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Dear President Obama: A Modest Medicare Proposal
Dear President Obama,
I understand you're thinking of dumping your "public option" because of all the demagoguery by Sarah Palin and Dick Armey and Newt Gingrich and their crowd on right-wing radio and Fox. Fine. Good idea, in fact.
Instead, let's make it simple. Please let us buy into Medicare.
It would be so easy. You don't have to reinvent the wheel with this so-called "public option" that's a whole new program from the ground up. Medicare already exists. It works. Some people will like it, others won't - just like the Post Office versus FedEx analogy you're so comfortable with.
Just pass a simple bill - it could probably be just a few lines, like when Medicare was expanded to include disabled people - that says that any American citizen can buy into the program at a rate to be set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which reflects the actual cost for us to buy into it.
So it's revenue neutral!
To make it available to people of low income, raise the rates slightly for all currently non-eligible people (like me - under 65) to cover the cost of below-200%-of-poverty people. Revenue neutral again.
Most of us will do damn near anything to get out from under the thumbs of the multi-millionaire CEOs who are running our current insurance programs. Sign me up!
This lets you blow up all the rumors about death panels and grandma and everything else: everybody knows what Medicare is. Those who scorn it can go with Blue Cross. Those who like it can buy into it. Simplicity itself.
Of course, we'd like a few fixes, like letting Medicare negotiate drug prices and filling some of the holes Republicans and AARP and the big insurance lobbyists have drilled into Medicare so people have to buy "supplemental" insurance, but that can wait for the second round. Let's get this done first.
Simple stuff. Medicare for anybody who wants it. Private health insurance for those who don't. Easy message. Even Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley can understand it. Sarah Palin can buy into it, or ignore it. No death panels, no granny plugs, nothing. Just a few sentences.
Replace the "you must be disabled or 65" with "here's what it'll cost if you want to buy in, and here's the sliding scale of subsidies we'll give you if you're poor, paid for by everybody else who's buying in." (You could roll back the Reagan tax cuts and make it all free, but that's another rant.)
We elected you because we expected you to have the courage of your convictions. Here's how. Not the "single payer Medicare for all" that many of us would prefer, but a simple, "Medicare for anybody who wants to buy in."
Respectfully,
Thom Hartmann
- Posted in
154 Comments so far
Show AllThank You Thom. After all of the back pedaling by the Democrats in the last few days it seems like there are fewer and fewer options our elected representatives are willing to speak out for what the people really want. Accessible and affordable health care insurance. This idea has the benefits of being currently offered, easily understood and hard to rail against as a workable plan.
"This idea has the benefits of being currently offered, easily understood and hard to rail against as a workable plan."
Hard to rail against? It sounds as if you assume people (both politicians and their 'town hall' guests) debate on a basis of verifiable facts -- but I wouldn't count on it!
...The Dick Army marches to a different drummer.
I like it. It's simple.
Too bad it will probably never happen. This is the alter-verse, remember? Where barbie dolls and weight-lifters become politicians and the real people of intelligence either get bought up, sell out, or are scorned and made pariahs by an Orwellian media task-force. And where everyone having access to healthcare makes even less sense...
It's like living in a Philip K Dick novel.
- Insurgent
The best science fiction, whether Orwell or Dick, has this as its object. It warns us what we'll be living thru before we actually have to.
I'm still for Single Payer but could support this as a simple first step.
This is Single Payer. It's called Medicare for All. Same thing.
For more info:
http://www.pnhp.org/
http://www.singlepayeraction.org/
Or allow everybody to enroll in the federal group plan.
Hartmann, you're a genius. I've been calling for those of us who are sane to have the option of choosing a way out of the (sometimes literally) cutthroat privatized insurance atmosphere we are wedded to now. I thought we might somehow buy Canada's insurance, but this is so much better.
'Medicare for anybody who wants it'. Pure, and simple, genius. Thanks!!
(whoops. I just realized a potential pitfall: you need to make the buy in to Medicare a one-time offer only. Americans will be given a ONE-TIME option to buy into Medicare NOW. And future American's will be given a one-time option to buy into Medicare when they reach 25. And, once you buy into that system, you CAN't opt out of it. This lowers risk for all involved, even though it also lowers choice. Otherwise, people will of course opt into the Medicare system when they become ill, and thereby raise its costs to unsustainable levels. And Medicare could potential dump people who ARE ill, as private insurers do now. What distinguishes 'single payer' is the lack of choice for getting OUT of it, and the attendent lack of risk, which allows lower costs. Offer people a ONE-TIME-ONLY chance to buy into Medicare, after which they are there for life. The smart ones will choose wisely)
Nice letter.
