The Public Option & Po’ Folks
By rivory | September 9th, 2009 | Category: Opinion/Reviews | 3 comments“The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.”
Thomas Sowell
by Richard Ivory
As President Obama takes his message of healthcare reform to the nation tonight, it is quite clear that most minorities and low-income people are siding with with The Democrats. The Republican Party has failed again in explaining its healthcare reform positions to inner-city and urban Americans. The GOP does have a variety of plans but for the most part it has failed again to market or tailor it to a largely urban audience.
The large minority and urban presence in this debate on healthcare reform gives Democrats the imagery they seek in making their case that a public option is about the “The have-nots” vs.” the haves”. The battle sounds of racism and class- warfare are evident in Democrat talking points.
Listen to Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) speak out for a public option:
“I believe that this debate is as historic as the debate for civil rights, historic as the debate to get the ERA,” “The fact is that the people who are standing opposed to the public option, these people are standing against reform, they are siding with big insurance industry bosses against the American people. Simple as that. And we’re simply not going to stand for it. No more so than Susan B Anthony stood for it, or Martin Luther King stood for it – or any of those people who fought for real reform to make America better.”
Such statements leave little room for disagreement and reek of rhetoric that rarely produces bipartisan reform. Moreover, with Susan B. Anthony and Martin Luther King on your side, why even bother having a debate? Perhaps the Congressman could have added George Washington and Thomas Edison to the foray just to cement the support. While quoting Susan B. Anthony and MLK might conjure up nostalgic imagery of “power to the people”, such rhetoric does nothing to pass effective bipartisan healthcare reform. Neither does accusing those who disagree with you on the public option as being opposed to civil rights.
Did it ever dawn on the Congressman that perhaps the people opposed to the public option are opposed on principle and not hate? Perhaps the Public Option seemed to be too expensive to those people opposed to it. Perhaps there is a real concern that Uncle Sam with his huge wallet and maker of rules might destroy Little Sarah’s lemonade stand?
To many people on the left, like Congressman Ellison, the public option seems to be the only way to give poor people healthcare. This is a fair and understandable position. Their position- the position of people opposed to the public option) should be respected. Given that the American people are going to be paying for such an option, however, they should at least have the right to review it. Many people reject the plan because they feel it is too expensive. They prefer other, less costly, plans.
Let’s take a look at the expenditures for this debate and why there is an outcry:
The CBO estimates that the House committee versions of the Obama health plan would add more than $1 trillion to federal deficits over the next decade. But the actual costs would be much higher.
For starters, $1 trillion of extra debt-financed spending would cause the government to pay about $300 billion of extra interest in the next decade. Moreover, the CBO’s method of estimating the cost of such a program doesn’t recognize the incentives it creates for households and firms to change their behavior.
The House health-care bill gives a large subsidy to millions of families with incomes up to three times the poverty level (i.e., up to $66,000 now for a family of four) if they buy their insurance through one of the newly created “insurance exchanges,” but not if they get their insurance from their employer. The CBO’s cost estimate understates the number who would receive the subsidy because it ignores the incentive for many firms to drop employer-provided coverage. It also ignores the strong incentive that individuals would have to reduce reportable cash incomes to qualify for higher subsidy rates. The total cost of ObamaCare over the next decade likely would be closer to $2 trillion than to $1 trillion.
The administration’s claim that the health-care plan would be “self-financing” is both false and irrelevant. It is false because it would only be self-financing if one counts a variety of President Obama’s proposed tax increases-and even those would produce much less revenue than is assumed in the budget calculations. The claim is irrelevant because those tax increases have nothing to do with health care and could be used instead to reduce other projected deficits.
With such daunting figures it is no surpirse that the American people are up in arms over the potential cost of healthcare reform. They want to know who is going to pay for it and what proof is there to show it will over the years cut cost. The Democrats and liberals pushing for a public option must understand that the American people are shopping. The American people want to choose the plan they are going to pay for.
This is not being bigoted, but it is called “shopping around”. We “shop around” every day in our everyday lives. We take in the cost and the durability of the item we seek to have and then we purchase it. On both concerns, with regards to cost and durability, the public option is found wanting! Perhaps, instead of ignoring the poor, these people are shopping for an option that considers cost, durability and the poor!
Perhaps these skeptics of the public option know that if you have a low budget and are in debt you cannot do much but make promises. As the rapper Jay Z so adamantly put it, “I can’t help the poor if I’m one of them”.
Richard Ivory is a political consultant and writer for New Majority.com and is the founder of HipHopRepublican.com, he has worked for the Republican National Committee and was the college outreach director for the Republican Youth Majority
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I hope and pray that if the “public option” passes. It will not turn into a system similar to the current “public School system” and lets remember how good public schools are in rich counties and how bad they are in poor counties.
How can options be discussed if they are all off teh table per Pres. Obama. Rule #1 in negociations . You never negociate against yourself.
The Health Care Debate Fraud: The Poor & Poorest of the Poor have been forgotten and sacrificed by Democrats & Republicans on the Altars of Greed and Deceit!
