Momentum, Confusion, and Sticking to the Strategy

The intensity is ratcheting ever higher as we move toward the final stages of the health care fight. It's been a good week for reformers overall. Pelosi and Reid are both whipping for strong bills, including a very strong public option (in the House) or a respectable public option (in the Senate). Progress is being made on other key components of the package including the affordability issue. Even traditional media sources like the Washington Post and the New York Times are waking up to the fact that even though they have been declaring health care reform on life support and the public option dead for six months, something decent might actually pass.

The only down moment of the week has been the confusion caused by the White House on the Senate strategy. This whole muddled are-they-or-aren't-they backing Harry Reid or backing Snowe's trigger-designed-not-to-trigger mess was just a poorly handled distraction. I mean, look, anyone who has been in DC longer than a week knows that if you have a meeting at the White House with more than five people in it, that certain folks with their own agenda will start leaking stuff to the media, so whatever the intent of all that was, it was bound to undermine Reid and our overall momentum. The White House is now on the record denying that was their intent, and folks there have sworn to me they are backing Reid to the hilt, so I believe them and that's all good, but it was still a mess.

I think we're still moving forward, though. The next few days will tell us what kind of deals can be cut, but no matter what, I think the strategy for progressives remains the same as it has been from the beginning of this fight:

1. House progressives have to stay strong and united in pushing for a strong public option and more affordability for the middle class. Health care reform will not pass without the votes of the members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and they need to continue to say a big "Hell no" to triggers that are written to never trigger and co-ops that are designed to never compete with the insurers. If House progressives absolutely refuse to fold, the final bill will have a solid public option and decent affordability for the middle class.

2. The 30 core progressives on health care in the Senate need to stay strong and stay together as well. They need to keep pushing Reid and the White House to reject the Snowe trigger that will never trigger, and they need to twist the arms of their last couple of colleagues who are holding out. The idea that one or two Senators are going to stop the entire rest of the Democratic party from delivering on the biggest issue in front of Congress in 50 years is an outrage, and those Senators should be told in no uncertain terms that nothing they want will ever again see the light of day if they support the Republican filibuster on this issue.

3. Everyone in the broader progressive community needs to be 100% clear that the Snowe trigger written to never trigger is deader than a doorknob. To call this a compromise is actually pretty funny. Fundamental to health care reform is real competition and a check on the market power of the insurance industry. Without that, private insurers will continue to raise their rates and otherwise screw people over at will. The trigger as written by Snowe has a Catch-22 in it that makes sure it would never be triggered in real life, so it would provide no competition or check on insurance power whatsoever. Come on now: if you are going to ask progressives to compromise, don't give us something that is no compromise. Most progressives understand we need to compromise some, and in fact we already have compromised an enormous amount, but we aren't going to let you give us nothing.

I think we are still on track to win this fight and get a very decent health care bill, and in fact the momentum is building. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid deserve an enormous amount of credit for continuing to push forward on a strong bill in spite of all the obstacles being thrown in their way. Progressives need to stick together and not allow themselves to get rolled on phony compromises. If they do, we are going to be able to celebrate a huge victory before the year is out.

Comments

[sheila]

OK, I promise I'm not a troll, but the more I read about this bill, the more I start to think that it is not at all what we need. In my opinion, we need ALL Americans to join a single actuarial pool and be covered for "Major Medical" by a basic Medicare type program, paid by taxes, then offer private insurance for "upgraded" services at a flat, highly-regulated rate for everyone (so, no pre-existing conditions, no medical history, etc.). If EVERYONE is included, the cost per person is much lower than Medicare now.

It looks like insurers will basically be able to charge whatever they want if you have a pre-existing condition, and if you make over $43K (which in many areas of the country is barely scraping by), you have to either pay up and smile or "opt out" of insurance altogether if you can prove your premiums are more than 8% of your income (which is only $3600 to $6400 a year, so exceeding that is guaranteed at the $45 - $80K range if they are allowed to charge extortionate premiums - which they are). The public option will not be cheap, either, especially since it will have to cover the 30% of the American public who will be forced out of private insurance by jacked up premiums. Plus, by keeping the bizarre relationship between place of employment and healthcare, we create more wage slaves who can't leave their jobs...

What am I missing?

[alibeamish]

Exactly right. Paul Krugman tries to defend the reform in the NYTimes while admitting all the faults.
Costs are out of control and congress is going to stick the workers and middle class with most of the cost.
Deductibles can be too high so people with insurance will go without care or go broke getting it.
It is also an economic and political disaster.

[den1953]

Maybe America should just hit the pause button on the health care reform issue it is getting old already and i'm beginning to think the whole thing is a insurance scam just like the bail outs the politions aren't listening to the public any way same ole crap different day. Untill they really vote on some bill no sense getting all high and mighty on it!

