Harry Potter & the Goblet of Health Care

From a quick review of tonight's press conference, the President is offering us healthcare reform that will

1) guarantee coverage for everyone;

2) will improve the quality of the healthcare we receive;

3) will reduce costs for individuals and families; and

4) will help rein in spiraling deficits.

So we are going to get a lot more of a lot better and it will cost us a lot less. Hurray!

But true to form, the President gave us no clues as to how all these circles will actually be squared. Promises and visions do not make up a plan. A plan requires concrete details and strategies and the President never seems to have any of those at hand. It seems clear that Congress is not producing legislation that will control the deficits; it is producing legislation that will add to the deficits in a big way.

This might be the time to step in and provide leadership. If the Congressional leadership won't act responsibly (and it won't) form a coalition with moderate Democrats and Republicans, daring the latter to join him in real healthcare reform. That's how Bill Clinton got NAFTA. But that would require Barack Obama to buck the party line. It would also require him to come up with his own solution to a big problem. There is no precedent in his biography for either thing.

Meanwhile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a slogan for all us!

America's Affordable Health Choices Act will mean a cap on your costs, but no cap on your benefits. A cap on your costs, no cap on your benefits.

Hip, hip, hurray! Unlimited health care benefits at a limited cost. Since she is speaking to all of us, including me, might I require how high that cap will be? Maybe this like the sorting hat at Hogwarts: put it on and it yells out which tax category you are in.

Let's get real for a moment, just to clean the pallet for the next dessert. We can't possibly control healthcare costs without putting some kind of cap on benefits, can we? A reasonable solution might be to guarantee a certain standard of care for all Americans and allow folks to purchase different plans from private insurance, with additional benefits if they choose. That, as I understand it, is how it's done in France. It would mean that the President can keep his promise, stated over and over (if occasionally taken back altogether) that Americans who wish can keep their current coverage.

But it is pretty clear that "affordable choices" doesn't mean that we get to choose. Investor's Business Daily has this bombshell:

When we received a copy of the House's 1,018-page health care reform legislation, it didn't take us long to find a passage that made us wince. On Page 16, the language indicated to us that once the bill became law, insurers would no longer be permitted to sell new private individual coverage. While we were expecting the worst out of this legislation, we really didn't anticipate anything quite so radical. Had we simply misread the bill?

Not fully trusting our own interpretation, we asked for confirmation from the House Ways and Means Committee. Sources there agreed: The bill would indeed shut down the individual private health care insurance market.

Our impression was further confirmed Monday when Rep. Dave Camp, the ranking member on Ways and Means, told us that "any existing plan will not be able to enroll members." There will be "a prohibition," the Michigan Republican said, "on enrolling individuals in private health plans" after the bill becomes law in 2013.

Apparently, the "public option" ain't gonna be optional. Capice? The President talks a lot about preserving competition, but either he's lying or he doesn't have a clue what's in the bill. Just right now, I can't tell which it is.

Comments

[jacksmith]

LEAD, FOLLOW, OR GET OUT OF THE WAY. (Thomas Paine)

We have the 37th worst quality of healthcare in the developed world.

I know that many of you are angry and frustrated that REPUBLICANS! In congress are dragging their feet and trying to block TRUE healthcare reform. What republicans want is just a taxpayer bailout of the DISGRACEFUL GREED DRIVEN PRIVATE FOR PROFIT health insurance industry, and the DISGRACEFUL GREED DRIVEN PRIVATE FOR PROFIT healthcare industry. An insurance bailout is all you really get without a robust government-run public option available on day one.

These industries have been slaughtering you and your loved ones like cattle for decades for profit. Including members of congress and their families. These REPUBLICANS are FOOLS!

Republicans and their traitorous allies have been trying to make it look like it's President Obama's fault for the delays, and foot dragging. But I think you all know better than that. President Obama inherited one of the worst government catastrophes in American history from these REPUBLICANS! And President Obama has done a brilliant job of turning things around, and working his heart out for all of us.

But Republicans think you are just a bunch of stupid, idiot, cash cows with short memories. Just like they did under the Bush administration when they helped Bush and Cheney rape America and the rest of the World.

But you don't have to put up with that. And this is what you can do. The Republicans below will be up for reelection on November 2, 2010. Just a little over 13 months from now. And many of you will be able to vote early. So pick some names and tell their voters that their representatives (by name) are obstructing TRUE healthcare reform. And are sellouts to the insurance and medical lobbyist.

Ask them to contact their representatives and tell them that they are going to work to throw them out of office on November 2, 2010, if not before by impeachment, or recall elections. Doing this will give you something more to do to make things better in America. And it will help you feel better too.

