Remind Them of the Devil They Know—Private Insurance
In the thick of August, President Obama has a very specific challenge: to yank the health care reform conversation up out of the weeds and back into the broad, easily understandable consensus he tapped during the campaign...
In the thick of August, President Obama has a very specific challenge: to yank the health care reform conversation up out of the weeds and back into the broad, easily understandable consensus he tapped during the campaign—that the current system is a disastrous failure that grows more expensive and less effective every year we continue to wallow in it. People have to become more afraid of the devil they know than the one they don’t. Which is why we need to see a lot more about things like the Rural Area Medical Volunteer Corps.
The group, which has been getting sporadic coverage as a counterpoint to the GOP’s town hall protests, started back in 1985 as an effort to bring care to people in remote areas of poor countries. Today, 60 percent of its work is in the U.S. The REUTERS piece below is from an event RAM held in rural Virginia a couple of weeks ago, where more than a thousand people lined up to get basic care. It’s powerful footage, particularly because those lined up are the poor and working-class whites that the GOP wants the world to believe are powering its protests. Obama and his Democratic allies need to get this kind of stuff back into the forefront of the public discussion.
—KAI WRIGHT
Calling a Stall a Stall in Health Reform
It was a busy weekend in the intensifying political brawl over health care reform. Most notably, Obama’s budget guru (and health care secret weapon) Peter Orszag caused a stir by pointing out just how naked some “centrist” Senators are in their effort to kill reform.
It was a busy weekend in the intensifying political brawl over health care reform. Most notably, Obama’s budget guru (and health care secret weapon) Peter Orszag caused a stir by pointing out just how naked some “centrist” Senators are in their effort to kill reform. The administration is cajoling lawmakers to vote on a bill before going home for August recess and finalize a bill this year; GOP leaders are claiming that’s too fast. Last week, six self-proclaimed moderate Senators—whose votes are key—dealt a blow to Obama’s timeline by sending a high profile letter to both parties’ leadership, begging them not to rush such an important and difficult debate. Orszag translated that into the truth on CNN:
We have to remember: there are some who are advocating delay simply because they don’t have anything to put on the table. The typical Washington bureaucratic game of — ‘if you don’t have a better alternative, just delay in the hope that that kills something’ is partly what’s playing out here.
Here’s the video:
Others have pointed out past debates in which the six Senators weren’t so interested in slow deliberation and paying our debts. David Kurtz at TALKING POINTS MEMO notes that four of them--Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Susan Collins (R-ME)—helped George W. Bush rush his massive $1.35 trillion tax cut package through Congress in barely six months. Paul Krugman dubs them the “six deadly hypocrites”:
What’s especially galling is the hypocrisy of their claimed reason for delaying progress — concern about the fiscal burden. After all, in the past most of them have shown no concern at all for the nation’s long-term fiscal outlook. Case in point: the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, which denied Medicare the right to bargain for lower drug prices, locked in overpayments to private insurance companies, and did nothing, nothing at all, to pay for its proposed outlays. How many of these six self-proclaimed defenders of solvency voted no on the crucial procedural vote? One. (Joe Lieberman, to my surprise.)
For his part, Oszag soft-shoed around the fact that Democrats are among those “advocating a delay as a desperation move.” But notably, the DNC and Organizing for America announced Friday that they’re expanding their health reform ad campaign—and the new reach will hit districts represented by so-called Blue Dog Democrats in the House. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is stacked with purportedly centrist Dems, is the primary barrier to moving a House bill. The ad will now air in TV markets overlapping with 15 of the committee members’ districts. --KAI WRIGHT
Health Reform Rises from the Dead
For those of us who questioned how hard the White House and its congressional allies would fight for health care reform, the answer is here. The devil remains in the details, of course, but in the last couple of days Barack Obama has put Republicans and conservative Democrats alike "on notice": Get on board or get left behind.
For those of us who questioned how hard the White House and its congressional allies would fight for health care reform, the answer is here. The devil remains in the details, of course, but in the last couple of days Barack Obama has put Republicans and conservative Democrats alike "on notice": Get on board or get left behind.
This week’s big news is that Sen. Ted Kennedy’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee passed its version of a reform bill—including the president’s public plan—on a party line vote. They shrugged and accepted several GOP amendments (I haven’t yet read anything that considers the amendments consequential) and called it a bipartisan effort.
Kennedy’s HELP has been the counterpoint to Sen. Max Baucus’ stalled Finance Committee, where Baucus has thus far failed to convince Republicans and moderate Dems to support some form of a public option to compete against existing private plans. The HELP bill now stands as a tangible threat—if Baucus doesn’t move something soon, this becomes the primary Senate bill.
The bill requires every American be covered—through an employer, through Medicaid/Medicare or by purchasing as an individual. It then provides subsidies to make buying insurance affordable and introduces a public plan as one option inside a regulated marketplace, what’s been called a health insurance exchange. Subsidies go to families making less than four times the poverty level—about $88,000 for a family of four—according to AP. Adds the WASHINGTON POST:
Under the legislation, most businesses would be required to offer insurance to workers or pay a $750 annual fee per full-time employee. Companies with fewer than 25 employees would be exempt from the mandate.
Politically, just as important as the HELP bill is a DNC ad campaign launched today. According to CNN, the 30-second spot will urge viewers in eight states with key senators in both parties to call Capitol Hill. The ad doesn’t name names, but the message is pretty damn clear. (The eight states are Arkansas, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana, Maine, North Dakota, Nebraska and Ohio.) Moreover, both David Axelrod and Rahm Emanuel have said plainly in the last couple of days that the White House is perfectly content with a party line vote. Here’s the TV ad:
Meanwhile, three House committees released a bill yesterday that they’ve drafted in concert. As Ezra Klein points out, this is huge news politically for a couple of reasons. First, the confusing cacophony of proposals that came out of various committees during the 1994 reform effort helped doom it; no such dissention on the House side this time. Second, the committees’ unity greatly strengthens the House’s negotiating hand when it comes time to reconcile its bill with whatever the Senate passes, which will almost certainly be less ambitious.
Already, the House bill appears to take a bigger swing than even the Senate HELP version. Klein’s your best journalistic source for the House bill’s policy weeds (he hadn’t yet posted on the Senate bill’s details at this writing, but look for it). But Igor Volsky in Think Progress’ WONK ROOM also makes an important point. He notes that the House version is less shy about using Medicare’s negotiating advantage with providers than the Senate HELP bill, and it’s thus more likely to truly bring down costs.
—KAI WRIGHT
