From 2008: 'Obama Touts Single-Payer System for Health Care' - WSJ

[WillyT]

Obama Touts Single-Payer System for Health Care
Amy Chozick - WSJ Staff
AUGUST 19, 2008, 9:30 AM ET

<snip>

Barack Obama said he would consider embracing a single-payer health-care system, beloved by liberals, as his plan for broader coverage evolves over time. “If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system,” Obama told some 1,800 people at a town-hall style meeting on the economy. A single-payer system would eliminate private insurance companies and put a Medicare-like system into place where the government pays all health-care bills with tax dollars.

Many liberals have long embraced the coverage plan, saying it would cover everyone, take the profit out of health insurance and allow for greater efficiencies. But Republicans cringe at such deep government involvement in the private sector, calling it socialized medicine. And many Democrats, including Obama and former rival Hillary Clinton, have taken a much more moderate approach.

Obama’s health-care plan aims for universal coverage by offering a new government-run marketplace where Americans could buy insurance, mostly from private plans. He would offer subsidies to individuals and to small business owners that offer their workers coverage. His plan also would require that parents get insurance for their kids. And he aims to lower health-care costs to make coverage more affordable. His plan includes one small step toward single payer. His new marketplace would create a new government-run plan, like Medicare, to compete against the private plans.

But Obama repeated that he rejects an immediate shift to a single-payer system. “Given that a lot of people work for insurance companies, a lot of people work for HMOs. You’ve got a whole system of institutions that have been set up,” he said at a roundtable discussion with women Monday morning after a voter asked, “Why not single payer?”

“People don’t have time to wait,” Obama said. “They need relief now. So my attitude is let’s build up the system we got, let’s make it more efficient, we may be over time—as we make the system more efficient and everybody’s covered—decide that there are other ways for us to provide care more effectively.”

More: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/08/19/obama-touts-single-payer-system/

[WillyT]

1. Crickets ???

There are lots of 2007/2008 proclamations avaiable.

[DJ13]

2. I wish the 2008 Obama could primary the 2012 Obama

[Schema Thing]

14. Did you just read what the 2008 Obama said?

Because what he said is exactly consistent with what he did.

[FarLeftFist]

3. I think by making it more efficient we will eventually lead to single-payer.

Also, with the price-gouging by insurance companies it will probably not take too many more years before people and small businesses are pleading for single-payer.

[Bob Wallace]

13. If premiums are not considered reasonable...

If insurance companies, all insurance companies, push rates up then we'll likely see action toward a public option.

But think what it will take for that to happen.

First, insurance companies will have to pay out a lot of money for treatment. If they don't spend 80% of what they collect on treatment they have to return the extra, including that portion of their 20% cut. In order to get premiums to rise they have to spend more and more and more on treatment.

How are they going to get treatment costs up? Perhaps talk doctors and hospitals into raising rates? And that information is not going to leak out?

Second, all insurance companies - every single one of them - would have to engage in this activity/conspiracy/collusion/whatever. If even one insurance does not go along and the rest find a way to jack up treatment costs and raise their premiums, then people are going to leave those higher priced companies and move to the cheaper one.

[FarLeftFist]

16. I think people and small businesses are already just about at their breaking point.

I predict public option soon and single payer within 2 decades.

[Bob Wallace]

24. I can't make a prediction along those lines...

I look at how well private companies are able to get the prices of many of the things we buy down to such reasonable levels.

Look at computers. We get incredible machines for only a few hundred dollars.

Look at almost everything we purchase. Unless it's some fru-fru vanity label stuff, businesses work hard to give us the quality we want at the lowest possible price.

If health insurance companies are put in a truly competitive situation they may well find ways to get premiums down to decent levels.

Insurance companies are going to have to compete on a level playing field for the first time. They will have to cover the same package of benefits and cover everyone, always. They're all going to have to sell the same basket of goods. The only way they can make more profit is to attract more customers.

The only way to attract more customers is 1) price and 2) customer satisfaction.

[joshcryer]

4. "Obama repeated that he rejects an immediate shift to a single-payer system"

Good old Obama.

[ProSense]

7. Well

if "rejects an immediate shift to a single-payer system" is a campaign promise, then he kept his promise

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/100294294

[joshcryer]

10. ...yes, that would be the point of my statement.

[maximusveritas]

5. Uh, so what's your point?

other than posting an article with a misleading headline from the WSJ from 3 years ago ?

[Luminous Animal]

12. Actually, the headline is correct. He did tout it.

[McCamy Taylor]

6. And this helps the GOP how?

Has the WSJ ditched the Republican Party?

[JoePhilly]

8. “If I were designing a system from scratch, ..."

What does this phrase mean???

For me, its a qualifier for what comes after ... The reality is that he (Obama) was not in a position to "design a system from scratch".

And so that is why is starts with that phrase.

