Health Care -- 'This Time, We Will Not Fail'

March 6, 2009

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, and Ryan Powers

HEALTH CARE

'This Time, We Will Not Fail'

President Obama yesterday kicked off his ambitious goal of reforming health care and providing insurance to all Americans, the first major government effort at reform in 15 years. At the White House's health summit, Obama pledged to pass comprehensive legislation this year, despite economic crises and U.S. engagement in two overseas wars. "When times were good, we didn't get it done. When we had mild recessions, we didn't get it done," Obama said. "There's always a reason not to do it. Now is exactly the time for us to deal with this problem." Indeed, with increasing job losses, approximately 14,000 Americans are losing their health coverage every day. Forty-six million Americans are without health insurance (86.7 million over the last two years), while others are paying more than they can afford. The health care cost share of GDP "is anticipated to rise rapidly from 16.2 percent in 2007 to 17.6 percent in 2009, largely as a result of the recession, and then climb to 20.3 percent by 2018." Referring to a statement made by Health Care for America Now's Richard Kirsch, Obama addressed the cost issue, arguing that "by covering more people, we can also lower costs at the same time, presumably because those who are not insured at the moment are ending up using extraordinarily expensive emergency room care." In his new budget, Obama plans to set aside $634 billion over 10 years as a down payment to reform the health system. While the fund represents a strong start toward reform, it will not be enough to provide affordable coverage for all and a stronger commitment will need to be made. But Obama also "indicated for the first time that he was open to compromise on details of the proposal he put forth in the 2008 campaign." Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) -- who has spent decades as a champion of expanding access to quality health care -- said at yesterday's summit that previous efforts to reform health care "haven't been the kind of serious effort that I think we're seeing right now." "This time, we will not fail," he urged.

THIS IS NOT THE 1990s: A number of interests groups, led by the health insurance lobby, effectively killed major reform when President Clinton led the last effort to seriously overhaul the nation's health care system in the early 1990s. Today, however, "insurers, drugmakers, doctors, hospitals and employers, as well as consumers, are more optimistic that a prescription can be found," and have joined the vast effort, mainly with the common interest of driving down costs. "The stakeholder community is no longer organizing to say 'no,'" said Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). Indeed, Obama was surrounded at yesterday's summit "by men and women who made their careers killing health-care reform." Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), who "proudly reminded" attendees that he was instrumental in killing Clinton's reform plan in the 1990s, "announced that he supported the principles that have been outlined by Obama." Insurance lobbyist Chip Kahn, who also helped kill Clinton's plan with his infamous "Harry and Louise" TV ads, praised Obama for arranging the bipartisan summit, adding that Obama "successfully launched the process we need to achieve health reform, which we all want." AHIP also strongly opposed Clinton's efforts, but yesterday, Ignagni told Obama, "You have our commitment to play, to contribute and to help pass health-care reform this year."

STILL OPPOSITION TO REFORM: Despite Ignagni's pledge, Time Magazine's Karen Tumulty said that in a "break-out session" yesterday at the summit, the AHIP president made "one of the more radical" proposals for getting reform enacted, "which is to take most of this out of the hands of Congress, set up a commission...to come up with a plan and present it to Congress on a sort-of take it or leave it basis." The Wonk Room's Igor Volsky, was who also at the summit, noted that the insurance industry may believe "that it can get a better deal out of (and have more influence over) some kind of commission." One group is already rallying opposition to Obama's agenda: the Conservatives for Patients' Rights (CPR) and its leader Rick Scott, a health care entrepreneur who once pledged to run hospitals more like McDonald's. CPR's obstruction started yesterday when the group took out a full-page ad in the Washington Post, recycling the right's talking points and accusing Obama of providing "virtually no details" of his health plan. The ad asked the president to share the details of his plan to "allay our fears and end the speculation." Obama's and Sen. Max Baucus's (D-MT) health plans are available for download on CPR's own website. Moreover, obstructionists in the media are starting to rev their engines as well, with many right-wingers, like de-facto GOP leader Rush Limbaugh, charging that Obama is on a "relentless drive toward socialized medicine." As Media Matters noted, such statements are "neither accurate nor original." In fact, "socialized medicine in its purest form is difficult to come by in the real world," observed the Center for American Progress. The Urban Institute wrote in an April 2008 analysis, "socialized medicine involves government financing and direct provision of health care services," and therefore, progressive health-care reform proposals do not "fit this description."

