Universal Healthcare: A Matter of Political Will (Updated)

Elections have consequences: we voted for universal health care and intend to get it done. Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, millions of Americans were given the option for transformational change; for shifting the billions we spend on high-end tax cuts and war in Iraq to the health and well-being of our families. Now it is crunch time -- and the rising chorus of patients, doctors, nurses and small businesses speaks with one voice: it is time to deliver.

What stands in the way? The status quo. Today's salvo comes from the Congressional Budget Office assessment that health care reform needs more changes and fewer costs. This morning I received my daily beltway buzz question from Politico's http://www.politico.com/arenaArena editor asking for comment on the Washington Post assessment that the CBO assessment is "devastating" for healthcare reform.

While writing my response to Politico's question, I got a call from the hospital billing department because my insurance company has yet to pay a claim from before my 4-month old daughter was born. Nevermind that we paid our premiums -- which rose 30% during my pregnancy. Nevermind that my doctor ordered every test and procedure. My baby is already teething and we are still waiting for the hospital and the insurance company bureaucrats to decide whether her prenatal tests were covered. And we are the lucky ones -- our baby is healthy. So count me unimpressed by those who say now is not the time for healthcare reform.

Universal healthcare can happen -- it is just a matter of political will.

So the CBO tells Congress to find bigger changes, more reforms, and added cost savings -- and the Washington Post -- the paper that set up pay-to-play salons for "those powerful few who will decide" healthcare http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24441.html and won't tell their readers those deciders - says that's "devastating." Did one of "those powerful few" feel it was devastating? Do tell.

Meanwhile, we non-salon Americans favoring universal health care don't find it devastating -- just challenging -- that reformers will have to try harder to find more savings as the bill works its way through Congress.

Friday's email from President Obama's camp http://barackobama,.com lays it out:

as the final negotiations begin, desperate lobbyists and defenders of the status quo will distort, attack, and make every threat they can to stop reform. We're fighting back with our biggest week yet in this campaign -- knocking on doors, making phone calls, and putting real health stories on the air to make it clear why we need reform now.

I hadn't intended to include my story today but the hospital called while I was typing so there's a taste of the frustration. Want to start a family? Get insurance first -- pregnancy is a pre-existing condition. Need prenatal care? Your sonogram must prove that insurance preceded conception. Doctor-ordered prenatal exams? The bureaucrats fight those well into the birth of your child.

We know this is hard -- which is why we hired Barack Obama and the Congress to make the tough choices needed to fix it. I remain confident that they will succeed. But it won't happen without us -- change never does. Lift your voice at http://barackobama.com

UPDATE: MONDAY, JULY 20: President Obama begins a full court press. Good. He should be willing to keep the summer deadline for House and Senate healthcare bills and go overtime into August if necessary. I can't think of a single reason why a public servant wants to be on recess - what the media will call a "vacation" - rather than at the Capitol working on healthcare. Back in the day people wanted their President and Members of Congress in the House and Senate to be at home in the community during extended periods of time to check in with the constituents, and show they weren't catching Potomac fever - and the Congressional calendar reflects that. In this time of economic recession, people want to see our elected representatives at work attacking the problems we elected them to solve. Of course community work is essential - and the multimillion dollar staff and communication budgets of the President and Congress allow them to update people on progress. But you can't show off progress until you make some, and you can only do that in the same room as your opponents hashing out differences.

That desire is exponential for politically active constituents who worked for change and expect results. Having just spent time with California Democrats at our executive board meeting, I can attest to the Obama volunteers' hunger for change and their desire to see the President make it happen. California is a bellwether for anyone thinking that a "recess" will impress constituents: we see our state legislators at home and ask aloud why they are not in Sacramento passing a budget, and we were inflamed by our governor for telling the New York Times he lights up a stogie in his jacuzzi every night regardless of how the budget fights are going.

We know we will get a House bill but have no clue where the Senate and White House will go or when. That in turn makes us question when we will see relief from skyrocketing insurance premiums and medical bills. Take it from one of many fed-up Californians: the President should act as though he is what stands between the status quo and the pitchforks.

Follow Christine Pelosi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sfpelosi

Comments

[PaxEterna]

Mandating insurance is not a solution to providing health care for all.

All that does it put $$$ in the pockets of the corporate profiteers at the expense of sick people.

If our government can't see the difference, then they ought to give up their taxpayer paid benefits and go shopping for insurance.