[granny104]

Not only should the Progressives battle against a trigger, they must NOT allow a provision to let the states opt-out of a public option. Yes this is a moral imperative, and as such, states should not be allowed to neglect the needs of their citizens who can't afford private coverage, or can't get it due to health conditions. I understand that this opt-out will get more votes, but again, this is a moral issue. In the state of Missouri we will end up with no public option because our Republican controlled legislature will block it. This will mean years of trying to fight them on a state level, and I can't ever see us winning. Areas outside of Kansas City, St. Louis and college towns are strictly in the arms of Rush.

[erasmusbdraggin]

This sure is a moral issue. States opting out of a Federal law designed to bring some level of equality to health care would be the moral equivalent of states that tried to opt out of the Emancipation Proclamation. History shows how THAT worked out.

If a state wants to be in the Union, with the distribution of Federal monies, road work, Medicare, swine flu vaccines, military protection and so on, Federal health laws apply. If not, secede. Then watch the states living in the 21st century enact immigration "reform" : ) designed to prevent desperate refugees from sneaking over the border to get a free ride on their public option.

It's amazing how much drama and trauma the for-profit insurance companies have been allowed burden American families and singles with. That's another moral issue - why are insurance corporations allowed to create such suffering, and why are we still having the discussion?

Enough already! If we can't have single payer, a robust, 50 state public option that starts in 2010 is the minimum to get me to pull the voting lever for my incumbent.

[JoanneRM]

We have to keep calling and writing Congress members and the President, to tell them we want the Public Option, and nothing less is good enough. Write Reid and remind him he is up for re-election, and he may not win if there is no Public Option. Nevada voted for Obama. I was one of the people who went there from California in the Summer to work on the campaign. Hundreds did until the election. You might want to suggest that Californians might come to Nevada to help him, if there is a Public Option. Or not if there isn't.

[Matt Osborne - Huffpost Blogger]

"This whole muddled are-they-o­r-aren't-t­hey backing Harry Reid or backing Snowe's trigger-de­signed-not­-to-trigge­r mess was just a poorly handled distraction."

Nonsense. Mixed signals are a deliberate strategy. We've seen this pattern almost every weekend for months now: the White House is rumored to be backing off, the progressive blogosphere goes nuts, I get ANOTHER batch of emails telling me to CALL MY CONGRESSCRITTER NOW, and then the White House denies the report that started the whole mess.

It has happened too many times to be a coincidence.

[Chazet2]

Mike, I can't accept that this administration will do anything to bring about real reform, except propagandize that it has. I'm one of those whose disgust with the Democratic Party and its inability to govern has overtaken my ability to suspend disbelief. Obama will not get another dollar or another vote from me, nor will the Democratic Party until real reform takes place, both in healthcare, the financial industry, and with the environment.
To these ends, Obama has rendered himself an impediment at best, and an opponent at worst. Any other depiction is pure sophistry.

[weatherwaxx]

Can you name one other person who has brought us this close to action on healthcare?

We voters have to do our part -- we need to stay on Congress until they stop playing footsie with the in$urance indu$try.


WHITE HOUSE: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
202-456-1111 Between 9am-5pm Eastern Mon-Fri

SENATE: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

And then we have to do the same with banking, election reform, all of it.

Grab a mop.

[PlaceboStudman]

Health Care Reform aka insurance reform with no real substantive improvements in medicine and technology will end up with nothing less than "get rich and die trying" because you not only save money from insurance costs, but you save money from a complete lack of treatments for a great deal of people.

But, of course, those who need REAL Health Care don't matter, so long as you know you can have back up prescriptions to manage diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol medication because you're too lazy and apathetic to care about making REAL food and you depend on fast food for half your meals

[hummafubars]

As a 72 year-old physician who proudly delivers and receives Medicare services, I strongly believe that Medicare for all Americans is a MORAL issue, not an economic, social or political football to be used to further divide this country on ideological grounds. The prevention of suffering and death are foundations of all honorable religions and philosophies and it is time for America to demonstrate that it continues to be an honorable country devoted to the right to a life without suffering, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all of its citizens.

Respectfully and compassionately submitted,

Ange Lobue, MD, MPH, BSPharm
American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
trinidadca­@gmail.com

[DA12]

While I don't share Mike Lux's optimism about the White House, he does have a point about momentum. Decades of corruption and conservative misrule take time to undo. The tragedy is that Obama does not appear to be willing to seize the circumstances to speed change and he's too willing to offer enemies of change a seat at the table. He's more of a Herbert Hoover.