DR. DEAN WEIGHS IN: In an interview with The Progress Report this week, former Vermont governor Howard Dean outlined the principles he believes should guide the health care reform debate. He argued against a single-payer system, against an individual mandate, and for extending free health care to all Americans under the age of 25. Dean also expressed support for building upon the existing employer-based health care system by giving Americans the choice of keeping their existing insurance plan or enrolling in a new public option. "People hate the health care system, but they love their own doctor and they pretty much like the care they get," he explained. "So what you cannot do is create some system that is going to scare people." Dean argued that free choice and competition should be the cornerstones of health reform. "The brilliance of Barack Obama's plan on the campaign trail was a) no one has to change if they like what they've got and b) if you want to, you could essentially buy into Medicare," Dean said. "I don't think we should impose a single payer on everybody, but I do think we should give Americans the choice of having one if they like it. If it works for them, that's what they’ll choose; if it doesn't work for them, they'll choose the private sector."

MEDIA -- FOX NEWS RUNS WITH RIGHT-WING TALKING POINT THAT WHITE HOUSE IS FOCUSING ON LIMBAUGH TO DISTRACT FROM THE ECONOMY: On Wednesday, Politico reported on an alleged "strategy" to paint hate radio talker Rush Limbaugh as the face of the GOP and claimed it was "being guided in part from inside the White House." From there, the Washington Post's Greg Sargent detected a "new media meme" that the White House was "entirely to blame for the Rush Limbaugh story getting so much media attention and turning into a media circus." Yesterday, Limbaugh charged that the White House was "playing manipulative games with washed up talking heads, targeting me on the taxpayer dime...and making enemy lists." Defending Limbaugh, House Republicans this week claimed that the White House's alleged strategy was an effort to distract the nation from more pressing issues. Fox News picked up the talking points. "Is the White House using Rush Limbaugh as a diversion?" asked Bret Baier. "They have succeeded in distracting the attention of the American people," thundered Sean Hannity. But as Sargent noted, "it's a grotesque exaggeration" to say that a coordinated campaign was hatched in the White House to focus on Limbaugh. The Politico piece "explicitly says that groups outside the White House...were the first to push the strategy." Additionally, this media "meme" ignores the more important point that Limbaugh himself started the "diversion" when he said he hopes Obama fails.

ECONOMY -- HOUSE VOTES TO ALLOW BANKRUPTCY JUDGES TO OFFER HOMEOWNERS RELIEF: Yesterday, the House voted 234-191 in favor of the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act. The bill includes what has become known as a "cram-down" measure to allow "bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of loans for families with existing mortgages, just as investors in vacation homes, real estate speculators, and corporations have been able to do for years." In particular, the measure "would let judges reduce the principal owed, cut the interest rate, or extend the length of the loan." Republicans in Congress, however, were "on the warpath" against cram-downs. They falsely claimed that the measure would let people "game the system" by "going straight to bankruptcy." In fact, cram-downs are aimed as a last resort for those "who can't find a way to make any other option work," an option that has been available to wealthier homeowners in recent years. Further, as the Wonk Room's Pat Garofalo explained, other provisions in the Helping Families Save Their Home Act provide "ample opportunity for refinancing," thus making bankruptcy "the least appealing option for everyone involved." Elizabeth Warren, head of the Congressional Oversight Panel created to monitor the Obama administration's use of TARP funds, explained one of the beneficial byproducts of the measure, saying that the prospect of a homeowner turning to the cram-down provision is sometimes the "only stick homeowners can use to get someone to answer the phone."

JUSTICE -- INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT'S CASE AGAINST BASHIR COULD PROVIDE LEGAL PRECEDENT FOR GOING AFTER BUSH: Earlier this week, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Based on the legal principles the ICC used to arrest al-Bashir, President Bush could be next on the list. According to the AP, David Crane, an international law professor at Syracuse University and former prosecutor of the Sierra Leone tribunal that indicted Liberian President Charles Taylor, said "the principle of law used to issue an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir could extend to former US President Bush over claims officials from his Administration may have engaged in torture by using coercive interrogation techniques on terror suspects." The report characterized the possibility of the court trying Bush as "extremely remote," given the U.S. government's current stance toward the ICC. Bush "unsigned" the Rome Statute -- the treaty signed by Bill Clinton that set up the court -- in 2002. However, a senior White House official has said that the Obama administration may reconsider joining the court.

