Subscribe to Dollars & Sense magazine. Recent articles related to the financial crisis. Good Piece on Deficiencies of Public OptionFrom MRZine, by Andy Coates. Mentions precedents in Maine and Massachusetts, and what's wrong with them, besides reminding us of other deficiencies of Obama-style healthcare reform with or without public option, like the ever-increasing healthcare bankruptcy problem.Notes on the Status of Health Reform by Andy Coates MRZine 5.9.09 The election of Obama raised expectations for sweeping health reform sky high. But in spite of several self-imposed deadlines, Senate and House health reform bills were not ready by the time of the August Congressional recess, when passionate local debate erupted at Congressional home district town hall meetings. The Onion pierced the din with truth: "After months of committee meetings and hundreds of hours of heated debate, the United States Congress remained deadlocked this week over the best possible way to deny Americans health care." If the goals are health care for all and reduced costs of care, the measures being prepared in Congress will not reform the health system. Instead they amount to a massive taxpayer subsidy for the private health insurance industry. In 2007, more than one of five working-age people were uninsured for a year or longer. One of six working people had health insurance insufficient to meet the expenses of a serious illness. And there were 8 million uninsured children in the United States. At least 5 million more people lost their health insurance in 2008 and 2009 thanks to galloping unemployment--on top of years of progressively unaffordable health insurance, inadequate coverage, and steep out-of-pocket costs. The failing economy further accelerated the crisis in health care through devastating state and local cutbacks in safety net care. Yet the Congressional bills that have come through committees, whose key provisions would not start until 2013, offer precious little relief for these ills. Against this background, a nascent mass movement for single-payer national health insurance, plugging away for decades, steadily accumulates new force. Single payer would deliver all necessary care for all individuals, lifelong, with no co-pays and no deductibles, through a system in which health care would be publicly financed but privately delivered. By eliminating private insurance, single payer would save an estimated $400 billion annually in health spending. The single-payer bills in Congress are HR 676 and S 703. HR 676 has 86 co-sponsors and has been endorsed by over 500 labor bodies, including 39 state AFL-CIO federations. Whether a bill passes or flounders this fall, the details in the proposals that have come through Congressional committees have little connection with the popular expectations and grassroots clamor this summer. If Congress enacts reform, in 2013, individuals will be required to purchase health insurance. This is the centerpiece of the "reform." The proposal has come straight from the insurance industry: criminalize the uninsured and subsidize unaffordable private insurance premiums with public funds. Read the rest of the post Labels: Andy Coates, Barack Obama, health care reform, MRZine, public option, single-payer Please consider donating to Dollars & Sense and/or subscribing to the magazine (both print and e-subscriptions now available!). |
