Could the health care debate expand the Democrats’ Senate majority?
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Perhaps over the weekend you missed the New York Times’s look at Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, the moderate Republican who sits on the Finance Committee and is a member of the so-called ‘Group of Six.’
With Senators Grassley and Enzi, she has been trying to bang out a bipartisan compromise health care bill. And her fellow GOP senators have increasingly made it clear that they believe any progress on health care would allow President Obama to claim victory in preparation for the 2010 mid-term Congressional election. Snowe, meanwhile, is signaling that she doesn’t feel that electoral politics should be the key issue in the health care debate.
And so I have to ask: If the GOP lays too hard into Snowe for a health care reform vote, will she follow Arlen Specter to the Democratic side of the aisle?
As the Times makes clear, there is a geyser of disdain for Senator Snowe beneath the surface within her own caucus:
Republicans and their allies are not so enthusiastic. To them, Ms. Snowe is a potential turncoat who could be used by Democrats to slap a bipartisan label on any health care plan even if she is the only Republican backing it.
The conservative Club for Growth has run television commercials in Maine warning that Ms. Snowe could provide a crucial assist to Democrats intent on giving the federal government more say in national health care.
“She is in many cases what we would call a RINO,” said Chris Chocola, a former congressman who now heads the Club for Growth, applying a dismissive acronym for Republican In Name Only.
via Democrats Eye Maine Senator for a G.O.P. Vote on Health Care – NYTimes.com.
It’s worth keeping in mind that Senator Specter was also facing heat from the Club for Growth-wing of his party. If he wins the 2010 Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, he’ll be facing the group’s former president, Pat Toomey, who would have primaried him if he stayed Republican. Knowing that his party wasn’t giving him a guaranteed ticket to the general election next year certainly made it easier for Specter to switch sides.
And with the Club for Growth slamming Snowe, she has to wonder if she’ll face Specter’s situation in 2012 when she is up for re-election. This prospect seemed to be hinted at in a bizarre statement made by Michael Steele, the Republican National Committee Chairman, during an interview he gave to Fox News Channel’s Greta van Susteren last week:
VAN SUSTEREN: As the head of the Republican Party, are you likely to lose, like, let’s say Senator Olympia Snowe, a Republican from Maine? Are you likely to lose her to the Democratic side of this discussion? And have you spoken to her?
STEELE: I have not spoken to Senator Snowe in a while, particularly since they’ve been out, but I hope not. I think, you know, Senator Snowe and Senator Collins and others, who I understand, you know, come some from — from some very difficult parts of the country in terms of being a Republican running for elective office.
But I think on this issue, I think the philosophy is right. I think politics is right. And I think the opportunity is right to really define this in terms of a patient-doctor relationship with as little intrusion from the federal government as possible. And I think Senator Snowe and others will understand that. And their people back at home, most importantly, will understand that. They’re having town halls up in Maine and in parts of New England, as well. And it’s no less exciting, if you will, out there as it is anywhere elsewhere around the country.
“Very difficult parts of the country in terms of being a Republican running for elective office?” What? Are we talking about the same state of Maine? The one where Snowe was re-elected by a 74% majority in 2006? The one where Susan Collins who in a banner 2008 for the Democrats nationwide was re-elected by her most comfortable margin ever?
The only thing that would be difficult about running for election in Maine would be a very well-financed Republican challenger in 2012. By hinting at the supposed mood of “the people back home” in Maine, is Steele saying that he’ll back a challenger to Snowe? And is Steele’s lack of dialog with a key vote on the health care debate evidence that there’s been a breakdown of talks between the senator and the mothership?
She will vote in favor of the right health care bill. It’s very clear that she won’t vote for the kind of health care legislation that would satisfy Rep. John Conyers and the single-payer crowd. After all, she told George Will in Newsweek that, “there are many people who are satisfied with their health insurance.” But she also released a statement at the start of August with her state’s Democratic Governor referring to “the critical value of health insurance coverage” (imagine Grassley doing that with the Democratic governor of Iowa, or Enzi with the Democratic governor of Wyoming).
And in remembering Senator Ted Kennedy upon his death, she highlighted his commitment to health care:
For nearly half a century, Senator Kennedy gave voice to the voiceless with a powerful booming resonance that was always raised on behalf of those less fortunate, and he championed causes others with less courage and skill would not dare tackle, including healthcare reform which was a passion throughout his entire public service tenure. I was incredibly privileged to work with him on several watershed measures, from the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program and the reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), which was passed and signed into law earlier this year, to the landmark Genetic Nondiscrimination Act or GINA – which was finally enacted into law last year, after more than a decade, because of his tireless leadership and relentless efforts.
