Obama's Defining Moment

After six months in office, the Obama Administration has arrived at a defining moment: the battle over healthcare reform. The outcome will shape future White House initiatives, the 2010 mid-term elections and the future of the Republican Party.

Since the Roosevelt presidency, Democrats have tried to reform America's Byzantine healthcare system. Healthcare costs too much, isn't available to everyone, and drags down the economy, thereby limiting U.S. competitiveness.

While four components comprise the system -- patients, doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies -- most Americans understand the key problem is the role of insurance companies. Many observers want a single-payer plan, similar to Medicare, which would eliminate insurance companies and the for-profit nature of the system.

In 1993 then President Bill Clinton proposed a solution to the healthcare crisis. His plan was defeated because the Clinton Administration had not coordinated effectively with their Congressional allies. Sixteen years later, the Obama administration hopes to avoid the fate of the Clinton healthcare proposal by working closely with House and Senate Democrats.

In his effort to build consensus within the Democratic Party, Obama has sketched out broad objectives for healthcare reform and relied upon Congress to fill in the details. Obama wants universal coverage. The dueling congressional plans come close to this, but fail to cover roughly three percent of Americans. Obama also wants a healthcare plan that reduces costs and the federal deficit. So far, the competing congressional plans fall short of accomplishing this objective.

Because healthcare reform is a complex and contentious issue, some members of Congress have suggested the entire process slow down. On July 23rd, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated that while committees would complete legislation, the full Senate would not vote on it before its August 7th recess. This delay will work to the Republican's advantage, give them a month to chip away at Obama's plan and popularity with a coordinated death by a thousand cuts campaign that distorts the nature of the president's healthcare program.

While Obama's plan has the support of the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association, insurance companies are spending $1.4 million per day to defeat Obama's initiative and employ an army of former government staff workers and retired Congress members to lobby against it.

Healthcare reform opposition has two conceptual faces. One is economic. Insurance companies realize their profits will diminish if the Obama plan becomes law; the rules of monopoly capitalism will be set aside and they'll have to charge competitive fees. In Obama's words, "I don't believe government can or should run health care. But I also don't think insurance companies should have free reign to do as they please." Desperate to continue their iron grip on the system, insurance companies falsely claim the Obama plan would reduce Americans' access to healthcare.

The second face of opposition is ideological. Most Republican members of congress are deeply conservative. They recognize that passage of the Obama plan would be more than a policy setback, it would deal a mortal wound to American conservatism. Shortly after Obama's election, a leading Cato Institute Conservative writer, Michael Cannon, wrote, Blocking Obama's healthcare plan is key to the GOP's survival. His point was that Democrats could win over Republican voters by improving the social safety net. "National health care... will bring reluctant voters into the Obama coalition." Desperate to hold onto power, Republicans falsely argue that the Obama plan would insert a Federal bureaucrat between patients and their doctors, ignoring the reality that in the current system insurance companies place a bureaucrat between a client and his or her doctor.

Republicans see healthcare as the decisive battle of Obama's first term. They are throwing millions of dollars into their anti-Obama campaign and are lying about the consequences of healthcare reform. If Obama's healthcare plan becomes law, it will not only guarantee affordable healthcare to all Americans, it will fatally discredit the Republican Party and severely damage their chances in the mid-term elections.

At his July 22nd press conference, Obama linked healthcare reform to America's long-term economic recovery. He reiterated his programmatic objectives -- expand coverage, improve quality, lower costs, honor patient choice and hold insurance companies accountable -- and pledged his plan will not add to the federal deficit.

Congress will not vote on healthcare reform until after Labor Day. During the next six weeks expect the unholy alliance of Republicans and insurance companies to rain down withering fire on the Obama healthcare proposal. They will lie about every aspect of the plan, deny the need for change, and attack the President.

Obama must fight back, joined by everyone who supported his Presidential campaign. This is the defining moment for healthcare reform. The President has to continue to explain his plan to the American people. He must use his political capital to rein in wayward Democratic legislators. He has to pull out all the stops.

Obama became President because he trusted voters to act like adults. The campaign for healthcare reform tests this belief. Americans must see through the virulent Republican propaganda campaign and support the president's plan.

Comments

[hsr0601]

The House leaders reached a deal on Medicare payments: A "Pay for Value" reimbursement system that rewards doctors and hospitals that achieve the best outcomes at the lowest cost.

As a result, The House gained a lot of votes, a lot of people who were withholding support.

The federal Medicare program insures some 44 million elderly and disabled Americans at an annual cost of $450 billion, almost one-fifth of total U.S. health care spending.

Supporters of the agreement say it could save the Medicare System more than $100 billion a year and improve care, that means $1trillian over a decade.

No one can disagree with this best outcome / evidence-based system, and private insurance, too, will be greatly influenced by this change with the focus on value over volume.

THANK YOU !

[hsr0601]

Ending subsidies for the private insurers (on reducing ER visits) and payment reform and so on could be enough to meet the goal of deficit-neutral. The Times in a July 7 editorial argued “As much as 30 percent of all health-care spending in this country—some $700 billion a year—may be wasted on tests and treatments that do not improve the health of the recipients,” .

According to a national study conducted by Weill Cornell Medical College, the cost of interaction between physician practices and health plans is roughly $31 billion annually, making up 6.9 percent of the total costs for physician and clinical services.
Medical IT SYSTEM and to create national administrative standards for billing forms and codes, as well as procedures for the approval of treatments could save time and money.

And the FBI estimates that each year financial losses due to health care fraud range from $60 billion to $226 billion.

THANK YOU !

[MinisterMelinda]

I just read an article about comments Texas Governor Rick Perry made about not wanting health care reform to be actualized. I am a Texan and I am one of those who do not have health care due to not being poor enough and not able to afford it. I am one of those 47 million that everybody that is against reform is forgetting. My peers in this tank with me are not happy about the delays and we just want similar healthcare that WE the citizens pay for our Senate to have.

[Freesia2]

Yes, Mr. Burnett.

I sometimes think that all of his supporters treated Nov. 4 like the end of the journey. We'd crossed the finish line with him. Stuck the proverbial flag on top of the mountain. The Eagle has landed. Let's party!

It was in fact just the beginning of everything. It was just a breather. A refueling stop and now it's time to get back out there and run our mouths and type our fingers off. He said it didn't he? "We are the ones we've been waiting for." We've not been showing up.

[BobLablah]

Democrats have complete control of government. If they don't do it now, it means they've been lying all along about wanting reform. I think they've been lying.

[hsr0601]

The new report by Families USA said that the nation's health care crisis has deepened due to sharp increases in unemployment rates, overwhelmed employers, and struggling families trying to keep pace with rising health insurance premiums. According to the report:

Average annual family health insurance premiums rose by 119 percent between 1999 and 2008, from $5,791 to $12,680;
Employers offering any health care coverage at all from 2000 to 2008 declined by 6 percent;
An estimated 2.3 million people are losing their coverage each year, or more than 190,000 a month.

[ajijic2000]

In Canada we pay about $60 a month for family coverage.

In Alberta, they pay $0 a month.

How on earth do Americans pay $12K a year.

Although our systems is not perfect, not one Canadian would give it up for anything else.

I feel for you people in the USA.

[knixphan]

'complete control of government'?

How so?