Moving Forward with Meaningful Health Care Reform

The President hit a home run last night.

President Obama said exactly what proponents of meaningful health care reform -- including myself -- needed, expected, and wanted him to say. The time for bickering, myths, and flat out lies by those who want to block reform is over. We will move forward with health care reform and get it done this year.

What most impressed me about the President was his demeanor. He came there as Barack Obama the educator, explaining clearly both the need for health care reform and the specifics of our proposal. He presented a strong case for reform, and he spoke directly to the American people, outlining the benefits of health care reform both for those who are currently covered and those who are uninsured.

He stood there -- amid cheers from most of us and unfortunately also unprecedented jeering and outright disrespect from some on the opposite side of the aisle -- to reaffirm core principles, to debunk rumors, to reclaim the debate, and to spur us to act once and for all to fix America's broken health care system.

I have been outspoken about the need for credible health care reform that covers all Americans, maintains quality, lowers costs, and holds insurance companies accountable. And I believe the best way to accomplish those goals is through a government run public option that will compete with the private insurance companies, the operative word here being option.

My vision for meaningful health care reform is also shared by the President and many of my colleagues in Congress. Though the President stopped short of saying that the public option was essential to achieve health care reform last night, he did reiterate his support for it and his belief that it is a means to an end.

The public option will help us achieve the kind of health care reform that will cover the uninsured, lower costs for the insured, and bring more security and stability to American families and businesses.

Republicans have rejected President Obama's repeated offers to come to the table and negotiate in good faith. They have continued to say "No" throughout this process, just like they said "No" to the economic recovery package, to energy and climate change legislation, and to providing health care to uninsured children.

The President, despite his best efforts, is not going to get the support of the Republicans on health care reform. They are determined to play politics instead of helping the people they serve and prefer to defeat reform in order to wound the President.

I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that politics does not trump public policy. We cannot allow health care reform that will benefit all Americans to be derailed. Reform will make us healthier and our economy stronger.

As I have said before, if we fight for what we believe in, if we fight for our principles, we can win. Most importantly, it will be a win for the American people.

Comments

[jjsardo]

Yes. It was a great speech. But the speech is over.

Sadly, the president is turning the wrong way on the public option, the atrocious Medicare Part D and Afganistan.

And there seems to be no way to bring him back into the fold.

[janiceh]

Unless 10 million angry-appearing people march to the White House wanting a public option (or single-payer), we will not get one. Obama has been paid off and will sell out just like any other politician. The right wing knows that its tactics of appearing ANGRY have a significant inhibitory effect on the larger but less violent population. The majority of the population have been bullied by a small group into not demonstrating or fighting for their rights. The media has also been effective at giving the false impression that these ANGRY people represent a significant portion of the population and this keeps the masses controlled.

[panamarine]

WTF are you saying? "....OBAMA has been paid off and will sell out just like any other politician" Are you nuts or just want to be cynical for the sake of it. OBAMA is not like any other politician. Furthermore, only in third world countries or dictatorships does the "Head" man get paid off for favors to be given or to have projects ignored. And the "head" man expects this. I dare say that this is not the case in this country, or am I missing something? Even if it was, OBAMA would be above this practice, believe me. You misjudge this man's character. And I dare say that you might be jaded by other politicians' practice of being bought by lobbyist.

[tran23]

"only in third world countries or dictatorships does the Head man get paid off for favors to be given or to have projects ignored.

--- Cheney's 2000 income from Halliburton: $36,086,635.

--- Amount of federal contracts Halliburton has received since then - About 14 Billion.

[snit]

Are you living in some sort of alternate universe? The right wing using anger as a tactic? Where have you been for the past 30 years, sleeping? Have you ever watched gay rights, animal rights, womens rights, Earth First'ers, million man marchers, or any of the other countless gatherings of left wing kooks? Talk about MAD! Talk about ANGRY!

Quoting you - " The majority of the population have been bullied by a small group into not demonstrating or fighting for their rights." On this point, you're absolutely right. The wacky groups I noted above have tamped down the majority of Americans for decades.

Quoting you again - "The media has also been effective at giving the false impression that these ANGRY people represent a significant portion of the population and this keeps the masses controlled­." Now, this statement is downright false. I personally watched ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and MSNBC all day Saturday the 12th. Coverage of the march in Washington was systematically downplayed or neglected altogether. Please get your facts straight.

[Chris]

Ms. Waters while it is true the most vocal republicans have been uncooperative many on the left have been just as uncooperative.

