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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

A Long Hot Summer of Health Debate – open thread

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Once again, American politics continues to dominate UK politics, especially over the misrepresentations of our National Health Service. Today’s news is dominated by far right wing Tory, Daniel Hannan, who keeps appearing on Fox decrying the NHS, much to the chagrin of most the population of the UK, and his Party leader.

Meanwhile, I thought Obama’s defence of his plan was urgent, angry and completely on the money. I hope that lots of Americans saw this:

Inspiring I thought. But will it work?

How are things on the ground now the pushback has begun?


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66 comments

  1. Hollede

    if the Sunday morning talk shows are any indication. However, I do believe that the President did our cause great good this week.

    By the way, I forgot to tell you how good it is to see you again Brit.

  4. John Allen

    and then read this diary. I think it deserves more exposure so I’m going to copy it here, as well.

    The bipartisinship bullcrap, as you say, is hurting the health care effort. Each concession to the conservatives and blue dogs only weakens the bill. They fight against anything that might help to reduce costs and then complain that there aren’t enough cost controls in the bill. They fight a public option and then complain about ‘choice’.

    It is obvious that opponents of health care reform have no intention of having a reasonable debate about the issue. Everything they bring up is a distraction from the true issues. Our own side isn’t much better. This diary was an attempt to refocus the discussion on why we need reform. Instead, it has drifted off into a discussion about ADHD, prescription drugs, and even religion.

    We are going to lose this battle once again unless we can stay focused.

    I had a discussion with my son today that really made me think. He told me that what he fears is that people like  him, employed with decent medical coverage, will get nothing from the bill except for higher taxes. He pays hundreds of dollars per month for his portion of his employer provided health insurance. He asked me what protections were in the bills to keep his premiums from continuing to rise while his taxes went up to cover the expenses of the new bill. I had nothing to point to that addressed his concern.

    He understands that we need to cover the uninsured. He actually favors a single-payer system. He’s afraid he’ll be locked into a high co-pay policy with no option to get better care. He sees talk about a public option, but the way it is being set up will lock out people like him and his family. He sees talk of eliminating lifetime caps, but his policy doesn’t have one. He sees talk about eliminating the problem with pre-existing conditions, but what does that do for him if he never changes employers?

    What he does see is that every proposal that would help him keeps getting cut from the bills. No broadly available public option. No ability for the government to bargain for better drug prices. If there is a public option, there is a good chance its ability to bargain for lower prices will be restricted.

    The only thing he sees is higher costs with no benefits to him or his family. He sees higher taxes to insure those who are currently out of the system and is willing to pay those taxes so people can get decent health care. But he wonders why he should do that and still be in a situation where he might get priced out of health care for himself. He makes too much money to ever qualify for government assistance for his premiums. He has insurance through his employer, so anything like an exchange with or without a public option won’t do him any good.

    Is this where we are headed – the insurance companies getting a whole bunch of more customers, the drug companies raking in the cash, because the gov’t won’t be able to negotiate for lower prices, taxes going up and the middle-class getting squeezed more and more as time goes on?

    How do I answer those concerns? What do I tell him, other than the one, best option – single-payer – is off the table?

    He also worries about a mandate and how it will affect people on the tipping point. The people that make just a little too much to qualify for help, but are barely scrapping by otherwise. Will some of them be forced into foreclosure, because they have to pay for insurance instead of their house payment?

    All of this talk about ‘death panels’ and euthanasia is nothing more than a distraction. The haters and screamers at the town halls are not the ones that will make or break health care. It is the silent majority, like my son, who are the ones that can really make or break this reform effort.

    What do we tell them? Suck it up for the good of the country? Sorry, but some eggs have to be broken if you are going to make an omelet?  

  5. John Allen

    I was reading something on the NY Times that seemed to say the public option was dead and co-ops were going to replace that option. I don’t know how true that is, but the idea upset me enough to get me to take action. I went to the White House site to send a message about it. The first message is the one on the public option. Feel free to copy and paste it if you want to send one yourself. The second blockquote is one that I hope they respond to via email or phone. It’s basically a copy and paste of my comment above edited to get it under 2000 characters.

    Mr. President,

    I would like to open by giving a little background about myself.

    You had my support during the primaries and general election. You still have my support on a daily basis. I am a front page writer on a progressive blog that deals with political issues, including health care. I also write letters to the editor, write and call my representatives in Congress, and sign petitions in support of various initiatives. Family, friends, and neighbors frequently ask my opinion on current events, because they know I am usually well-informed. The point is that my voice matters as much or more than my vote.

    Now to the matter at hand. Health care reform is one of the most important issues facing our country. I believe that single-payer would be the best solution for this country. You have stated that you would also prefer a single-payer system if you were starting from scratch. Where we differ is that I think it was a mistake to take it off the table. It should at least have been used as a bargaining chip in the current debate. If it had, then a strong public option would still be a real possibility. However, that doesn’t really matter any more since we can’t go back and start over. We must deal with what we have.

