Cooling the Bern

It’s obvious that Bernie Sanders has centered his “revolution” on the issue of health care. It is his lumberjack T-Bone on the plate, and corporate greed, wealth inequality, free trade, and political establishments, e.g., are just so many sides on the menu. It is for good reason, as the search for relatable topics is the mission of every politician, and nothing beats health care for entering the reality of every American.

It has also been the major friction point between the so called Democratic “Moderates” and “Progressives” as was often painfully apparent in the season of “debates” we just endured. Now that it appears the Moderates have prevailed in the body of Joe Biden, it is time, in fact long overdue, to explain to the American people that Joe and Bernie are much closer in their answer to the American health care conundrum, and equally just as far away from explaining it at all.

On the upcoming and possibly last debate, this is what I’d like to hear from Joe Biden. He needs to explain why both he and Bernie are essentially on the same track when it comes to health care, and also, perhaps, to apologize why they have both been so brain dead in enlightening the Nation to that fact:

 “The law Republicans tagged as “Obamacare” is universally referred by we politicians and media as the ACA or Affordable Care Act. The actual name for the law is The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  The irony in the abbreviated title is that the part which survived (i.e. Affordable Care) is precisely the part the act failed to include. Any success it has had reflects the part that was directed toward universal coverage or “Patient Protection”. Universal coverage is what Bernie here talks about when he often says healthcare is a human right.

However, the real issue is cost. If health care costs were low, truly affordable, we wouldn’t have problems with insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, or health care providers. It wouldn’t even be a subject of debate. People could pay for it without distress or easily be subsidized. However, it is not affordable, and the Republican alternative, which is the status quo, only supports Americans paying twice as much, or more, as people around the world do for equivalent care.

Bernie’s assessment of trillions of dollars for a single payer system is based on that outrageous fact. Quite simply costs have to come down first and we need the Government working in concert with the Market to make it happen.

Every insurance company that represents a large group of individuals, perhaps a large company, negotiates the price of every medical service, device, or medication. This is not new. What I am advocating is a Public Option, which when combined with the largest medical insurance service in the country, Medicare, can set prices and challenge the insurance companies to negotiate down costs even for small businesses or individuals. Medicare, plus those enrolling in a pre-65 Medicare option, combined with legislative empowerment, would be a block too large for the medical service providers to avoid.

Over time insurance companies would either have to compete on price or go out of business. As opposed to a single payer system, as exists for example in Britain, it would be more likely that the US would evolve into a Japanese model (which we helped to create after WW2) where insurance companies (including those publicly owned) handle the administration of health care with strict controls over cost. This is one of several successful universal plans that Bernie refers to when he says “the United States is the only industrialized nation without universal coverage”, but yet he chooses not to detail when advocating his single payer system.

The object is to get from point A to point B. The Public Option was in the original Obamacare law, but ultimately did not get enough Democratic support to overcome Republican opposition. Thus the word “Affordable” in the title became a misnomer. Bernie’s supporters should welcome the concept of a public option added to Obamacare and be proud that their enthusiasm for Bernie’s grand cause for universal affordable health care will help make it happen.

It’s not going to be easy, because profits will drop for all players in our health care system. However, what Republicans want is unsustainable. They want to feed us our seed corn for short term gain. A Public Option would truly be revolutionary and all Democrats need to come together to make it happen.”