Wonderful ideas, Thom!
If this keeps up I'll need to stop buying anything
just to pay for the false promises of the health insurance gangsters.
If legislative policy were only decided by rational, respectful debate, instead of by demagoguery paid for by billionaires, we would have had single payer long ago.
THEREFORE, in the interests of intelligent discussion, I humbly offer to any Congress people who may be reading this, a suggestion for your next town hall meeting.
To wit: nobody gets in the door unless they sign this simple "Pledge of Civility and Respect."
"At the present town hall meeting I promise to conduct myself with civility and respect. As long as the congress person calls on audience members impartially, alternating between those of different views, I promise to speak only when called upon, for no more than one minute. I recognize that if I attempt to shout others down, or prevent them from speaking, that I will and should be removed from the premises."
If our Democratic congress people have the courage to enforce civility in their meetings, the echo chamber media will have less material with which to scare our intrepid leaders of "change" away from a public option. And Thom Hartmann's simple and intelligent plan might actually have a chance.
Come on Democrats. If you can't control your own meetings you will lose every important issue, and you will deserve to lose. Stop wimping out.
That's so brilliant it just might work! Great job, Mr Hartmann!
KISS...keep it simple stupid! Offerring to buy into Medicare for anyone who wants it, is great? That is avoiding all the controversey drummed up by "asto-turf" fear mongers.
That's why i suggest a MASSIVE RALLY re SINGLE PAYER thru HANDS ACROSS AMERICA demonstration on august 23 at 2:OO(CST)
at your loca mainstreet.
Re-focus...healthcare, MEDICARE for all who want it is the issue. Keep it Simple! The answer is already there.
lorado , there you are. Did you get the facebook thing going? I looked for it when my son signed in but didn't see it, just medical students for healthcare for all, hands across america. My DS didn't want to help me set one up or my own account so I didn't get very far. Everyone I've spoken to about it here thinks it's a great quantifying opportunity. I wonder if Sunday is enough leadtime to spread the word? minnow
It's simple; therefore it will not happen. Simplicity is the antithesis of a corporatocracy. Simplicity does not make money ....usually.....Good luck, though.
I'm sure Obama logs onto Commondreams each morning to get the pulse of the progressive community.
Just kidding.
He's obviously more a Drudge kind of guy!
Mr. Hartmann writes: "We elected you because we expected you to have the courage of your convictions."
Could someone please enlighten me what "convictions" Hartmann is talking about?
Really, please do.
Hartmann must be referring to the convictions Obama pretended to have, during his campaign for the presidency.
His actual convictions include "free" markets, trickle-down economics, corporate socialism, U.S. military hegemony and perpetual war.
Holy crap, this makes sense. I mean I am all for unplugging granny and thats partly why I voted for Obama was so I could get my inheritance early, but this would actually shut up Sarah Palin... Oh wait, no it wouldn't, she would scream that Obama was trying to pass legislation legalizing eating babies under 8 lbs., especially those with Down Syndrome. Some people aren't deterred by the truth.
But yeah, this would work.
Maybe I'm just being opaque, but I'm not ready to join the chorus of hosannahs for Mr. Hartman's "modest proposal." This buy-into Medicare thing sounds suspiciously like a trial balloon for what may be the reform de jure for Obama's "plan," to substitute health care "coops" for the now-discredited "public option." The casual way people talk about "buying into" a system, whether a public insurance company a la public option, or the medical equivalent of an agricultural or utilities co-op, doesn't quite address the "affordability" issue. Buying into a health plan as a condition of getting health care seems too much like buying shares in a school or a transportation system if one wants schooling for the kids or roads on which to travel. The current Medicare is maintained on the same principle of public schools and common roads that are there for everyone who needs to use them, financed out of revenue from the general taxation of the people. Medicare is not "bought into" and to call co-ops a form of extended Medicare is simply to pull more wool over the eyes of an already confused public. At one of Obama's health care forums a couple of weeks ago, a young man stood up and asked about health care "coops": I'm not sure of the spelling of that: is that "co-ops" or "cop-outs." His question deserved an answer.