Now when you consider all the nice things the White House has to say about her, there’s definitely been a direct effort on the part of President Obama to charm Senator Snowe. If they sent Joe Biden to welcome Specter into the Democrats, it’s not difficult to imagine that they would try to do the same thing for Snowe. And if her party decides to pillory her too strongly, I have to wonder how long Snowe will be willing to put up with the GOP’s hounds being set up on her. As Rahm Emanuel stated in the Times story, she’s more interested in the policy than the politics, and I can’t imagine she’d abide being made an example of when her political life and legacy could be made so much easier if she were only swathed in blue.
Addendum: As a final note, I have to say, it’s scenarios like this that make me wonder if there’s too much pessimism over the health care debate. Last summer I remember lots of my friends in the East Coast liberal echo chamber, well-educated and read, and they were absolutely pessimistic about Senator Obama’s prospects to become president. He won handily, allowing us to even have a discussion about health care. A big part of why he won was the way the GOP kept cannibalizing each other, and because of the shrill voices like Sarah Palin that overwhelmed the more moderate, thoughtful persona of Senator McCain. While it might not be as graceful as President Obama’s electoral victory ended up being, some kind of health care reform could result just as much from a backlash against the conservative backlash that has tried to haunt Obama every step of his political career. I’m starting to feel like the case of Senator Snowe could be bringing that prospect to the fore again.
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Theme : 6 Main Lies Have Nothing To Do With This Promising Reform.
If the findings of CBO over inaction had been released earlier, Ted Kennedy could’ve seen his lifetime wish come true.
Inaction cost, $9trillion over the next decade, can not be compared to the balance between estimate and outcome in a worst case of scenario, and this balance could be adjusted each year. ((Some of CBO analysis : While the costs of the financial bailouts and economic stimulus bills are staggering, they are only a fraction of the coming costs from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that each year Medicaid will expand by 7 percent, Medicare by 6 percent, and Social Security by 5 percent. These programs face a 75-year shortfall of $43 trillion–60 times greater than the gross cost of the $700 billion TARP financial bailout)). Time does not fix endless greed and energy depletion.
When the public health is also one of commodity like a house, we come to a tragic and unthinkable conclusion : As to for-profit business, the more and longer ills patients get, the more profits they make, and it will debilitate the overall economy involving education for the future, not to mention continued bankruptcy of middle class.
Of young adults ages 19 to 29, 13.2 million, or 29 percent, lacked coverage in 2007, and that implies the total of this promising reform will be cheaper than expected, I guess.
In case of an unexpected injury or ill, they might give up their learning or aspiration, in this regard, this reform means liberty, job opportunity, competitiveness for them and future.
1. The contents of savings (below) in this reform ‘have nothing to do with’ limit to medical access, rationing, tax raise, and deficit etc.
Rather, without wiping out these wastes and roots of bankruptcy for middle class, all fronts are sure to face larger financial ruin than this recession, which leads to more limit to medical access, more rationing, more tax raise, and more deficit etc than today.
$1.042trillion (cost of reform) + $245bn (cost to reflect annual pay raise of docs) = $1.287bn (actual cost of reform).
$583bn (the revenue package) + $80bn (so-called doughnut hole) + $155bn (savings from hospitals) + $167bn (ending the unnecessary subsidies for insurers) + 129bn(mandate-related fine based on shared responsibility) + $277bn (ending medical fraud, a minimum of 3% , the combined Medicare and Medicaid cost of $923.5bn per year, as of July,) = $1.391trillion + the reduced cost of ER visits (Medicare covers some 40% of the total) + the tax code on the wealthiest more reduced than originally proposed = why not ? (except for a magic pill, an outcome-based payment reform & IT effects and so forth).
As lawmakers debate how to pay for an overhaul of the nation’s health care system, a new report from The Commonwealth Fund claims that including both private and public insurance choices in a new insurance exchange would save the United States as much as $265 billion in administrative costs from 2010 to 2020.
“Health reform can help pay for itself, but both private and public insurance choices are critically important,” said Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis, who coauthored the new report. “A public insurance plan can help drive new efficiencies in the system that will produce large cost reductions. Without a public plan, much of those potential savings will be lost.”
Unlike high fuel price and mortgage rate in recent years as the roots of great recession and bankruptcy of middle class, the severity in the high cost of health premiums has come to light lately. Similarly, in an attempt to hide these deficit-driven corruptions and wastes, the greed allies struggle to turn the savings via removing these wastes into limit to medical access, rationing, tax raise, and deficit etc.
In contrast, not to mention a wide range of consumer protection, options across state lines, this promising reform takes initiatives in more primary care docs and improved long-term care. And the bill expands coverage for mental health services, and defines what will be covered. It also prohibits co-payment charges for wellness and preventive medical care. There is no mention of rationing. The use of this term is, again, a gratuitous distraction aimed at feeding fear
2. Greedy insurers with no competitors by consolidation have nothing to do with the law of price, demand & supply.
Under the free market theory and the premise that the public health is also one of commodity like a house, if the demand decreases on a large scale, accordingly the price tends to reflect it, as in the case of house price, and it never happens for the price to spiral up. One step forward, in case the price is spiraling up, to be sure, the remaining clients should withdraw the contract or choose the other options. In practice, runaway premiums with no competitors by consolidation drive the enrollees out, and 4C + 2R (canceling, capping, cherry-picking, cash for special lobby, rationing, rapid premium hike) guarantee multiple times as much profit. Sadly, no way-out other than the prohibitive ER is allowed in America. Therefore, the victims today and tomorrow deserve long overdue protection from non-profit Government.
