Posts Tagged ‘health care reform’
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
 On Tuesday, July 21, Campus Progress hosted a frank discussion with Governor Howard Dean about the state of health care in this country and the many challenges that lie ahead in fixing a broken system. As Governor Dean argues in his new book “Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform,” the time is now to make our voices heard in this critical debate.
The discussion was moderated by Campus Progress Advocacy Associate Natasha Bowens with Governor Dean taking questions from the audience, as well as off the internet where the discussion was being live streamed.
Governor Dean touted his support of the Obama health care plan to a packed room and stressed that the inclusion of a public option was absolutely essential to the plan’s success.
Governor Dean also opined that conservative dissent seemed to be aimed at discrediting the Obama administration rather than criticizing the proposed plan. With that in mind, he urged Congress to push hard for a complete health care plan rather than compromise in the name of bipartisanship.
Several news outlets covered the event including The Huffington Post, Washington Post, The New Republic, and the popular blog Jezebel.
Be sure to check out video of the event on our YouTube page and pictures on Facebook!
Tags: health care reform, howard dean
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Monday, June 22nd, 2009
Health Care. The two words that are on the tip of many a tongue this month, but can be quite a spiral of (sometimes) nonsensical debate, complicated proposals, and opposing arguments. This fantastic guide posted in the New York Times is probably the best I’ve seen thus far for breaking down the key challenges in the health care debate, including specific proposals that will have an impact on how strong the reform will be, those opposing the proposals and why, how we’re going to pay for reform, and how the final legislation will make it through Congress and to Obama’s desk:
 Click Here to View Image
Key Proposals
1. Public Insurance Plan and Marketplace-
Create an exchange where people who are unable to obtain coverage at work and are ineligible for public programs can buy coverage from private plans or a new public plan.
White House: Wants a public insurance plan
Senate Finance Committee: Leaning toward an insurance cooperative
Senate Health Committee: Leaning toward a public insurance plan
House: Wants a public insurance plan
2. Individual and Employer Mandates-
Requires individuals to have a minimum level of health insurance. Requires employers of a certain size to offer insurance or help pay for coverage of their employees.
White House: Open to mandates, with some exceptions
Senate Finance Committee: Mandates likely, with some exceptions
Senate Health Committee: Mandates likely, with some exceptions
House: Mandates likely, with some exceptions
Read More >>
Tags: employer mandate, health care reform, individual mandate, public insurance plan
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Friday, June 19th, 2009
 By Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle Young people are worried. We have a future ahead of us that is overshadowed with a troubled economy, no jobs, no health insurance, possibly no social security, and a society that is addicted to destructive fossil fuels. We’re focused on Congress as they debate our future in health care, clean energy and green jobs. But so far, after seeing the weakened Waxman-Markey bill and the draft health care reform bill leaked from the Senate Finance Committee today, it seems that both attempts to address these serious crises – climate change, the need for green jobs, our broken health care system – are simply “better than nothing” proposals. As Igor Volsky and Ezra Klein pointed out in regards to the draft health care reform legislation:
I think Ezra Klein is right to argue that the leaked version of the Senate Finance Committee’s health reform legislation is somewhat of a nothing-burger. It’s not well done, it’s not rare, it’s just medium well.
Individuals and families up to 300% of Federal Poverty Level (FPL) would receive tax credits to cover the cost of coverage and small businesses would be eligible for a temporary small business tax credit. Again, the subsidies aren’t great, but they’re better than nothing.
That’s it?! Better than nothing?? Don’t we deserve better than that?
Nothing is what some of these proposals seem to offer. The most significant omission in the leaked health care reform legislation from the Senate Finance Committee is the absence of the public option. In its place is the co-op proposal, introduced by Senator Conrad (D- N.Dakota). Mother Jones does a good job of summing up the ugly compromise:
What is in the Finance Committee’s draft, and slated for further discussion, is a scheme for health care “co-ops” that would pool individuals and businesses together into consumer co-operatives to purchase health insurance and services. (Kaiser Health News has profiled one existing co-op in Seattle.) Baucus [Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee] has been talking out of both sides of his mouth on the public plan for some time, and seemed to quickly latch onto the co-op idea as means to having it both ways.
Co-ops are a weak alternative to the public plan and have been tried before, after the Great Depression, and failed.
