Health Care And The State Of Arkansas

Is conservative Democrat Vic Snyder (AR) hiding behind sick children because he's afraid of wingnuts or because he's afraid of working families? First the good news: of Arkansas' 4 congressmen, Snyder has the best voting record. The bad news is that it is still a lousy record that is far from progressive. He's a moderate in a swing district-- better than the slightly more conservative Marion Berry or Mike Ross (each of whom is in a redder district; McCain won all 4 CDs in Arkansas last year) and, obviously significantly better than Arkansas' lunatic fringe Republican John Boozman from deep in the heart of Klan country.

Snyder's district is much more enlightened and includes the city of Little Rock. Bush barely won the district in 2000 (49%) or in 2004 (51%) but that colored fella from Kenya Indonesia, Mexico, Hawaii only managed 44% against an elderly gentleman with no solutions to Arkansas' festering problems (see below). Snyder had no opponent in 2008 but had won with 61% in 2006 and 58% in 2004, 2000, and 1998 (no opponent in 2002). Yesterday afternoon he staged a health care event at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock along with Blue Dog health care foe Mike Ross.

Right-wing crackpots and astro-turf groups have been causing disturbances at Democratic congressmembers' public forums, reading from a list of tactics distributed by a Republican Party front group that urges dittoheads and Fox TV viewers to harass members of Congress, disrupt the meetings and prevent discussion of health care reform legislation. Snyder and Ross scheduled their meeting in a children's hospital so he could shame Republicans into not trying their violent tactics in the proximity of sick children (not that that worked with the really violent fringe elements). Classy guys all around! I called security at the hospital and asked if there were any disturbances and the woman I spoke to bragged that the place was crawling with security forces and to come on over and have no worries about trouble.

Snyder seems to be mildly supportive of Obama's health care agenda and Ross, of course, is opposing it. Snyder has a weak and not very credible right-wing opponent next year, David Meeks, whose health care platform comes directly from Big Insurance. "Any form of government run health care reform," he insists, "is not the solution to our current health care problems. Putting the health care decisions back into the hands of the citizens is the only reform that should be discussed... Health Savings Accounts and Medical Vouchers are non-taxed benefits that an employer gives to an employee so that they can purchase a plan that fits the needs of their family. Also, by allowing people, such as churches and civic organizations or universities, to establish and offer their own health care groups we can offer solutions to health care that are not dictated by Bureaucrats or CEOs... I will not support any plan that is not free market based."

No matter how bad things ever get, remember, at least you don't live in Arkansas. Watch:



Meanwhile, the Center for American Progress looked closely at the need for real health care reform in Arkansas and what they found isn't addressed by the reactionary approach by either Meeks or Ross.

•     80 residents of Arkansas are losing health insurance every day, and 14,000 Americans nationwide lose insurance daily.

•     The average family premium in Arkansas costs $1,500 more because our system fails to
cover everyone-- and $1,100 more nationally.

•     Our broken health insurance system will cost the Arkansas economy as much as $2.4 billion this year in productivity losses due to the uninsured-- and up to  $248 billion nationally.

•     In Arkansas there has been a 6 percent increase in the uninsured rate since 2007.

•       500,000 are uninsured today in Arkansas.

•     In Arkansas the combined market share of the top two insurers is 81 percent, limiting employers’ and families’ health insurance options as well as the care they receive.

•     The average family premium will rise from $11,472 to $19,575 by 2019 in Arkansas without health care reform.

•     In Arkansas, without health care reform, 72,980 will have lost coverage from January 2008 to December 2010.

•     In Arkansas, 243,000 people would gain coverage as a result of the House health care reform bill by 2013, and 391,000 would gain coverage by 2019.

•     A typical Arkansas family will pay $19,575 for health coverage in 2019 without health care reform.

Worst of all the members from Arkansas, of course, is the state's senior Senator Blanche Lincoln, a corrupt shill for Big Business and a disgraceful pandering idiot. We recently ran 1,000 cable TV ads in Arkansas and we'd like to run a follow-up batch. If you'd like to help, our Blue America page is open... 24/7.