Will Red States Opt Out of Blue State Generosity?
Just in time for the debate over the merits of a state-by-state "opt out" of a national public health insurance option, the Commonwealth Fund has released its 2009 state health care scorecard. As in 2007, the data reveals the critical condition of red state health care. All of which could present Republican governors and legislatures with a dilemma: will they refuse to offer lower cost insurance coverage for their residents by rejecting a system funded in part by blue state taxpayers?
Given the contentious ongoing debate in the Senate, crystal ball-gazing for any public option, whether national, opt-in or opt-out is premature. But the Commonwealth Fund's analysis of health care indicators shows the stakes for its red state opponents. While nine of the top 10 performing states voted for Barack Obama in 2008, four of the bottom five (including Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Louisiana) and 14 of the last 20 backed John McCain. (That at least is an improvement from the 2007 data, in which all 10 cellar dwellers had voted for George W. Bush three years earlier.)
(Here is the Commonwealth Fund's 2009 state-by-state health care scorecard. Here are links to the executive summary, the full report and PDF and Powerpoint chart packs.)
While New York Senator Chuck Schumer reported the "opt out" notion is gaining interest from conservative Democrats like Ben Nelson (D-NE), Republicans appear unmoved, at least so far.
A spokesperson for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suggests to the Huffington Post that it's unlikely that any GOPers will come on board.
"While Republicans support health care reform, they don't support a new government plan," said Don Stewart, a McConnell spokesperson, when asked about the opt-out idea.
That opposition would present a double quandary for the Republican leadership in Congress and in the states. After all, their residents not only need health care reform most. As it turns out, the funding in part would come from blue state taxpayers.
As the Washington Post noted in May ("A Red State Booster Shot"):
Health-care reform may be overdue in a country with 45 million uninsured and soaring medical costs, but it will also represent a substantial wealth transfer from the North and the East to the South and the West. The Northeast and the Midwest have much higher rates of coverage than the rest of the country, led by Massachusetts, where all but 3 percent of residents are insured. The disproportionate share of uninsured is in the South and the West, the result of employment patterns, weak unions and stingy state governments. Texas leads the way, with a quarter of its population uninsured; it would be at the top even without its many illegal immigrants.
As it turns out, health care reform spending would be little different from the overall pattern of red state socialism. That is, red state residents disproportionately benefit from the steady one-way flow of tax dollars and earmarks spreading the wealth from Washington to their states.
As the 2007 analysis (above) of 2005 federal spending per tax dollar received by state shows, the reddest states generally reaped the most green. Eight of the top 10 beneficiaries of federal largesse voted for John McCain for President. Unsurprisingly, all 10 states at the bottom of the list - those whose outflow of tax revenue is funding programs elsewhere in the country - all voted for Barack Obama in 2008. And as the Wall Street Journal documented in March and again in July, Republican states are reaping outsized benefits from the $787 billion Obama stimulus package they so fiercely opposed.
While not ideal, Paul Krugman, Howard Dean and Nate Silver among others have argued that the opt-out public option approach has the merit of creating economic, political and behavior pressure on Republican governors to offer their residents the same access to lower cost insurance as their neighbors in Democratic-controlled states. Should the opt out scenario come to pass, Republicans leaders will have to decide: will they put blue state money where their red state mouths are?
Any American who cares about the quality and accessibility of health care for all Americans should hope the answer is yes.
(This piece also appears at Perrspectives.)
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Q U E S T I O N:
When States "OPT OUT" of a "PUBLIC OPTION"...
... Who can those Americans that live in those States turn to BUT PRIVATE for PROFIT Corporations for the coverage they can not NOW afford?
THIS PUNISHES INNOCENT AMERICANS!!!
THIS DOES NO JUSTICE FOR AMERICANS THAT LIVE IN STATES THAT OPT OUT!!!
IT IS NOT A "PUBLIC" OPTION WHEN THE "PUBLIC" IS DENIED AN OPTION BY THEIR STATE!!!
HUMAN LIFE LIES IN THE BALANCE AND ALL CONGRESS CAN DO IS OPT OUT?
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Starve the WAR Beast...
... Feed Americans.
