Dueling Health Care Reform Plans

While the ridiculous and untrustworthy AFSCME has gotten into a pie fight battle of the radio ads with Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) over health care reform, the crucial showdown on real reform-- what's called "the public option"-- is approaching. The Insurance Industry and HMOs and their paid congressional shills, virtually all the Republicans and more than a few Democrats, will do anything they can to prevent this. If there's one thing it means to be a Republican or a Blue Dog type Democrat in 2009 it's that you will never agree to allow your constituents to have the same healthcare that you have.

But the 16 senators who were originally pushing for the public option has now grown considerably and there are now 28 senators-- out of 99-- who are on the side of the people instead of on the side of corporate health care and for-profit insurance campaign contributors. Actually, there are more than 28. The 28, though, got together yesterday and introduced a resolution demanding something that paid-off insurance business whore Max Baucus has conspired with Mitch McConnell and the Republicans to prevent: the inclusion of a federally-backed health insurance option in whatever health care reform Congress patches together.

The 28 backers are Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), Chris Dodd (D-CT), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Carl Levin (D-MI), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Bob Casey (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Tom Udall (D-NM), Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ted Kaufman (D-DE), Roland W. Burris (D-IL), Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Ben Cardin (D-MD).

Their resolution is unambiguous and demands that any reform of our nation’s health care system should give consumers a choice of an affordable, federally-backed option to introduce competition in the health insurance market and contain health care costs. Sherrod Brown is completely identified with working for consumers and ordinary American families. His statement doesn't come as a surprise:

“This is about consumer choice and introducing competition in the health insurance market. Private health insurers always manage to stay ‘one step ahead of the sheriff’-- finding new ways to limit care and pass costs along to the consumer. Giving Americans the choice of a quality, federally-backed, health insurance option will keep private insurers honest and make health care affordable.”

However, other senators, like Rockefeller and Schumer, are less dependable allies for working families. Rockefeller, who's the chairman of the Senate Finance subcommittee on Health Care, didn't sign on to the resolution but claims he's still down with the concept: "I strongly support including a public health insurance option in health reform. We need to provide quality, affordable coverage for the millions of Americans the insurance industry has failed-- a federally-backed health insurance option is the only reliable way to do just that.”

In another undeniable step away from her Blue Dog allies Kirsten Gillbrand did sign on and is taking an active part in making sure the public option doesn't get axed by Republicans and the Democrats who act like Republicans. “Ensuring that every American has access to quality, affordable health care is a national priority,” she said. “With more than 47 million uninsured Americans and millions of families and businesses struggling with rising health care costs, the time to act is now. We cannot have a system in which the only choice is private plans. Everyone should have the option of buying into a not-for profit public plan at a rate that they can afford. I am proud to join with my colleagues to fight for the inclusion of a public plan option in health care reform.”

Tonight Bill Moyers will be on PBS discussing single payer health care, the option that Baucus, McConnell and the Insurance Industry have kept out of the debate. The Republicans have two plans-- an extreme right wing plan the kooks and fascists are backing that was put together by anti-working family fanatics Paul Ryan (R-WI), Devin Nunes (R-CA), Richard Burr (R-NC) and Tom Coburn (R-OK)-- and the a slightly less extremist plan by Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Charlie Dent (R-PA).

Ryan's bill, the Patients' Choice Act, is primarily a scare tactic platform so that Republicans who oppose health care for working families will have something to point to that they can claim is a positive step, even though it is far from positive or a step. According to the Center for American Progress all Ryan has done is cobble together a batch of McCain's rejected excuses for not helping working families.

Using Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) health care plan as a foundation, the Patients' Choice Act proposes taxing the full value of employer health benefits, issuing refundable tax credits ($2,290 per individual or $5,710 per family), and expanding the use of Health Savings Accounts. States are encouraged to "establish rational and reasonable consumer protections" by forming State Health Insurance Exchanges to give Americans a choice of "different" private "health insurance policies" and issue standard benefits, offering "coverage to any individual regardless of age or health." The act places the 158 million Americans who receive their health care through their jobs in danger of losing coverage and provides an inadequate safety net for the newly-uninsured. As Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein points out, "the minimum benefit package is too stingy. There aren't sufficient subsidies for low-income consumers. The plan controls costs by encouraging people to purchase less comprehensive insurance." Indeed, Americans can choose a private health insurance plan from the State Health Insurance Exchanges, but that doesn't mean they'll be able to afford it. The $5,710 tax subsidy for families proposed in the Republican plan is less than half of the $12,680 that the average American family paid for health care in 2008, and the proposal allows private plans to charge sicker Americans higher rates for coverage. Republicans include a European-style "non-profit independent board" that "would penalize insurance companies that cherry pick healthy patients while rewarding companies that seek patients with pre-existing conditions," but they do nothing to prevent higher prices based on sex, age, occupation, or medical condition.

Right now I'm trying to persuade one of America's foremost health care advocates to take on Ryan in 2010. I think she's concerned about the huge amounts of corporate money he always manages to bring in from the banksters and Big Pharma, HMOs, Insurance, etc. If you'd like to make a Memorial Day Weekend donation that would go a long way towards bringing some accountability to sleazy corporate shills like Paul Ryan, who violently opposes ordinary Americans having the same kind of health care he and his family get from our tax dollars, please contribute to StopPaul Ryan.