Yesterday, for the first time in history, three separate congressional committees (Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education and Labor) came together on a single bill for comprehensive health care reform, going further than the infamous 1994 fight for health care reform. And today, the Senate Health Committee approved its own health care bill--both are huge steps toward finally reforming health care. But we aren't there yet.
There's still a long way to go before a bill is passed or even voted on. First, it has to pass the House of Representatives. Then, if it goes through the House, their version of the bill is markedly different than the Senate version. And before it's voted on in the Senate, the Finance Committee needs to find a way to pay for it. Assuming the stars align and all of the above occurs, the House and Senate will have to agree on a final bill that can pass both houses and sustain a Senate filibuster.
As if that wasn't enough, the health care industry is spending more than $1.4 million a day lobbying Congress--they've even hired more than 350 former government staffers to try and influence their old bosses in Washington, according to disclosures. With all this going on, it's important to remember what's at stake, and why we can't afford to wait.
Here are just a few of the facts:
- Nearly 46 million Americans don't have health insurance, and according to CNN, 25 million more are underinsured.
- The US spends more on health care than any industrialized nation (all the others provide universal coverage), and 52 percent more per person than the next most costly nation, Norway.
- Since 1999, employee-based health insurance premium have increased 120 percent. Wages have grown 29 percent during the same time period.
- A recent study by Harvard University found that 50 percent of all bankruptcy filings were partly the result of medical expenses.
And these are just a few. You can read the National Coalition on Health Care's entire fact-sheet on health care here.
Given all of the evidence above, opponents still say that this isn't the time for health care reform-that we have to fix the economy before we fix health care. That argument doesn't fly. According to the CEA's (Council of Economic Advisers) conservative estimates, chronicled in their report released June 2 (here's a summary), health care reform will actually improve the economy--by as much as 8 percent or more by 2030!
For the first time in more than a decade, we have a real chance to reform a system that's been broken for far too long, but it won't happen without the work of thousands of organizers and leaders working for change. The health care industry is spending millions on lobbyists to influence the fight for reform, but many of our partner organizations representing workers, young people, and communities around the country are building power to demand that this time, we don't fail to act.
President Obama was elected by a sweeping movement for change-the same thing needs to happen to ensure we achieve comprehensive health care reform. Like Paul Wellstone would have said today, "it's time to organize."
The picture above originally appeared here.
COMMENTS
Healthcare costs
Presenting the facts on how much we spend on healthcare does not make clear where the expenses come from.
Here is the text of a letter that I've sent to my legislators. It documents where many of the costs originate--with references! Please use this information when you talk about costs--it makes clear that most of the costs stem from paying the middleman and from incentives to make a profit from people's illnesses.
Barbara M.
July 15, 2009
Dear Senator ¬¬¬¬________:
I ask you to support a well-designed public insurance plan that reduces inefficiencies and provides useful competition for private insurers. The costs of inefficiencies in our current system could pay for at least one well designed universal healthcare system.
Single-payer healthcare would be the most efficient. Barring that, a good, comprehensive public insurance option to provide competition for private plans, coupled with requirements that private insurers, physicians, and hospitals use the same form for all insurance claims, would be the next best option. Nonprofit-run clinics and hospitals would reduce incentives to use more expensive treatments when less costly, but effective treatments already exist. Reasonable tort reform would reduce the urge to play defensive medicine.
Medicare is a great example of a public insurance program and costs far less than a private insurance plan. Medicare not only works, but its administrative costs are around 2-3% of its budget, far better than private health insurance administrative costs of 14%.
Other costs:
• Too many different health plans: 17,000 in Chicago alone (1)
• Administrative costs in clinics and hospitals: 31% of every healthcare dollar. (2)
• Health insurance overhead: 14% administrative costs (3); 10 to 20% profit and management costs (4); marketing and advertising costs ($4 billion/year for drug companies (5); CEO pay ($225,000/day—including weekends and holidays—for a former Aetna CEO)(6); and lobbying costs: “…the health-care industry… is spending more than $1.4 million a day on lobbying in the current fight, according to disclosure records,” Washington Post, July 6, 2009). (7)
• Government costs: subsidies to Medicare Advantage plans (13% more expensive than standard Medicare).4, (4, 6)
Please let me know your views and your stance on a public plan.