If increasing competition as a means to lower cost of healthcare is Mr. Obama's ultimate goal then why is he and many dems opposed to allowing insurance to be purchased across state line. There is no reason why my coverage in Maine can not be pruchased by someone in every state. This simple change will increase competition and will cost the tax payers nothing.

Most conservatives believe in ending the practice of exclusion based on preexisting conditions. Here again is an easy no cost to the tax payer solution. Allow insurance companies to do a complete physical prior to issuing a new policy. Rates can be set based upon this. Remember more competition listed above will limit the amount charged. Also renewals will be annually and will not be subject to physical and increases will be limited to a COLA. Also include that the only way for a person to lose coverage is either for fialure to pay premiums or company is out of business.

[Sanity 2008]

Point 3 - Obama claims that the intent has been to "keep what we have" and to avoid a supposedly huge task of establishing a totally new single-payer system from scratch. But that's a Straw Man argument: America's single-payer system ALREADY EXISTS - it's called Medicare. Expanding Medicare to allow buy-in by the public at large would be relatively simple, and the system would have been far simpler than the Rube Goldberg-like private-mandate system being proposed (which has however the vast advantage of enormously enlarging the profits of the private insurance industry).

- Sanity

[Sanity 2008]

Point 2 - The extremist right have cleverly manipulated the Democrats into the current position of mandating PRIVATE insurance for (almost) everyone (while branding this as "socialist government-run healthcare"). What this means is that tens of millions of Americans will be forced into spending hundreds of dollars a month on crippled, lousy, deficient insurance that provides little more than a catastrophic fallback - if that - in the event of serious illnesses or accidents. As anyone knows who's actually had to purchase it, private insurance is rotten - huge expense for huge (multi-tho­usand-doll­ar) deductibles. Those whose incomes lie above the poverty-line thresholds, and who will be mandated to buy such insurance without public subsidy, will almost certainly be outraged at the pricey bag of nearly useless "coverage" they're forced to purchase. Meanwhile, private insurance companies (that have been major villains in this whole mess) will be experiencing a profit bonanza. Do we smell a potential voter backlash here? I suspect the GOP do...

(More to follow...)

[Sanity 2008]

Point 1 - The "public option" is sort of the last small thread of what remains of the "single-player" proposal, discarded from the start by the rightwing Democratic­-ultrarigh­t GOP "Gang of Six" in the Senate. Now it's being portrayed as an extreme-left ideological luxury that can simply be jettisoned on behalf of amicable, "centrist" compromise.

(More to follow...)

[1murillo]

Rep. Waters,
Great. You write intelligently, the "fight for what we believe in....will be a win for the American people" is key. We're going to get a healthcare system better than our current one - our current expensive mishmash system - yet there are still battles to win.
Everyone in government should have principles, but rigid inflexibility is certainly not a way to lead a nation.

[BandsofBlack]

Sick and Wrong
How Washington is screwing up health care reform – and why it may take a revolt to fix it

MATT TAIBBIPosted Sep 03, 2009 11:33 AM

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/29988909/sick_and_wrong/

[Manx]

The president is a great orator and gave a terrific speech but let's not be intoxicated with the rhetoric at the expense of ignoring the details. Robert Reich was quoted in today's N.Y. Times as saying:
"...his (Obama's) version of a public option would be available only to a relatively small number of Americans who lack employer-provided care."

I don't think that's the kind of public option your constituents are demanding.

[mountclemens]

You say "home run." I say the president fouled off another one.

By the way, you have been in the House of Representatives a long time. Have you had time to read and understand the Constitution of the USA?

Our president wants to FORCE every person to BUY health insurance. That must not stand. The government can't force citizens to buy a commercial product (especially one that is certainly not a necessity of human life).

--- If government thinks we must have a product, then government MUST provide it – through taxes on everybody. That's Constitutional.

--- When we KNEW in the 1960s that all elderly should have health coverage, the government didn't force the elderly to buy insurance. The government enacted Medicare.

Finally, Obama sells this dictator tactic as being like car insurance. Really?
At which body dealer did you choose your current model? Telling us we must buy insurance just for being alive is like telling us we must buy a car. Now that's a clunker.

----------­----------­--------

Real health insurance reform is Medicare For All. Simple.

But Medicare For All doesn't provide wealthcare to the big campaign donors -- the insurers -- does it? How much corporate donor money keeps you winning election after election, Ms. Waters?