[EbonBear]

i. And the ultrarich learned their lesson. After the Great Depression they caused, after the reforms that ended the Great Depression and limited their power, they learned their lesson. Not that venerating greed was destructive, no. They learned that they needed to own the lawmakers and the people as well.

ii. And it took them a long time but eventually, almost every politician was their lackey. And because they could not buy the people, they brought news outlets and used them to lie to the people. Lie to them so long and so constantly that eventually, they believed in a world completely different to the one they lived in. And the people would fight to the death to preserve those lies being told to them because they wanted so hard to believe that the corporation was their friend.

iii. And lo, the people would be confused enough that they would be too frightened of a government they voted in, to allow it to do anything.

iv. And the ultrarich did laugh for they had insulated themselves against all consequences of their actions.

Here endeth the lesson.

[weatherwaxx]

And those who refused to pick up the mop satteth around, saying, forsooth, life be a beyotch and then you kicketh the bucket, but we are so much smarter than anyone we will not lifteth a finger to alter anything, because lo, we would have no time to feel superior and sneer at those who thinketh it a good thing to fixeth the mess.

Sneer on, chum. There are always foot-draggers. We won't get a perfect bill, so then you'll have something else to amuse you.

Kind of sad, really.

[EbonBear]

Um, I think you may have misunderstood. I'm not sneering at people trying to fix this ungodly mess, I'm frustrated that the proposed solution doesn't go nearly far enough.

[ThomH]

Public option? Which public option? The one everyone wants, that would cost less than private isurance and be available to everybody - "Medicare Part E"? It would provide competition to the healthcos, all right. So many would opt for it that it would put them all out of business real fast. Which is preciseley why we will never see it.

Instead, we'll get the OTHER public option - the one offered only to those who have been refused insurance - i.e., customers the insurers don't want. All 5-10 million of them. Everyone else - the vast majority - will be legally obligated to buy insurance from private companies.

Anyone hoping for a "strong public option" is whistling up a rope.

When Rep. Weiner offers his amendment for vote by the full House, he should propose replacing all 1500 bloated and incomprehensible pages of HR 3200 with the current Medicare law, changed so it covers everyone from birth rather than from age 65. I understand this can be done with a three-word change.

[weatherwaxx]

The day we see any legislation that can be altered substantially with a 3-word change will be the day we see the lawyers OUT of Congress.

[jmpurser]

That's the ONLY public option that Obama EVER talked about. This was a sell out from day one. Anyone still waiting for a "strong public option" is also still looking for WMDs in Iraq.

Folks, we've been lied to and used again. The insurance industry and big pharma owe Obama a big wet kiss and their's bupkus left over for the people who elected him.

[EbonBear]

You'll get the OTHER one. And that will be it for another 10-15 years. And premiums will continue to skyrocket and wages will continue to flatline and the people will never, never, allow themselves to awaken from their comforting sleep of American Idol and balloon boys because they really don't want to confront the reality that the fix is in so deep now, so integral to the system, that the only way to remove it would be to rip up the system and start anew.

Bread and circuses, mate, bread and circuses.

[baseline]

Mike Lux is telling us how to "KEEP HOPE ALIVE" Yes we can.

[CindiT]

Yes we can! Thank you, baseline - I am so tired of the whiney nay-sayers. Get off of your butts, turn off your tv and call your representatives, write a letter, join a protest group (and get some fresh air & exercise). It is empowering to be among a group of people working together for a cause. Health care reform with a strong public option is the right thing to do. Obama knows it and he is working for it. He is not the "king"; he has to work with congress and dodge the media bullets. Against all odds, he won the election and he will win this for us. But you have to participate and be the change you want.

[LushLife72]

And after this is all over, kick Lieberman out of the caucus.

[hglindquist]

The minimum acceptable reform IMHO is inclusion of Medicare E (as in for everybody who needs it) as a public option.

[Amplifryer]

"certain folks with their own agenda will start leaking stuff to the media"

There's the rub, Obama promised transparency, even to the point of debate being conducted on C-span, the list goes on.

Dems are trying to be creative with "the public option", trying to force their will. The American people don't want that, it doesn't matter how many creatively crafted polls state otherwise, the leading pollsters indicate the propaganda is just that.

Americans do want reform, they want true competition across state lines, they would like to see insurers be bound by the Sherman Act. These things alone would open up competition that would benefit everyone. Government option is just a euphemistic term that would culminate in a single payor system and that would cost all Americans dearly, much more than the current problems private insurers have created in costs

[Querent]

I think it's clear to most of us that people such as yourself who routinely use the word "propaganda" are usually engaged in it. In particular, you last sentence is ludicrous.

[weatherwaxx]

Preposterous.

[EbonBear]

And incidently, I live in the UK, under a single payer system (the NHS). They are LYING to you about it. It's not perfect, it's difficult to thing of something that would be, but it is miles better than what you have now.