The Republicans still don’t want to have anything to do with health care reform, and are already trying to confuse the issue (again). Why is this happening? I think I know. And it has very little to do with looking out for what's good for America.
Republicans understand that if President Obama wins, America will end up with a better health care system, and Democrats will look good for getting something big done. They know they can't run on their record, so they've done what they can to distort the issue. As the following illustrates, they've done a very good job at this ...
A while back I had an exchange on health care on someone else’s Facebook site (at least it started out as a health care discussion). I was responding to a Wall Street Journal op-ed that was posted on the site. It was intellectually dishonest, and I made it clear why I thought this was the case. Several people responded. I think the tone of the exchange does a nice job of capturing what’s happened to our national health care debate. It went something like this.
Me: What an intellectually dishonest piece. It repeats Republican talking points, says absolutely nothing about fixing unethical private insurance practices, and ignores that 44,000 die each year from having no insurance.
Respondent: You’re “intellectually dishonest” because you don’t tell us where you get your information. These people would’ve died anyways even if they had insurance. And besides, Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) says this is the crown jewel of socialism, so I believe her.
Me: The study was done by Harvard University team, and controlled for ailment types, age, etc. This means they asked questions like “Were the 44,000 who died excluded from life saving care because they had no insurance?” ... Also, using Rep. Bachmann as your reference for socialism is like using prostitute connoisseur, and Louisiana Senator, David Vitter to define family values. Neither one understands what they’re talking about.
Respondent: How many people die does not really matter. Numbers are used only to count things. The real issue is giving up our freedom. Jesus liked freedom. Illegals threaten our freedom. Jesus hates illegals.
Me (trying to muster all the ethnic gravitas I have): Hmmm … wasn’t Jesus a non-English speaking traveler, who crossed many borders without a passport? Seriously, WWJD … Who Would Jesus Deny?
(New) Respondent: Mark … you belong to that low life, scum sucking, bottom dwelling, dingy smelling group of nefarious would be communist Marxist … consider yourself vetted and cast out of membership with any real American patriot.
And on it went.
While I’ve synopsized and edited this exchange for purposes of space, in many ways it captures what’s happened to the health care debate. Blinded by ideology, very few people are listening to each other, so they believe what they want to believe. And since numbers can be manipulated and "are used only to count things" others simply don’t care about the facts.
Or, as Popeye might say, “I yam what I yam, and that’s all that I yam”.
Nice.
I say we cut through the spirited distortions and talk about what health care reform will actually do. I’ve already discussed what’s wrong with the proposed legislation here (and there is much that is wrong with the legislation). So, courtesy of The Rachel Maddow Show and the Washington Post's Ezra Klein, here’s some of the good stuff in simple, non-technical, terms.
The World With Health Care Reform
In the first 6 months …
* Those who have been denied coverage for pre-existing conditions will have access to high risk pools. This will happen within 90 days of legislation being signed into law.
* It will be illegal for insurance companies to deny children coverage because of a pre-existing condition. This happens within 180 days of the bill being signed into law.
* Children will also be able to stay on their parents insurance until the age of 26.
* There will no longer be lifetime limits on coverage.
* Insurance companies will no longer be able to terminate (coined “rescission”) your insurance once you file a claim.
By Jan. 1, 2011 …
* If you’re a Medicare beneficiary you qualify for free annual wellness visits.
* Insurance companies will be required to spend between 80-85 cents of what they take in on medical care (currently they spend about 64-70 cents).
* If insurance companies don’t spend 80-85% of what they take in, they will have to refund money to the insurance holder(s).
* Insurance company rate hikes will have to be announced, reviewed, and justified. This means no more arbitrary, and guaranteed, super profits at the expense of medical care.
By Jan. 1, 2014 …
* A complete ban on denying coverage for anyone (not just kids) with pre-existing conditions.
* Insurance exchanges, for those who don’t have insurance, will kick in. In these exchanges regulators will be able to eject insurance companies for bad behavior, while consumers will be able to publicly rate them.
* No more annual limits on how much coverage you can receive in a year.
I’m sure that many (or most) of those who watch Fox News or listen to Rush Limbaugh don't know much about any of these changes. And why should they? Of all the developments that have swirled around the health care debate perhaps the most frustrating is watching as deliberate distortions, myths, and lies have been created. They have no other purpose than to muddy the health care waters. And it continues today.
From assertions about a “government takeover”, to claims that we are destroying the best health care system in the world, to the sudden concern over deficits, the list of health care disasters on the horizon for Republicans is long, and misleading (I'll have more to say about this in the coming days).
We've got a few more days before the vote. But one thing is clear. We need to encourage our fence-sitting members of Congress to join the cause, and support this health care bill. The fact that Dennis Kucinich has done so already says much. You can find your local Representatives and Senators here and here.
For those of you living in the Kern County region you already know that Congressman Jim Costa has done the right thing in the past. Give his office a call, and encourage him to do the right thing again. He really likes to hear from you. And be nice to the staff. Some of them are former students of mine, and are really nice people.
Costa in Washington, DC: 202-225-3341
Costa in Bakersfield: 661-869-1620
Costa in Fresno: 559-495-1620
- Mark
Here's an idea:
ReplyDelete1) Get government out of healthcare. I mean, completely.
2) Get corporate lobbyists out of Washington. I mean, completely.
3) Allow private insurance companies, medical product manufacturers, biotech and drug companies to compete head to head.
4) Let the free market drive prices down and enhance quality.
Cost control, in every market sector, is made possible only under free market competition without coercive legislation and subsidies from the federal government, and without corporate interests running the legislative process. The only purpose of government under the Constitution is to enforce integrity of the markets, not subsidization nor coercive regulation.
Both Republicans and Democrats have let us down. We need to end this welfare + warfare state, and return to our Constitutional Republic.
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