Sept. meeting: Health care reform will pass; ‘public option’ likely to wait for ‘trigger’
(Click HERE to see Roberts’ Powerpoint presentation, which contains facts, figures and charts.)
Dave Roberts
“The Senate will pass health care reform this year.” That’s the prediction of Dave Roberts, head of the Organizing for America Health Policy Team for the 50th Congressional District. Speaking to the Club’s September 12 meeting, Roberts said several times that President Obama “has not abandoned” the public option, but Roberts believes it is most likely to take the form of a ‘trigger’ clause in legislation that will bring it into effect only if health insurers fail to meet certain requirements. This aproach will be necessary, Roberts said, to gain the support of conservative Democrats in the Senate. He said President Obama and his health care advisors see this as a compromise necessary because, as Roberts said, they “want to move the policy debate down the field. If we cannot even move down the field, we’ll never reach the goal line.”
He emphasized that something must be done. “We cannot afford the spending track we’re on. Our spending is much higher than any other industrialized nation — and they all have universal coverage. We have to do something — this is a real crisis.” He pointed out that health care already consumes more than four times as much money as defense. He noted that without reform, health care will eat up 100 percent of the federal budget in just 20 years.
In a wide-ranging discussion of the complex elements of health care and possible reforms, Roberts reviewed the activities of his organization, Organizing for America, which is the successor to the campaign group Obama for America. It supports President Obama’s work to implement his campaign promises. The group has been active in promoting local opportunities for discussion of issues such as health care and in passing local input up the chain of command to the national level.
Roberts summarized the current status of reform by noting there is a single bill in the House (HR 3200) and a single bill in the Senate. He said action is stalled until a second bill emerges from the Senate Finance Committee the week of September 21. House members are delaying any action until they see the contents of the second Senate bill.
Many people ask, Roberts said, “The Democrats are in control, why can’t they just pass this?” In answering, he pointed to the so-called “Blue Dog” conservative Democrats in both houses of Congress, but particularly the Senate, who have just enough votes to control the outcome. Many of them have said they will not vote for any bill that contains a ‘public option,’ Robert reported. For the present, there are not enough votes to end discussion, but in a clever parliamentary action, an earlier vote authorised a rules change after October 15, Roberts noted. After that date, it will take only 51 votes to move legislation along.
Roberts noted that much progress has been made since the Obama administration took over, including expansion of health care for children (known as S-CHIP), elements of the financial stimulus act that extended COBRA coverage for the unemployed, promoted computerizing health records and called for comparative effectiveness research. All are important steps toward reform.
In response to a question, Roberts said that nothing in any of the bills prevents states from implementing ‘single payer’ health care programs. He described the Obama administration view of ‘single payer’ health care as “a great idea — if you could start over.” But, he said, implementing it now would be “so disruptive” it is “not the right thing to do.” He observed that much has to be done to enhance health care delivery — to reduce wait times and increase the number of general practitioners — before moving to ‘single payer’ health care.
Roberts also said changing malpractice insurance law, often cited by Republicans as an important element of reform, “is not a panacea to solve this problem.” He did note that problems related to malpractice insurance, and the way physicians must practice defensive medicine to protect themselves, is an issue. “We need to look at that,” he said.
Roberts concluded by urging everyone to “stay fired up” and continue making their feelings known to their elected officials through letters, phone calls and emails.
While 18,000 Americans die each year for lack of access to health care, the CEO of United Healthcare hustles off with a compensation of $3,241,042 million. These deaths for lack of access to health care hugely outnumber deaths by terrorist attacks. But President Obama says of the bad practices of insurance executives and their industry, “Insurance executives don’t do this because they are bad people. They do it because it’s profitable.” My question is, what if Lincoln had said, “Well, the slave masters don’t do it because they are bad people. They do it because it’s profitable.”? What if he had said, “If you’re starting from scratch, then liberation from slavery would probably make sense. But managing the transition would be difficult. So we may need a system that’s not so disruptive.”? It seems to me it is time to act on a vision for an ethical and moral America, and that means recognizing the character of an industry for what it is, before we decide how to deal with it. Obama must recognize the essential immorality of insurance companies and their executives, that is, bad people doing bad things to innocent people. He and his conservative friends in Congress must stop cooperating with the bad guys, and do the moral thing for America. A single-payer system is the only real answer. Fiddling with insurance “reform,” mandating insurance, and providing a “public option” that subsidizes a choice of private insurance, will only benefit the insurance companies, while the jobless, minimum-wage earners, and the homeless get screwed again. Don’t be fooled.