RIP: Public Option

In a yet another policy flip of epic proportion, nearly every democrat on the talking head circuit put to rest the idea that we might get even a small public option for health insurance. Fear tactics and greed in America are once again winning the health care debate. Evidently sixty isn’t enough when the majority of democrats in the senate prefer to join the Republicans in shooting down whatever hope we had of joining the rest of the industrialized and developed world in removing the burden of health care insurance from business and the poor and middle classes.

Carrie Budoff Brown at Politico reminds us what President Barack Obama said about a public option at the beginning of this public policy debacle.

It was only in June that Obama said in a letter to Senate Democrats that “I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans. This will give them a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest.”

A month ago, Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address that “any plan I sign must include an insurance exchange: a one-stop shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, cost and track records of a variety of plans – including a public option to increase competition and keep insurance companies honest – and choose what’s best for your family.”

The reality on the ground today was delivered by via CNN.

A day after President Obama appeared to suggest that his administration might be open to health care reform legislation that does not include a public health insurance option, one of Obama’s top aides on the issue left the door open to accepting nonprofit health insurance co-ops, a proposal that has gained traction in bipartisan negotiations in the Senate Finance Committee.

“I think there will be a competition to private insurers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in an interview that aired Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, “that really is the essential part, that you don’t turn over the whole new marketplace [after health care legislation is enacted] to private insurance companies and trust them to do the right thing. We need some choices, we need some competition.”

At a town hall in Grand Junction, Colorado Saturday, Mr. Obama seemed to downplay the necessity of having a public insurance option in the final version of any health care reform legislation presented to him by Congress.

“The public option – whether we have it or we don’t have it – is not the entirety of health care reform,” the President said. “This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it. And, by the way, it’s both the right and the left that have become so fixated on this that they forget everything else . . .”

Echoing Mr. Obama’s Saturday comments, Sebelius also told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King that “what’s important is choice and competition.” A public option “is not an essential element,” the Cabinet secretary said Sunday.

No wonder they’re planning for windfall profits at United Health Care. They are getting exactly what they want. A bunch of new people at terms that were negotiated by the world’s biggest sucker. How can any one left standing in the Democrat corner possibly believe any thing this administration says from now on? How can we possibly support health care reform that is not about health care or reform. What we are seeing is another big industry payoff placed on the national credit card. I would have never thought I’d have seen the bonus class have so much to celebrate with a democratic majority controlling so much. The only thing that makes the Dubya handouts bigger is that they came with a war that not only cost treasury, but human lives.

I am waiting to see how any one in Left Blogistan can all this anything but complete capitulation. Complete capitulation is not 11th dimensional kung fu chess no matter what hallucinogenic you’ve taken.

We’ve had a process that started out in backrooms with K Street Lobbyists, moved to deliberate campaigns of misinformation by many members of the press, to shows of downright stupidity by the pundit class and members of congress who did everything in town hall meetings from rudely answering cell phone calls, shouting down constituents as outsiders and NAZIs, and demonstrating complete incompetence by explaining why reading the bills they vote on was too complex and long for them. We’ve had POTUS go back on the campaign trail, completely unable to read a coherent explanation about what the plan is and left to decry things like “we’re not going to kill any one’s grandma.”

Meanwhile:

About half of the bankruptcy filings in the United States are due to medical expenses. Source: Health Affairs Journal 2005

The United States ranks 43rd in lowest infant mortality rate, down from 12th in 1960 and 21st in 1990. Singapore has the lowest rate with 2.3 deaths per 1000 live births, while the United States has a rate of 6.3 deaths per 1000 live births. Some of the other 42 nations that have a lower infant mortality rate than the US include Hong Kong, Slovenia, and Cuba. Source: CIA Factbook (2008)

The United States spends twice as much on health care per capita ($7,129) than any other country . . . and spending continues to increase. In 2005, the national health care expenditures totaled $2 trillion. Source: National Center for Health Statistics

The United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not have a universal health care system. Source: Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences

In 2006, the percentage of Americans without health insurance was 15.8%, or approximately 47 million uninsured people. Source: US Census Bureau

More than 40 million adults stated that they needed but did not receive one or more of these health services (medical care, prescription medicines, mental health care, dental care, or eyeglasses) in 2005 because they could not afford it. Source: National Center for Health Statistics

The primary reason given for lack of health insurance coverage in 2005 was cost (more than 50%), lost job or a change in employment (24%), Medicaid benefits stopped (10%), ineligibility for family insurance coverage due to age or leaving school (8%). Source: National Center for Health Statistic

Then there is this:

The underinsured are those who have health insurance but still struggle to pay their healthcare bills. Many of them are faced with rising health care premiums, deductibles, and copayments, as well as limits on coverage for various services or other limits and excluded services that can increase out-of-pocket expenses. The following statistics were part of a study conducted by the Commonwealth Fund and recently published in the online version of the Health Affairs journal.

• The number of people who are underinsured has grown 60 percent to 25 million over the past four years.
• The fastest growing segment of the underinsured are middle and upper income families. The rate of underinsured for those with incomes of $40,000 or more nearly tripled, to 11 percent.
• The highest rate of underinsurance is in families with incomes under the poverty level (about $20,000), at 31 percent.

To consider an individual underinsured is a somewhat general concept which can vary depending on individual circumstances. The researchers at the Commonwealth Fund, however, define the underinsured as “people who spent 10 percent or more of their income on medical expenses (or 5 percent if they were low income), or people who had deductibles that equaled at least 5 percent of the family annual income.”

As part of the study, researchers found that the underinsured behave a lot like the uninsured when it comes to medical care. That is, they often don’t visit the doctor, don’t fill prescriptions, and don’t undergo preventive checkups and lab tests. Even when they go without preventive care and necessary prescriptions, many of the undersinsured are still unable to cover all their medical expenses.

• In a study completed by the Commonwealth Fund, 45 percent of the adults in the survey reported that they had a hard time paying their bills, even with health insurance, and had been contacted by a collection agency or had to change their way of life in an effort to pay their medical bills.
• Approximately 50 percent of personal bankruptcies are due to medical expenses.
• According to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 28 percent of middle income families (annual family income between $30,000 and $75,000) stated that they were currently having a serious problem paying for healthcare or health insurance.

…

The United States is fast becoming one of the worst health care systems in the world even though they have one of the highest rates for health care expenditures. They are also the only industrialized nation that does not provide some form of universal health care to it’s citizens.

• The Taiwanese health care system is recognized as one of the best – it allows choice, easy access, and only costs about 8 percent of GNP.
• The United States health care system is recognized as one of the worst – 48 million are uninsured, 25 million are underinsured, and health care expenditures are high at 16 percent of GNP.
• Prescription drug prices in the USA are about 30 percent higher than they are in Canada or Europe.

You proud of your country yet? You think we got change we can believe in? They’ve just rolled over and are now playing dead. Are we’re expected to scratch their yellow bellies now as a reward? Come on people! Speak up! This isn’t what you sold us ALL out for! Start holding them accountable now! Again, this isn’t about health care and it isn’t about reform! Stand up for what’s right and don’t let them get away with this!

Plea$e Digg!!!! $hare!!! Tweet!!! $top ’em from $elling u$ out!!!!!

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