3. The plans to stem inflation in the House have nothing to do with crowd-out.
With the heartbreaking tears in mind (In no other industrialized country do 20,000 people die each year because they can’t afford to see doctor. Nearly 11 Million Cancer Patients Without Health Insurance), private market also needs changes and should join together to complete this reform , as promised, otherwise, the runaway premium only has itself to blame while new firms are filling the void with competitive deals.
And It can be said that fair competition starts with a fair, sustainable market value.
However, the plan in the House is designed to keep people in an employer-based health insurance system, and the public option would be offered to those for whom employer-provided insurance is not available. And job-based coverage (indirect payment), some mandate code, ample capital, the reduced exorbitant ER costs, IT base to streamline the administrative processes and trim the costs might be favorable to the private market. Over time, supposedly, the public plan will concentrate more on basic, primary cares, and the private insurers will provide their clients with differentiated services. And focus should be on the uninsured, the underinsured.
– Except For The Underinsured, The Uninsured Alone Outnumber The Entire Population In Canada –
In an attempt to avert innovation, moderation, and social responsibility, accusing essential affordability, citing take-over, will be a dirty play.
4. Profit-driven markets have nothing to do with affordable, sustainable public health.
When the public health is also one of commodity like a house, we come to a tragic and unthinkable conclusion : As to for-profit business, the more and longer ill patients get, the more profits they make, and it will debilitate the overall economy involving education for the future (Of young adults ages 19 to 29, 13.2 million, or 29 percent, lacked coverage in 2007).
Under the most wasteful structure on the planet like no coordinated preventive care program waiting until people get ill, about 50% of idle world’s best practices, a pay for each and every service reimbursement and frequent readmissions, no e-medical record and deaths, crushing litigations and the more profits via the unnecessary, risk-carrying procedures, and the most inefficient paper billing systems imaginable, overpriced pharmaceuticals, bloated insurance companies, incredible medial fraud, exorbitant costs by the tragic ER visits etc, it might be no wonder with the comprehensive, systematic reform in the pipeline, just one attitude of patient-oriented value in 10 regions has attained 16% of savings in Medicare while their quality scores are well above average.
Aside from the already allocated $583 billion and the savings of this reform package, 16% of $923.5bn (the combined Medicare and Medicaid cost per year, as of July) is around $147.76bn per year and 1.4776trillion over the next decade, and this patient-oriented value alone could be enough to meet the goal.
Please be ’sure’ to visit http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/opinion/13gawande.html?hp for credible evidences !
Today, another innovative, fundamental change in payment system, or patient’s outcome based payment reform that is able to turn the profit-oriented malpractices and volume into the patient-oriented value and quality is waiting for a final decision.
5. Inflation-driven greedy allies backed by the insurers have nothing to do with deficit-neutral.
When some part of our body is ailing seriously, we are going to lose competitiveness, equally, when some part of a nation is ailing servery, it is going to loose competitiveness, too. In case somebody in the house gets ill, health will be put over house, in practice.
6. The analyses of CBO have nothing to do with common sense and practice.
Costs of Preventable Chronic Disease account for around 75% of the nation’s $2.4 trillion medical care costs. U.S. health care spending is also expected to double in the next 10 years. and they are largely preventable — 80 percent of the risk factors are behavior-related.
Unlike the analyses of CBO, world-wide outstanding public programs put heavier emphasis on preventive program equally, and preventable swine flu pandemic is expected to cost about $2trillion dollars world-wide for the lack of prepared vaccines. (Genes included in the new swine flu have been circulating undetected in pigs for at least a decade, according to a team led by Rebecca Garten of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who have sequenced the genomes of more than 50 samples of the virus).
If CBO asks the profit-driven interests about why they have hindered the budget request for preventive program in Medicare and Medicaid, they will say, ” just look at the health Katrina special lobbying has made, the more and longer ills, the more profits, we are professional, and we are obstructing this reform right now, too ” .
7. Conclusion : The public health is a fundamental human right.
As I said above, patient-oriented value alone could be enough to meet the goal, and another innovative, fundamental change in payment system, or patient’s outcome based payment reform that is able to turn the profit-oriented malpractices and volume into the patient-oriented value and quality is waiting for a final decision.
If At least, some media pay attention to this flower of reform, people will feel empty as the past and current discussion has been time-consuming for sure.
Thank You !
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