Health Care -- Sorting Myth From Reality

July 29, 2009

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, and Nate Carlile

HEALTH CARE

Sorting Myth From Reality

Congress may be moving one step closer to reforming health care, as the Senate Finance Committee nears agreement on a bipartisan compromise. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) vowed that the committee would wrap up its work by the end of next week. This deal, however, will most likely not contain a public option or a mandate for employers to provide employees with health insurance. While many progressives are upset with this outcome, it's important to remember that this is not the final legislation: After the bill passes the Senate Finance Committee, it will still need to be reconciled with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and House bills, both of which include a public option. While these lawmakers continue to hammer out the details, many Republicans, conservative activists, and industry lobbyists continue to spread misinformation and push for indefinite delays in the hope of killing any chance at change. Yesterday in a "tele-town hall" sponsored by AARP, President Obama addressed this obstruction, underscoring that no one is talking about "socialized medicine," despite what conservatives are charging. "I think that we've been so accustomed to hearing those phrases that sometimes we can't sort out the myth from the reality," Obama said.

NOT GOING FAR ENOUGH: Instead of a public option, the Senate Finance Committee plan will likely include regional, non-profit cooperatives, which have been pushed by Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND). Though Conrad asserts that his co-ops will accomplish "much of what those who want a public option are calling for," co-ops have historically had trouble fulfilling their goal of offering small employers and individuals a choice in health plans and reducing costs. The inclusion of a so-called "free rider" penalty instead of an employer mandate comes from the misguided belief that a mandate would lead employers to stop offering insurance. The free rider provision would require employers not offering coverage to pay a penalty "based on how much the government ends up paying for workers' coverage." The problem with this plan, notes the Wonk Room's Igor Volsky, is that "employers in low cost areas would be subsidizing workers in high cost areas, and vice versa." Additionally, this free rider provision would make it "considerably more expensive for employers who do not offer health insurance to hire workers from lower-income families," so employers would "have strong incentives to tilt hiring toward people who have a spouse/parent with a good income." Fivethirtyeight.com's Nate Silver observes that the Senate Finance proposal "looks an awful lot like the incomplete draft of the HELP Committee's bill that the CBO scored last month," which was widely criticized for costing $1 trillion over the next 10 years but only reducing the number of uninsured by 16 million. It was only when the final HELP bill came out -- which included both a public option and an employer mandate -- that the CBO estimated that it would reduce the uninsured ranks by 37 million for the same cost.

PROUD OBSTRUCTIONISTS: Conservatives have been trying to claim that they are in favor of reform and that it's the Democrats' fault that the process is being slowed down. "That they have had to slow down is because so many Democrats, including so many Democrat governors, know this is something that can't be rushed, because it's very dangerous in some of the forms it could be," said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) this week. On Fox News yesterday, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) claimed, "This isn't being held up by Republicans." Unfortunately, a delay and kill strategy is exactly what conservatives are doing. Earlier this month, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) declared, "I take pride with being an obstructionist." Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) has similarly said, "Maybe we could put something underneath that and say: 'Slow Down' or maybe in the language of my State 'Whoa.'" These talking points mirror a political memo written by conservative strategist Alex Castellanos, which advised, "If we slow this sausage-making process down, we can defeat it, and advance real reform that will actually help." Industry interests have been teaming up with conservatives on this strategy, with one lobbyist admitting that they are purposely "creating delays" in order to better seize any "opportunity to outright kill a proposal."

SPREADING LIES, INFLAMING FEARS: Conservatives are attempting to create these delays through misinformation and outright intimidation. A group called "Patients First," a project of the lobbyist-funded Americans for Prosperity, has been going around the country hosting tea parties in opposition to "government-run health care." Republicans are now attacking a small provision in the House bill that would allow Medicare to cover advanced care consulting. The Republican National Committee sent out a research document yesterday claiming the House legislation is encouraging euthanasia. Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) went on the House floor and said it was placing "seniors in a position of being put to death by their government." Of course, these claims are baseless fear-mongering. The House bill would simply give seniors the option of speaking with an expert about advanced care issues, such as living wills. "This measure would not only help people make the best decisions for themselves but also better ensure that their wishes are followed," responded AARP Executive Vice President John Rother. "To suggest otherwise is a gross, and even cruel, distortion."