The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 8.1 percent in February, which is the worst it has been since December 1983. The rate was only expected to reach 7.9 percent. Employers cut 651,000 jobs in February, which is also worse than expected.

President Obama will travel to Columbus, OH today "to speak at the graduation ceremony for 25 police recruits who owe their jobs to the economic recovery bill he signed into law less than three weeks ago." The recruits had been laid off in January due to city budget problems, but Mayor Michael Coleman announced last week that the city would get “$1.25 million in stimulus money to pay the officers' salaries."

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) has expressed concerns to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel about National Intelligence Council chairman appointee Chas Freeman's positions on Israel. Reps. Steve Israel (D-NY) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) are demanding that the DNI inspector general look at Freeman's work for a Chinese oil company.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced yesterday that Iran would be invited to a major conference on Afghanistan, setting up the prospect of the Obama administration’s first face-to-face meeting with representatives of the country. Clinton said she had proposed "a big-tent meeting, with all the parties who have a stake and an interest in Afghanistan." "It is expected that Iran would be invited," said Clinton.

According to a leading polar expert, the Arctic is warming up so quickly that the region's sea ice cover in summer could vanish as early as 2013.

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz reports that in the days since Limbaugh's declared hope that Obama "fails" became the subject of debate in the mainstream press, Limbaugh's ratings have "nearly doubled." While Limbaugh claimed this week that the White House was "'targeting him' in a manner reminiscent of Richard M. Nixon's "enemies list," it is important to remember that Limbaugh is the one who started this narrative.

Yesterday, the California Supreme Court "strongly indicated" that it would "rule that Proposition 8 validly abolished the right for gays to marry but would allow [the 18,000] same-sex couples who wed before the November election to remain legally married."

Senior members of the Republican Party of Virginia "are asking Chairman Jeff Frederick to resign or face ouster at the party's State Central Committee meeting next month." Under Frederick's leadership, "Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since 1964."

The House voted 234 to 191 yesterday to approve the Helping Families Save their Homes Act (HR 1106). This so-called "cram down" legislation "would allow troubled homeowners to ask bankruptcy judges for relief from mortgage debts." This new authority "could spur mortgage servicers to move aggressively to help borrowers, in order to avoid having modified loans forced on them by a judge."

"Two candidates for top jobs at the Treasury have withdrawn their names from consideration, complicating efforts by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to staff his department at a time of economic crisis."

"The reality is that when it comes to dealing with the banks, the Obama administration is dithering. Policy is stuck in a holding pattern," writes New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, saying administration officials have “convinced themselves that troubled assets...are really worth much more than anyone is actually willing to pay for them."

And finally: Capitol Hill went "gaga" over Brad Pitt yesterday. According to the Washington Post's Dana Milbank, "Camera shutters clicked. Hundreds of House pages and interns stalked Pitt in the Capitol corridors before and after his tête-à-tête with Pelosi. Young women squealed. 'I was 10 feet away from him! ... Oh my God! ... Did you see him?'" When Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) stumbled across the Pitt crowd, however, he simply “issued a giddy, 'Gosh!' and kept walking."

The Senate Intelligence Committee announced that it will "study" the CIA's rendition and detention practices under President Bush. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said there is "a strong bipartisan basis" for the year-long review.

THINK PROGRESS: Karl Rove hits the White House for thinking "everything through from a political perspective."

WONK ROOM: Report: "Yes we can" move away from coal in the southeast.

YGLESIAS: The "Afghanistan" problem is in Pakistan.

MEDIA MATTERS: Glenn Beck's show promo denounces calling Democrats communists, but he often does that on his show.

UTAH: "More than 70,000 Utah households are relying on food stamps to help feed their families, a new record."

OHIO: "'Joe the Plumber' sued three former state officials Thursday, accusing them of violating his privacy and free speech rights when they searched state computers for information about him."

NEW YORK: "At the urging of the energy industry," Gov. David Paterson (D) has agreed to reconsider a key rule on global warming.

"Listen, health care is a privilege."
-- Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN), 3/5/09

VERSUS

"[F]or some people it's a right."
-- Wamp, 3/5/09

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'This Time, We Will Not Fail'

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