Weekly Newsletter: August 17, 2009
Not an “Option”
Yesterday’s Sunday talk shows saw several White House officials—including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and press secretary Robert Gibbs—indicating the Administration’s willingness to strike the so-called “public option” from health “reform” legislation in lieu of a system of health insurance cooperatives. The apparent reversal comes amid growing criticism of Democrats’ attempted government takeover of health care, and surveys from outside experts indicating that as many as 114 million Americans could lose their current coverage if a government-run health plan were created.
Despite the apparent change in tone by the Administration, recent press reports indicate that the House Democrat majority—at the insistence of its liberal Members—will continue to include a government-run plan in any legislation considered on the House floor. Indeed, just before Congress embarked on its August recess, Speaker Pelosi reportedly acquiesced to a floor vote on a single-payer health care system.
While supporting the White House’s newfound conciliatory tone, Members may still have many other concerns surrounding the legislation—including nearly $1.6 trillion in spending, an increase in the federal deficit in the short-term and the long-term, abolition of the private market for individual health insurance, and onerous tax increases on the middle class and large and small businesses alike. Many of these concerns surround issues tangential to the Administration’s stated goal of reducing health costs—and many of the new mandates, regulations, and bureaucracies will raise costs for both the private sector and the federal government.
Similarly, while Members may support the concept of increasing private insurance market competition, Members may also be concerned by the import of some of the cooperative proposals being discussed. Many leading Democrats have made statements equating co-op proposals to a government-run “public option,” and most of the proposals being discussed would involve billions of dollars of federal cash infusions to fund the co-ops—which could lead to additional federal dollars being spent to bail such institutions out if they prove unsuccessful. Therefore, Members may be concerned that the co-op proposals being advanced by Democrats will do for health care what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have done for the housing sector.
“Just the Facts, Ma’am”
Amidst all the White House claims of “misinformation” surrounding access to treatments and government rationing, it bears worth repeating that the United Kingdom and other countries with government-run health plans deny costly therapies to patients, particularly older patients. For instance, a report regarding Britain’s National Health Service released in June prompted complaints from patient advocates that senior citizens receive sub-standard care; one activist found it “appalling that people over 75 are not getting the care they need…it is scandalous that not everyone is getting” access to treatment. In its coverage of the report, the BBC relayed the story of one 74-year old ovarian cancer patient, who according to her daughter had to travel to Iran in order to receive a proper diagnosis:
Mum started to have bleeding early in 2007. She went to the [general practitioner], but they just took her off her [hormone replacement therapy] and sent her to a gynecologist. He said it was probably just stress. It was only when she went back to visit family in Iran and saw a doctor there that she was diagnosed. They did a scan and found a large lump in her fallopian tube. When she came back to the UK, doctors found the cancer had spread to one of her lymph glands. It was the size of a tennis ball. She then had a six-week wait before having a hysterectomy and then chemo. Her treatment was very good, but the diagnosis was abysmal. If it had been found 18 months earlier, it could have been removed easily and she wouldn’t have needed a hysterectomy or chemo.”
Given that President Obama’s key advisors have admitted that government-run health plans will always be under-funded—and that waiting times are an acceptable “trade off between patient costs and capital costs”—many Members may be highly skeptical of any claims that a government takeover of health care will not lead to denial of life-saving treatments for patients.
Other key facts surrounding Democrats’ health care “reform” include these:
- Individuals who like their current plan may not be able to keep it—millions of seniors will lose access to Medicare Advantage plans under Democrats’ proposed cuts, employers may drop coverage due to costly federal mandates imposed in the bills, and the House legislation would abolish the private market for individual health insurance entirely;
- The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has confirmed that all the bills being considered would raise, not lower, the growth of health costs—CBO has estimated that the House bill would increase the federal deficit by $239 billion in its first ten years, and “would probably generate substantial increases in federal budget deficits” in the years following;
- The bills include tax increases on families with incomes under $250,000 who cannot afford to purchase “bureaucrat-approved” health coverage—a violation of then-Senator Obama’s campaign promise not to raise taxes on the middle class;
- Job losses will result from the more than $800 billion in tax increases included in the House bill—according to a model developed by President Obama’s chief economic advisors, as many as 5.5 million jobs could be lost.
All these reasons should give the American people pause before embracing Democrats’ proposed government takeover of the health care industry.