This and 5 Other
Complaints About the Recently Passed House Health
Bill
By John Nichols, The Nation
Posted on November 9, 2009, Printed on November 10, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/143842/
The Affordable Health Care for America Act was
approved by the U.S. House Saturday night with overwhelming support
from progressive Democrats who serve in the chamber and from a
president who was nominated and elected with the enthusiastic
support of progressive voters.
But that does not mean that informed and engaged
progressives are entirely enthusiastic about the measure.
In fact, some are openly and explicitly opposed to
it -- among them former Congressional Progressive Caucus chair
Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and CPC member Eric Massa, D-New York,
both of whom broke with the majority of their fellow Democrats to
vote "no" when the House approved the measure by a narrow
220-215 vote Saturday.
How can this be?
Isn't this a fight between Democrats and
Republicans? Between reforming liberals and tea-party
conservatives?
How can there possible be any subtlety or nuance to
this debate?
Well, of course, the debate over this 1,900-page
behemoth of a bill is more complicated than the easy spin of
political insiders -- and media cheering sections -- would have
Americans believe.
Key interest groups, such as the National
Organization for Women, and key congressmen who have been long-term
supporters of reform, such as single-payer backers Massa and
Kucinich, argue that the bill is not the cure for what ails the
U.S. health care system.
Indeed, they suggest, the bill as it is currently
constructed could make a bad situation worse.
Many sincere progressives in the House, and outside
of it, chose to back the bill as the best that could be gotten.
Others supported it on the theory that flaws could be fixed in the
Senate and in the reconciliation of the House and Senate bills.
But those repairs will only be made if activists
are conscious of what ails this bill.
For that reason, even supporters of the House
legislation would be wise to consider the criticisms of it by
groups that advocate for the rights of women, patient advocates,
unions and some of the most progressive members of the House.
Here are six smart progressive complaints about the
House bill:
1. FROM CONGRESSMAN
ERIC MASSA: "This Bill Will Enshrine in Law the
Monopolistic Powers of the Private Health Insurance
Industry"
At the highest level, this bill will enshrine in law
the monopolistic powers of the private health insurance industry,
period. There's really no other way to look at it. I believe
the private health insurance industry is part of the problem.
This bill also, I believe, fails to address the
fundamental question before the American people, and that is how do
we control the costs of health care. It does not address interstate
portability, as Medicare does. It does not address real medical
malpractice insurance reform. It does not address the incredible
waste and fraud that are currently in the system.
2. FROM
THE CALIFORNIA NURSES ASSOCIATION: This Bill Fails to Control
Costs
While the current bills will provide limited assistance
for some, the inconvenient truth is they fall far short in
effective controls on skyrocketing insurance, pharmaceutical and
hospital costs, do little to stop insurance companies from denying
needed medical care recommended by doctors, and provide little
relief for Americans with employer-sponsored insurance worried
about health security for themselves and their
families.
3. FROM THE NATIONAL
ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN: "This Bill Obliterates Women's
Fundamental Right to Choose"
The House of Representatives has dealt the worst blow
to women's fundamental right to self-determination in order to
buy a few votes for reform of the profit-driven health insurance
industry. We must protect the rights we fought for in Roe v. Wade.
We cannot and will not support a health care bill that strips
millions of women of their existing access to abortion.
Birth control and abortion are integral aspects of
women's health care needs. Health care reform should not be a
vehicle to obliterate a woman's fundamental right to
choose.
The Stupak Amendment (to the House bill, which was
approved and attached on Saturday) goes far beyond the abusive Hyde
Amendment, which has denied federal funding of abortion since 1976.
The Stupak Amendment, if incorporated into the final version of
health insurance reform legislation, will:
• Prevent women receiving tax subsidies from
using their own money to purchase private insurance that covers
abortion;
• Prevent women participating in the public
health insurance exchange, administered by private insurance
companies, from using 100 percent of their own money to purchase
private insurance that covers abortion;
• Prevent low-income women from accessing
abortion entirely, in many cases.
NOW calls on the Senate to pass a health care bill
that respects women's constitutionally protected right to
abortion and calls on President Obama to refuse to sign any health
care bill that restricts women's access to affordable, quality
reproductive health care.
4. FROM
PLANNED PARENTHOOD'S CECILE RICHARDS: This Bill Embraces
Religious-Right Extremes
It is extremely unfortunate that the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops and anti-choice opponents were able
to hijack the health care reform bill in their dedicated attempt to
ban all legal abortion In the United States.
Most telling is the fact that the vast majority of
members of the House who supported the Stupak/Pitts amendment in
today's vote do not support HR 3962, revealing their true
motive, which is to kill the health care reform bill.
These single-issue advocates simply used health
care reform to advance their extreme, ideological agenda at the
expense of tens of millions of women.