HEALTH CARE -- ELIZABETH EDWARDS TESTIFIES ON THE TIE BETWEEN MEDICAL DEBT AND BANKRUPTCIES: Yesterday, Elizabeth Edwards, a former bankruptcy attorney and now Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, testified before the House Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law on the rise in bankruptcies in America and its relation to increasing health care costs. "Successful health reform must not just make health insurance affordable, affordable health insurance has to make health care affordable," said Edwards. Calling for affordable health care, Edwards referenced a recent Harvard study finding that "at least 62 percent of bankruptcy debtors can trace at least part of their financial hardship to medical debt." Steffie Woolhandler, co-author of the Harvard study, testified with Edwards and said "private insurance is a defective product that leaves millions of middle-class families vulnerable to financial ruin." In response to these failures, President Obama has argued for a public option as an important part of providing affordable health care to every American. But some Democrats in both the House and Senate are advocating dropping the public option from their respective health reform bills. Edwards' testimony, though, highlights the need to get health reform right. "To ignore the fact that medical costs are an underlying problem of the economic meltdown we've experienced would be to turn a blind eye to a significant problem that we can solve," Edwards told the committee.

The government-run insurance option that is meant to compete with private insurers "is losing important political momentum" as Congress debates health care reform. Senate and House Democratic leaders yesterday "wouldn't guarantee...that the 'public option' would be in the final version of the legislation." Democrats are not ruling out the alternative, co-ops, or "member-run health care consortiums comparable to credit unions."

According to a Gallup Poll, Americans are wary about the impact of health care reform. Forty-four percent say "a new healthcare reform law would improve medical care in the U.S.," and 47 percent "believe reform will expand access to healthcare in the U.S."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he sees "some chance of a modest acceleration" in the pace of U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq. Gen. Ray Odierno told Gates that the security situation is "better than expected" since the U.S. formally handed over control of Iraqi cities last month.

The House Financial Services Committee approved legislation to impose new rules on executive compensation. The bill would "allow federal regulators to put limits on compensation packages at financial firms deemed to have taken inappropriate risks." The measure drew an immediate rebuke from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which said the measure would "restrict economic growth and job creation."

The Obama administration said yesterday that "it would take new steps to ease American sanctions against Syria on a case-by-case basis, the latest sign of a diplomatic thaw." White House officials said Middle East special envoy George Mitchell conveyed the message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and said the U.S. government "would try to expedite the process for obtaining individual exemptions to the sanctions."

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) is upset that "Blue Dog" Democrats are dominating health care negotiations, and she's blaming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. "When he was in Congress, in the leadership, Rahm Emanuel recruited more conservative members, and, based on some of the information...they told him they could vote the way they wanted to -- the chickens are coming home to roost," said Waters.

The Irish government has said it will accept two detainees from the U.S. detention camp at Guantanamo Bay. The men are reported to be Uzbeks. "I am conscious of the intention of the United States to close the center at Guantanamo Bay, in part by transferring detainees, no longer regarded as posing a threat to security but who cannot return to their own countries," said Ireland's Justice Minister Dermot Ahern.

And finally: Happy hour at the White House. The much-awaited and much-discussed diplomatic gathering of President Obama, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, and Cambridge police officer James Crowley will take place tomorrow. The three men will raise their glasses of beer at the picnic table outside the Oval Office at 6 p.m., weather permitting. According to the White House, Crowley asked for Blue Moon beer, while Obama will be drinking Budweiser. "No details have been given about Mr Gates' beer of choice but, fortunately for the colour theme, he is reported to like Red Stripe, a Jamaican lager."

At an anti-health care reform rally, protesters hang a freshman Democrat in effigy.

Why have housing prices stopped falling?

The Chamber of Commerce throws a fit over Obama's nominee to the National Labor Relations Board.

Sarah Palin wants a radio show?

Howard Dean calls the Blue Dogs out for watering down health care reform.

Will William Shatner get to do a dramatic reading of the lost Nixon tapes?

Africa is the tobacco companies' "next great unsold frontier."

Stephen Colbert says birthers are "made up of decent, old fashioned Americans who just want to overturn a democratic election."

"[Obama] has exposed himself, I think, as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people, or white culture."
-- Fox News' Glenn Beck, 7/28/09

VERSUS

"I'm not saying that [Obama] doesn't like white people. I'm saying he has a problem. He has a, this guy is, I believe, a racist."
-- Beck, 7/28/09

Think Progress

Sorting Myth From Reality

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