Subscribe to Dollars & Sense magazine. Recent articles related to the financial crisis. Baucus's Public OptionYes, here it is (thanks to Emptywheel for bringing it to our attention):Health Insurance Exchange. The Baucus plan would establish the Health Insurance Exchange through which individuals and small businesses in the market for insurance could obtain affordable health care coverage. ... This is from “Call to Action: Health Reform 2009,” put out by Sen. Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus. The title may have you confused for a few minutes; why is everyone saying the Baucus plan has no public option? But then you notice the date on the document: November 12, 2008. A few interesting numbers from the current Baucus plan: The plan puts limits on insurance company “rating”—i.e., charging higher or lower premiums based on characteristics of the insured such as age. (The plan allows rating based on age, tobacco use, and family composition.) With the limits, premiums for the same-size family could vary by 7.5 to 1. That sounds pretty unaffordable for the late-middle-aged smoker. The plan defines affordability: as long as the lowest-cost plan available has annual premiums equal to 10% of household income or less, then “affordable” coverage is deemed available and the mandate to have insurance will apply—enforced by fines of up to $950/year for an individual and $3,800/year for a family. Labels: health care reform, health insurance, Max Baucus, public option Please consider donating to Dollars & Sense and/or subscribing to the magazine (both print and e-subscriptions now available!). All-Out Effort to Put Single-Payer 'On the Table'From AfterDowningStreet and elswehere. They also had a great letter from Dr. Margaret Flowers of Physicians for a National Health Plan (reposted at Consortium News); Flowers was one of the activists who disrupted Sen. Baucus' roundtable on May 5th to ask why single-payer proponents weren't part of the discussion. The activists were hauled away by the Capital cops, while Baucus quipped about the need for more police. Hat-tip to LF.All Out Effort: Put Single-payer Healthcare "On the Table" Submitted by Chip on Mon, 2009-05-11 02:48. Activism Healthcare All Out Effort: Put Single-payer Healthcare "On the Table" It's National Nurses Week, and we're joining the California Nurses Association in Washington, D.C. to promote single-payer healthcare. We need your help! Please make 2 calls TODAY to get single-payer experts into the Senate Finance Committee Roundtable discussion! This Tuesday, May 12, the Senate Finance Subcommittee is holding its final roundtable on healthcare reform. The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee has issued a request to include Roseann Demoro, Executive Director of CNA/NNOC and longtime leader in the single-payer movement. PNHP has formally submitted the names of two outstanding physicians, Drs. Marcia Angell and Steffie Woolhandler, to testify as expert witnesses. Please call Sen. Baucus' office in Washington at 202-224-2651, or fax him at (202) 224-9412, and urge him to extend the invitations. Call your Senator, too! Members of Single-Payer New York met with Sen. Charles Schumer (NY), Senate Finance Committee member, on Friday evening. He agreed to ask Chairman Baucus to include a single-payer expert--if we can get another Senator on the committee to join him. Please call and ask your Senator to join Sen. Schumer in asking Chairman Baucus to include a single-payer expert in Tuesday's hearing.
At the last Senate Finance Committee hearing, physicians and single-payer advocates stood one-by-one to ask to for a seat at the table. The Senators laughed and had each one arrested. Watch the video here or at: Health Care Now. We need to end the exclusion of the only plan that will be truly universal and contain costs. Our health depends on it. Your action today is critical to the health of this nation. Labels: health care, Max Baucus, Physicians for a National Health Program, single-payer Please consider donating to Dollars & Sense and/or subscribing to the magazine (both print and e-subscriptions now available!). The Battle for Health Care BeginsFrom Katrina vanden Heuvel at the Nation:"If there is no public insurance option…then this is not reform at all." That's what Governor Howard Dean said last night in a conference call with thousands of activists—and he's absolutely right. As Dr. Dean noted, the battle for real reform begins Tuesday morning, when Senator Max Baucus chairs a Senate Finance Committee hearing that will look into the public plan option.Activists are writing messages on why such a plan is critical and Senator John Kerry will read some of them into the record at the hearing. The conference call—organized by MoveOn and Democracy For America—began with a story similar to that of too many citizens across the nation.MoveOn member Lisa Hall said she was in a car accident—hit by a drunk driver—and was laid off in the aftermath when she couldn't work.She lost her insurance, COBRA ran out, and the bills mounted as no insurance company would cover her due to pre-existing conditions. "Ultimately," Small said, "[I went into] bankruptcy, like so many others…. The healthcare in this country has to be accessible to everyone.Not just the healthy people or the rich.We're just working folks, trying to keep our jobs and what we've earned." Dean said the outcome of this fight will be determined by activists.We know what's coming—charges of "socialized medicine", "you won't be able to choose your doctor", "a bureaucrat in Washington will make your healthcare decisions," etc.It will be up to the people to write letters to the editor, call your congressman, talk to neighbors.Myths will need to be debunked, front groups exposed, and money trails followed.Already, special interest groups are making robocalls and devoting millions of dollars to an anti-choice campaign. "What we want to do is give people a choice," Dean said."And stop saying you've got to be in the private insurance market or have no insurance whatsoever if you're under 65."(People over 65 are already in a single-payer system—Medicare.) As Dean pointed out, the facts are on our side in this battle.For starters, the proposal of a public plan option allows people to keep their private insurance if they want to and even subsidizes it.It's also cheaper than private insurance since a greater percentage of premiums goes towards healthcare instead of CEO salaries, shareholder dividends, swank offices, etc.(In Vermont, Governor Dean was able to cut administrative costs by 1/3 when the state ran Medicaid instead of a private company.) But in Washington—facts be damned—real reform that benefits ordinary citizens doesn't come without a tough fight."We're going to have an all out fight about this… and we're not going to go down again," Dean said."If members of Congress know how strongly people feel about this they're going to think twice about voting against it." Dean said that Senator Baucus is the legislator who most needs convincing since his committee is one of the two in the Senate that will deal with the bill—and he especially needs to hear from people from his home state. "He is nominally in favor of [the public option] but has also said that he might trade it away," Dean said."I don't think it's necessary to trade it away—we have a Democratic President, a Democratic Senate, and a Democratic House, there's no reason to trade it away…. I think we're going to get a good bill out of the House, the problem is in the Senate." Indeed, the Senate is a place that resists change and all too often kills needed reform.This time around, we can't let that happen.Tell your representatives now that it's time to give people the option of a public plan. Labels: health care, Howard Dean, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Max Baucus, single-payer Please consider donating to Dollars & Sense and/or subscribing to the magazine (both print and e-subscriptions now available!). |