We can’t afford weak alternatives. Congress should be writing the strongest proposals possible, but are instead releasing watered-down bills, drenched in industry money and influence, and all we can say is “well it’s better than nothing.” This is unacceptable. Our futures deserve better. For example, why not single-payer health care? Yes, Campus Progress, along with many other health care reform supporters, has been advocating for the public health insurance option that will provide quality, affordable health care for all. However, if single-payer health care were on the table it would be the more progressive plan to fight for.
So why isn’t single-payer health care on the table? Well to start, Conservatives are painting this option as “socialized medicine” or “government take-over”. And the insurance industry strongly opposes the plan because it would mean the end of their glory days. But let’s get one thing straight, single-payer health care is NOT socialized medicine. I liked the Daily Kos explanation of the major differences between the two terms that are getting, conveniently for those opposing it, tossed into the same boat too frequently:
Socialized medicine is a system in which the government owns the means of providing medicine. Single-payer health care is not socialized medicine. It’s a system in which one institution purchases all, or in reality, most, of the care. But the payer does not own the doctors or the hospitals or the nurses or the MRI scanners. Medicare is an example of a mostly single-payer system, as is France.
So if we just understood the difference between the two and made sure Congress knew that we demanded single-payer health care, could it be an option? Would it actually get passed? The answer, unfortunately, is not likely. Even Obama rejects the idea, but for less selfish reasons than the industry:
“If I were starting a system from scratch, then I think that the idea of moving towards a single-payer system could very well make sense,” Obama said in response to the questioner in New Mexico, echoing comments he made during his presidential campaign. “The only problem is that we’re not starting from scratch. . . . We don’t want a huge disruption as we go into health-care reform where suddenly we’re trying to completely reinvent one-sixth of the economy.”
It just seems that there is no chance for single-payer health care to pass through Congress because it is too radical of a change. So, if we have to take incremental steps to get there, so be it. But we will not settle for “better than nothing” alternatives.
Call your Senators today and demand a stronger health care bill, with NO Co-ops, NO Triggers, and NO “better than nothing” compromises!
Tags: co-op proposal, health care reform, single-payer health care
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Thursday, June 18th, 2009
 Confused about all this health care talk, especially the rhetoric being spread by those opposing real reform? Check out this helpful guide to deciphering Eleven Health Care Reform Myths by The Wonk Room and CAPAF:
MYTH: Being uninsured is not a problem; it’s people’s own fault. During an interview with the independent student newspaper of Tufts University, former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS) downplayed the number of Americans without health insurance. “However, 11 million of that total are illegal immigrants. Ten million more are people who can buy their own insurance. Finally, another 10 million are people your own age who think they are never going to get sick or hurt and are not vulnerable,” Dole argued. [Tufts Daily,12/04/2008]
REALITY: Americans are uninsured because they can’t afford the high costs of insurance. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), most Americans who lack health insurance “come from working families and have low incomes.” About two-thirds of the uninsured “are poor or near poor” and are “less likely to be offered employer-sponsored coverage or to be able to afford to purchase their own coverage.” [Kaiser Family Foundation, 10/15/2008]
Read More >>>
Tags: health care reform
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Monday, June 8th, 2009
 I have an idea: When we realize we have a debilitating problem with our health care system and our medical bills are causing families to go bankrupt, why don’t we draft a reform proposal that actually does nothing to reform the system, but includes a procrastination clause that states that maybe later when the insurance industry is not sticking to their promises and millions of Americans are still uninsured and bankrupt- we might then decide to provide a solution. That way we can call it reform but really it’s just delay and avoidance. Sounds good right?
Well I can’t take credit because I didn’t come up with the idea – the conservatives and health insurance executives concocted that brilliant proposal. Yes, this ridiculous scheme – a fall back option for the public health insurance plan – actually does exist. It’s called the “trigger” and it is quickly spreading through Congress.
A public health insurance plan, either in the form of Medicare or an insurance pool that provides a choice of coverage for all Americans, has been the main topic of discussion in the health care reform debate thus far (unfortunately more progressive options such as single-payer health care are just getting laughed off of the stage by industry and conservatives – but hey, maybe one day we will get there.) The “trigger” is basically a way to kill the public health insurance option before it even gets out of the gate. The proposal calls for a public option to kick in a few years down the road, only if “triggered” – in others words, when private insurance companies fail to bring down health care costs and expand coverage. Well, we all know that in legislative terms “a few years” means never and that the private industry has already failed at cutting costs and expanding coverage. So why delay the inevitable need for a real solution?
