Fellow Democrats, we face a daunting decision: what's a good Dem to do about the public option? Six months ago, I'd never heard of it. Since then, a whole bunch of Democrats, in the White House, Congress and elsewhere, have convinced me that health care reform is no good without it. And now that I am completely sold comes a series of clear indications that Obama is perfectly willing to dump it. So what do I do, and you too?
First of all, we dismiss as complete nonsense those gaseous emanations from the White House expressing total shock that anyone could question the administration's continuing support for a public option -- or that it ever considered one essential. That's the theme of this Washington Post story:
"I don't understand why the left of the left has decided that this is their Waterloo," said a senior White House adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "We've gotten to this point where health care on the left is determined by the breadth of the public option. I don't understand how that has become the measure of whether what we achieve is health care reform.""It is a mystifying thing," he added. "We're forgetting why we are in this."
Another top aide expressed chagrin that a single element in the president's sprawling health-care initiative has become a litmus test for whether the administration is serious about the issue.
I beg your pardon, gents. What mystifies me is how Obama & Co. were stupid enough not to expect that this would happen if they started suggesting dumping the public option after emphasizing its importance for months.
After eight years of a Republican president who lied about everything, heading an administration that told the truth about nothing, some of us Dems thought we'd elected a guy who would act differently, and be at least reasonably honest and straightforward.
And just a month ago in his weekly radio address, Obama, that left of the left leftie, assured us that a public option was an absolute necessity for any healthcare bill he would sign into law to "put an end to the worst practices of the insurance industry."
...any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange: a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, cost and track records of a variety of plans - including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest...
That stress on increasing competition reflects the fact that in most markets, health insurance is controlled by a single company, effectively quashing competition. A public option would provide that competition.
As for keeping insurance companies honest, the Department of Health and Human Services says that when people get expensively ill, some big companies review the patients' original health questionnaires with an eye to revoking their coverage. That's legal in most states when there's an undisclosed pre-existing condition.
It's true even if the pre-existing condition has nothing to do with the claim, or the person was not aware of it at the time. For family policies, all members' coverage can be revoked if one member failed to disclose a medical condition. Furthermore, HHS said, some companies reward employees for canceling sick people's health coverage.
A public option would force insurance companies to change such policies or face loss of customers to a more lenient, less expensive government program. Without it, they'd have no incentive to do so. So how can Obama suggest the public option is less than absolutely essential? Hard to understand. But he still won't insist on one.
Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND), a leading negotiator of health reform, says forget it, the public option hasn't a chance of passing the upper chamber. But Speaker Nancy Pelosi says no reform will pass the House without one. And Rep. Lynn Woolsey, (D-CA), co-chairman of the 83-member Progressive Caucus told me that 60 members of her group and the Congressional Black Caucus will insist on a "robust public option," and forget those private co-ops.
But if, after a Senate-House conference, push comes to shove, will enough progressive Democrats really stand their ground and vote to kill Obama's plan, dealing a devastating blow to his presidency, and inviting Republican gains in next year's elections, if it doesn't contain that robust public option? Numerically, they could. Democrats hold a 256 to 178 majority in the House. And 50 or so liberal votes against reform, added to those that will surely come from Blue Dog Dems, could deep-six it. If, that is, they stick to their guns.
I, for one, don't believe they would. Such discipline is much more characteristic of Congressional Republicans who will again demonstrate it, almost to a member, by voting against reform in both houses. The media, incidentally, are taking GOP opposition for granted, generally putting their seal of approval on it as proper for an opposition party, and failing to ask whether such near-unanimous rejection helps or hurts this country.
What's interesting is that liberal writers are thoroughly divided on dropping the public option. Matt Yglesias would reluctantly trade it away, but can imagine the remainder still as "a monumental progressive achievement," that would provide insurance for virtually everyone, subsidize those needing help, and force insurers to offer a defined set of benefits to everybody at a fixed price -- and not revoke them .
On the other hand, Timothy Noah says health reform without PO just won't work and may even make things worse. "The public option is necessary," he writes, " simply because it's impossible to identify a successful health system anywhere in the world based on a for-profit insurance model... Private insurers' duties to their shareholders may be irreconcilable with their duties to their customers."
I remain sold on the PO, so I'm with Tim Noah. Speaker Pelosi said yesterday: "This is an opportunity, not of a lifetime, of a century. If we don't pass this bill, with all the comprehensive aspects of it, now, I don't know when we'll have a chance to do it."
So if we're going to do it, we'd better do it right.
Even with almost 50% of health care $$ going through Big Government Medicare & Medicaid (started out around 5%, I think), we still have the best in the world. COSTS ARE OUT OF HAND BECAUSE I DON'T SPEND MY MEDICAL $$$, BIG GOVERNMENT OR INSURANCE COMPANIES DO.
This is common sense to me, no Post Office or Fidel Castro controlling my health care, thank you.
I think you might get a bang -- though a bit painful, as bangs go -- out of the video / song "All-American Suckers" recently posted at YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5CnX-7bvmQ -- A toe-tapping look at the anachronisms we call, "private health insurers," and their very own politicians.
"The message will be unmistakable: caravan with us to Washington and help make a public demonstration of support for Single Payer Health Care that will be heard around the world."
"Imagine..."
"Thousands of cars pulling into the nation's capital for a protest on the White House lawn. The sidewalks are filled with supporters carrying signs in support of the Mad As Hell Doctors who have captured the imagination and the ignited the passion of their fellow citizens. We wave and honk at the camera crews, as do the endless line of cars behind us, as we wend our way toward the White House. On every antenna, on the backside of every car, and flapping like flags from sidewalk supporters, is the symbol of this new movement: the White Ribbon."
If you click on the link their website it provides additional information, a sign-up for the events, and a map that indicates the cities they will stop in enroute to Washington.
http://www.madashelldoctors.com/
"On September 8th, a caravan will cross America to deliver a clear and simple message to our elected officials in Washington."
"On September 8, 2009 a group of dedicated Oregon physicians will take the message of Universal Health Care "on the road" in a wrapped and branded Motor Home headed for Washington D.C. Our cross-country mission: to stop in big cities and whistle stops alike, conducting pre-booked, local and national media appearances for a curious press. Every move we make along the way will be recorded on camera and then edited and uploaded to the internet that same day. This will allow our Mad As Hell Doctors Tour to leverage the edited video segments on social networking web sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, et al. In this way, our effort becomes an unprecedented hybrid of reality television and political activism that offers people the opportunity to follow us, in real time, as our story unfolds."
We've had it for almost 30 years.
I've expounded on this in many of Huffo's threads but let me simply say... America you deserve better, do not believe the Conservative lies.
NB: It took two goes in my country to get universal Medicare established. The Conservatives got rid of it when they got voted back in. The Labor Party re-established it at the next election after that. And although they have undermined it every time they got back into power the Conservatives don't dare try to get rid of it again. What I am getting at here is you have to push HARD for it- it's NOT going to happen through bi-partisanship.