I want to share with you, well really, I want to share with you some insights that Matt Taibbi put together brilliantly over at Rolling Stone, about where we’re at with this healthcare legislation. Our overall question for the hour: Why does America have the most sick and twisted healthcare system in the world and why in all probability, even though there’s all this talk of reform, are we gonna end up a year, two years, three years from now continuing to have the most sick and twisted healthcare system in the world? At least in the developed world. You know, you couldn’t put us up against Zimbabwe I assume.
Matt Taibbi in the current issue of Rolling Stone lays out basically what’s already happened. And frankly there were pieces of it that to me were a shock and I thought I was well informed on this. So I, you know, I want to share with you some of the things that I learned from reading this and that I’ve been able to corroborate in the research that I’ve done over the weekend. Um, this is pretty solid stuff. The obvious things we have talked about, you know, Chuck Grassley has received over two million dollars from the health insurance industry, you know, Enzi, all these senators that are making these decisions, particularly the so-called Blue Dog democrats. They’re just rolling in dough from the health insurance industry to the point that you’ve got some members of the house of representatives now, including my congressman, Kurt Schrader from here in Portland, Oregon, who says he wants to become a member of the Blue Dog democrats. Why? Well, you can ask him, but I would guess the fact that the Blue Dogs are suddenly getting huge gifts of money from the health insurance industry sure will help his reelection. Given that people get elected based more on what they spend than who they are and what kind of stands they take, tragically.
So anyhow, you have all this money. Olympia Snowe took $756,000, Enzi took $627,000, Grassley took over $2,000,000. Those are the three Republicans in the gang of six. You know, the Democrats in the gang of six have taken millions of dollars as well from the health insurance companies. We have 1300 different major insurers in the country, or different insurance policies, plans in the United States. Nearly a third of all the money spent on healthcare, now this after you set aside the 700 million dollars for compensation for Steven Hemsley, the president and CEO of United Healthcare and the tens of millions of dollars in compensation for the other CEOs, after you set aside that, this is after you’ve pulled off the tens of billions of dollars in dividends that are being distributed every year to the stockholders in these companies.
After all that, nearly a third of all the money that gets ‘spent’ on healthcare is spent by people like your doctor and my doctor, your hospital, my hospital, your medical clinic, my medical clinic, trying to fill out forms. And the health insurance companies try to fight the payments. So about a third of it, a third of all our healthcare dollars are spent on administration that in Canada if you walk into a doctor’s office or a hospital it’s one form. Very often in some countries you don’t even need to sign anything, all you have to do is show the card. And then the doctor’s office fills out one form. Now there’s a third of our healthcare expenses. We’re spending about twice as much as anybody in the world on healthcare and about a third of that is just paperwork. So the first thing the Obama Administration should do is get rid of all that paperwork. How do you do that? With a single payer health care system.
But they’ve chosen not to do that. So we’re going to continue to have a third of our healthcare dollars be wasted in administration. Now you’re going to hear a lot of talk about ‘well we’re going to put medical records in place, create new business for Diebold or ES&S’, right? A great new business for the computer industry. And maybe it will slightly diminish it. But it’s putting a Band-Aid on a cancer.
Step two, Matt Taibbi talks about this in the current issue of Rolling Stone, the article by the way is called ‘Sick and Wrong, how Washington is screwing up healthcare reform and why it may take a revolt to fix it.’ And I think it is going to take a revolt. Step two: Gut the public option. The original idea of a public option was something that anybody could buy into, right? That’s what we all think that we’re talking about when we're talking about a public option. And that is reimbursing physicians at a rate similar to Medicare. The original proposal for the public option was Medicare plus 5%. And that is reimbursing drug companies based on the ability to negotiate drug prices and that reimburses hospitals based on competitive bids. You know, basically, a company, or a healthcare plan, run by the government that is actually operating like a competitive business. That was what was originally proposed.
Then the Blue Dogs got there. Then the Blue Dogs came in. And the Blue Dogs said, and the Blue Dogs said, ‘you know, we don’t like this idea of a public option that actually can compete with health insurance companies. So do away with the reimbursement of Medicare plus 5% and instead make all the reimbursements individually negotiable.’ Now collectively negotiable would mean that you could actually negotiate down prices. Individually negotiable means you’re going to pay what the insurance companies are paying. You’re going to pay, or you’re going to pay what it’s costing them plus all of their administrative costs.
