White House and Congress Busy Getting Dizzy Devising a Rube Goldberg Public Option for Helath Care Reform
It's like watching a hamster on a wheel going nowhere.
The new HHS secretary, Kathleen Sibelius, stated that "covering the uninsured could take years, even if Congress passes a bill and Obama signs it into law this fall.
"Stretching out the phase-in period could make it easier to handle the costs of the bill, estimated at $1 trillion over 10 years at least, a sum that already is prompting second thoughts from some key lawmakers."
"Sebelius' comments came after disappointing cost estimates for health care legislation by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. The Congressional Budget Office released estimates that his bill would cost about $1 trillion over 10 years and only cover about one-third of the nearly 50 million uninsured. Budget officials cautioned that these were early estimates of a bill that's only partly written."She also said Obama was open to "compromise" on a public plan and spoke positively about Senator Conrad's co-operative program that has already been debunked as ineffective smoke and mirrors.
I planned to make a few comments but Jonathan Tasini at Working Life already has done so quite succinctly and well:
"I just finished reading the Congressional Budget Office's report to Sen. Ted Kennedy which looked at the Affordable Health Choices Act. And the report makes clear why single-payer is the only logical economic choice for health care.
"Respectfully, none of the best Democratic bills are going to solve the coverage crisis nor the economic costs of our insane, profit-driven health care. Mr. President, we are not talking about "socialized medicine", as you defensively argued in your speech yesterday to the American Medical Association. We are talking about ECONOMIC sanity.
"Here are the key paragraphs in the CBO report, which says the numbers are preliminary:
'According to the preliminary analysis, once the proposal was fully implemented, the number of people who are uninsured would decline to
about 36 million or 37 million, representing about 13 percent of the
nonelderly population.'
"So, not only would we not achieve full coverage but:
'On a preliminary basis, CBO and the JCT staff estimate that the major provisions in title I of the Affordable Health Choices Act affecting health insurance coverage would result in a net increase in federal deficits of about $1.0 trillion for fiscal years 2010 through 2019. That estimate primarily reflects the subsidies that would be provided to purchase coverage through the new insurance exchanges, which would amount to nearly $1.3 trillion in that period. The average subsidy per exchange enrollee (including those who would receive no subsidy) would rise from roughly $5,000 in 2015 to roughly $6,000 in 2019. The other element of the proposal that would increase the federal deficit is a credit for small employers who offer health insurance, which is estimated to cost $60 billion over 10 years.'[emphasis added]
"So, let me get this straight. In order to appease the leeches from the insurance industry, we are willing to enact a plan that will leave millions of people uninsured? As opposed to having a real health care plan--single-payer--which would cover everyone and save money.
"Please tell me I'm missing something."
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