I recall this, and I remember what I thought ... he'd prefer single payer, but he could not see a direct and immediate path to get there. So he'd try to move in that direction but over time.

I'm not sure why some are confused by that. I understood it.

[joshcryer]

11. Obama gives a highly philosophical answer to a political question, which isn't viable.

The answer, btw, is highly progressive, and I believe Obama is very progressive ideologically, it's just that politically it doesn't work out that way.

[Bob Wallace]

17. Correct...

So many people try to believe that PBO wants nothing more than what he's been able to get through Congress.

How could you have any measure of the man and not realize that he wants a much better country and a much better world than we have?

[JoePhilly]

22. Agree.

I'd call Obama a PROGRESSive ... he's going to get as much PROGRESS as he thinks he can get within the political reality that exists.

[dflprincess]

27. He didn't need to design a system "from scratch"

we already have Medicare - a system LBJ expected would be expanded to include all Americans. That could have been built on - but it was more important to save the insurance companies.

[JoePhilly]

28. Spare me / us.

You would have to be DELUSIONAL to think that Obama could have forced Congress to expand Medicare such that it DISPLACED the existing heath-care system in one move.

Which is what is was saying.

There was no PRACTICAL way to end the current system ... and do what you seem to demand he needed to do.

The votes to do what you want never existed. But Obama is evil for only getting as much as he could!!

He should have got NOTHING ... and I'm sure you'd be cheering him .... right?

[dflprincess]

30. The point is, there was no need to start from scratch

He could have picked up where Johnson left off. LBJ thought the program would be expanded by age groups over a period of time - that is an idea that could have been revived. Instead Obama and Congress didn't even allow real reform to be discussed. Much easier to sell us out than to stand up to the insurers and pharma.

We needed access to care, not a law that requires we continue to buy the same old crap from the same old crooks and no guaratees that we will be able to afford care when we need it. Nothing would have been better than reenforcing the status quo the way they did.

[JoePhilly]

32. Glad to see you included CONGRESS in your response.

Congress was NEVER going to pass single payer. Never.

The reason is the GOP had 40 votes, and all they needed was ONE vote from the Democratic side.

They had about 6. But let's pretend they didn't have 6. Let's imagine that Obama only needs to flip 1 ... and that 1 is Joe Lieberman.

Please tell me how you, as President FLIP Lieberman. When you respond, I ask that you address a few specific points.

1) Lieberman is known as the "Senator from Aetna", he's been in the pocket of the medical insurance companies for many years. His wife has been working in that field and as a lobbyist for that industry for many years. Think he's going to vote for single payer??
http://www.salon.com/2009/10/30/joe_lieberman/

2) Lieberman is a vindictive jerk, and you may recall that he campaigned AGAINST Obama, and for John McCain in 2008. Do you think he was going to join Obama on this issue?

3) Lieberman had already announced that he was not going to run for re-election. Which means you have no leverage to flip him.

As for "nothing would have been better" ... that's bullshit.

Kids with pre-existing conditions now get covered (I know, my 16 year old niece, who had cancer at 2, is one of them) ... tell her NOTHING would have been better.

NOTHING is what we got back in the 90s under Clinton ... how did that work out? You think it was "better"?

[dflprincess]

34. I'm glad your niece is covered

I'm happy her parents can afford the premiums - I just hope the coverage they got doesn't have out of pockets that are so high they can't afford to use the policy except in an emergency.

I know people who can't afford coverage for themselves or their families or they have coverage that has out of pockets that are so high they are effectively cut off from care. More people are finding themselves in that situation as more employers and private policies go to high out of pockets. The current allowable out of pocket on the PCIP (for pre-existing conditions) available from HHS is $5,950 (single coverage). Many of the high deductible private policies have the same out of pocket maximum.

In 2014, when we're all required to buy insurance from one of the private companies that have been robbing us blind, the allowable out of pocket for a single person will be over $6,000 a year. That's a potential medical expense of over $500/month PLUS the premium (and a single person making more than $46,500/year will not be eligible for subsides).

Yeah, this was real great deal all from the guy who opposed mandates.

And nothing explains why we couldn't even have a discussion about beginning to expand Medicare until everyone was covered. Fine, so it wouldn't have passed, but the dialogue could have been started. A majority of the public wanted single payer or at least a public option but the public's opinion was ignored. No doubt because we can't come up with bribes the way the insurance companies and pharma can.

[JoePhilly]

35. Funny how you skipped the part about Lieberman.

Other than to say the PO was ignored.

Also ... in 2014 ... there are SIGNIFICANT subsidies to help people who can't afford insurance do so. Are they better off with nothing? No chance at insurance what so ever?

And is all of this Obama's fault?

Should I stay home in 2012? Hope the GOP will try to work forward on this?

You might as well be angry at the fireman who puts out your house fire because he's also getting your stuff wet.

[dflprincess]

36. Obama did not need Lieberman's permission to open the discussion

or to keep it going.