In other words, according to the math that Matt Taibbi lays out here in Rolling Stone, about an additional, the public option just became $1800 a year per family in the United States more expensive. In other words it won’t compete. It won’t be a lot cheaper than buying private health insurance. Which of course is exactly what the Blue Dogs wanted. They say that they’re all, ‘I’m a Blue Dog, I’m a fiscal conservative!’ Bull. The Blue Dogs are fiscal, are corporate whores, that’s what they are. Pure and simple. And this is the proof of it. They’re coming in and they’re saying to the Democratic Administration, ‘Do not let this public option be truly competitive against the for-profit corporations, because those for-profit corporations are shoveling piles of money into our back pocket.’
The way Taibbi says it,"On July 9th, in a harmless-sounding letter to Pelosi, 40 Blue Dogs expressed concern that doctors in the public option "must be fairly reimbursed at negotiated rates, and their participation must be voluntary." Paying doctors "using Medicare's below-market rates," they added, "would seriously weaken the financial stability of our local hospitals." " It was a lie and they knew it was a lie. It was an end run around the political, as Matt Taibbi says, it "was an amazing end run around the political problem posed by the public option". In other words it would be cheaper than for profit health insurance. As Taibbi says, "The Blue Dogs were demanding that the very thing that makes the public option work — curbing costs to taxpayers by reimbursing doctors at Medicare rates plus five percent — be scrapped. Instead, the Blue Dogs wanted compensation rates for doctors to be jacked up, on the government's tab."
Now Congresswomen Wolsley says, "Cost should be the number-one concern to the Blue Dogs, that’s why they’re Blue Dogs." Right. Sorry. As Taibbi says, "In one fell swoop, the public plan went from being significantly cheaper than private insurance to costing, well, "about the same as what we have now," as one Senate aide puts it." So the party is now going to sell voters on the idea that it’s offering a public option without technically lying, while at the same time reassuring healthcare providers that the public option it's passing would not imperil the health insurance industry’s market share.
Even more disgusting, when on July 31, Nancy Pelosi was asked if progressives would pull out because of this sell out to the Blue Dogs, she laughed. She literally laughed. She said, "Are the progressives going to take down universal, quality, affordable health care for all Americans? I don't think so." Chuckle chuckle chuckle. Yeah right.
Okay, Step 3: Pack it with loopholes. The most glaring example of this, "The most glaring example, passed by Ted Kennedy's HELP committee, would allow the makers of complex drugs known as "biologics" to keep their formulas from being copied by rivals for 12 years." In other words, extend patent protection. So the government, the public option has to continue to pay for patented drugs even after there are generics. So first the doctors and the hospitals get their piece of it and the health insurance companies are assured ‘don’t worry, nobody is gonna compete with us!’ Now the pharmaceutical companies. ‘Don’t worry, you know, the public option, yeah, hahaha.’
And then the third, this is the real killer, is this thing of your being able to buy into the public option. We thought any of us would be able to buy into the public option, right? Wrong. It looks like the way this is going to play out is if your employer is offering you health insurance, and you turn it down, then you cannot buy into the public option. You have to take your employers health insurance or nothing. And a lot of employers are offering some damn crummy health insurance. Wal-Mart being the most notorious of all. And in fact, a lot of people who work at Wal-Mart say, ‘Nah, I’m not gonna take your health insurance, I’m making so little I qualify for Medicare or Medicaid and they’re taking state Medicaid for poverty.’ Now they won’t be able to.
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Jack Kennedy had a few things to say about the whole idea of a public option, or public healthcare. And this is, and for those of you who are watching our video stream, we’re gonna play this through the video stream. This is President Kennedy talking about the need for public, for real true public healthcare.
"And I hope that while he's here, he and Doctor Spock and others who have joined us, will come to see what we are trying to do."The fact of the matter is that what we are now talking about doing, most of the countries of Europe did years ago. The British did it 30 years ago. We are behind every country, pretty nearly, in Europe, in this matter of medical care for our citizens.