Then we might get change we can believe in.

[Dusty Campbell]

i think its pretty sad that you guys will not post an opposing oppinion, when all i do is scroll through all these slanderious comments all day, everyday. what are you afraid of? people waking up?

[GoldsteinD]

Obama has cited the Mayo clinic, several times, as a model for good healthcare in his quest for a public plan.

The Mayo Clinic's response: "the proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients. In fact, it will do the opposite. In general, the proposals under discussion are not patient focused or results oriented."

http://healthpolicyblog.mayoclinic.org/2009/07/16/mayo-clinic%E2%80%99s-reaction-to-house-tri-committee-bill/

[PaxEterna]

I believe that Mayo is correct, and this assessment ought to give Obama deep cause for concern.

Further, it ought to be front page news, and not buried somewhere.

The true sign of a leader is when he admits he was wrong and goes back to the drawing boards to get it right.

He should NEVER have taken Single Payer off the table.

Now he has lost the left and the center (forget the right whom he never had -except in his dreams- to begin with.)

I think we the people ought to demand SIngle Payer from our government, and convey to them in no uncertain terms that anything less is NOT acceptable.

Rescind their benefits and then see what they do.

[johnwinner]

Ameica is not a democracy, it's an oligarchy. The purpose of health insurance is to recycle the wealth of the lower classes back to the economic elite. The current debate concerning health care reform movement is skewered, it isn't even about universal health care but about how best to recycle that wealth through insurance. As workers, our purpose is to suffer and die to make the wealthy wealthier.

[GoldsteinD]

you are correct. America is not a democracy. It is supposed to be a Republic. If we get public healthcare, it will be an oligarchy of govt bureaucrats. Do you honestly think we will get the same plan/care as those in the upper echelons of govt? Dream on

If I can get the same care as the President and Congress, then sign me up

[marijam]

Single payer. Just expand medicare to cover everybody and increase taxes to pay for it. Just do it.

[vanmungo]

But the CBO estimates that the House plan will still leave about 15 million uninsured.

This is NOT universal health care. This is a sham that neither controls costs nor makes high-quality care a guarantee for all Americans.

This is a lobbyist-written nightmare.

That Pelosi and other self-professed "liberals" are pretending that this is some kind of reform says all we need to know about the ethically lobotomized state of mainstream corporate liberal political discourse.

Nonprofit single-payer Medicare for all is the ONLY reform with a proven record of cost control and guaranteed universal coverage--it has proved its effectiveness for a half century in the rest of the industrialized world, while the U.S. health extortion racket devolves into chaos.

Pelosi burbles portentously about "transformational change"--as though the grandiloguqne redundancy (transformation IS a change) can disguise the reality: the mainstream Dems' healthcare proposal is not even small change--it's counterfeit change.

With Clinton we got "I feel your pain" while he methodically reversed the New Deal with Glass Steagall repeal, welfare reform, WTO/NAFTA, and rampant deregulation.

Now we have "transformational change" withsame cast of neoliberal knaves is back at the helm. , piloting us over cliff.

Met the new boss, same as the old boss.

[desideratum]

The assertion that the public voted for "universal health coverage" by electing Obama president is a canard that was also used by the previous administration in the wake of their victory.

Elections have consequences, sure, but they are most assuredly not discrete ones. The vast majority of the public voted for Obama because he represented a shift from Bush, a "different" view, a certain something that certaintly wasn't defined by clear policy objectives, but rather a certain ethos and a calm steady hand at the tiller-- something McCain lost control of after his response to the economic crisis and his selection of Sarah Palin as Veep.

Obama wasn't elected by the vast middle swath of society to enact a massive health insurance policy, this is merely a Democratic Base talking point akin to Republican declarations (notably by Dick Cheney) that in the wake of the '04 elections the public had shown a clear preference thus authorizing a government mandate.

[Christine Pelosi - Huffpost Blogger]

Barack Obama campaigned on universal healthcare, put his plan on his www.barackobama.com website, and said that getting combat troops out of Iraq, passing universal healthcare, and fighting global warming through clean energy jobs were the 3 measures by which his presidency should be judged. He defended his ideas throughout the campaign and through televised debates. So we knew what we were voting for.

[desideratum]

I am not sure who the "we" of your last sentence is referring to. If by "we" you mean "we the democratic base" than I agree. If by "we" you mean "everyone who voted for Obama" than I must disagree.

