http://trueslant.com/allisonkilkenny/2009/09/09/obamas-solution-is-to-pay-the-enemy/ Allison Kilkenny Unreported
Obama’s solution is to pay the enemy During his speech before a joint session of Congress, President Obama called for the creation of insurance exchanges, a system designed to allow consumers to see varying prices and programs so they can comparison shop. Obama only mentioned the P-word once, and even then the public option name drop was immediately followed by the caveats “We should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our ultimate goal,” and the public option is only a “means to an end.” Read: It’s a nice idea, but drop it. Elsewhere, Obama recycled the usual reasons for why single-payer healthcare, the Progressives’ other favored solution, just isn’t possible right now (at the mere mention of single-payer sporadic cheers broke out in the audience.) “I believe it makes more sense to build on what works and fix what doesn’t, rather than try to build an entirely new system from scratch,” said the president. This dismisses Marcia Angell’s idea of a gradual expansion of Medicare, a slow transition that wouldn’t have violently jolted our beloved system of privatized healthcare. But nevermind. Back to the insurance exchange idea. Obama means citizens will be required by law to purchase their coverage from private insurers. Similarly, Max Baucus’s disastrous recent proposal calls for mandates that will literally force individuals and families to purchase insurance from the enemy — and one of the great culprits of the entire reform debate — Big Insurers. Without a serious public option (and not the “I’m humoring them, have they shut up yet?” approach Obama seems to be suggesting,) the insurance industry has a captive market, the American people, who will be held hostage in a for-profit health insurance scheme. Between Obama’s peddling of exchanges and Baucus’s mandate pimping, Americans are faced with the nightmarish bastard of corporate whoring and endless concessions: no public option, possible mandates, and healthcare exchanges. Seriously, if you had asked me at the start of this process what my worst case scenario would be — short of a meteor slamming into the Earth — this is it. Exchanges are like a watered down version of the original watered down compromise of co-ops. And let’s remember that the public option was supposedly a compromise derived from Progressive’s true desire, universal healthcare. Under Obama’s proposal, insurers may not be able to deny double mastectomy procedures anymore, but without a public option, breast cancer victims will continue to pay skyrocketing premiums, which is also no treat when cancer is ravaging one’s body. Once again, Americans are being asked to let the free market solve all their problems, but without some heavy regulation, it’s unclear how an insurance exchange will successfully control costs. So going into final negotiations for healthcare reform, the Progressives are being asked to enthusiastically support a watered down version (exchanges) of a watered down version (co-ops) of a watered down version (public option) with a little unlubricated sodomy on the side (mandates.) By the way, the second Progressives act less than hysterically positive about Obama’s speech, we’ll be called everything from stupid idealists to naive, unserious, political amateurs. Obama said all the right things about death panels being a lie, and private insurers doing very bad things, but then he sacrificed his credibility by calling the public option a “means to an end.” What end? I kind of thought insuring every American was the “end,” and the only way to do that is with the public option. If private insurers are permitted to exploit sick people, then whatever “public option” ultimately emerges in the healthcare bill will be too small and superficial to help the majority of uninsured and underinsured Americans. Laughter broke out when Obama conceded than many details still need to be ironed out. Yeah, a biggie will be how these insurance exchanges will control costs and seriously compete with private insurers. Otherwise, Congress is working toward legally requiring citizens to purchase healthcare on the private market with all its skyrocketing costs and shady practices. ________________________________________________ YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