Health care should not be determined by a few in the state legislature or a governor because "THEY" want to opted out.
this is beautiful. As a face saving device for the Republicans it is perfect. The States that opt out will be at an enormous economic disadvantage as far as their state budgets go and the manufacturing sector goes. States that have a growing public option will be net population and job gainers and every state that isn't in will want to be in. The ideologues that want to fight it will soon be unelectable.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
cut their pay so they will be able to compete. I had one tell me that Obama shouldn't be president because he was born in the middle east. They are not the sharpest knives in the drawer.
... Letting a child opt out wearing the seat belt.
Only irresponsible parents would let a child opt out of being strapped in a car seat.
"I know you can't move around. But that just means later, I'll still have you around to love. Look, daddy's wearing one too. Now you'll have me to love later, too."
Starve the WAR Beast...
... Feed Americans.
Republican pols have been throwing around the idea that states should invoke "sovereignty", that they should "opt out" of Federal monies, but they never really follow through. Now, this would force their hand...PUT UP OR SHUT UP time.
And if it harmed their constituency, well, so be it. Let THEM boot the idiots out of office, or suffer under the "benevolent protections" of their self-chosen overlords.
"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" - Red Green
Freedom Ain't Free - Pay Your Share
Human lives lay in the balance.
Americans.
Sure, it makes for a good "POLITICAL" game...
... But using American lives as "POLITICAL PAWNS" is what Al-CIA-Duh did on 9/11.
... But using American lives as "POLITICAL PAWNS" is what Congress does with our Troops in Iraq/Afghanistan/Pakistan.
How is this a good thing for people who live in States that MIGHT opt out? No one is addressing the OBVIOUS!
I say,
DON'T GIVE THE STATES AN OUT...
GIVE THE PEOPLE AN OPT IN!!!
(as you may see, I DON'T DO COMPROMISED PRINCIPLES, well)
Starve the WAR Beast...
... Feed Americans.
I live in North Carolina. The state government is currently Democratic, and would hopefully be wise enough to opt for a public plan. However, I have family in other parts of the deep south who would suffer. People who look at this issue and say, "I am in a blue state, why should I care," are acting just like the Rethugs--it doesn't matter to them as long as they get theirs. I would hope the Democrats are more principled than that.
We elected a great majority of Dems to the congress. We elected a Democratic president. If those politicians don't follow through with reform they have failed the American people. Don't play politics with peoples' lives! We owe it to ALL Americans to reform health care.
Candideinnc
Well, I do. Because I think karma is a bitch, and these "red states" who would likely opt out need to suffer for the decisions they made. Let their "god" save them, even...
It's time to get tough, people. We've been far too lenient these past years.
"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati" - Red Green
Freedom Ain't Free - Pay Your Share
It is long past that time (as you point out). If the federal government told the governors of all these red states, they are not eligible, they would be screaming rape. Call their bluff, right in front of their supporters. I predict that getting federal funds like the rest of the states will not sit well with the 'home crowd'. I would love to see that prick Jindal get whacked.
This idea pisses me off that is for sure. I live in a red state and have contributed money to democrats even in different states. I feel let down. Not for me because I have good health care coverage through my husband's retired military government insurance. I feel bad for my son who has terrible coverage and pays over $300 a month on a cook's wage trying to support himself and his daughter. We end up helping him to pay his bills. He isn't going out and drinking and dancing. He doesn't have a phone or TV in his home. I wanted to fight for him and his friends and millions like them.
Southern Yankee
Snookered.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
...for Californians to stop carrying Bush states, Gubbner Reaganegger.
To the Divided 50 Separate Countries of America.
This would put the GOP in a position where they'd have to go for it.
If they don't, their constituents would kick their ass's so far down the road they'd end up in Mexico. And we all know how much they like Mexico.
Snookered.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
The consistent making of laws like anti gay-marriage, different health care for different states, ages for drinking, sex, sexuality...it's surprising that passports aren't required to travel from state to state.
The GOP has nothing to lose anymore, they will try and do anything.
all the real polls had 53% or better repuglyKKKan support for better health insurance coverage. t
he teabaggers actually accounted for 2% of the repugs, if that. I think we all noticed that once the information actually came out, things got quiet.
The Bluedogs are getting their asses handed to them and the Congressional pprogressives are screaming so loud that the media can't ignore them.
It's getting interesting, but I have not yet been convinced that we'll get more than another Medicaid part B with mandatory jail as an option.