Yours truly,
My name, etc.
References:
1. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, cited by John Geyman (professor emeritus of family medicine at the University of Washington) in the January-February 2009 issue of Tikkun.
2. Woolhandler, S., Campbell, T, Himmelstein, DU. Cost of Healthcare Administration in the United States and Canada. New England Journal of Medicine 2003:349:768-75.
3. National Health Expenditure data for 2004, cited in Hacker, JS. Health Care For America: A proposal for guaranteed, affordable health care for all Americans… EPI Briefing Paper #180, Economic Policy Institute, January 11, 2007. http://www.sharedprosperity.org/bp180/bp180.pdf and
4. Woolhandler, S, Himmelstein DU. Competition in a publicly funded healthcare system. British Medical Journal 2007; 335:1126-1129.
5. National Public Radio news. July 10, 2009.
6. Arnold Relman (professor emeritus of medicine & social medicine at Harvard, former editor-in-chief for the New England Journal of Medicine), “The Health Reform We Need and Are Not Getting.” New York Review of Books, July 2, 2009.
7. Dan Eggen and Kimberly Kindy, Washington Post, Monday, July 6, 2009
We Must Be Careful
Yes, we need to reform health care. Do we have to do it by August. No. This is something we need to live with for decades to come, why not take some time to do it right? The ball is rolling...it'll get done...but don't shove through a phonebook size piece of legislation that no one has looked at. Full ahead....carefully. Let's get it right.
Letter from Barbara S. Murdock
Really appreciate your summary and the references. Thank you.
Be careful, be very careful
I agree, I hope this isn't shoved through. My understanding of this current insurance reform legislation being considered is that the tax rate hike will go into effect in 2011 and the insurance reform piece of it will not take effect until 2013 or 2014. I too hope that this is carefully looked at and considered and that we "get it right". You know the old saying "be careful what you wish for".... Our children and grandchildren are being sold into slavery to the Feds.
Single Payer Universal Healthcare
I find this article very disappointing. The healthcare program that Pres. Obama is pushing will not solve the problems presented because it reinforces the greatest problem with healthcare -- over-priced health insurance companies. I do not know why Pres. Obama -- and Wellstone Action -- are not supporting the Rep. John Conyers' Single Payer bill which now has 100 co-sponsors in the House. Wasn't Sen. Wellstone working in 1994 with Rep. Conyers to pass Single Payer?
I Am Running!
Yes, I have decided that I am running for public office. Paul Wellstone taught me this: Politics is not about big money, politics is not about power game, politics is about the improvement of people's lives. I am compelled to serve the American public and eager to be a part of the constructive force that will help lift the 50 million currently uninsured and potentially uninsured. So, when it comes to illnesses, we, the people will all be covered. I intend to run as an energetic, innovative, sensible,refreshing, pragmatic, practical,efficient, effective and compassionate candidate. Together, let's transform our healthcare, our country and our universe with no further delay!
If you're running, tell us who you are!
I have been thinking increasingly that if Congress screws up and passes some awful plan like what's coming from Baucus's committee, we are really going to have to replace a lot of members. While there is hope, I still try to get them not to screw up, but we should plan for a worse contingency. We need credible candidates lined up in states and districts where incumbents are failing their constituents, and connections with willing workers starting now, not in January, or even October. Part of the reason incumbents ignore constituents is that they never pay a price, and they don't pay a price because we are not adequately organized.
Please, if you think you could do a better job, and want to, tell us now! Tell us who you are, and where you are, and give local alums a chance to find you and work with you.
The government has promised
The government has promised a health care reform that guarantees quality, affordable care for everyone in the United States — and offers the choice of a public health insurance plan. Now another bill was passed, the HR 3200. HR 3200 is a health care bill, and what it does is that it will provide affordable health care for all, and curtail medical costs. It also makes it mandatory for all Americans to have health insurance, but creates a government run (taxpayer funded) alternative to private insurance, prohibits exclusion on basis of pre-existing condition, and then (here's the kicker) places a surtax on all households that earn more than $350,000 to pay for it. (To be fair, they don't need sympathy.) The bill HR 3200 is likely to be wildly unpopular, even if it might mean fewer people needing emergency cash loans to see a doctor. http://personalmoneystore.com/cash-advance/small-loan/small-cash-loans/
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