What Will Obama Do About Health Care?
By Susie Madrak Tuesday Dec 30, 2008 12:05pmThis is a subject close to my heart, since I've spent at least half of the past decade as a member of the uninsured class. Right now, I'm unemployed again and paying COBRA out of reader donations - donations which run out next month, with no job in sight. Oh well!
When Obama announced Tom Daschle as his health czar, my heart sank. After all, Daschle worked for a law firm whose lobbying arm represented the insurance industry, and that didn't bode well for actual reform. Instead, it seems to point toward corporate-friendly incrementalism.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress are focused enough to produce legislation which actually solves this massive problem. But voters will certainly have to stay vocal if they want to make their own interests the priority in this national healthcare debate:
Karen Goroncy, a home health aide in Washington, Pa., has taken care of people for 25 years but can't afford health insurance to take care of herself.
A reader has promised to buy Goroncy insurance after she was profiled this fall in The Inquirer, and she hopes to have hernia surgery in the New Year.
But short of the generosity of readers - not a good national solution - Goroncy and millions like her are awaiting the sweeping health reform now being considered by President-elect Barack Obama.
Obama's plan, which has not been formally announced, could mark the biggest change in health care in 40 years. A central goal will be to cover 50 million Americans who don't have insurance. It is conceivable that all Americans will be required by law to have health insurance.
A principal architect of Obama's reform - Tom Daschle, nominated to become secretary of the Health and Human Services Department - has written at length about creating a powerful new board that would control health-care spending much like the Federal Reserve Board influences the nation's monetary policy.
Login or Register to post comments.
out of healthcare. One-payer system like every other industrialized nation has.
Until we take profit out of healthcare, people will get screwed over.
"A principal architect of Obama's reform - Tom Daschle, nominated to become secretary of the Health and Human Services Department - has written at length about creating a powerful new board that would control health-care spending much like the Federal Reserve Board influences the nation's monetary policy."
Your kidding right.
I am old enough to remember when health care was a right and was respected as such. Every county in the nation had a health department the provided doctors, dentists, audiology and eyeglasses.
Of course Saint Ronald of Rayguns ruined it all and destroyed that system. Now we have a sick nation without health care.
People already got screwed over since now it's about profit instead of cure. So I can't help wondering how you missed that fact.
Hospitals already are laying off staff and some are closing because of the levels of "unreimbursed care"--read, charity treatment, often to illegals, but mostly to increasingly laid-off Americans.
I haven't had health insurance since '93. Hamburger flipping part-time(and I've tried this, seriously) will do no good--they have insurance, but you have to work a year to get it and then it covers little or nothing, or if you're an older worker, they write you up for nametag or some such thing and fire you to keep you off the plan (Pizza Hut).
This is the ONLY way to do this. Simply requiring that we all buy health insurance does nothing to fix the fact that with private insurers, only 70-80% of every premium dollar paid goes toward health care (the rest goes to overhead, CEO salaries, share holders, advertising, etc.). It doesn't force any private insurer to ignore "pre-existing conditions" (which have included pregnancy and jock itch!). It doesn't protect a person from being charged an exorbitant amount of money for insurance if they have "tennis elbow." Forcing everyone into the private insurance system doesn't stop insurance company clerks from determining what gets covered and what doesn't and from over-ruling our doctors.
Only single-payer systems do this AND cover everyone.
I just hope something gets done this time. Expect a lot of obstruction from the House Repubs in particular. Anything that gets done, however, will be only an interim step towards true universal health care.
Obama has said he must prioritize the tasks ahead. What that means for healthcare is anybody's guess.
From his website, it's obvious he just wants to tweak the way things are with the insurance companies, not get them out of the picture:
So we'll all still be paying through the nose if he does what he plans. I don't believe for a minute that the health plan providers are willing to cut costs by giving up their iron grip on coverage and charges for services.
Obama will have three hurdles to overcome at least. One will be the citizens who want single-payer health care, second will be the Republicans who will throw everything they can at whatever is proposed, and third will be the health plan providers themselves.
I wish him a whole lotta' good fortune.
about Obama being a super liberal aka the magic socialist sure was hilarious :\.
So far he's pallin' around with neocons, corporatists and Clinton drones.
The only change we'll be seeing is the change needed for the bus.
But still I hold out for hope....
If cannabis was legal, people could grow their own medicine. I'm sure that would reduce the costs of healthcare by a huge percentage :D
Anyone who can't obtain medical pot isn't looking hard enough.