Jerry D Rose August 17th, 2009 8:51 am........I understand your point about co-ops, but I see no mention of co-ops in Hartman's article. Maybe I am missing something. Are you saying that allowing those below 65, or those not disabled to but into Medicare would turn it into a co-op? Citizens who are not on Medicare are paying into it through deductions from their SS retirement checks, are they not? Maybe you can clarify why you think Hartman is talking about a co-op. I only see that he writes of extending Medicare to those who would not normally be entitled.
His point is that it continued the consumer-mentality of healthcare instead of the public benefit for all citizens model - as people view schools and streets.
I am confused at your coimments. Everyone is paying the medicare tax, into not just reirees. I assume you mean "citizens whot are now on medicare" not "citizens who are not on medicare"
pjd412 August 17th, 2009 10:19 am Typo..yes, "now". But, many retirees do pay for part B...medical coverage...unless they are also on Medicaid.
Anyway, my original inquiry is where does Hartman call this a co-op, which JR is saying is the current reform de jure to possibly replace the public option. Any single payer system is "bought into" one way or the other...taxes, premiums, et al. I just do not see where Hartman is advocating anything other than extending medicare to everyone, which seems to be a darn simple way to go. But, as I said previously, it's likely too simple and will therefore be dismissed.
pjd412; Thanks for clarifying my point; saved me the trouble.
Wisconsin dairy farmer Jim Goodman wound up making a similar point at the end of his article posted today on CD. Noting that the Wisconsin farmers health
coop wanted $22,000 per year for high deductible insurance, he asks: what's next, privatized Medicare? That's exactly my concern when any 'buy into' scheme of health care provision is being promoted.
Sorry for multiple submissions; my unfamiliar lap-top did it!
Jerry D Rose August 17th, 2009 11:27 am...I'm so happy the two of you cleared that up.
I share your concerns!
Buying into the premise, negates the overall public good, or public interest.
Roads aren't amenable to individual payment. We can't have toll booths at each intersection. We can assume that the more gas you purchase, the more you are using the roads and gas tax helps pay for roadwork. So in some sense, roads are paid for by those that use them.
Schools provide the general education we require of our citizens as well as provide opportunities that wouldn't otherwise be available to young people who haven't had a chance to earn it. That is the justification for paying for them with taxes. Schools and health care are comparable if you are talking about health care of children.
Health care is amenable to individual payment. In reality, everyone would need to put away ~$500 per month (which is what they spend on health insurance) for those times when they need expensive care. Of course, it is in their best interest to pool their money with other folks who are doing the same thing (since larger numbers make it less likely that a given fluctuation will bankrupt the pool of money) and come up with a contract outlining the rules for extracting from the pool. However, that is voluntary! Government health care, funded by progressive taxation, is not voluntary and is paid for disproportionately by wealthy people.
Co-ops are much more fair than Medicare for all, we just all know it won't work as well.
The issue of affordability is not in the governments hands. The market price of a commodity is a complex question, but I think it is safe to say that the government can't determine it.
The New Preamble to the Constitution:
We the CORPORATIONS, in order to increase more perfect PROFITS, establish SICKNESS and DISHARMONY, provide for the COMMON STOCKHOLDERS, DEMOTE the general welfare and secure the blessings of SERVILITY to our SERFS and their posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the HEALTH INSURERS of the United States of America.
Gold in Sacks and CitiBunko would never ratify that.
That's BunkoAmerica (I believe #3?)
"I understand you're thinking of dumping your "public option" because of all the demagoguery by Sarah Palin and Dick Armey and Newt Gingrich and their crowd on right-wing radio and Fox."
BS.
The morons Obama has surrounded himself with are thinking of dumping the 'public option' because of money from the medico-insurance complex. Period.
If they aren't swayed by the well being and well reasoned arguments of the vast majority of Americans, then they aren't going to be swayed by a rabid superminority, no matter how vocal.
Cut me a break.
I think you have hit the nail on the head. The Dems will blame the R's so they can "save face" and absolve themselves from responsibility but it's really about entrenched power and money.
Support the Access to Medical Freedom Act (hr2792) and HR3394, 3395 and 3396 which will require Congress to legislate that which FDA tries to establish as edict and require proof from the FDA before they ban promotion or sale of supplements and foods (like cherries which can help prevent and treat gout which they said they would declare an "unapproved drug" if the claims continued and then they would confiscate cherries and shut down orchards).
How the hell can they save face by blaming anything on the republicans? They are they minority, in both the House and Senate! Why are they trying to compromise with these fascists (or at least trying to convince us that they are?) The public (with the exception of the teabaggers, aka conservatives, aka dumbfucks that simply don't know better) wants at LEAST a public option, and preferably Single Payer. They have nothing to lose by simply doing it, and everything to win, something even a red brick could have figured out by now.