Some stuff you can't make up!
Healthcare exams.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
Turn your head and kvetch.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Don't point that out until it passes.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
what a mess he created and dumped On Obama. But that takes no responsibility from Obama, unfortunately. Too fucking bad he put (R)ahm in charge and dumped Dean.
Some stuff you can't make up!
... Seeing that Texas G(no)P thinks leaving is a good thing
... That the G(no)P v.p. candidate was a separatist of a State she Governed
... And to shore up their claim, Hawaii is not qualified as a State to issued certificates of live Births
I'd say you're almost correct.
Starve the WAR Beast...
... Feed Americans.
Exercising their options
I guess under the circumstances, it's the best they can come up with. I still wonder exactly what are they going to be opting out of.
Some stuff you can't make up!
Good question.
. . . states that chose to opt out of public health insurance also had to opt out of the federal Seniors' Drug Benefit? They're both medical costs, after all. Should you have one and not the other?
How about tying the Public Option to military spending - if you refuse the former, you lose the latter?
If red states "opt out", it won't be long before they'll be scrambling for an excuse to "opt in". It's the beginning of the end for the Insurance Company cartel. Republicans will learn to love "socialized medicine".
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Q U E S T I O N:
Why is it NOT O,K, for Insurance Companies to play games with people's lives just to make a profit...
... But O.K. to support Legislation that allows States to play games with those very same lives?
Doe it NOT seem at least semi-hypocritical?
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Starve the WAR Beast...
... Feed Americans.
re: IT IS NOT A "PUBLIC" OPTION WHEN THE "PUBLIC" IS DENIED AN OPTION BY THEIR STATE!!! HUMAN LIFE LIES IN THE BALANCE AND ALL CONGRESS CAN DO IS OPT OUT?
the Congress, particularly the Senate, has stalled interminably and produced nothing, is that it contains an inordinate number of rats-who-like-the-ship, thank you very much, reactionary nutjobs, and a bunch of riff-raff including a good handful of Senate “Democrats” of a specific genus, the kind that could even squeak through an election in the dark ages of the early- to mid-aughts, prostrating themselves at the altar of Republican Lite fealty. This unholy alliance is why anything resembling reasonable reform struggles to see the light of day.
This option offers both the reticent Senate members, and the rabid banshee screamers, a clear choice. In the face of their incoherent logic, would they, as a litmus test, be willing to put their – actually, our – tax dollars where their mouths are? If they are correct, and thusly safely ensconced while the perils of semi-universal healthcare ravage our states, wouldn’t that be a triumph of the most glorious sort? What is the apparent bogeyman here, that the new system would instead work? That cannot stand. Reality may not deny our precious ideology.
At a state level, if your state is at risk of opting out … get better representation. It can be done.
Maybe if we all ate healthier:
http://rlv.zcache.com/all_i_caught_was_this_c...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Scream to the people that live in that state how they saved them and everything else. Many states mine included are becoming more and more progressive and the GOPs that have gotten elected by simpley puting "GOP" on there ads and signs are getting scared and tyring to isolate us with lies and fear.
Adding An op-in or out bullshit plays right to that it's a bad idea. Not that the current public option are any sort of good idea weak things they are.
I feel sorry for sane people in red states, BUT elections have consequences. I grew up in Oklahoma, a wingnutty state. What did I do? I moved out of there. To a blue state. When I was 22 years old. 34 years ago. They could, too. But no, they CHOOSE to stay in their states. So -- they get what they pay for. (And still, to this day, many relatives tell me I was stupid to move!)
The majority of residents of red states are dumber than tree roots. And I know from experience.
Misery loves company, and it seems they like it like that.
It's a shame that it is tough to even fathom moving for so many people.