Contrary to the belief of those insulated in political life, many voters have a vague understanding-- if any-- of what particular candidates stand for in terms of policy. People saw Obama as against the war and for healthcare and for the environment-- but those are nebulous positions that a vast array of specific policies can ameliorate. For instance, Obama's effort to create green jobs under the government's purview is not so different from some conservatives' efforts to create green jobs through encouraging private investment. Both sides want to solve the problems posed by worsening environmental conditions (positionally they're similar), but the specific policies they promote differ.

The bane of Republicans in the last election lied in their inability to clarify their positions and to escape the long shadow cast by Obama's predescessor, not the fact that the public was particularly endeared to Obama's policies (as is evidenced in the public's ambivalence of many of his current prescriptions).

[Pippen]

Insurance should be mandatory and universal coverage implemented. We have millions of people who waltz into emergency rooms every day without insurance, guess who pays ? You and I do. Only the distrubution of the care and cost is not proportional.

With universal coverage, I pay less for insurance and the family with 8 kids snotty noses and skinned knees get treatment that they pay for. And for those who are unemployed there will be a safety net to allow for some care while they keep looking for work.

Common sense.

If you dont work (by choice) and refuse health care, you shouldnt receive medical assistance. There are consequences to being lazy and stupid and I don't want to pay for lazy stupidity. I do that enough watching the GOP try to ruin the country.

[flash43]

The majority of voters of this nation did not vote for universal healthcare, per se, but rather voted for:

1. Transparency of government function
2. Untangling of economic policies and procedures
3. Improving foreign relations
4. Getting out of Iraq and finishing the job in Afghanistan

The nearly 50 million uninsured have so far not been defined or identified. They are a mystery group. Are they illegals? Do they even exist?
Why destroy Medicare by setting up a replacement that features total control or socialized medicine?
Why not simply appoint a commission to fix Medicare, expand it, and make it more functional and self-supporting?
So far, only number three in my list has seen much progress.

[iridium53]

Universal healthcare similar to Canada's would be a great thing in the U.S.

I'm all for it.

The methodology for paying for it is, however, something else.
Placing a disproportionate burden on business payroll taxes helps big companies and will devastate small business. Yet, that is precisely Pelosi's plan.

A healthcare plan that covers everyone should demand payment from everyone - albeit not necessarily in equal measures - because it is in this way that people all feel that this is something they pay for and not a handout. Such a feeling will facilitate more personal responsibility for health - perhaps less smoking, obesity, etc.

Why is the Democratic Party taking the position of supporting the largest companies instead of the average person?

[flash43]

Really? I have heard horror stories from people who moved to the US from Canada. they moved because a family memeber was on a long waiting list for a medical procedure. Due to the patients age and condition, it was very likely they would die while waiting for their turn on the waiting list.
This is not an isolated case, but is typical of socialized medicine in every nation that has it.

We in the US are not Canadians, Swedes, Swiss, Dutch, German, or French.
Why would we want to copy anyones system that clearly does not work?

[SocialistDistortion]

Sorry, chucko but you're way off. My ex-girlfriend is Canadian, who moved here in 2007 and had to move back due to a bad car accident, because she couldn't afford treatment here. Furthermore, she told me that neither she nor anyone she knows ever had to wait more than an hour for care.

Plus, if our system is so superior, then why are we ranked 37th in overall healthcare? Oh I know, it must be because the World Health Organization is an anti-American cabal filled with god hating commies, right?

[sonoffestus]

The CANADA we moved to from the States has a far superior healthcare system than the one we experienced in the States. Excellent, affordable, accessible and available to all.

Problems here in Canada? Yes, of course, but it is still way better than what my wife and I experienced in the States and we had a very good and costly BCBS plan.

I could go on with details, but once I hear the "S" word I realize its lost cause. My wife and I listen to the anti Canada advertisements running in the States and we can only laugh. It seems HL Mencken was correct. To paraphrase him........." Americans like to delve deeply into the surface of things."

Good luck to you all. If you do not change what you have , you're screwed. It is really that simple. Time for the US to enter the 21st century.

[vanmungo]

These scare stories all turn out to be urban myths when checked out.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/20-11

Do some research. Stop poisoning your brain with Fox News.