In fact, the term "medical need" in this context pretty much means anything.
Just go to a Southern California dispensary and watch the hordes of young people going in and out to get their "medication". It's such a joke.
Surrender all hope, Susie. Obama is going to come out solidly for the insurance industry. It's going to be a megacorporate welfare give-away that is going to pour billions into the insurance industry, and the only thing it's going to accomplish is providing the insurance criminals 45 million or so more chances to say "Fuck you, that isn't covered. Please go off and die quietly in some corner. But....thanks just the same for all those premium payments".
Obama is a solid corporatist, and he's going to remain true to his corporatist roots. He's already thrown out the lame excuse that any healthcare moves need to remain insurance based, because they have the administrative infrastructure in-place. That's pretty lame, but there it is. Look for even more excuses as the economy sinks deeper.
HR-676.
No insurance company will accept the risk factors involved in just the East Tennessee toxic-waste debacle. The prez will either wimp out as previous admins have done with waste toxicity and Agent Orange, or he will create a bailout for Big Insurance to cover their losses plus their execs' bonuses. Look for the American public to be the only unbailed folks on the continent, unless the admin borrows more money from China to toss us a Benjamin or three, which won't go far on health services or insurance.Hillary Clinton had the lame idea of requiring purchase of health insurance before we could be employed. This is a direct subsidy to corporations which poison their employees.
It is conceivable that all Americans will be required by law to have health insurance.
Yeah, that's a solution. While we're at it, lets solve homelessness by requiring homeless people to buy houses.
-ep
Out here in Southampton last Saturday. It was chaired by Dr. Elaine Fox and about 25 people attended.
The vast majority want a Medicare system that covers everyone with standardized care/forms and computerized maintenance that is also standard.
The insurance companies will fight being thrown out of their "for-profit" equation tooth and nail. And the obvious problem is that every member of Congress has accepted payola from the medical insurance and pharmaceutical corporations in order to maintain the status quo. Congress is working for THEIR best interests, not the average Americans.
And you think the 50 million of us who have NO insurance have it bad? Think of the millions who are stuck in jobs they loathe merely because they'd lose their insurance and may have a pre-existing condition and could not possibly get health insurance in a new job situation.
People at this meeting told true horror stories about billing quagmires, needed procedures not being covered. It was sad to hear the story of a man who had a friend in the hospital all summer receiving various treatments. The man said the other patients in the ward had various insurance policies and that some would get a two day reprieve for treatments, maybe another two weeks. The stress caused by having to fight with an insurance company while you are ill is, well, sickening.
Here you have insurance and guess what? Dental, eye exams, and hearing exams aren't covered! I had a friend who DIED at 35 after receiving an eye exam and discovering he had malignant melanoma in his eye! Insurance companies act as if the eyes, teeth and ears are somehow not connected to the rest of our bodies! Heck. Even the freakin' VETS insist our dogs and cats have regular dental exams and cleanings!
I fear with the recession deepening and possibly coming a depression over the next possibly ten years that we can forget any change in the current system we have. But we can spend billions on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan!
As to the states that are MANDATING coverage, Dr. Fox pointed out that those states are failing in their efforts. She pointed out that those who don't buy the insurance in Massachusetts are being fined and that they are finding that they cannot afford the premium so they pay the fine that they CAN afford! Dr. Fox called this "legalized extortion".
I pray to God that Obama does not become the President I fear he may be. If the fact that he has yet to condemn Israel for their vicious attacks in Gaza with over 300 dead now is any indication of the type of man he is, then I fear we are in for four more years of a Bush-style mess. Only maybe Bush/Clinton Lite.
I hope and pray he will surprise me and work for the American People "for a change".
And to our right-wing capitalist brothers, how is this good for capitalism :
Abbybwood said:
"and you think the 50 million of us who have NO insurance have it bad? Think of the millions who are stuck in jobs they loathe merely because they'd lose their insurance and may have a pre-existing condition and could not possibly get health insurance in a new job situation."
One thing that people seem to forget is that there is a return on the dollar that the insurance companies need in order to stay in business.
Therefore, anything that occurs regularly, like dental exams, is automatically a loss...unless the insurance company charges enough to cover it...which they will.
This is not "insurance". Insurance is for when something happens unexpectedly, like a car accident, heart attack or a house fire. Sometimes shit just happens and that's what insurance is for.
