Stuck in their ideology
With medical bills bankrupting one American every 30 seconds, strangling business and wrecking family budgets, the cry for healthcare reform is heard loud and clear coast to coast.
On the east coast, here is President Obama speaking to a joint session of Congress: “The cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and the conscience of our nation long enough. So let there be no doubt—healthcare reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.”
On the West Coast, here is an exasperated Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger venting to the world at large: “You’ve got to listen to the people. If the nation is screaming out loud: ‘We need healthcare reform’. ‘We want to have universal care’. ‘We want to have everyone insured’. ‘We want to bring the costs down’. ‘We want everyone to have access.’ I mean, that’s what they want; that’s what you do. So you’ve got to do what the people want you to do rather than getting stuck in your ideology.”
And of course here’s the response from GOP House Minority Leader John (stuck in his ideology) Boehner: “We can’t have a health system run by the government.”
Why not?
That’s what the rest of the industrialized world has and they spend half what we do for health care and they cover everyone while our system leaves nearly 50 million Americans with no coverage and millions more underinsured.
President Obama has made healthcare his top fiscal priority, linking health reform to a strong economy: “There are some people who are making the argument that we can’t do anything about health care because the economy comes first. They don’t understand that health care is the biggest component of our economy and, when it’s broken, that affects everything.”
That view is shared by America’s Agenda: Health Care for All, a non-profit organization of labor and business leaders created to support statewide healthcare reform campaigns. Their efforts over the past several years have produced useful models for national reform legislation.
America’s Agenda is sponsoring a series of “Summit Conversations” designed to highlight the emerging national consensus on key components of a 21st century healthcare system. The first Summit was held Feb. 28 at the University of Miami, hosted by President Donna Shalala. An impressive panel of experts agreed we can’t have economic recovery without reforming health care.
“This will sink the economy permanently if we don’t solve it now,” said Billy Tauzin, CEO of PhRMA.
“We’re going to lose our entire auto industry,” said former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt.
Doug Dority, president of America’s Agenda and former head of the United Food & Commercial Workers, put the issue in perspective for the people he used to argue with across the bargaining table: “No employer can sustain a double-digit growth in healthcare costs year after year after year. The system we have is destined to collapse.”
This week when President Obama invited leaders of both parties to a White House Summit on Health Care, talks of compromise were drowned out by rampant ideology. Obama is proposing a solution that gives Americans the choice of keeping their existing insurance plan or enrolling in a new public option. That’s a no-no for conservatives. The very notion of government competing with private insurers drives them crazy. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says he’s willing to work with Democrats but “no public option” was where he drew his ideological line in the sand.
Further roiling the ideological waters is a new multimillion dollar ad campaign against government-run health care launched by Conservatives for Patients Rights. This group is headed by Richard Scott who obviously knows something about the cause of soaring healthcare costs. In 1997 he was forced to resign as CEO of HCA after a federal investigation of Medicare fraud resulted in $1.7 billion in fines.
Among the potential areas of compromise, this could be one:
President Obama put $20 billion in his stimulus package to improve health information technology. Efficiency alone will save money and save lives. If Congress is looking for an IT model, look no further than the Veterans Administration. Veterans who become ill while away from home can go into any VA hospital in the country and doctors electronically can pull up their medical records and know how to treat them.
VA, of course, is government-run.
On the east coast, here is President Obama speaking to a joint session of Congress: “The cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and the conscience of our nation long enough. So let there be no doubt—healthcare reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.”
On the West Coast, here is an exasperated Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger venting to the world at large: “You’ve got to listen to the people. If the nation is screaming out loud: ‘We need healthcare reform’. ‘We want to have universal care’. ‘We want to have everyone insured’. ‘We want to bring the costs down’. ‘We want everyone to have access.’ I mean, that’s what they want; that’s what you do. So you’ve got to do what the people want you to do rather than getting stuck in your ideology.”
And of course here’s the response from GOP House Minority Leader John (stuck in his ideology) Boehner: “We can’t have a health system run by the government.”
Why not?
That’s what the rest of the industrialized world has and they spend half what we do for health care and they cover everyone while our system leaves nearly 50 million Americans with no coverage and millions more underinsured.
President Obama has made healthcare his top fiscal priority, linking health reform to a strong economy: “There are some people who are making the argument that we can’t do anything about health care because the economy comes first. They don’t understand that health care is the biggest component of our economy and, when it’s broken, that affects everything.”
That view is shared by America’s Agenda: Health Care for All, a non-profit organization of labor and business leaders created to support statewide healthcare reform campaigns. Their efforts over the past several years have produced useful models for national reform legislation.
America’s Agenda is sponsoring a series of “Summit Conversations” designed to highlight the emerging national consensus on key components of a 21st century healthcare system. The first Summit was held Feb. 28 at the University of Miami, hosted by President Donna Shalala. An impressive panel of experts agreed we can’t have economic recovery without reforming health care.
“This will sink the economy permanently if we don’t solve it now,” said Billy Tauzin, CEO of PhRMA.
“We’re going to lose our entire auto industry,” said former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt.
Doug Dority, president of America’s Agenda and former head of the United Food & Commercial Workers, put the issue in perspective for the people he used to argue with across the bargaining table: “No employer can sustain a double-digit growth in healthcare costs year after year after year. The system we have is destined to collapse.”
This week when President Obama invited leaders of both parties to a White House Summit on Health Care, talks of compromise were drowned out by rampant ideology. Obama is proposing a solution that gives Americans the choice of keeping their existing insurance plan or enrolling in a new public option. That’s a no-no for conservatives. The very notion of government competing with private insurers drives them crazy. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says he’s willing to work with Democrats but “no public option” was where he drew his ideological line in the sand.
Further roiling the ideological waters is a new multimillion dollar ad campaign against government-run health care launched by Conservatives for Patients Rights. This group is headed by Richard Scott who obviously knows something about the cause of soaring healthcare costs. In 1997 he was forced to resign as CEO of HCA after a federal investigation of Medicare fraud resulted in $1.7 billion in fines.
Among the potential areas of compromise, this could be one:
President Obama put $20 billion in his stimulus package to improve health information technology. Efficiency alone will save money and save lives. If Congress is looking for an IT model, look no further than the Veterans Administration. Veterans who become ill while away from home can go into any VA hospital in the country and doctors electronically can pull up their medical records and know how to treat them.
VA, of course, is government-run.
posted by Victor Kamber | 3:41 PM
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