[chessy]

I agree that we need change. The company from which I retired and retained healthcare as part of my package switched carriers in January. Now there is a $500 deductible and none of my lab work, tests, etc count toward the deductible. I am being billed $10,000 in a matter for weeks. Additionally, my local pharmacist can no longer fill my prescriptions. The new carrier says I have to use Walgreen's or they won't pay for my meds. My pharmacist says this carrier (UnitedHealthCare) owns Walgreens. Go figure!

[lily of the valley]

Keep up to date.

Nurses Praise House Vote to Permit State Single-Payer Laws
by Ron Moore
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/18-1

A Real Win for Single-Payer Advocates
by John Nichols
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/18-5

[Marcospinelli]

To those who say "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the possible", know that we on the left come to the table already having compromised our position. Single payer universal health care IS our compromise.

Single payer universal health care isn't our first, best proposal. We've already have been denied our first best proposal - A level playing field where we all could rise and share in the obscene corporate profits that come at the expense of so many people's lives. We've lost to a corporate mentality that it's a 'dog eat dog'-world, where making a living isn't enough (or even possible); only 'making a killing'.

Had Republicans never been in power these past 35 years, free education through college, access to nutritious, clean and safe food and water, and affordable health care for everyone would have been the bare minimum standard of living for all Americans. But greedy OILy conservative politicians entered our lives and our government, and we're now on a fast track to THE END.

Single payer universal health care is the best and only solution left, in order to provide most Americans with quality and affordable health care.

[Chernynkaya]

I knew there was a reason I fanned you a while ago. Good comments.

[Enigma2008]

Amen!

[DEJM]

As authored by Pelosi and company, universal healthcare wll deny care to the people who need it the most and cannot afford it.

H;ealthcare in our country is a mess because Congress gave in to insurance companies.

If we want a good workable healthcare plan, we need to push for Congressional term limits.

We also need to require Congress to participate in the same healthcare plan as the rest of us.

Does anyone else think it is inappropriate for Congress to vote on their own superior health care insurance and to vote on their own pay raises?

that should be the first place we cut back.

[sonoffestus]

Congress didn't "give in" to insurance companies. They were bought!

The only thing holding up your "new" healthcare system is the fact that big pharma and the insurance industries have not decided on what it is they will allow you to have.

[bighat]

And the possibilty exists we would be a third world country

[SocialistDistortion]

News flash - we already are.

[SocialistDistortion]

I normally don't like to defend Michael Moore, but he made a great point in Sicko. George Carlin also made a great point - the ruling elite don't want things like free education and healthcare, because the last thing they want is a population that is educated, well informed, healthy, and confident. If that happened, the corporate shills and zealots would be given the pink slip immediately. Our elected leaders (mainly goopers, but also some dems) stay in power by ensuring the masses are overfed and underinfor­med...they­'re easier to control with meaningless wedge issues like gays and abortion that way.

[lorla]

Christine, tell your Mama that I and MANY others want the insurance companies out. Create legislation that forces cuts to their own limo-driven policies.
Wendell Potter worked in health insurance PR, and did not understand the needs of the people until he went to a public health in Tennessee, and said it looked like conditions in a third world country.
The policy makers are too comfortable with their lives, and cannot see what is really happening to millions of us.
Shared sacrifice for equal coverage.

[taniacaa]

I agree that we need universal healthcare in America? The more important question is how?. This morning my husband and I listened to Washington Journal and then had a discussion about healthcare. He is an Internist and Pulmonologist in central Florida but practices only Internal Medicine because we cannot afford the Malpractice insurance to cover the Pulmonary portion. I have worked with him for 16 years covering the medical needs of our community. He has a good reputation and our current staff has been with us for close to 10 years and we provide healthcare coverage 100% for them @ about $400 per employee per month (BC/BS of FL) because they are all over 50 years old. We enjoy our jobs.

However, what we have conclude with the healthcare industry is:
1. We need a public option that provide basic care to all Americans who will pay minimum premiums and waivers for those that cannot afford premiums. We can expand and improve the Medicaid system.
2. There has to be an emphasis on preventative care.
3. Insurance has to be mandatory.
4. All insurances should accept preexisting conditions and high risk patients at reasonable costs.
5. Primary care has to be expanded and encouraged.
6. Some TORT reform is needed.

Most patients do not abuse the system but there are a few patients that do.

[Bernique]

Right-wing talking points, taniacca, warmed up to sound not so rightwing.

[taniacaa]

Voted for Obama. Contributed max $ to his campaign. Volunteered. What have you done?