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So why is this Obaucussenedy Plan not take effect until after the next election? Could it be that the world is ending in 2012, so why bother? Or perhaps something more ordinary like bamboozlement? Check out how long it took LBJ to implement Medicare. Medicare in less than a year.
Check out the ever vigilant Bruce Dixon on Black Agenda report. Is the Obama Health Care Plan Better Than Nothing?
If the Johnson administration with no computers back in the sixties could implement Medicare for 45 million seniors in under a year, why does it take three and a half years in the 21st century to cover some, but not all, of America’s fifty million uninsured? And why does the Obama Plan make us wait till after the next presidential election? Politicians usually do popular things and run for election on the resulting wave of approval. Delaying what ought to be the good news of universal and affordable health care for all Americans till two elections down the road is a strong indication that they know the good news really ain’t all that good. And it’s not.
The entire discussion last night and for the last month has been all about lowering costs for corporations and the government. "Cost, cost cost" squawked the Chicken Littles. But this debate should not be about cost. This debate should begin and end with how to fix the failed employer based system. It should begin and end with a discussion of people not profit. Even the biggest capitalist countries in the world like Taiwan and Switzerland figure it is best to see health care like a utility and regulate it. Of course, after WW II most of the European and Asian countries wanted nothing more to do with crazy cults that put a race or class above another. So they devised a floor for their citizens. Not a ceiling, but at least a floor.
The ruling elite and their media lackeys have their panties in a bunch about how much it will cost. Why didn’t we ask about that when we shoveled and continue to shovel money at Wall Street? Why didn’t they squawk about money to fund 761 military bases in over 150 of the 190 countries in the world?
Dixon smells some class warfare. And so do I. 2013? NO! People are dying now at the rate of over 18,000 per year from no insurance. And the people I know who have insurance are fearful to go to the doctor in case they find something that the insurance companies can use to rescind your policy.
We experimented already with universal single payer when LBJ passed Medicare and implemented it in 11 months. Once we saw how well it worked, we should have put everybody else on it.
People on the right and the left smell a corporate rat. If only we could band together instead of being torn apart.
P.S. And what happened to that campaign idea of adding people over 55 on to Medicare?
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Other diaries have the link to Kip Sullivan’s piece “Bait and Switch” at the PNHP site, but it should be here too. Bait and Switch; How the “public option” was sold
The original Hacker Plan is discussed. It was the one that Edwards embraced early on and finally Hilary. But Obama’s people never embraced Hacker’s original proposal about putting 113 million people into a Medicare like plan and leaving less than 5 million uninsured.
is Obama playing the American people?
2013 date was the earliest they could start it without spending on the deficit which would have killed it.
Thanks. A lot of people – employees, their children and spouses, and the communities they make up – will die or needlessly suffer if a credible public plan is put off until 2013.
Four years may not seem like much to a wealthy Congresscritter with assets, a paycheck and the best health care the people’s money can buy. It’s a nightmarish long time for someone out of work or with a chronic disease, someone who’s changed jobs and has a pre-existing condition that helps insurers make money, or anyone whose employer has terminated coverage because it’s too damn expensive. The irony of a public plan is that those numbers will go up faster as the delayed start date approaches.
As with disclosures of state secrets, will 2013 ever really arrive? It leaves open the door for amending legislation that will gut the provisions that most alarm big insurers. Any number of intervening events – inflation, further predictable economic decline, the phoenix-like rise of the GOP – could empower the naysayers and profiteers.
As for states, California is in free fall and will be until it amends its constitution to throw out the requirement that any state budget must pass by a 2/3 majority. Even so, it refuses to charge big oil for petroleum extracted off public lands (Alaska charges 25%; how’s that for socialism?). To add environmental injury to self-inflicted financial insult, its latest budget “compromise” allows drilling off the Santa Barbara coast.
Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania are about to gut the number of public workers as state, county and local officials respond to gaping budget holes by letting go once long-term employed, who form the backbone of local communities – librarians, city and county clerks, fire and police staffs. GOP-dominated legislatures continue to withdraw funds from state land grant universities – the proving grounds for the education and training of the middle class, and which provide the leadership and economic depth of every state.
A great CEO I once worked with often held closed-door meetings and served coffee, orange juice and water. S/he didn’t allow any breaks until the work got done and a decision was made. S/he didn’t leave it at that: s/he followed up and held people accountable for those judgment calls with their peers.
Tell your Congresscritter that delay will make nothing better and make much worse. Then tell them they can go home and play when they’ve finished their work.