The Back Door You Want to Go Through

Conservative pundits like to claim that Obama had a majority in the House and a “super” majority in the Senate when he took office in late January 2009 and, therefore, he could do anything he wanted. That would earn a mostly false from Politifact. 

Due to the six month delay in seating Sen. Al Franken and the illness (and eventual death in Aug 2009) of Ted Kennedy, the Obama Administration only had a couple of short windows in 2009 to get accomplished what 8 Presidents had tried and failed before him, a universal and comprehensive health care law. This had to be done concurrently with keeping the Nation from falling into another Great Depression.

The windows were permanently closed as of January 2010.

Complicate that with 2 Conservative Democratic senators (Nelson of Nebraska and Lieberman of Connecticut), who generally opposed health reform, and a unified Republican Senate which was on record from the very beginning to oppose anything that Obama proposed or supported. Yet a health care bill was signed into law.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (aka Affordable Care Act, ACA), ironically a law conceived by Conservative Republicans (Heritage Foundation in the late 90s), became Obamacare, the scourge for Conservatives for the next 7 years.  Nevertheless, when the smoke cleared the Obama Administration had still failed.

Thanks, in good measure, to good ol’ Joe Lieberman, the only thing truly Progressive and Universal about the ACA was thrown out of the bill in order to get his vote: that was the Public Option. Without it the entire “Affordable” part of the law evaporated.  What was left was a health care insurance reform act which does almost nothing to control health care costs.

It should be a befuddlement to anyone with half a brain why the Republicans didn’t embrace this new law as opposed to spending nearly all their time in Congress over the following 5 years (2011-2016) passing bills to repeal it.  It has funneled more money into the health industry than they could have ever hoped for.

You see, the thing that makes Universal Health Care possible is reasonable and controllable costs. Simply put, Health Care is a service where the demand (for that service) does not drop when the price goes up.  Therefore, the “free market” approach cannot work. The rest of the world has figured this out. It is why we pay multiples more in health care cost for less (and poorer) coverage, as the only developed nation on earth without Universal Health Care.

Recently, and very much belated, Obama announced his support to revisit the ACA to reintroduce the Public Option.  Also, the addition of the Public Option was the compromise reached by Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in how the Democrats plan to advance health care reform in 2017. Bernie, in particular, has finally realized that this is the only back door to bring this Country something like Single-Payer Universal Health Care, a path he couldn’t define during his campaign.

If you care anything about Universal Health Care or even just about your wallet, you’ll support those who support the Public Option.  Here is my simplistic explanation on how this back door opens:

Along with the participating private insurers the Federal Government would offer a choice to the public to essentially buy health insurance from the Federal Government instead of from a private insurer. It would be as if (and not far from) opening up Medicare to the general public, but instead of the premiums paid for by the Federal Government as they are with those over 65, the premiums would be paid by the insured.

It is generally no more complicated than that. However, implementation in the face of Conservative opposition would not be uncomplicated.

If the program was successful and enough people joined the Public Option three major things would happen (apart from insurance provided to the poor or destitute). 

First, providers (doctors, hospitals, pharmacy companies, etc) would be loathe to refusing services to those in the program because the loss in business would be too great. Such is already the case with Medicare participants.

Second, if enough people were in the program, combined with existing Medicare participants, the Federal Government would have the leverage to force reductions in cost. That reduction in cost would be reflected in reductions of insurance premiums, as there is no profit incentive. 

Third, in order to remain viable and continue to exist, private insurers would have to reasonably match the Government’s level of premiums and payouts to health care providers. They would generally need to mirror the same restrictions in cost, which would make such costs more consistent and transparent.

Overtime it is reasonable to conceive that the United States health care system could turn into something that resembles the current and successful Japanese universal health care system, a system ironically conceived, developed, and implemented for the Japanese by the United States after WWII. Look it up.

The US health care system continues to be crippled. The ACA got it up out of its wheelchair and on to a walker, but it is still quite sick and it affects every non-wealthy American. Frankly, big business Republicans and inane Conservatives want to keep it that way (or push it back into the wheelchair). It is a sad commentary that so many people that need this Public Option the most continue to shoot themselves in the foot by supporting those Republicans politicians who live in the back pockets of business interests, those that keep the front door locked.

Wise up America, especially the young. If you hear the word “yes” next to the words “public option” then vote for that person. They are opening the backdoor for you to enter a better life.