5. FROM
CONGRESSMAN DENNIS KUCINICH,: This Bill Worries About the
Health of Wall Street, Not America
We have been led to believe that we must make our
health care choices only within the current structure of a
predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not
providing health care. We cannot fault the insurance companies for
being what they are. But we can fault legislation in which the
government incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening,
of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the
problem. When health insurance companies deny care or raise
premiums, co-pays and deductibles they are simply trying to make a
profit. That is our system.
Clearly, the insurance companies are the problem,
not the solution. They are driving up the cost of health care.
Because their massive bureaucracy avoids paying bills so
effectively, they force hospitals and doctors to hire their own
bureaucracy to fight the insurance companies to avoid getting stuck
with an unfair share of the bills. The result is that since 1970,
the number of physicians has increased by less than 200% while the
number of administrators has increased by 3000 percent. It is no
wonder that 31 cents of every health care dollar goes to
administrative costs, not toward providing care. Even those with
insurance are at risk. The single biggest cause of bankruptcies in
the U.S. is health insurance policies that do not cover you when
you get sick.
But instead of working toward the elimination of
for-profit insurance, H.R. 3962 would put the government in the
role of accelerating the privatization of health care. In H.R.
3962, the government is requiring at least 21 million Americans to
buy private health insurance from the very industry that causes
costs to be so high, which will result in at least $70 billion in
new annual revenue, much of which is coming from taxpayers. This
inevitably will lead to even more costs, more subsidies, and higher
profits for insurance companies - a bailout under a blue cross.
By incurring only a new requirement to cover
pre-existing conditions, a weakened public option, and a few other
important but limited concessions, the health insurance companies
are getting quite a deal. The Center for American Progress'
blog, Think Progress, states, 'since the President signaled
that he is backing away from the public option, health insurance
stocks have been on the rise.' Similarly, healthcare stocks
rallied when Senator Max Baucus introduced a bill without a public
option. Bloomberg reports that Curtis Lane, a prominent health
industry investor, predicted a few weeks ago that 'money will
start flowing in again' to health insurance stocks after
passage of the legislation. Investors.com last month reported that
pharmacy benefit managers share prices are hitting all-time highs,
with the only industry worry that the Administration would reverse
its decision not to negotiate Medicare Part D drug prices, leaving
in place a Bush Administration policy.
During the debate, when the interests of insurance
companies would have been effectively challenged, that challenge
was turned back. The 'robust public option' which would
have offered a modicum of competition to a monopolistic industry
was whittled down from an initial potential enrollment of 129
million Americans to 6 million. An amendment which would have
protected the rights of states to pursue single-payer health care
was stripped from the bill at the request of the Administration.
Looking ahead, we cringe at the prospect of even greater favors for
insurance companies.
Recent rises in unemployment indicate a widening
separation between the finance economy and the real economy. The
finance economy considers the health of Wall Street, rising
corporate profits, and banks' hoarding of cash, much of it from
taxpayers, as sign of an economic recovery. However in the real
economy - in which most Americans live - the recession is not over.
Rising unemployment, business failures, bankruptcies and
foreclosures are still hammering Main Street.
This health care bill continues the redistribution
of wealth to Wall Street at the expense of America's
manufacturing and service economies which suffer from costs other
countries do not have to bear, especially the cost of health care.
America continues to stand out among all industrialized nations for
its privatized health care system. As a result, we are less
competitive in steel, automotive, aerospace and shipping while
other countries subsidize their exports in these areas through
socializing the cost of health care.
Notwithstanding the fate of H.R. 3962, America will
someday come to recognize the broad social and economic benefits of
a not-for-profit, single-payer health care system, which is good
for the American people and good for America's businesses, with
of course the notable exceptions being insurance and
pharmaceuticals.
6. FROM
"SICKO'S" DONNA SMITH: The Bill Does Not Cure
What Ails Us
Passing a healthcare reform bill that does not provide
me with better access to care or protection from bankruptcy and
financial ruin is not what I asked you all to do. Stripping away
all reference to a progressively financed, single standard of high
quality healthcare for all - also known as single-payer -- is done
only to more deeply ensconce the deep pocketed interests in
healthcare: the private, for-profit insurance giants, the big
pharmaceuticals, the medical equipment companies, the hospital
corporations and all the other making huge profits as thousands die
needless deaths.
Healthcare is a basic human right. Granting that
right is not something to be calculated differently in swing
Congressional districts, off-year election strategy or
second-Presidential term planning. It is your (members of
Congress') duty to me, to my fellow citizens and to your
nation.
And (members of Congress) are marching away from
reality when you think all the hard-working people who counted on
you to make this a better healthcare system will not notice when
you deliver insurance purchase mandates and a corporate bail-out
that will dwarf the Wall Street trillions you've already
justified.
Watch Smith's video: "American Sickos:
Will the Current Bills Help? No"
Follow Smith's organizing for real reform at
the website of Progressive
Democrats of America. She is the national co-chair of PDA's
Healthcare NOT Warfare campaign.
John Nichols is The Nation's Washington
correspondent.
© 2009 The Nation All rights
reserved.
View this story online at:
http://www.alternet.org/story/143842/