But there is hope for health care reform, in fact, President Obama is not backing off of his stance for a public health insurance option. The President met with a group of senators last Tuesday and wrote a letter to Senators Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Baucus (D-Mont.), both chairmen on the leading health reform committees, that was wrought with a sense of urgency and insistence on a public choice for all Americans. See a clip from the letter below:
I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans. This will give them a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest.
(more…)
Tags: Baucus, CPR, Grassley, HCAN, Health Care Kick-Off, health care reform, Kennedy, medical bills bankruptcy, medicare, obama, public health insurance, rick scott, single-payer health care, trigger
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Wednesday, May 20th, 2009
You know you’re getting into the thick of a debate when the gloves come off, the lying begins, and promises are broken just as soon as they’re made. Well, roll up your sleeves, because we’re wading into the thick of the health care reform debate and its about to get ugly.
Former health insurance executive Rick Scott, recently released ads with the aim of spreading fear, warning that if Obama’s health care reform passes, Americans will “lose control of their medical system”. These ads were released through Scott’s group, Conservatives for Patients Rights (CPR), who have loudly voiced their opposition to the progressive health care reform advocated by Health Care for America NOW(HCAN). In turn, HCAN released their own ads exposing Rick Scott for his health insurance fraud and rhetoric. Not to be outdone and in a desperate attempt to raise funds, CPR quickly sent a boastful letter to their supporters, proclaiming that Comcast pulled HCAN’s ads from the air due to misleading content.
That claim was a blatant lie. Comcast confirmed to HCAN that the ads had simply expired from their original media buy and will return to the airwaves soon.
In further heated news, health insurance executives have already backed out of their commitment to President Obama to cut costs in national health care spending. Executives are claiming that the whole discussion was misunderstood and overstated. Instead of the firm commitment to trim $2 trillion from health care spending, the industry is now using terms such as “eventually”, “gradually”, and “not specific” on when the spending “target” would be achieved. Breaking that commitment didn’t take long and just proves that we can’t leave it up to the insurance industry for real reform.
Tags: health care reform, insurance industry, rick scott
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Wednesday, May 13th, 2009
Public (Option) Enemy #1, by Campus Progress writer, Dylan Matthews, explores the option of a public health insurance plan amidst the current debate for health care reform and its benefits for young people, as well as its opposition from legislators like McConnell (R-KY) and the private insurance big wigs.
The public plan, both alone and as part of a broader health care package, would provide substantial benefits for young workers between 20 and 30. “Right now the insurance market is very, very difficult to navigate for a young freelancer trying to navigate the rest of their job details,” explains Matt Singer, CEO of the progressive activist organization Forward Montana. “The health insurance exchange/connecter outlined in both the Baucus and the Obama plans, plus the public health insurance option, will make the whole system more navigable for people overwhelmed with a lot of other pieces in the reform.”
Singer added that the cost savings of the plan would be particularly attractive to young workers’ employers. Based on his own experience running the health insurance plan for Forward Montana’s employees, an exchange including a public option would be helpful for those administrators determining health coverage for their young employees. “First, we’d end up in a bigger pool, which would bring our rates down,” he explains. In other words, the public option would have a larger group of people purchasing insurance than in pools of employer insurance plans, meaning that risk can be shared more widely, ultimately bringing costs down.
Read more here
Tags: health care reform, public health insurance, public plan, young people
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Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
 Health Care reform legislation is in the works and is expected to hit the Senate floor in July. Thanks to reconciliation requirements, a reform bill must be voted on by October 15, so Congress is buzzing to life around the health care debate this week.
The Senate Finance Committee outlined yesterday three options for what reform could look like. The committee’s overall statement proposed that the government should provide a new health insurance exchange, but did not clarify whether it would include a publicly run option or not. (This will be the topic of hot debate in these weeks to come.) If a public plan were to be included, however, the three scenarios the committee laid out were:
- A Medicare-Like plan: government administered
- A Third Party plan: administered by a third party
- A State plan: administered by states
If a public plan were not included in the new health insurance exchange, the committee suggested the regulation of the insurance market to make coverage more accessible.
