a much different lifestyle.

[booboo111]

We spend the most and get the least. It has nothing to do with the Europeans. It has to do with third party profiteers( i.e.the ins. cos.) suck1ng $ dollars out of the system before it gets to the caregivers. Is that too difficult for you to understand studman?

[PlaceboStudman]

No, I understand that perfectly. I'm just sick of the propoganda trying to compare France's Health care to our own, when they are nowhere near comparable for a number of reasons

[jackstpaul]

Please present your logic and evidence as to why population size has anything to do with it? Along with "of course." "Obvious."

[PlaceboStudman]

Smaller population, easier and cheaper to cover more people. Simple. Remember the state of California has a bigger economy than many European countries

[Shaddup]

Yeah, you would think that with our larger population we might want to cut cost on the paperwork, which means--you think single payer would be the best option, too.

[PlaceboStudman]

I never said it wasn't the best option that has been presented. It's just not as good as it could be, and there are issues with it that do not address the core issues of health care beyond "affordability and access"

[JaneK13]

The article may refer to the Budget Office a "one tiny agency," but that shouldn't minimize the importance of its work. This is the agency that crunches the numbers, establishes the projections and tells the American people whether or not a program is affordable. To date, the current administration hasn't been paying any attention to the Budget Office...the current rate of spending is unsustainable and will bankrupt the country...the president himself affirmed that fact just the other day. But then he went on to say that we can solve this problem by taking on additional spending. Apparently, Pres Obama still believes we can spend our way out of debt.

[PlaceboStudman]

And, pray tell, do you get out of debt other than by spending?? You gotta pay the people you owe to get out of debt, and that is spending

[bannorhill]

You get out of debt by paying people you owe money too AND by not adding new debt that you can't afford.

Do you pay off your Visa debt by charging another $35,000.00 on it or by stopping new charges and incraesing payments?

[PinkysBrain]

At some point we are going to have to recognize that we can't do it all. Universal healthcare, light rail, more education money, increased environmental regulation, etc. are all nice ideas, but cost money. Last I checked, we are covering about 50% of our budget with our income. So what politician is going to have the courage to say "no, we can't afford this"? If history is any guide, none will speak up. It is much easier to get re-elected by saying "yes" than by saying "no". Like a petulant child, American want every piece of candy in the checkout aisle.

[PlaceboStudman]

Ever watch Star Trek?? Gene Roddenbury came up with some great ideas of eliminating money and profit motive altogether and basically promoted the evolution of human nature from one of TRUE socialism, not just economic socialism, but one where public service was part of the universal psyche.

It's a great ideal to strive for (of course there's a reason it took until the 24th century to get there)

[ps89]

Gosh, you ARE grim. People are more than willing to get profit out of healthcare... profit for the insurers, that is. Most people see the value in helping other people via taxation and supporting a healthcare system. Those who don't want healthcare for all, supported by taxation, are the MINORITY. I have faith it will happen in this country soon.

[crazylikeafox]

No we can't do it all unless we get rid of the military industrial complex.

How many people does it take to push a button anyway?

[Kassandra]

Well, if Bernanke could find those 11 Trillion he lost, that would pretty much "fix" the problem, wouldn't it?
Of course, that's off the radar now...for some reason.

[escribacat]

Why don't we pay for universal health care by canceling the next pointless war or two?

[PlaceboStudman]

Logic and rational thought escapes most politicians (on both sides of the aisle) and prevents them from making wise decisions like that

[ps89]

yes. yes!