The Republicanazis at least have a purpose, and that is to openly, in plain sight of the whole world, destroy the nation and the planet simultaneously while enriching themselves. The dems don't even have that. What is their purpose? Why do they even exist? Oh, that's right...to convince a few that there is an opposition party. But they don't even have the spine for that, they can't even do that right.
Isn't it telling that single payer--the peoples's choice can't even get a hearing, but Obama bows to manufactured crisis?
It is obvious what he chooses to ignore and what he is willing to use to define what he can achieve. Works out well for someone who already demonstrated what class he serves.
I think this is a good idea....it's already in place.....no re- invent the wheel is necessary...it could be done a lot faster and without all this shouting and posturing and proposing and defeating and deferring that is going on....I"m so sick of it all
I'm sure there are stupid, greedy, wicked people in other countries. They just are not running the whole country.
Nice sentiments, but as likely to happen as Obama becoming a born again 'progressive' after satisfying his right-of-center followers and corporate handlers since he was elected. Let us not forget, he would have to get permission from his handlers in the Repudlican Party to make it happen.
obama received over two million from the insurance companies and the republicans received about the same. The boy owes the insurance companies and pay back is on our backs. This is indeed a country that is owned by the corporations.... But it always makes me wonder about how cheap these guys can be bought off.. perhaps we could pass the hat and buy ourselves a couple of congress men..
Obama might have received $2 million from the health in$urance companies, I can't recall the exact breakdown. However, from the various health industries, he received $18 million, and that amount was taken in while he was campaigning for the presidency.
Single-payer was never on the table, and he made that "clear" from the beginning.
You're right, "we the people" are being forced to pay it back -- on our backs.
Tonight, on TMC, Turner Classic Movies, SICKO is showing, according to Michael Moore's website. This information might be incorrect. I found the information yesterday, and his site is different today. Therefore, check the site.
SICKO is on TMC tonight, The Movie Channel, which is a premium cable channel.
It's NOT on TCM, Turner Classic Movies, which is on basic cable.
obama received over two million from the insurance companies and the republicans received about the same. The boy owes the insurance companies and pay back is on our backs. This is indeed a country that is owned by the corporations.... But it always makes me wonder about how cheap these guys can be bought off.. perhaps we could pass the hat and buy ourselves a couple of congress men..
Where do I send my contribution?
NO THOM, you can get on your belly and beg Master's Overseer all you want, NO SINGLE PAYER, and now, he's going to run from even a crippled, mutilated, and mangled Public Option (you know, the kind you can drown in a bathtub)...NOW THAT'S CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN...hell on earth brought to you by THE DIMS! the sweeter lighter flavored Repugs with that wonderful artificial chocolatey chewy center.
The time for "Modest Proposals" and polite mincing Dim sentiments was executed in an alley in Chicago over 40 years ago.
White America refused to make an equal place for everyone at the table then, they refuse to make an equal place for everyone at the table now. They are a doomed people, a doomed nation, and a doomed Empire.
In the meantime Thom, how's your gold stocks doing? You know, the ones your pitch for because the dollar is toast and its all baked into the cake.
So I guess the answer is, accept that the country is screwed and hell on earth is just around the corner and try an make as much money on the collapse as you can before you get out. That is after all what the Dims are doing.
So keep up the good work and be sure to shed a couple of on-air tears for all the schlubs in tents, and all the schlubs who die from withheld medical care or get BK'd into debt slavery so that richfilth animals can live in palatial wealth power and private law....OVER US.
America.
I'm 66 and can't even afford Medicare.
SS is my only income. I had to opt out of Medicare when I became eligible because I couldn't afford the $90 a month.
Screw you then, says Medicare. I have no health care.
barrycounty August 17th, 2009 11:00 am....I believe I have talked with you about this previously. Are you not eligible for Medicaid....would they not pay the Medicare premium? If you have less than $2000 in assets (I assume this is money in the bank), you should be eligible.
It is automatically taken out. Everyone has to add to the soup pot. We are all in this together. With out Medicare...how dumb can you get..or you are lying. I will pray for you.
Dogface August 17th, 2009 11:58 am.....Something strange going on here. I've talked to this person previously and never received a response after the initial posting.
BUT, I see no reason for a personal attack. It serves no purpose.