There are many resources on the internet that can help you find people to call and contact. For example, many social networking sites can be searched by state, city, or University. Be inventive and creative. I can think of many ways to do this. But be nice. These are your neighbors. And most will want to help.

I know there are a few democrats that have been trying to obstruct TRUE healthcare reform too. But the main problem is the Bush Republicans. Removing them is the best thing tactically to do. On the other hand. If you can easily replace a democrat obstructionist with a supportive democrat, DO IT!

You have been AMAZING!!! my people. Don't loose heart. You knew it wasn't going to be easy saving the World. :-)

God Bless You

jacksmith — Working Class

Republican Senators up for re-election in 2010.

* Richard Shelby of Alabama
* Lisa Murkowski of Alaska
* John McCain of Arizona
* Mel Martinez of Florida
* Johnny Isakson of Georgia
* Mike Crapo of Idaho
* Chuck Grassley of Iowa
* Sam Brownback of Kansas
* Jim Bunning of Kentucky
* David Vitter of Louisiana
* Kit Bond of Missouri
* Judd Gregg of New Hampshire
* Richard Burr of North Carolina
* George Voinovich of Ohio
* Tom Coburn of Oklahoma
* Jim DeMint of South Carolina
* John Thune of South Dakota
* Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas
* Bob Bennett of Utah

[KB]

jacksmith, (workingclass), seems as challenged by punctuation as he is by ideas.

[Reaganite Republican]

Barack Obama will never -I repeat NEVER- say to your face what he actually plans to do or achieve with these huge new government programs.... like bankrupt the private health insurance industry. Everything's rolled-out in a trojan horse, and you're not allowed to look inside or ask any questions. Suffice to say, good-faith disclosure is simply not how this crew operates.

Rather, you get some calculating and specious oratory with styrofoam props to wow the plebes, like the tacky Greek columns in Denver. To him, the revolutionary ends justify the Alinskyite means- so the Dear Leader just tells you whatever he needs to, he knows what’s best for you anyway.

And the truth is that Obama is out to nationalize health care.. they’ll be no private insurance industry left after five years of Obamacare… but of course he’s lying about it.

As for the American public, the reality that Obama is dishonest and out-of-control seems to finally be setting-in; the poll numbers are now headed steadily south- is he already facing his Waterloo on this legislation?

Looks like it from where I'm standing...

http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com

[A.I.]

I'll let the Washington Post via Ezra Klein offer a better rebuttal then I can muster:

Page 16 of the House Health-Care Bill Does Not Make Insurance Illegal

There's been a weird talking point bubbling up that the House health-care plan makes private insurance -- sigh -- illegal. Rep. Michelle Bachmann, who breathes out crazy like the rest of us exhale carbon dioxide, warns that "on the 16th page, it says whatever health care you have now, it’s going to be gone within five years." Investor's Business Daily says, "right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal."

Sigh. Not really. Shadowfax does the lord's work and explains what's actually going on here. The short version is that your insurance doesn't become illegal. It just has to offer itself through the Exchange and follow the new rules, like not jacking up your prices because you had strep throat last year. As for the 93 percent of us who don't purchase coverage on the non-group market? Our insurers are unchanged. Scary, huh?

By Ezra Klein | July 23, 2009; 9:03 AM ET

[A.I.]

As long as I'm in a fact-checking mode, you may want to edit your Republican Senators up for reelection in 2010 list jacksmith. George Voinovich, Christopher Bond, Mel Martinez, Sam Brownback, Judd Gregg and Kit Bond are retiring and Kay Bailey Hutchison is leaving the Senate to run for Texas Governor. Bunning is still in, but not because Republican Party leaders want him to be.

And Reaganite Republican, what is it you want disclosed? The bills going through congress regarding health care are no secret. Here's one that will keep you reading for awhile: http://waysandmeans.house.gov/media/pdf/111/hrdraft.pdf As for killing private insurance, the industry is doing that to itself. It can't continue to raise premiums at a rate three times that of wage increases forever and still have people buy its product, yet companies are doing just that.

KB, this isn't really a fact check, but I hardly think Clinton getting Republican support for NAFTA--which had been negotiated by his Republican predecessor and was favored by the party--is comparable to what Obama faces with health care. Yes, there are a some Republicans that would negotiate health issues in good faith, but the party line is "kill reform to hurt Obama politically". Not exactly statesmanship is it? As for Democrats in the days of NAFTA passage, they could hardly opt to kill the agreement to hurt the President for political gain as there was no gain to be had.

I do agree the public/private mix you cite as being the French system is a good idea. Too bad that isn't what's being considered--although a public option may evolve into such a system over time.