What Will Kill Health-Care Reform

[populistdriven]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-09-14/what-will-kill-health-care-reform/

The public option may or may not survive. But the real problem for progressives, writes Matthew Yglesias, is that moderates’ cost-cutting zeal will prevent affordable care for all Americans.

Liberals were expected to be disappointed by the health-care plan unveiled by Senator Max Baucus of Montana, the centrist Democrat and longtime ally of the health-insurance industry who chairs the crucial Finance Committee. And, indeed, disappointed they were when the details emerged last week. Particularly outraged were activist progressive bloggers who’ve been organizing around the idea of including a “public option” in a health-reform package.

~snip~

Thus, the health plans reported out by the relatively liberal committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions panel all included regulations on insurers, a mandate to purchase insurance, and a sliding-scale of subsidies that would go to families earning up to four times the federal poverty line. That’s $88,200 for a family of four, meaning that families into solidly middle-class territory who don’t get health insurance from their employers would be getting at least some direct financial assistance to buy coverage.

The trouble is that all that help costs a lot of money, on the order of $1.4 trillion over 10 years. Baucus wanted a cheaper plan, more like $900 billion. And that meant basically dropping the subsidies for people earning between three to four times the poverty line, or between $66,000 and $88,000 for a family of four. Instead, Baucus simply guarantees that nobody in that range would need to spend more than 13 percent of his or her income on insurance premiums. But there’s no guarantee that will actually get you much in the way of insurance. As Jonathan Cohn points out “your insurance wouldn't cover everything. There'd be deductibles, co-payments, and so on. If you bought the minimum-level plan, you'd be on the hook for as much as $12,000 in out-of-pocket expenses—a level you could hit pretty easily if you had a serious illness or injury.”

A family of 4 making $66,000 per year will have to pay $12,000 in medical costs if someone gets really sick? Baucus has sold us out completely. It is time to raise hell in the Senate.

[depakid]

1. Still calling corrupt "conservatives" moderates....

[Ramulux]

2. What is wrong with this guy?

Anyone who thought Max Baucus' plan was going to be anything but bullshit is delusional. His mandate to buy private insurance alone is enough to completely disregard this plan. I just don't understand how he thinks anyone is going to take him seriously when he has been in the insurance industries pocket for so long.

[NoUsername]

3. What will kill health care reform?

Uh, my guess is the current leadership and their corporate sponsors. And by current leadership, I mean the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate.

With the majorities they have, they should have gone "balls to the wall" from the get-go and rammed through a single-payer bill. Unfortunately for us, our fearless leaders dance to a different tune, mainly that which their corporate masters set, so anything that would remotely benefit the poor and middle class was off-the-table from the start. Don't fool yourself. The so-called "health care reform" will, in the end, be similar to the bailout for Wall Street. Since they can't justify "bailing out" the health insurance industry in the same manner since the structure of the health insurance is a bit different, they will given them a "bailout" in the form of mandates.

Halliburton/KBR/Blackwater/et. al. fed at (and continues to feed at) the trough of the taxpayer money. Wall Street wanted their "share" and got their turn last fall (which was "overdue" since they weren't able to get their hands on the Social Security pot), the auto companies were next in line and now it's the health insurance companies turn.

As always, follow the money.

[TorchTheWitch]

4. +1