SENSE AND NONSENSE -- THE DROWNING MAN METAPHOR
From the editor: On summer break from my sophomore year in college, I worked as a life guard at a YMCA camp. To become a life guard, I had to take and pass a test administered by the Red Cross. Preparation for the exam included training on how to rescue a drowning swimmer without being pulled under by the panicky victim.
Compass Society member Pat Chapman of Santa Fe recently alluded to this image as a metaphor for the current debate on health care reform. Bought-and-paid-for politicians such as Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senators Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Ron Wymer of Oregon and the 52 members of the “Blue Dog Coalition” in the House are willingly playing the role of the drowning swimmer. They are quickly pulling anyone in favor of a “public option” for health care under the surface of the murky waters of private insurers.
These “esteemed” members of Congress are all Democrats and most of them, if not all, are selling out ordinary low and middle class Americans in the name of “bipartisanship” and “fiscal responsibility.” This is demagoguery at its worst. The pursuit of bipartisanship is simply a smoke screen for protecting special interests. And if the Blue Dogs truly wanted to be fiscally responsible they would repeal all of the tax cuts given to the top 1% of taxpayers under Reagan and Bush administration policies, end all of the taxpayer subsidies to private insurers that are hidden in Medicare Part D, and would be revealing daily the amount of money all representatives and senators are receiving from lobbyists for private insurers.
The agenda of private insurers is to capture as many of the more than 50 million citizens who have no insurance or who are underinsured. This is simply an untapped market of consumers to them. If they succeed, private insurers will begin a slow and steady process of growing their “bottom lines” and screwing the consumer.
The agenda of progressives for health care reform is simple:
- True health care reform must include a public option. The “Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009,” H.R. 3200, includes such an option. (Subtitle B, sections 221 through 243, provides the details of that option.)
The same people who elected Barack Obama must now play the role of “Lifeguards for Health Care Reform.” We cannot allow ourselves to be dragged under by panicky politicians who kneel daily at the altar of the private sector insurance industry. We need to be aggressive, persistent, and over-bearing. All of those who oppose the direction of some of the draft legislation such as Sen. Wyden’s “Healthy Americans Act” or Kent Conrad’s proposal on cooperatives or Max Baucus’ compromise legislation must become active participants in the debate.
The remainder of this issue of The Compass is an action kit that gives any reader a quick reference guide which can be used by ordinary citizens to effectively lobby their representatives and senators on the kind of health care reform that will be true reform.
Maynard Chapman, Editor
The Compass
HEALTH CARE REFORM ACTION KIT
I. Useful Facts
A. Private Insurance Horror Stories
B. Code Talkers for Health Care Reform
C. Fact Check Exercise
II. Messages
A. CBO estimate of cost
B. An example of what not to do—Medicare, Part D
C. An example of what to do—H.R. 3200
III. Contact Information
A. Key Committee Chairs
B. List of Blue Dogs
C. Reference Resources
I. Useful Facts
A. Private Insurance Horror Stories: Bill Moyers Journal on PBS rebroadcast an interview with Wendell Potter on Friday, July 31. Mr. Potter resigned from his job as head of corporate communications at CIGNA early in 2008 after working there for 15 years. This segment of Moyers’ Journal includes some previously disclosed horror stories caused by decisions made in the board rooms of big private health insurers. Following are a few examples.
Example #1: The case of Nataline Sarkisyan: In 2007, CIGNA denied her need for a liver transplant claiming the procedure was experimental. A huge crowd organized and gathered in the lobby of CIGNA headquarters when the denial was publicized. CIGNA reversed its decision, but Nataline died just two hours after her surgery was approved.
(Note: Opponents of a public option have the audacity to claim that a government option rather than private insurers will ration health care.)
Example #2: Private industry propaganda: BILL MOYERS: “We obtained a copy of the game plan that was adopted by the industry’s trade association, AHIP [America’s Health Insurance Plans]. And it spells out the industry strategies in gold letters. It says, ‘Highlight horror stories of government-run systems.’”
WENDELL POTTER: “The industry has always tried to make Americans think that government-run systems are the worst thing that could possibly happen to them, that if you even consider that, you’re heading down on the slippery slope towards socialism. So they have used scare tactics for years and years and years and years, to keep that from happening. If there were a broader program like our Medicare program, it could potentially reduce the profits of these big companies. So that is their biggest concern.”