So the government could provide catastrophic "insurance" to everyone but leave the regular "maintenance" to those who want to pay for it.
This might be a way of easing into a single payer health care system.
Crisis management costs more than preventive maintenance. little unchecked problems in the mouth can lead to chronic heart disease, for instance. All sorts of health problems spring from poor oral care, which isn't even on the medical radar.
Prevent people from becoming catastrophically ill, and the money saved isn't only measured in health care dollars.
What you speak of already exists BTW, and it blows. This is how I know it's a bad idea.
Insurance, with rationing (what Daschle specializes in)
versus
Universal, single-payer care...
hmmmmmm, which would I want?
But wait, wait, nobody--no candidate--promised me universal care.
What am I bitching about, anyway, right?
So, then for what did I vote?
Oh, yeah, that 'chimera' of "CHANGE"...i almost forgot...
But, I could be wrong. That was a long time ago.
Video Cafe? I just noticed the thread about Revoltin' Bolton wanting to bomb Iran now (and another about the Gaza debacle, at Video Cafe), but it has been up for a couple of hours with only two comments. I doubt many people realize it's even up there.
Not complaining, just curious...
No, thanks for asking! Video Cafe (see the tab at the top of the screen) is a relatively new feature of the site. We will post stories and videos there which will frequently be "promoted" to the main page as the editors see fit. But do visit the Video Cafe for more content than fits on the main page. (and I've let the editors know that you liked the Bolton piece. Thanks again.) - Sitemonitor
I have a feeling that many regulars here were unaware of the parallelism of the separate threads. Got to figure many would have jumped on the Bolton and Gaza threads if they were in the regular C&L line-up. (I think most of us can handle multiple tabs, as long as we know where to look).
My health insurance premium is going up from $784 to $902 per month in February (single, self-employed).
Sadly, I'm not anticipating any change from the Obama administration and expect in 2010 it will go over $1000. It's disgraceful.
My husband and I, both in our mid to late 50's pay $1555 in premiums per month for our health insurance. He has Kaiser through HIPPA, and I have PacifiCare HMO through COBRA. We struggle to pay these premiums, and yet in this country we are supposed to consider ourselves "lucky" that we have insurance. And trust me, we do not have that so called "cadillac" insurance the pols are talking about. The premiums are just the beginning of what we have to pay. And here's the thing, it's this or nothing for us. We would not be able to get more affordable insurance through some other means. This is it, baby. This country doesn't need "universal insurance." WE NEED A SINGLE PAYER PLAN. Requiring people to buy insurance is just a boondoggle to the insurance companies, the same way the Medicare prescription drug program was a boondoggle for the drug companies.
I feel an important step would be to outlaw pharmaceutical companies from advertising prescription drugs on TV and Radio. There is no need to advertise medications that you have to get a doctor's prescription for. By artificially creating a demand through advertising big pharma has made doctors nothing but drug dealers.
insurance, I'm not sure I should be complaining about not having any at all.
I think many folks are paying more for chemicals and insurance than what I used to spend on the illegal stuff back in the day. I guess I don't feel bad about not lining the pockets of big pharma reps.
I just hope that when I go it will be quick, like via lightning or bus strike; I can't afford any other way.
You can submit question; Some possibilities are listed here.
When it comes to Health Care issues, the top five questions being asked have to do with single-payer health care. Enough voices chirp out, who knows what might happen.
I'm at nearly $400/month for COBRA plus the big bucks I pay for "covered" medications every couple of months -- I'm paying small potatoes compared to others. Ms. Madrak, I'll keep you in my prayers. Sadly, it's about all my budget will cover these days.
He's a bought-and-paid-for corporatist.
He wouldn't be where he is today of he weren't.
He'll do what he was hired to do: the bidding of his corpoRat masters.
I am a recent unemployed IT professional.
My Cobra payment is $852 per month for Kaiser only. Delta Dental tips the scales at over $1,050 per month. My unemployment insurance is less than that. Needless to perform the math, but when my cobra runs out, my healthcare does too.
If healthcare is approximately $1,000 per month, or $500 per month per person, then $6,000 per year is about where we are nationally.
If someone proposed a "Tax" of $6,000 annually for National Health Care, the republicans would explode, figuratively and literally.
But that is what we spend anyway, before the deductibles, or co-payments.
If we had 200 million people contributing $6K per year, then that would be 1.2 Trillion dollars available for national healthcare. That should also be able to handle the VA and Iraq war vets too.
