Health Care Reform-- Prairie Populist Style: Montana

In the midst of the right-wing jihad to do away with the social safety net and turn America into an-only-the-strong-survive kind of Jungle, you may have heard the presumptive GOP presidential nominee whining to Sean Hannity this week about how the individual mandate in the health care reform bill was not just his idea, but a conservative idea. It's certainly the least popular piece of the fatally compromised legislation-- especially among conservatives and teabaggers-- and needs to be replaced with a sane, single-payer approach.

Mitt Romney described the individual health mandate as a “conservative idea” yesterday afternoon on Sean Hannity’s radio show, just as the federal government asked the Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of the provision in President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

“The idea for a health care plan [in Massachusetts] was not mine alone,” Romney explained. “The Heritage Foundation-- a great conservative think tank-- helped on that. I’m told Newt Gingrich, one of the very first people who came up with the idea of an individual mandate, did that years and years ago.”

It is a conservative idea, a crappy conservative idea that Obama and pathetic and weak conservative Democrats used to compromise away working families' futures. Many progressive state governments have already started moving beyond this foot-dragging, fifth rate approach to health care. And yesterday the Billings Gazette announced that Montana may be the next in line. Governor Brian Schweitzer has gotten the ball rolling with a universal health care proposal for the state.

Like Republicans who object to the federal health care law, the Democratic governor also argues it doesn't do enough to control costs and says his state should have more flexibility than the law allows. But Schweitzer has completely different plans for the Medicare and Medicaid money the federal government gives the state to administer those programs.

The popular second-term Democrat would like to create a state-run system that borrows from the program used in Saskatchewan. He said the Canadian province controls cost by negotiating drug prices and limiting nonemergency procedures such as MRIs.

Schweitzer said the province's demographics and economy are similar to Montana in several ways - yet its residents live longer while spending far less on health care.

...Schweitzer told a federal official Wednesday that he will be asking for a waiver allowing the state to abandon the federal programs in favor of one the state will design itself. Schweitzer said details would be coming in the next few months when the request is complete.

State Rep. Franke Wilmer is running for the congressional seat being abandoned by Tea Party Caucus member Denny Rehberg and part of her populist campaign is based on her strong support for universal health care. She's consulted with Gov. Schweitzer on this and is very enthusiastic about Montana finding a better solution than Congress did. This is what she told me last night:

Americans pay 100 percent more for health care-- twice as much-- than any other industrialized country. We still rank 37th in quality and outcomes. An estimated 14,000 Americans lose health insurance coverage every day. In the big economic picture, overspending on health care is siphoning off capital that could be put to more productive use. Wages and income flat-lined in the 1990s mostly because employers who offer health insurance benefits faced skyrocketing costs. Studies show that our overly complex and fragmented payer system weakens the demand side of the market and inflates administrative costs. Walmart's vision center tells insured customers that "we accept over 1,800 plans." It doesn't make market sense; it doesn't make capitalist sense. Absolutely states should be allowed to set up their own universal health care systems.

Her two Republican opponents-- the job exporter and the KKK organizer (they have a primary)-- both oppose Medicare, Medicaid and, in a general sense, health care for the non-wealthy. If you'd like to help her get elected, you can do it here