Public Option RIP
By HHR | October 4th, 2009 | Category: Opinion/Reviews | 3 comments
by Dorian Davis
President Obama’s healthcare plan is shaping up to be the biggest disappointment since Soul Plane.
I know Democrats are miffed the Senate Finance Committee dropped government-run health insurance – Obama calls it the “public option” – last Tuesday, but I keep thinking: if there really were a “public option,” NBC would cancel Conan.
This is welfare, plain and simple, and – at $60 billion according to the Congressional Budget Office – it was bound to fail.
If the government wants to cover even a fraction of the 45 million uninsured, it has two options: limit healthcare services and dictate which doctors each patient can use or spend a fortune on over-priced medicine and make it up in taxes.
That’s a tough sell.
In addition to his prime-time speech, Obama’s gone on Meet the Press and a bunch of other shows – I wouldn’t be surprised to see him on Dancing with the Stars – but still come up short.
I’m not even sure the “bipartisan” compromise Max Baucus (D-Montana) proposed has a shot at passing. It ditches the public option, but still fines the uninsured up to $4,000 and introduces a bunch of hidden taxes without significantly cutting the original plan’s trillion-dollar price tag.
If FDR were alive, and could choose between that plan and Obama’s, he’d choose polio. That’s how bad it is.
One reason the California wildfires have more public support than Obama’s healthcare plan is that most people are perfectly happy. The new Rasmussen poll shows 68 percent satisfied with their current healthcare coverage and the new Gallup poll shows 81.
Even doctors are skeptical. Last summer, the American Medical Association gave Obama’s plan a tepid endorsement, but said in a statement it expected the bill to evolve. And, since the “public option” lowers doctors’ insurance compensation and increases processing fees, the only doctor who’d support this thing is Seuss.
I know there has to be some kind of healthcare reform, but putting the federal government in charge of it is like putting Courtney Love in charge of her sanity; It’s just misplaced confidence.
Dorian Davis is a contributor to HipHopRepublican.com. He starred on MTV’s morning show, MTV Hits, before switching to the other side of the camera to research and develop Iraq coverage for MTV News. Later, he contributed to specials for LOGO and FUSE. Now a freelance writer, Davis is published in Architectural Record, Brainwash Magazine, Business Week Online, Doublethink Online, New York Daily News, New York Republican Record and XY. He lives in NYC.
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A large majority of Americans may be happy with their health insurance, assuming they can keep the job that provides them with said health insurance, but 65 % of Americans (according to at least this poll) support the idea of a public option in the bill.
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2009/09/25/us/politics/25pollgrx.html
Many other polls reflect these numbers. The misinformation absorbed by the public reflected by these polls is disheartening, but oh well. Summer of death panels.
I don’t know how you can complain about health insurance reform as a government welfare program and not recognize that what’s being proposed is similar to the wildly popular welfare program already in place, Medicare. Please come out against Medicare as well, then.
Besides, according to the CBO a strong public option would actually save money. More money than the weak alternatives being proposed.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/09/cbo_a_strong_public_plan_saves.html
Healthcare reform would cost less than the war in Iraq or the tax cuts on the wealthy that helped contribute to the need for an expensive bailout bill as well as a stimulus program for a sinking economy.
“If the government wants to cover even a fraction of the 45 million uninsured, it has two options: limit healthcare services and dictate which doctors each patient can use or spend a fortune on over-priced medicine and make it up in taxes.”
This doesn’t even begin make sense, and you know it… it’s just a scare tactic. Do you think the uninsured aren’t already burdens on our hospitals and emergency rooms? That tax payers aren’t already shelling out for the over-priced medicines and procedures they receive? The problems confronting our health care system are much scarier than the idea that we would receive a deluge of sick patients. There are plenty of sick people WITH health insurance who aren’t getting care.
As I recall, Obama talked about the need for people to be willing to use non-name brand medicine that works just as well, and got roundly cuffed on the ears by conservative Dems and Republicans for saying the truth.
Max Baucus’s bill is awful, but it’s far better than what we currently have. Even Bill Frist says he would vote for it if he were still in office (although I’d like to see him put his money where his mouth is). The notion that FDR, who promoted a second bill of rights for Americans and believed we should all have access to health care, the man who was always willing to experiment with social programs to see if they worked towards improving the lives of all Americans (and sometimes they didn’t), wouldn’t support the actions the administration is taking is absolutely insane.
Our health care system is broken. Come back when you have some real ideas about how to help fix it rather than misappropriated snark.
JOE G,
Are you talking about the same CBO which has projected Medicare and Social Security’s INSOLVENCY by 2017 and 2047? How can a ” strong public option” save money when the Federal Treasury is already BROKE and $12 Trillions in debt? Where will the money for ‘public option’ come from when our government is already subsisting on trillions of foreign-I.O.Us-credit? All this because the IRS can barely collect enough taxes as is to fill Washington’s massive deficit.
And yet the administration and liberals keeps peddling this PREPOSTEROUS idea that a debt-addicted, tax-obese government is infinitely QUALIFIED to control healthcare cost when it has failed (or is unwilling) to REFORM the EXISTING rampant WASTE and FRAUD in these agencies.
That’s like the wolf telling the shepherd that the flock will be safer with him than with the sheepdog.
How can something be an ‘OPTION’ when a bureaucracy of this scale can ONLY exist through NON-OPTIONAL taxes. And this is in addition to the hefty taxes I’m ALREADY paying towards Social Security and Medicare. Both of which are not likely to be around come my retirement. How can this administration say with a straight face that ‘Public Option’ will pay for itself when the MATH does NOT support that fantasy?
The US Healthcare Industry is a very COMPLEX FOOD CHAIN. The money trail doesn’t end with the HMOs as the likes of Michael Moore would have you believe.
Look past the hyped anecdotes and you’ll stare into the gaping mouths of drug companies, lotto-seeking lawyers, patients who game the system, hypochondriacs, opportunistic medical vendors, sub-standard hospitals, dishonest medical practitioners and idiosyncratic state-legislators.
Reform Healthcare. Not Deform It!
Joe G, here are my solutions that won’t cost a dime:
http://fixhealthcarepolicy.com/about/
You are under the assumtion that your opinion matters to the political elite in the government, it does not. They will continue the corrupt policies until the are replaced. They will continue to provide the money to the union thugs (SEIU, UAW) so that they can receive their paybacks. They will continue to support organizations that are less than legal minded (ACORN, NEA, PBS). They will continue to provide all the pork that their supports can handle, while enriching themselves. The propaganda media (MSNBC, CNN, CBS, ABC) will continue to provide cover for the lies and corruption.
The reason that the eleite of our political classes don’t listen is because they no the American people have short attention spans and they know that because of that they can sit back and treat us tike stupid children.