Health Care Reform on the Homestretch

In his speech on health care to a joint session of Congress,
President Obama talked about the long, long history of health-care
reform efforts in this country, and said he wants to be the last
President to take up the issue. Let's hope not.

The reform now shaping up in Congress--with a heavy dose of
industry-written language--is not likely to be much of a fix. Without a
robust public option--a "Medicare for all" program that can cut
administrative costs and compete with the profit-hogging private
insurance companies--we are not likely to see a big improvement in
health care for Americans.

By taking single-payer health care off the table and working on a
compromise the insurance industry can support, Obama is letting us down.

But that is no reason to give up the fight. Some progressive members
of Congress are still pushing for single-payer legislation. And rarely
does health care receive so much intense public attention. Now is the
time to get the message out about what a functional health insurance
system would look like.

Industry knows that and that's why we are hearing the echo chamber
of talking points: beware a "government takeover" of health care, the
"consequences of rationing," and "bureaucrats, not doctors prescribing
medicine." These words and phrases are all over Fox News, conservative
talk radio, and in the mouths of Republican members of Congress,
repeated at town hall meetings, and at the recent Tea Party rally in
Washington, DC. They are also, verbatim, in a memo produced by
Republican strategist Frank Luntz directing the party how to oppose
health care reform.

On the other side are the Mad As Hell Doctors, members of Physicians
for a National Health Program. This group of physicians from Portland,
Oregon, is driving across the country to a rally in Washington, DC, in
support of single payer on September 30. They are in Madison,
Wisconsin, today to meet with health care providers and hold a rally on
the steps of the state capitol building at 5 pm. The so-called Kucinich
Amendment--HR 676, the "Medicare for All" bill,
sponsored by Representatives Dennis Kucinich and John Conyers, is
supposed to come to the floor this month, and various single payer
advocates are planning events around it.

Kucinich begins hearings tomorrow in the domestic policy
subcommittee entitled "Between You and Your Doctor: The Bureaucracy of
Private Health Insurance" with a witness list that includes the family
members of patients denied needed care because the industry needs to
maintain its high profit margins.

This is the message health care reform advocates need to get out:
Private health insurance companies are the bureaucrats who stand
between you and good medical care. Because these companies must
maintain 20 percent profit margins--that is, keep 20 percent of the
money you pay them for health care--in order to maintain their high
stock prices, they have a perverse incentive to limit medical care.

Under our private insurance system, America wastes 30 percent of
health care dollars on advertising, administration, and CEO pay. The
idea that we have more "choice" is also ridiculous. People in other
industrialized countries with universal, national health care are far
more satisfied with the care they get and their choice of doctors. What
we have is a system in which your employer or your HMO can push you out
the door if you start to cost too much. After all, they are in business
to make money, not to see that you get the care you need.

As health care reform reaches the homestretch in Congress and
Americans tune into the issue, it is important for everyone to get
these facts. Members of Congress need to hear from real constituents,
and your friends and neighbors who are being fed so much of the
industry line need to hear from people who understand the issue and
care. It may be a long road ahead for health insurance reform, but this
is an important step along the way.