Example #3: The practice of rescission: Rescission is the common practice of private insurance companies to dump policy holders who face expensive medical procedures such as double mastectomies. Private insurance companies can rescind any policy simply by claiming “material misrepresentation” by the policy holder. Private insurers testifying before the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations were asked to commit to a policy of never rescinding another policy unless there was intentional fraudulent misrepresentation. CEO Brian Sassi of the Consumer Business Unit of Wellpoint, Inc. headquartered in Indianapolis said, “The intentional standard is not the law of the land in the majority of states.” He, along with other CEO’s, would not commit to halting the practice of rescission. Note: This practice would not necessarily be stopped under changes to deny insurance for pre-existing conditions. Rescission will not be stopped until “the intentional standard” becomes the law of the land.
B. Code Talkers for Health Care Reform: A talking points memo from Republican strategist Frank Luntz to Republican leaders in Congress urges the use of phrases like “government takeover,” “delayed care is denied care,” “consequences of rationing,” and “bureaucrats, not doctors, prescribing medicine,” all the while saying they support health care reform. Source: Bill Moyers Journal.
To look at the private insurance industry’s agenda for health care reform, go to the website of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) www.ahip.org, scroll down and click on “AHIP’s Comprehensive Health Care Reform Proposal.” Notably absent is a call for a public insurance option.
Curiously, the Obama White House is now talking about a “glide path” for health care reform. The question to be asked in response is, “Does the glide path include a public health option?”
C. Fact Check Exercise: Following are public misrepresentations about health care reform according to a copyrighted Associated Press article titled “FACT CHECK: Distortions rife in health care debate,” dated Aug. 2, 2009:
“CLAIM: The House bill ‘may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia,’ House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio said July 23.
Former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey said in a July 17 article: ‘One troubling provision of the House bill compels seniors to submit to a counseling session every five years…about alternatives for end-of-life care.
“THE FACTS: The bill would require Medicare to pay for advance directive consultations with health care professionals. But it would not require anyone to use the benefit…Patients and their families would consult with health professionals, not government agents, if they used the proposed benefit.
“CLAIM: Health care revisions would lead to government-funded abortions.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council says in a video, ‘Unless Congress states otherwise, under a government takeover of health care, taxpayers will be forced to fund abortions for the first time in over three decades.’
“THE FACTS: The proposed bills would not undo the Hyde Amendment, which bars paying for abortions through Medicaid…The House Energy and Commerce Committee amended the House bill Thursday to state that health insurance plans have the option of covering abortion, but no public money can be used to fund abortions.”
“CLAIM: The Democrats’ plans will lead to rationing, or the government determining which medical procedures a patient can have…
“THE FACTS: Millions of Americans already face rationing, as insurance companies rule on procedures they will cover.”
II. Messages
A. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Estimate of Cost: Following is a verbatim conclusion by the CBO as presented in a letter dated July 17, 2009, from Douglas Elmendorf, CBO director, to Rep. Charles Rangel, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee.
“According to CBO’s and JCT’s [Joint Committee on Taxation] assessment, enacting H.R. 3200 would result in a net increase in the federal budget deficit of $239 billion over the 2010-2019 period. That estimate reflects a projected 10-year cost of the bill’s insurance coverage provisions of $1,042 billion, partly offset by net spending changes that CBO estimates would save $219 billion over the same period, and by revenue provisions that JCT estimates would increase federal revenues by about $583 billion over those 10 years.”
Note: The CBO’s $239 billion estimate is far less than the $1.6 trillion cost figure commonly thrown out by politicians and repeated by the mainstream media. Also, the same document estimates that H.R. 3200 will actually reduce the deficit by $44 billion during the 2010-2014 period. Even Democrats publicize the $1 trillion cost without referring to the offsets included in the CBO estimates.
In addition, the key question that the CBO estimate does not presume to answer is “How does the projected and cumulative 10-year cost of H.R. 3200 compare to the cost of so-called ‘budget neutral’ legislation that continues to allow abuse of the profit motive by the private insurance industry?” This abuse literally has the potential to destroy our economy and our country.
B. An Example of What Not to Do—Medicare, Part D: Following are excerpts from an article written by Mark Lange, a technology industry consultant and presidential speechwriter from 1989 to 1991 for President George H.W. Bush. The article, “A Tumor at the Heart of Medicare,” appeared as an opinion-editorial in the March 20, 2009, issue of The New York Times online:
“Medicare Part D, the prescription benefit that went into effect three years ago, was supposed to let the elderly get their medicines more cheaply by creating competition between private insurers…But the cost to taxpayers has been 3.5 times the market value of those prescriptions, according to a study in the journal Health Affairs.”
“Proposals requiring the government to use the buying power of 40 million Medicare patients to negotiate prescription prices were defeated. Pharmaceutical lobbyists fought for direct federal subsidy of drug benefits, knowing plans would be reimbursed no matter how much prices were inflated.”