Unfortunately, that's $1.2T not going into the profit machine of Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, and the other criminal organzations.
How about allowing people, during the regular open periods when people need to choose their heath care provider, to choose Medicare for about $450 per primary care holder and $250 per dependent? Let the market decide who survives after a few years.
Medicare and Medicaid is broke and the largest generation of our times is going start depending on it heavily. Gen X is 1/3rd smaller in size, simply the next generation is too small to pay for the larger generation.
I wish it were different but the numbers simply don't add up.
That has nothing to due with people being able to buy into the system at about 30% less than the cheepest for profit insurance.
If you read the post above mine it does, what you are talking is a good start but unless we start to address the monster both parties are brushing under the rug it will have everything to do with people being able to buy into the system at all.
There will be no system sooner than later
would start overhauling our immigration, education, health care and labor policies. Then we could import the people we need logically and legally, educate them, then send them out in the good ol' USA to earn a livable wage while contributing to the system.
Naaaahhh. Too much work. It'll be easier to deny them care and then call the ones who want care commies. Then we'll all turn up our iPods, go for a drive in our foreign cars and talk about what masters of the universe we are.
That there "investing in health information technology" is another HUGE red herring we're all being forced to swallow. The only thing having all your medical records in a centralized database will do is allow the insurance companies to deny you coverage based on "pre-existing conditions" or jack up you rates when they find out you didn't have the chicken pox when you were a kid.
Somebody is really going to have to 'splain to me how this is going to reduce costs - TO THE CONSUMER - at all.
The United States is wholly dependent on the willingness of foreign creditors to supply the funds.
If someone can please answer this question, if we can't answer that then we are smoking our front yard.
There's No Pain-Free Cure for Recession: Peter Schiff's Editorial in Wall Street Journal
Excerpt:
Governments cannot create but merely redirect. When the government spends, the money has to come from somewhere. If the government doesn't have a surplus, then it must come from taxes. If taxes don't go up, then it must come from increased borrowing. If lenders won't lend, then it must come from the printing press, which is where all these bailouts are headed. But each additional dollar printed diminishes the value those already in circulation. Something cannot be effortlessly created from nothing.
Read more
http://europac.net/externalframeset.asp?from=...
Spending $6000 a year now to insurance co.s and stockholders. We just want the money spent for real care, not profits.
VegasRage said:
"then we are smoking our front yard."
Your neighbors must be puzzled.
one thing good about Daschle was that he helped reverse the GOP sneak thru provision in the HSA which allowed for immunity for Eli Lilly from lawsuits concerning thimerosal in childhood vaccines.
If vaCCINE mercury doesnt cause autism like the biased industry/CDC funded studies claim - why did a particular patent holding company lobby the GOP to insert such a clause into law?
why did a particular patent holding company lobby the GOP to insert such a clause into law?
you are one of those idiots who think vaccines cause autism?
As far as prez. candidates go Dennis Kucinich has been a long-time advocate for single-payer reform. He is a co-sponsor of the Conyers "New and Improved Medicare for All" bill, HR 676. If my memory serves me correctly I believe HR 676 had been submitted to the House prior to the 2004 race for prez. Obama was for single-payer reform before he was (is) against it.
for it
not for it
His reason for not supporting single-payer now sounds quite lame to me. I think the real reason is money and influence coming from the insurance companies and the lack of political will exhibited by many politicians to take them on. But HR 676 has 93 co-sponsors. Some leadership from the Obama White House could give it the attention it deserves. Will we get it? I doubt it.
... there isn't going to be a single payer system in America in our lifetimes.
No politician is going to shut down the money-factory industry that is the insurance cartel. They receive way too much money from them to ever even consider that.
The simple fact of the matter is that private insurance can never and will never be more efficient or provide more cost-effective care than a single payer system because it has the overhead of profit. As long as it is more profitable to deny people health benefits in lieu of their financial obligations to their stockholders, private insurance companies will continue to deny people health coverage and benefits, and people will continue to get sicker and die.
Obama's attempt to cover uninsured people is admirable, but ignores the glaring fact that the insurance system is *horribly* broken, and insurance companies have little to no incentive to fix anything.
Conyers site
Obama's penchant for moderation does not bode well for solving our health care problems. His choice of Daschle was consistent with Obama's utter conventionality and the likelihood that he will do everything he can to please the insurance industry.