I have been yelling, screaming name calling and all the other foolish things one does when one is angry and upset now I am thinking or hope this passes for thinking. We have a Eunuch congress that is more interested in pleaseing Murder Incorporated and then you have the other side of the political spectrum (republicans) that truly Hate America and will do anything it can to protect PROFITS over the CITIZENS of this Country. Lets push for the Public Option at the same time push for DUMPING a Major Insurance company as a example GIGNA (you know the low life scum that flipped off the mother of the deceased daughter), once we understand everyone that can afford it jump to the Public option at the same time Identify the Parent company the subsidiaries and their ocerseas off brand sheltered companies. Once this takes effect they will scream theloss of jobs what are the loss of 10-15 jobs compared to the thousands of lives. The next thing if every person buys just one share and participates in the share holders meetings to STRIP the ceos of pay and power this will shake then to the roots. Will they cry of course this is what they are best at. their problem is they have played their hand we casn go after their congressional and senatorial representatives, notice I said theirs because this scum and trash does not represent the people that put them there. If we start oraganizing NOW which ever way this goes down we can still win, I DO NOT care about the Fascist Racist Nazi, Communist, Anti American right if they disappeared this very moment I could care less, but I do know that with out these Obstructionist we could get more done. My self I am starting to talk to local community groups Veteran groups VFW,Lions club, and Senior groups about this idea it is time for the Obstructionist and Murder Incorporated to be put down and put down for good.
..."will they put blue state money where there red state mouths are?"
I used to go away for weeks in a state of confusion. --Albert Einstein
I see the concept as a vague form of succession. I've entertained the thought on many of the relative religious issues, such as abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research and the like. My contemplation envisioned a split Nation, consisting of a democratic and republic persuasion; in direct proportion to religiosity and political preference quite similar to the map above.
At this point in time, I can't comprehend an honest and just "opt-in / opt-out" plan without dissolving the US Constitution. We've still have a religiosity in our midst, not unlike the type that drove off Roger Williams to find Rhode Island and Providence Plantations**.
If a true "opt-in / opt-out" were to be devised and or implanted, we would see a relative exodus in direct proportion to religious ideology which would instigate much mischief and discomfort in this nation from individuals and their family's, as well as business in general. I can't see how an "opt-in / opt-out" could be instituted fairly.
There are to many consequences for everyone to to receive their wishes. If we attempt to twist the our Constitution and its premise of a Democratic republic... as our legislators/lawyers tend to do accordingly, our prosperity will continue to be stifled by the ideology of the faithful instead of the factual. Where it stops nobody knows... though some think they do! Thanks Jon
Study the symptoms not the virus...
Plantation; Plan·ta·tion
Notes: It has probably seemed ironic to more than one reader that the same word plantation appears in the name Plimoth Plantation, a settlement of people seeking freedom of religion, albeit their particular form of religion, and also as the term for the estates of the pre-Civil War South with their beautiful mansions for the white elite and their hovels for the oppressed Black slaves.
These two uses of the word plantation illustrate two sense developments of the word, which is first recorded in Middle English as plantacioun in a work probably written during the first quarter of the 15th century. Latin plant, the source of our English word, originally meant “propagation of a plant, as from cuttings,” but in Medieval Latin developed other related senses, such as “ planting,” “foundation, establishment,” and “nursery, or collection of growing plants that have been planted.”
The two senses that were used in New England and in the South can thus be explained. The Plimoth sense is derived from the notion of a settlement or colony that has been established or planted in a new country. The Southern sense goes back to the notion of simply planting crops, in this case crops such as tobacco or cotton that are grown on estates or farms in subtropical or tropical climates and were at one time worked by slave labor.
Notice any similarities with current events?
Providence Plantations / Plimoth Plantation/ Roger Williams
Study the symptoms not the virus...
...might as well be the results of any other state-by-state breakdown of performance on societal issues. Health care, education, poverty, divorce rate, carbon emissions, and of course, tax revenue.
Given this, I think it's a no-brainer to let the red states opt out of a public option. Let them figure it out for themselves, IMHO. Heck, it makes one wonder how much better off the US would be if we let the red states "opt out" of the union.
is treason but... fine with me!
What I find extremely interesting in this debate, after all the town hall madness in August, all the right wing media screaming "keep you gubment hands off ma medicare", "no socialized medicine", now the Dems said ok, you can opt-out on a state by state basis, now they're screaming "that's not fair, i want gubment care". What a bunch of idiots. This is what happens when a whole group of people watch Faux alone and listen to Limpballs. They've even got their talking points mixed up now. I'm sorry for the people who aren't clueless in those red states, but get rid of your redneck regression leaders. Do it for yourselves. As a blue stater, we carry a much higher tax burden and need to watch our own backs at this pivotal time and hope you'll be able to vote your states into the 21st century.
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