Health Care Warriors, Social Activists and Scholars kindly read and analyze the below information on H.R. 676 and the article by Mrs. Palin and give your view. Discuss the information with your family and with anyone Black folx you know in the health care business; with any Black folx you know that have been denied medical treatment in emergency rooms or have been turned out of hospitals because their coverage was insufficient.
During the presidential race, Barack Obama campaigned on a health care plan that included a single-payer option which was a real change. After all revolution is change and revolution happens at various levels in society – the time is now for revolutionary change in health care. Reform – Reformation or reforming is not change it is compromise that preserves the status quo with a reformed face lift that can be sold to those in real power – those who donate the most to the political feed buckets in this case big insurance – big pharmaceuticals – big R&D firms and right wing conservatives and all racist hate mongering minions and all those who oppose change!
What is H.R. 676? Why has it not been mentioned by those who oppose or support the Public Option/b>
H.R. 676, also called the United States National Health Insurance Act, is a bill to create a single-payer, publicly-financed, privately-delivered universal health care program that would cover all Americans without charging co-pays or deductibles. It guarantees access to the highest quality and most affordable health care services regardless of employment, ability to pay or pre-existing health conditions. Those who oppose United States National Health Insurance Act can still keep and pay for whatever insurance they have.
What is “single-payer”?
The term single-payer describes the kind of financing system that H.R. 676 uses. It means that one entity–in this case, established by the government–handles all billing and payment for health care services. Right now, there are thousands upon thousands of “payers”– HMOs, PPOs, bill collection agencies, etc. The sheer volume of paperwork required by our current system means that administrative waste accounts for roughly 31% of the money spent on health care. The single-payer system would eliminate the wasteful paperwork and administrative costs, redirecting more of our health care dollars to providing care.
Medicare is perhaps the best known single-payer system. Essentially, H.R. 676 would improve Medicare and expand it, so that it covers all Americans, regardless of their income.
I urge you to click here and visit this website and read about single-payer. Some may be surprised who championed this bill and later did a turn around – drank the Democratic compromise kool aid – hoodwinked by the party insiders and the President.
All have witnessed the cry to stop change in health care that emanates from the right wing, conservatives, dog blue dog Democrats. Funny how they use the phrase – stop the public option by any means necessary – Black Americans should remember this phrases – our activists ended up on po po lists for merely uttering it!
Reform is compromise and as soon as the President and every other politician that supported H.R. 676 chickened out the new spin of the chicken heart Democrats became – reform and this is what the conservatives, the insurance industry, the giant pharma companies waited for because they had a crack in the armour – a crack in the damn – a Waterloo for the Pres and the Democrats!
The Democrats and the President backed off the single payer option and the people were never in the fight, probably never knew what H.R. 676 was all about – The people who voted for the Democrats were sleep and fearfully silent! The single payer option was quietly left to wither and the reform kool- aid – the public option became the new battle cry of the chicken hearts! We watch now and see how even the public option – compromise reform battle cry of the chicken heart Democrats is now in jeopardy! They may have came to the fight to late to support and pass any type of reform!
Recently, the Obama administration indicated that it might be open to passing health care reform without any provision for a public insurance option. In fact, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, went so far as to say that the public option was not an “essential” part of reform.
Stand up for real health care change and tell President Obama and all those you voted for to fight for the single payer universal health care H.R. 676, also called the United States National Health Insurance Act.
For the chicken hearts that beg for compromise – the only hope is that the Democrats at least have the courage to fight for reform and pass the public option – whatever that is!
Black and all poor Americans have been kicked to the curbside – mighty conservatives, racists, and cowardly Democrats would rather give billions to Wall Street and foreign aid to buy the loyalty of allies and support useless wars than see poor folks have health care! The wealthy the financially comfortable who are satisfied with their insurance can keep it. There can be a two track system!
Socialism and bail outs for the wealthiest and capitalism for the poor and as mighty whitey says these day – by any means necessary!
Source URL: http://www.johnconyers.com/hr676faq
Links:
[1] http://www.pnhp.org/single_payer_resources/administrative_waste_consumes_31_percent_of_health_spending.php
Richard you bring out many good points regarding the GOP failing to get its’ healthcare coverage message out. The primary reason for this is due to the fixation of the GOP on criticizing and attempting to sabotage the Obama administration.
I as a successful (semi young) mostly conservative African American Republican would be more than willing to help the GOP to rebuild if they could just focus more on the internal party issues as well as the larger issues facing this country and less on political grandstanding and bashing Obama. It’s a fruitless cause considering the numerous failed policies of the Bush administration which has reduced Republican credibility to zero.
Furthermore, I don’t believe the GOP as a party has a viable alternative to what the Dems are proposing in healthcare reform. Steele had an opportunity to present such an alternative at Howard and he completely dodged the question. With this type of leadership (or lack thereof) it’s pretty evident the GOP’s current focus isn’t on finding resolutions to serious problems facing Americans but instead they remain strictly an opposition political party.
This concept is not a viable strategy for moving the party forward after disastrous showings the past few elections and is based on flawed logic by so-called party leaders who are completely out of touch with a fast changing society. One only needs to look at the current and projected demographics of this country and compare it to the faces of leadership in the GOP!