MARCH for Real Reform on September 13. And don't stop there.

[mh01]

To your point about car insurance- you use a car to access a PUBLIC ROAD.

That, in my mind is a material difference from health care.

Health care is between you and your doctor, the government forcing you to buy health insurance is for a private service is preposterous.

The only reason that Obama needs the young and healthy to buy insurance is to subsidize the government entitlement he seeks to create, and to defray costs amongst a wider pool, most importantly, those who would be forced to pay premiums, but least likely to need to use the services.

its a pyramid scam, layered on top of the worlds biggest pyramid scam, medicare.

[mountclemens]

Insurance is sort of a pyramid scam. And yes, it's about creating a pool. Most of us don't know if or when we'll be stricken with a medical need, especially a catastrophic one. No amount of insurance covers the catastrophic. Those people, even if insured, go bankrupt, unless they're wealthy enough already.
--- So, we enter the pool, sharing the risk. The bigger the pool, the less each of us pays to cover everybody, including the catastrophic cases. That's nice. (That's what Medicare does for the elderly pool.) That's what a caring society does. (We do it with firefighting. No matter how big your building, the fire department doesn't send you a bill after fighting your fire.)

But the insurers overcharge. They lie about what they'll cover. And then when you get treatment and you get the bill, they won't pay. They have even testified to Congress that they've done that. Meanwhile, the insurers have many tricks to avoid letting sick people sign up. They don't want to cover the sick, especially not known hereditary conditions in families. They only want healthy people, so it's all profit all the time. That's their goal. And they've worked toward that goal by every deceit they've dreamed up, and they've gotten away with it. No prosecutions for the frauds!

So, as I've really already said, you're wrong about Medicare.

Do you want to take Medicare away from the elderly? Do you promise not to use it when you are old enough?

[jjsardo]

When you get sick without insurance the public will pay for it. There is no option there.
That's why we need a public option. Everybody contributes, even you, to pay your bills should you ever become ill.

For anyone who doesn't want to carry health insurance, a piece of advise: don't get old and don't get sick. And don't get private helath insurance as it now exists. Private health insurance makes a profit each and every time it refuses to pay a legimate bill. One day that could be your bill.

[telee]

Well Maxine you think the president hit a home run. I think he hit a home run for the health industry. You know the ones he has been meeting with in the White House. Where will he save the money now that he has promised the drug companies that there will be no negotiation on price. Now that he wants to force people to buy insurance from the same insurance companies that have been screwing us. Where will the savings come from for a revenue neutral plan? Not from the health insureres or the drug companies. During the campaign he was going to raise taxes on incomes over 250, 000/ year. Now we here the money will come from reducing Medicare expenditures. After all the back room deals ( what's so open and transparent about that) and his coddling of the finance sector ( no transparency there either), who can trust him. Representative Waters, what is your role? To diminish the aspirations of the people? To subjugate their well being to the special interests? What a disapointment. We need campaign finance reform and a viable third party.

[mountclemens]

telee goes deep --
it's going, going, it's it's it's
gone!

To get that campaign finance reform and a viable third party,
we'll have to MARCH.
Start Sunday, and don't stop there.

[max hp]

~~~~~~~~~~­~~~~~~~~~~­~~~~~~~~~~­~ A PUBLIC OPTION ~~~~~~~~~~­~~~~~~~~~~­~~~~~~~~~~­~

..........­..........­..........­..........­..........­........ WHEN DOES THE GREED STOP ..........­..........­..........­..........­..........­.........

Let our Congressional leaders clearly understand that lack of a condition-free Public Option in any successful Health Care Reform legislation will have negative consequences in the upcoming election.

Health Care Reform is MEANINGLESS without a strong condition-free PUBLIC OPTION, with clear unrestricted path to SINGLE PAYER.

A Public Option must be administered by the Federal Government.
A Public Option must be available to anyone who wants it, starting Jan 1, 2010.
A Public Option must be available to anyone, irrespective of Pre-Existing Conditions
A Public Option must be available to anyone at affordable rates.
A Public Option must be available to anyone whether employed or not.
A Public Option must be available to anyone whether his/her employer offers it or not.
A Public Option must NOT have any conditions placed on it by any private or for-profit entities.
A Public Option must NOT restrict anyone from opting in or out of it.
A Public Option must NOT be restricted from evolving into Single Payer.

A Public Option, and ultimately Single Payer, must be fully financed from federal taxes.

A Public Option must be made mandatory for ALL government employees, including Congress.

It's time the US provided basic health care to ALL it's citizens, without exception.

Don't bother to pass anything that does not have A CLEAR CONDITION-FREE PUBLIC OPTION.

