24TH EDITION - NOVEMBER 26, 2009

The Senate in SB 111, and the House in HR 3962, have finally passed similar health care legislation. We will now be forced to watch 536 legislators, most of them obscenely subsidized by the health insurance industry and Big Pharma. carve out like the bloated breast meat of the Thanksgiving turkey, a succulent meal for their benefactors. We had once expected, listening to the campaign rhetoric of President Obama, that after all these years we would be served a plate called Health Care Reform. In May 2007, speaking to the AFL-CIO, Obama promised health care for all by the end of his first term. The two bills now being masticated on Capitol Hill do not provide universal health care and do not even promise reform: the “R word” is not mentioned in either version of the bill. The plans so far passed in Congress only expand health care by between 31 and 36 million, still leaving 19 million people uninsured.

KUCINICH SAYS “I VOTE NO AND HERE'S WHY”
Dennis Kucinich voted with the most conservative Republicans to defeat Nancy Pelosi's compromise bill: “We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money by not providing health care. We cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are.  But we can fault legislation in which the government incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem. When health insurance companies deny care or raise premiums, co-pays and deductibles, they are simply trying to make a profit.  That is our system.

“Clearly, the insurance companies are the problem, not the solution.  They are driving up the cost of health care.  Because their massive bureaucracy avoids paying bills so effectively, they force hospitals and doctors to hire their own bureaucracy to fight the insurance companies to avoid getting stuck with an unfair share of the bills.  The result is that since 1970, the number of physicians has increased by less than 200% while the number of administrators has increased by 3000%.  It is no wonder that 31 cents of every health care dollar goes to administrative costs, not toward providing care.  Even those with insurance are at risk. The single biggest cause of bankruptcies in the U.S. is health insurance policies that do not cover you when you get sick.  

“But instead of working toward the elimination of for-profit insurance, H.R. 3962 would put the government in the role of accelerating the privatization of health care.  In H.R. 3962, the government is requiring at least 21 million uninsured Americans to buy private health insurance from the very industry that causes costs to be so high. This would result in a windfall $70 billion in new annual revenue from taxpayers.  This inevitably will lead to even more costs, more subsidies, and higher profits for insurance companies — a bailout under a blue cross.”

The 'robust public option' which would have offered a modicum of competition to a monopolistic industry, was whittled down in the House so it now would cover only some 6 million of the 50 million uninsured. An amendment allowing for states to pursue single-payer health care independently was stripped on orders from Obama. It remains doubtful that a strong public option alternative to being forced to buy health care protection from the insurance monopoly will survive in the Senate.

We seem to be offered a program guaranteed to assure that those who caused the health care crisis by their predatory practices will now be subsidized by the government and rewarded with an vast expansion of their customer base. We are given few assurances that those who profit from the sick will not charge whatever they care to and make little effort to restrain costs or eliminate the 31 % administrative red tape we now endure. Medicaid, where the poor and indigent have gone when in need, will be eliminated, Medicare, the system that has worked for those over 65 will be cut back in scope and benefits.

WHY NOT MEDICARE FOR ALL?
The bills sponsored by John Conyers in the House and by Bernie Saunders in the Senate would have been a huge net savings to Americans, by eliminating the need for the Medicaid ($470 billion saved), the Veterans Administration health care system ($100 billion saved), and pubicly-funded charity care in hospitals ($300 billion saved). It would have also eliminated $150 billion in private health insurance administrative costs, and $75 to $100 billion in insurance industry profits. That totals $1 trillion dollars, people!! When the costs of Medicare for under 65 years olds is added in at a net cost of perhaps $750 to $800 billion, we are left with a savings of over $200 billion a year. (Dave Lindorff –dlindorff @mindspring.com). We have not included on the savings side of the ledger the enormous savings to business and private citizens who now must purchase expensive health insurance policies – this alone amounts to $1.5 trillion. Given all of these benefits, is it small wonder that we cannot take seriously the Republican hand wringing about the enormous net costs of Medicare for All to the government? We are being fed a lot of really misleading propaganda. Isn't it strange that while the Pelosi Bill promises no restraint on the escalation health care costs for those under 65, they have written in a $570 billion cut in Medicare payments – the part of the healthcare package that the insurance companies will not profit from.

MAYBE THE ABORTION BATTLE CAN SINK THE ENTIRE BILL
At the moment, the House bill has banned insurance coverage for abortion from receiving any subsidies from the federal government. The Senate is trying to find a way around this issue. If Obama and the more progressive forces would insist upon abortion being covered, then maybe the 60 votes needed in the Senate will not be possible and we will have seen the last of this fraudulent subsidization of a crooked insurance industry. Then we can take a deep breath and get back to work on real health care reform.

THE PEOPLE WANT A PUBLIC OPTION
Right now, the Public Option for those without the ability to pay full premiums has the support of 76% of Americans. (ABC/Washington Post poll 10/20/09). Single Payer Universal Health Care for everyone is supported by 57% in the same poll and the support of 88 Democrats in the House under Single Payer Bill HR 676. If Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Eric Massa (D-NY) can convince just a few of these 88 that HR 3962 is NOT BETTER THAN NOTHING then the entire Pelosi Bill can be defeated right now. After all, it only squeaked through by 5 votes. Marcia Angell, former Editor of New England Journal of Medicine explains that HR 3962 “simply throws money into a dysfunctional and unsustainable system with only a few improvements at the edges, and it augments the central role of the investor-owned insurance industry”