    Let me make this perfectly clear. Any health care reform that does not include a strong public plan that will be allowed to negotiate prices with providers will be unsatisfactory. I will view such a bill as a failure on the part of the Democratic Party. In that event, I will work diligently to defeat any incumbent politicians that had a hand in that failure – up to and including the president.

    Thank you for all of your efforts and your hard work for the American people. You still have my support, but that support is not unconditional. Please keep that in mind as you go forward with this process.

    Sincerely,

    John R. Allen Sr.

    I had a discussion with my son today that really made me think. He told me that what he fears is that people like him, employed with decent medical coverage, will get nothing from the bill except for higher taxes. He asked me what protections were in the bills to keep his premiums from continuing to rise while his taxes went up to cover the expenses of the new bill.

    He understands that we need to cover the uninsured. He actually favors a single-payer system. He’s afraid he’ll be locked into a high co-pay policy with no option to get better care. He sees talk about a public option, but the way it is being set up will lock out people like him and his family. He sees talk of eliminating lifetime caps, but his policy doesn’t have one. He sees talk about eliminating the problem with pre-existing conditions, but what does that do for him if he never changes employers?

    What he does see is that every proposal that would help him keeps getting cut from the bills. No broadly available public option. No ability for the government to bargain for better drug prices. If there is a public option, there is a good chance its ability to bargain for lower prices will be restricted.

    The only thing he sees is higher costs with no benefits to him or his family. He sees higher taxes to insure those who are currently out of the system and is willing to pay those taxes so people can get decent health care. But he wonders why he should do that and still be in a situation where he might get priced out of health care for himself.

    How do I answer those concerns? What do I tell him, other than the one, best option – single-payer – is off the table?  

    All of this talk about ‘death panels’ and euthanasia is nothing more than a distraction. The haters and screamers at the town halls are not the ones that will make or break health care. It is the silent majority, like my son, who are the ones that can really make or break this reform effort.

    What do we tell them?

  6. louisprandtl

    I had voted for. Unfortunately this wouldn’t be the last time. Call me a fool, but then that’s life..

    Would I suffer personally right now if there’s no public option. Not really. But it would have been nice to see that something that would have helped millions. Am I ready to pay more taxes to do my part? Yes of course…

    But who am I? An unknown fool…

  7. Hollede

    cannot do much more to raise awareness, dispel myths, and get a public option passed in the House and Senate. The fact is, that nothing will happen, unless we (and I mean the collective and exponential WE) get off of our assess, hit town halls and other public venues, get noticed by the media and politicians, and start seriously talking to those around us about the truth of American health care. President Obama did not get the Presidency by himself. Democrats did not get a super majority on their own. We put them there.

    Now we must tell them what to do about health care. Now is the time to get back into action. The networks are all in place, we simply have to turn the switch on. Did anyone really think this was going to be easy? However, if just a fraction of the collective we that got President Obama elected throw ourselves back into the fray, we can make the republicans and corporate interests look like the lunatic fringe they are.

    Break time is over folk. Get the fuck back to work.

  8. GMFORD

    tomorrow night.  We will write letters and postcards and letters to the editor that we like HR3200 that includes a robust public option.  All we can do is keep on fighting the good fight.

  9. creamer

    I want a public option, hell I want single payer. I suspect we will get a public option with some kind of trigger.( Too many liberal congress people in the house want it to simply let it die.)If we get that I will celebrate and look for more reform down the road. Its a long walk.

    A lot of what we have right now is noise. Things will become clearer as the bill’s move throught both houses and go to reconciliation.

     Last year a lot of people on the left to far left voted for a left of center candidate. We live in a country that will be governed from the center. In my mind the goal is to keep a government in power that governs to the left of that centerline. Long term that not only means more lefty influence on health care, but education, science, and justice. Its a long struggle.  

  10. Cheryl Kopec

    I agree with all of you here. It makes me sick to think that a minority (well, plus lobbyists) could steamroll us so badly, and I keep trying to tell myself that all this talk of backpedaling is just a way to take the wind out of their sails until Congress gets back to work. The public option IS the compromise. We’ve already given in to Big Pharma (although I fully expect and will push for that in separate legislation). But the public option MUST be part of this bill.

    Every time I get fed up and start checking out the housing market in France, I remind myself that it’s not over till the fat lady sings. They’re trying to wear us down, but we can’t let them. We cannot afford to let up five yards from the finish line. Now is the time to redouble our efforts, because if we don’t, we’ll never know what could have been had we just written one more letter, made one more call….

    Is everybody here aware of the phone/doorbelling resources on MYBO? We know we’re in the majority, so if every one of us could get just ONE person to contact their legislators and add their voice, we could double or triple our effect. The other side isn’t giving up, and neither can we.

    ~~Cheryl

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