I've been insured continuously since the mid-seventies, but I am about to lose my health insurance. Once it is gone, it will be gone forever unless Obama is able to fashion a health care revolution -- something he has no intention of doing.
Losing my insurance is tantamount to a death sentence, but I live in the United States and I don't expect anyone but close friends and family to care, nor do I expect that Obama has either the courage or the vision to at least attempt to solve the problem in a meaningful way.
I was horrified in the late stages of the campaign to hear Obama criticizing John McCain's health care proposals because they would bring about the end to our employer-based health care system. While John McCain's proposals were ridiculous, our need to end employer-based insurance is so obvious, I would expect even Obama to be able to see it. Unfortunately, Obama's real strengths do not lie in the realm of visionary policy initiatives or courageous change. He will probably prove to be quite adept at working with the powers that be to patch together superficial change that will simply delay the inevitable collapse.
I feel for you, Susie, but I don't think help is on the way...for either of us.
I attended the Obama-initiated discussion last night in Oklahoma City. Almost 80 people attended, and the overwhelming consensus was to get the profit motive out of health services in this country. Universal single payer was our answer, despite the provided literature and questions being biased in favor of some moderate reform that would keep insurance and pharmaceutical companies still in business and in control.
I knew we were screwed as soon as Daschole came into the picture
We need to have nationwide, grassroots support for the bill, HR 676, which you can access and read here:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H....
It is an INCREDIBLE bill. Anything SHORT of this will be a crap patchwork that will be a costly failure (like we have now).
And we will have to FORCE Obama/Biden/Daschle, Congress etc. to do the right thing.
A nation that spends more than any nation on earth on military to kill people, refuses to take that money and spend it on healing its sick. Sad. You know how you have universal healthcare? You get as many insurance companies as possible, OUT OF IT. It doesn't have to make a profit, to supply medicine to the sick. Until that is addressed, there will be no change in US healthcare. The Pharma lobby is just too big for politicians wallets to ignore.
He cuts off spending for the rich, I'm fine and dandy.
..but it seems moot to me. If we don't stop the never-ending wars and don't stop the economic meltdown (loss of jobs, homes, etc.) there is no chance that healthcare will be top of mind for most folks.
It will be keeping a roof over one's head and having enough food to "put on your family" that will occupy Americans. Before we can create a new healthcare system, we need to create a whole new economy - preferably one without the Federal Reserve and Republicans!!
Healthcare will be low on Obama's ladder, until the big Pharma industry starts getting hurt by the economy. Then expect a bailout, rather than reform. Without an economy, healthcare is meaningless.
Obama's whole presidency rides on him getting a healthcare policy out the door.
I too pay 800 a month for healthcare.
The do nothing repubs will do everything they can to stop healthcare-its the republican way--do nothing ever and then complain when someone tries to do something.
Universal healthcare could also help businesses by reducing the healthcare burden on them.
Obama has to do healthcare.
I just want to throw one point into the mix: the health industry in this country employs a lot of people, and too drastic a change too quickly might result in a lot of laid off people in a time of already-high unemployment. That doesn't trump the millions of uninsured and underinsured--change is necessary-- but in the short term we have to keep those health-industry employees in mind too, no?
Many of these "health industry employees" oppose any of the movement towards universal health care. They have been riding a gravy train for a long time.
Many of these employees are low-level grunts who work for the industry because they need a job. Don't blame the mess on them.
Dump the insurance companies and use the money saved to hire more doctors, nurses, all sorts of technical people - you know actual health care workers. The crooked insurance companies that just suck money out of the system and do more harm than good.
Heck no, they just want to outsource and export our health care the way they did our jobs, then they want Americans to purchase their products with the wages they don't have, buy insurance when we don't have paychecks, and pay health care providers with money they don't have.
I swear to God/dess, these CREEPs are trying to force us to deal their drugs to the welfare classes and executive classes in order to support ourselves, so they can get their goodies and keep us quiet, non-protesting, and blackmailed.
I am old enough to remember when health care was a right and was respected as such. Every county in the nation had a health department the provided doctors, dentists, audiology and eyeglasses.
Of course Saint Ronald of Rayguns ruined it all and destroyed that system. Now we have a sick nation without health care.
People already got screwed over since now it's about profit instead of cure. So I can't help wondering how you missed that fact.
This link will take you to a short film to describe what it is:
http://www.grahamazon.com/sp/whatissinglepaye...
Where citizens are *required* to buy health coverage, or face hefty fines.
Login or Register to post comments.