“When the program went live in 2006, a fragmented market of 80 insurers -- with 1,400 prescription drug plans -- lacked the purchasing power to negotiate drug prices. Nor did those insurers have much reason to bargain, since Part D subsidized the most costly patients at 80 percent. So prices under Medicare private insurance plans for the top 10 medications shot up, and in 2006 the five largest drug firms notched a 45 percent spike in profits over the previous year. After insurers rushed to sign as many retirees as possible at attractive rates, they raised premiums 13 percent. Medicare patients in private plans cost taxpayers about 15 percent more than those covered under traditional government programs.”
“While the larger health-care reform debate unfolds in Washington, the rest of us can keep an eye on the members of Congress who may be the most conflicted about bringing real competition to bear. At sites like www.maplight.org you can see whose campaigns have gotten the plushest contributions from pharmaceutical manufacturing and managed care companies.”
C. An Example of What to Do—H.R. 3200: The Affordable Health Choices Act (H.R. 3200) is the benchmark for true health care reform for one important reason: sections 221 through 243 of Subtitle B of that legislation prescribe the particulars of a Public Health Insurance Option.
Most of the draft legislation moving through Senate committees promotes variations of health care reform that preserve health insurance reform consistent with the agenda of the private insurance industry. The Compass believes that all of the proposed health care reform legislation should include a public option because that is the only structure that will ensure a type of competition that protects the consumers of health care—you and I.
But beware of political and corporate doublespeak regarding a public option. Following is an excerpt from an interview of Oregon’s senior Senator Ron Wyden conducted by the Willamette Week newspaper and published July 8, 2009. Wyden has proposed the “Healthy Americans Act.”
QUESTION: “I realize this is hard for a Democratic senator to say, but isn’t it your belief that the public option is unnecessary to accomplish your goal?”
ANSWER: “The Healthy Americans Act has several public options. We say that if in that area, private plans don’t exist, you can have a public option. We say that states can also get a waiver to offer a public option.”
QUESTION: “Given states’ budget problems, how realistic is it to say they have the alternative of offering a public option?”
ANSWER: “They would be looking at primarily holding down the administrative costs and consumer protections. There are a variety of ways to go about using the state waiver provision in our legislation. I don’t think most states would use the state waiver provision. I think Oregon will at least explore it.”
Senator Kent Conrad’s proposal for non-profit health care cooperatives is a similar end-run around the question of a public health option by implying falsely that the cooperative structure is a public option. Keep in mind that the very private Blue Cross-Blue Shield conglomerate began as just such a cooperative.
III. Contact Information
A. Key Committee Chairs:
Max Baucus (D. Mont.), Senate Finance Committee,
202-224-2651 - tel.
202-224-0515- fax
Website: www.baucus.senate.gov
Kent Conrad (D. ND), Senate Budget Committee
202-224-2043 - tel.
202-224-7776 - fax
Website: www.conrad.senate.gov
Christopher Dodd (D. CT), Acting chair of Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions
202-224-2823 - tel
202-224-1083 - fax
Website: www.dodd.senate.gov
Note: Senator Dodd has just been diagnosed with prostate cancer according to news reports.
Henry Waxman (D. CA), House Energy and Commerce
202-225-3976 - tel
202-225-4099 - fax
Website: www.house.gov/waxman
Charles B. Rangel (D. NY) House Ways and Means
202-225-4365 - tel.
202-225-0816 - fax
Website: www.rangel.house.gov
George Miller (D. CA) House Education and Labor
202-225-2095 - tel.
202-225-5609 - fax
Email: george.miller@mail.house.gov
Website: www.house.gov/georgemiller
Note: The source for these contact numbers is the 2008 U.S. Congressional Directory published by C-SPAN. If readers cannot reach these persons using these numbers, you can reach them by typing their names into the “Google” search engine and clicking on “Contact.”
B. List of Blue Dogs:
The Compass alerted readers to the obstructionist persuasions of The Blue Dog Coalition in our August, 2008, issue (vol. v., no. 6). To obtain the most updated list of members of this group of hypocritical fiscal conservatives, visit their website at:
This website currently lists 52 members of the coalition.
C. Reference Resources:
www.thomas.loc.gov -- The Library of Congress official link to specific legislation. Click on the link to the Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (HR 3200).
www.maplight.org -- Click on “Legislators” and search by name. Lists top campaign contributors to each Senator or Representative. For example, the top 10 contributors to Max Baucus include Insurance, $606,985; Health Professionals, $555,141; Pharmaceuticals, $527,813; Health Services/HMOs, $367,500; and Hospitals/Nursing Homes, $346,826.
www.compasssocietynews.com -- The official website of The Compass Society with partial list of back issues.
Copyright © 2009, The Compass Society
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