"And then those who say that this should be left to private efforts. In those hospitals in New Jersey where the doctors said they wouldn't treat anyone who paid their hospital bills through social security, those hospitals and every other new hospital, the American people--all of us--contribute one-half, one or two thirds for every new hospital, the National Government. We pay 55 percent of all the research done. We help young men become doctors.
"We are concerned with the progress of this country, and those who say that what we are now talking about spoils our great pioneer heritage should remember that the West was settled with two great actions by the National Government; one, in President Lincoln's administration, when he gave a homestead to everyone who went West, and in 1862 he set aside Government property to build our land grant colleges.
"This cooperation between an alert and Progressive citizen and a progressive Government is what has made this country great--and we shall continue as long as we have the opportunity to do so."
Jack Kennedy, President Jack Kennedy calling for national healthcare. Harry Truman back in 1947 calling for national healthcare. Over and over and over again. We have had Presidents calling for national healthcare, going, you know, arguably back to Teddy Roosevelt, although it was, not when he was President but when he was running for President on the Bull Moose Party. But it is, it has always been fought by the plutocracy. It’s always been fought by the very wealthy who don’t need a national healthcare program and want to make sure that none of it comes out of their pocket. And all the more of a tragedy as a consequence of it.
866-987-THOM. Oh, before we get to your phone calls, I want to just lay out. As I was saying, just to finish this rant about healthcare. As I was saying, if you, here’s, there’s three more gotchas in this public option, so far! And this is actually, these are things that are actually written into the bill. If, quoting Matt Taibbi in the Rolling Stone, "If your employer offers you acceptable care and you reject it, you are barred from buying insurance in the insurance "exchange" " which is where the public option would be. "In other words, you must take the insurance offered to you at work." There is no real requirement for employers to provide any minimal level of care which means, quoting Bernie Sanders, "If you have coverage you like, you can keep it. But if you have coverage you don't like, you gotta keep it." He talks about Wal-Mart’s bare bones health insurance. "Low wage workers currently offered these plans often reject them and join Medicaid." And then, of course, the states have to pick up the medical costs for Wal-Mart’s employees, which the states don’t like and Wal-Mart loves.
Well, if the health committees, just quoting from Matt Taibbi again, from the Rolling Stone, "If the HELP committee's grandfather clause," this is Kennedy’s committee actually, “survives to the final,” and this is written into the law right now, into the proposed bill, "survives to the final bill, those workers who did the sensible thing in rejecting Walmart's crap employer plan and taking the comparatively awesome insurance offered via Medicaid will now be rebuffed by the state and forced to take the
Walmart offering." This works out well for the states by the way, because they no longer have to pay for Medicaid. So they like that. In addition to that, there’s going to be this thing called the ‘individual mandate’ which they have in Massachusetts. In other words, if you don’t have insurance, you get hit with a big tax fine. So you damn well better buy insurance. This adds 40 million customers to the for-profit insurance companies. They love it. They’re doing very well in Massachusetts by the way.
And there was a piece in this legislation that said that you’ve got to, if you’re going to have to buy insurance, all employers have to offer it. Well that got watered down by the Blue Dogs as well. Originally it said everybody, every company has to offer, or actually the original version was any company who has more than 25 employees. Now it’s any company that has a payroll above, below $250,000 will be allowed to opt out of basically the only reform that we’ve got. Which is 87% of all businesses in American can say, ‘Nah, don’t want to do it.’ It's amazing.
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Tragic headline from CNN news. It’s just one sentence. They’ve got a whole video story about it, but here’s the sentence: "An Ohio man who joined the Army to get health insurance has just died after a month in combat". That’s what we’ve got. We have got a sick and broken and twisted and damaged system that only makes money for a small number of people and is going to continue to only make money for a small number of people, and they just want to keep it going as long as they can and frankly even the Democrats now are, you know. Yeah, they’re going to give us a public option the way that they gave seniors drugs, pharmaceuticals with Medicare part D. I mean that was the Republicans doing, that, but.
Transcribed by Suzanne Roberts, Portland Psychology Clinic.