To hear Obama talk now, the whole issue is settled. The fact that a growing number of Americans, even with insurance, don't have access to health care no longer matters to him.

BTW - those subsidies aren't all that substantial. They are based on gross income and do not take into consideration other living expenses or even what the cost of living is in various parts of the country. You'll still be expected to come up with the cash for insurance premiums and get your "subsidy" when you file your tax return.

This whole scam is just a way to transfer billions of private and public dollars into a corrupt industry that should be put out of business.

[killbotfactory]

9. So when did congress give him the authority to design a healthcare system from scratch? nt

[Bob Wallace]

18. They let him design a jobs bill as well...

did they not?

And then they set out to screw him, and us, to the best of their ability.

[dionysus]

15. your energizer bunny level of campaigning against the guy deserves kudos.

[Pirate Smile]

21. It is energizer bunny level, that is for sure - day in, day out, unendingly anti-Obama.

[WillyT]

23. Thanks... You're Wrong... But I Do Appreciate It...

[Sheepshank]

19. And he tried as hard AS ANY PRESIDENT has ever tried to make that campaign promise come true

Rather than one monumental leap...it's gonna have to happen in smalerl bites. I'll take anything in the right direction, over nothing!

Not buying your attempt to imply every campaign promise is 100% implement-able. We know what he would have wanted. Talk to the Senate, bubs.

[johnaries]

20. Your OP line is misleading.

As you bold-faced:

But Obama repeated that he rejects an immediate shift to a single-payer system.

Another example of selective hearing.

[bluestate10]

25. Obama said exactly what happened.

He has put in place a framework from which single payer can emerge.

I have a question for you. HOW would you get your plan inacted?

[boxman15]

26. And what has changed?

"Obama repeated that he rejects an immediate shift to a single-payer system."

“They need relief now. So my attitude is let’s build up the system we got, let’s make it more efficient, we may be over time—as we make the system more efficient and everybody’s covered—decide that there are other ways for us to provide care more effectively.”

The key in the first sentence is "If I were designing a system from scratch."

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. There are so many things candidates promise

that later on people "forget."

I do remember this one. Why I did hope it would make it to the table.

[Fearless]

31. There are no free passes...

We won't get single payer unless we can force it upon the insurance industry. That is the only way it will come true.

[frazzled]

33. He's certainly worse than all those other presidents who didn't give us a single-payer system

Even when they believed in it. Lyndon Johnson was the only one who ever came close, with Medicare. Obama's next best, because he actually achieved a plan that inched us forward (to be implemented in 2014, so hold your guns). As for all the others, from TR to FDR to Truman to Nixon (yes) and Clinton. None of them got bupkis.

U.S. efforts to achieve universal coverage began with Theodore Roosevelt, who had the support of progressive health care reformers in the 1912 election but was defeated.[5] During the Great Depression in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Isidore Falk and Edgar Sydenstricter to help draft provisions to Roosevelt's pending Social Security legislation to include publicly funded health care programs. These reforms were attacked by the American Medical Association as well as state and local affiliates of the AMA as "compulsory health insurance." Roosevelt ended up removing the health care provisions from the bill in 1935. Fear of organized medicine's opposition to universal health care became standard for decades after the 1930s.[6]
Following the second world war, President Harry Truman called for universal health care as a part of his Fair Deal in 1949 but strong opposition stopped that part of the Fair Deal.[7][8] However, in 1946 the National Mental Health Act was passed, as was the Hospital Survey and Construction Act, or Hill-Burton Act.
The Medicare program was established by legislation signed into law on July 30, 1965, by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government, providing health insurance coverage to people who are either age 65 and over, or who meet other special criteria.
In his 1974 State of the Union address, President Richard M. Nixon called for comprehensive health insurance.[9] On February 6, 1974, he introduced the Comprehensive Health Insurance Act. Nixon's plan would have mandated employers to purchase health insurance for their employees, and provided a federal health plan, similar to Medicaid, that any American could join by paying on a sliding scale based on income.[10][11] The New York Daily News wrote that Ted Kennedy rejected the universal health coverage plan offered by Nixon because it wasn't everything he wanted it to be. Kennedy later realized it was a missed opportunity to make major progress toward his goal.[12]
Former President Jimmy Carter wrote in 1982 that Kennedy’s disagreements with Carter's proposed approach thwarted Carter’s efforts to provide a comprehensive health-care system for the country.[13]
The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) amended the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to give some employees the ability to continue health insurance coverage after leaving employment.
[edit]Clinton initiative
See also: Health Security Express
Health care reform was a major concern of the Bill Clinton administration headed up by First Lady Hillary Clinton; however, the 1993 Clinton health care plan was not enacted into law. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) made it easier for workers to keep health insurance coverage when they change jobs or lose a job[citation needed], and also provided national standards for protecting personal health information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_health_care_reform_in_the_United_States#First_plans