The insurance industry has jumped on board with this fourth option in hopes to avoid a public plan that they fear would drive them out of market. They sent a letter to Obama on Monday presenting a plan to contain costs and end underwriting practices, such as denying coverage to patients with pre-exisiting conditions or charging more for women versus men.
While the industry’s efforts at joining the table around the health care discussion is understandable and lauded by some, I will quote Senator Schumer (D-NY) here and say the industry is presenting a “good faith effort” but “It does not mitigate the need for a public plan option in our health care reform bill”.
We need a public plan option to ensure health care coverage for all, it’s time to put people before profits. Write your local paper to show Congress and the administration that you demand a public option.
Tags: health care reform, public plan
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Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
 On top of losing jobs, losing homes, and struggling to make ends meet in this economy – that our dear administration of the last eight years left us with – Americans are losing health care coverage at an unprecedented rate, whether employed or not.
The Center for American Progress released two reports with interactive maps that show the loss of health insurance per state that is occurring every day and the increase of uninsured Americans that has risen dramatically over the last two years:
Health Care in Crisis
Dramatic Increase in the Uninsured in Every State
It is astonishing and frustrating all at once to know that so many Americans are lacking health coverage, when the duty of the government is to ensure that all citizens are cared for -
“recent polls show six in 10 think the government should provide health insurance or take responsibility for providing health care to all Americans.” [CNN 3/5/09]
- especially when there are solutions out there to provide all Americans with quality, affordable health care.
The bickering over what and how big the role of government should be in the new health care system has got to end. Especially the debate over whether to include a public health insurance option. A public insurance pool is vital to ensuring coverage for all and would still leave Americans with the choice of keeping their private plans if they are happy with them.
The rhetoric and fear over big government will only stall progress on fixing our severely broken health care system. The failure of our current system is getting out of control- it’s time for health care for all NOW.
Tags: health care, health care reform, health insurance, uninsured
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Friday, April 24th, 2009
The House and Senate voted this week to go to conference on the budget and has already struck a tentative deal on major elements of the budget resolution to include the fast-track procedure of reconciliation for health care reform and student loan initiatives, specifically, eliminating wasteful subsidies to private lenders and using that money for need-based grants. The reconciliation procedure would make these initiatives immune to filibuster, or obstruction, in the Senate, and is especially key to pass programs like health care reform. Unfortunately, the Senate voted Thursday to prohibit use of reconciliation to pass a cap and trade program that will combat global warming. The Senate has been against reconciliation for the budget thus far – especially over cap and trade – but the possibility of its use for health care and education is great news!
Both chambers of Congress plan to hold a formal conference committee meeting on April 27 and Democrats hope to have a final budget resolution by the time Obama has marked his 100 days in office next week.
The House and Senate have appointed their conferees – those that will represent each chamber of Congress in the debate over the final budget outcome – and the conferees are……(drum roll)
 Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). Rep. Ryan is a ranking member of the House Budget Committee and has been very vocal over the spending in the budget. One of his main messages is “Cut Spending” and he supported the Republican Budget Alternative, which favored spending on national defense and veteran’s health care, as well as permanently extending the 2001/2003 tax relief provisions – which gives huge tax breaks to the top income bracket. (This alternative budget was defeated).
 Rep. Allen Boyd (D-FL) Rep. Boyd is a Blue Dog Democrat, which is a coalition of fiscally moderate and conservative Democrats in the House. Boyd supports an honest, responsible budget.
 Rep. John Spratt (D-SC) Rep. Spratt is Chairman of the House Budget Committee and he helped urge Gov. Sanford of South Carolina, who has been known for his anti-stimulus position, to accept the stimulus money for the state. Spratt also supports college affordability and health care for children.
 Rep. Rosa Delauro (D-CT) Rep. DeLauro voted to pass the House Budget Resolution and supports energy reform and affordable higher education. She has spoken out against the defeated Republican Budget Alternative and is against budget cuts that will harm vital programs like health care and nutrition programs.
(more…)
Tags: budget, conference, conference committee, health care reform, reconciliation, student loans
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