An Open Letter to Harry Reid on Health Care Costs by Robert Reich

[debbierlus]

Dear Senator,

I know you're in a tough spot. It would be bad enough if you only had to get Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, Mary Landrieu and Blanche Lincoln on board, but anyone who has to kiss Joe Lieberman's derriere deserves a congressional medal of honor.

But Harry, you really need to take on future healthcare costs. The House bill fails to do this. The public option in the House bill is open only to people without employer-provided health insurance. That will be too small a number to have bargaining clout to get good deals from drug companies and medical providers. And it will mainly attract people who have more expensive medical needs, which is why the Congressional Budget Office decided it would cost more than it would save.

You also know a public insurance option that's open to everyone would cut future health costs dramatically by imposing real competition on private for-profit insurance plans. That's why the private insurers hate the idea. Even if states were allowed to opt out of this robust public option, the big states would almost certainly opt in, giving it the scale needed to negotiate great deals from drug companies and medical providers. This would put pressure on any state that opted out because its citizens would soon discover they're paying far more.

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In addition to the House's weak public option, the deals the White House and Max Baucus made with the drug companies and the American Medical Association will force Americans to pay even more. If, on the other hand, Medicare were allowed to negotiate lower drug prices, biotech drugs weren't granted a 12-years monopoly, and doctors had to accept Medicare reimbursements in line with legislation enacted years ago, Americans would save billions.

You know all this but you're also trying to get 60 votes in order get any bill to the floor. You have my sympathies, but unless you get these reforms into the final Senate bill you're not really helping most Americans afford future healthcare.

So what do you do?

Find out here at this link & read the rest of the analysis:
http://salon.com/news/healthcare_reform/index.html?story=/opinion/feature/2009/11/13/reid_letter

[Skink]

1. Bookmarked.

:beer:

[debbierlus]

2. Worth the read. We need to be really pushing hard for Reid to do the right thing

Bernie Sanders is taking up the charge. It is worth going to his website to keep up with his efforts.

[debbierlus]

3. KIck for morning exposure