~~~~~~IT'S WHAT WE WANT ~~~~ IT'S WHAT WE NEED ~~~~ IT'S WHAT WE CAN AFFORD~~~~~
**********­**********­**********­**********­**********­**********­**********­**********­**********­**********­********

[Leatherhelmet]

We don't need it and we can't afford it.

[ebsmd]

I'm sure you've worked out the details for all of your requirements for a public option.
Here's a little question for ya and perhaps you should have added this to your list:

Do physicians (you know, the people who actually provide health care) get to determine if they will accept the public option. Because I'll tell ya, as it stands right now, we are happy to take Medicare (despite the grossly undervalued reimbursements) but if you force a public option down our throats and take away about 50% of our reimbursements from private insurers, you will see drastic changes in how quality health care is administered. Lets see, you people aren't interested in tort reform, so my malpractice premiums will stay the same, but my income will be slashed by progressively larger cuts in MD reimbursement. So you, and your family members will see your docs for about 10 min in the office with the remainder of your time spent with the PA or Nurse practitioner. Not to mention the fact that I will have to fire half of my staff (10 people out of a job) because I can no longer afford to employ them. Does anybody have any interest at ALL in what the doctors think? Oh, and by the way, those phone calls in the middle of the night.....­they will be directed to either my medical students or docs in training..­...thats actually how its done in Europe.

[freshnotbitter]

Doc, you are already doing this with HMO patients in individual plans who are in a network that pays lower rates than the employer based plans.

I know it.

So all these nightmare scenarios are already on the way.

My solution to the problem you raise is to have a two track system in which the employer based system remains intact. In fact, I would juice it up by adding HSA's to 401-K's. In return, the docs and their republican friends have to allow the public option to be instituted and operate as it sees fit in order to reduce costs for its insured. If the public option is run by a board composed of 50/50 doctor-ele­cted/patie­nt appointed reps, then one would expect a schedule of fees that would deliver the supply of care necessary.

The repubs say there has to be system that prevents employers from dumping their employees into the public option but that's just numbers, isn't it?

[mh01]

Yep, Gimme gimme gimme.

A public option must make sure that someone else's taxes pay for my medical care.

Ask not what you can do for your country, but what your countrymen can do for you.

[jjsardo]

Just a slight correction. Single payer will make sure everyone's taxes pay for everyone's medical care. And that includes yours.

But you get more than just medical care. What you also get is security.

[Hiphopcrates]

Maxine I think you are wonderful but to describe the Presidents speech last night as a home run is quite the exaggeration. President Obama's luke-warm endorsement for a "public option" belies the truth behind those pulling the strings of this administration. I fear that the Democrats are squandering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enact real progressive reforms.
I was disappointed.

[mackbolan]

Viewership to last night’s address was down 38.6% from President Obama’s first address to a joint session of Congress on February 24, which aired from approximately 9:00PM to 10:30PM...­.

[schatsie]

Maxine, thank you so much for fighting the GOOD FIGHT! I want to go to parttime so I can help with my autistic granddaughter, but I am tied to this job for healthcare and it is bad for my health.... Please make sure there is a GREAT PUBLIC OPTION, we want to RESTORE competition and honesty to the HEALTH INDUSTRY..­..We nurses are sick of the mess. And the doctors have throttled the system by controlling the number of physicians graduating from medical schools to the same number that graduated 40 years ago....And the military graduates only 135 physician assistants a year...Tha­t should be tripppled tomorrow..­..

[DocTwain]

Rep Waters, please fight for a public option that is open to all Americans. If the government creates a public plan that can offer the same insurance as private companies at equal or lower cost, it is unfair to prohibit American employers from offering that option as a choice to their employees. Why should American employers and workers have to pay more and earn less to buy overpriced private insurance by government mandate?

Why don't we just roll Medicaid and SCHIP into an improved Medicare for all, eliminating the graft of Medicare Advantage and the profit-taking racket in Part D, closing the doughnut hole, and opening Medicare to any American worker or employer who wants to buy in? Also, we should shift all government employees onto improved Medicare. It doesn't make sense to pay extra for private insurance when we could provide the same coverage for less ourselves. In fact, it's plutocratic graft.