Okay, so after wooing her for months, the Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee finally got Republican Olympia Snowe to sign onto the Baucus Health Reform Bill. The Maine moderate and lone GOP Senator to vote with the thirteen Dems, helped the historic measure pass 14-9. But she said, “my vote today is my vote today,” implying the flimsy bi-partisan romance may be short lived. Snowe may still vote no on the final version, which will be a conference concoction combining Baucus’ restrained bill with the more progressive H.E.L.P. ( Health Education Labor & Pension) Committee bill which includes a public option, something Snowe—despite growing support in her home state—has vowed to vote against.
I’m not suggesting the Baucus bill doesn’t contain positive changes including putting the kibosh on pre-existing conditions, penalizing companies for dropping the sick from coverage when they need it most and subsidies for low income earners. But it doesn’t go far enough to ensure affordable, quality care for all Americans.
Without a public option it seems unlikely to see true reform. Not that we needed further evidence of the unmitigated greed that pervades the health insurance industry, but they gave it to us anyway on Monday with the release of that self-serving blatantly fraudulent report. Issued as a last-ditch effort to sway Blue Dog Democrats like Senators Lincoln, Conrad and Nelson from voting for the reform, all it did was flash a neon light on their cynical, corrupt motivations. The report issued by America’s Health Insurance Plans ( AHIP), threatened passage of the bill would ensure premiums would skyrocket through the stratosphere at an even more alarming rate than the disastrous status quo.
Containing mandates that most Americans purchase health insurance coverage, the Baucus Bill practically hands the industry an additional 30-40 million hostages… er… customers. So what’s AHIP’s big gripe? They claim the penalties affixed to those who refuse ( or can’t afford) to purchase policies aren’t egregious enough therefore encouraging people to only buy insurance when they need it. And besides they don’t off-set the new taxes the companies will have to pay. Pass the hat. The healthy insurance industry’s profits continue to soar at a rate only matched by that of the oil companies. And premiums continue to rise and rise.
Was anyone really shocked when PriceWaterhouse Coopers, the firm AHIP engaged to prepare an analysis of the cost effectiveness of the proposed reform bill outed their own report as skewed? The firm was, apparently hired to evaluate only a portion of the bill. In a statement the firm said: “ The reform packages under consideration have other provisions that we have not included in this analysis. We have not estimated the impact of the new subsidies on the net insurance costs to households. Also, if other provisions in health care reform are successful in lowering costs over the long term, those improvements would offset some of the impacts we have estimated.”
Clearly—despite its president Karen Ignani’s public vow to President Obama to partner with the White House and Congress to sweep reform into reality—AHIP cannot be trusted. The White House’s open door policy to behind-closed-door meetings with Inganai and other health insurance honchos over the last several months while having nary a meeting with industry whistle blowers like Wendell Potter continues to confound me. Potter, a former Cigna VP who has testified before Congress and has recently made the cable TV talk show rounds is a harsh critic of his former industry. “Without a robust public option, the only beneficiaries of any reform bill will be the health insurance industry,” he has said.
The backlash of AHIP’s crass and miscalculated PR smear campaign may be a rejuvenated push for a public option. Sen. jay Rockefeller (D-W.VA), a big proponent of the public option said on MSNBC’s The Ed Show on Tuesday, “When insurance companies turned their back on the bill, they gave us a gift. They made Democrats angry.” He added with a smile, urging host Ed Schultz and his audience to “keep the faith. We will get a public option.”
I’m not so sure it’s in the bag. But MoveOn.org and a slew of unions have mounted advertising and letter-writing campaigns. MoveOn’s ad features Wendell Potter.
Still, I have queasy feeling that I’ll continue to pay more and more for less and less quality coverage. It’s enough to crawl into bed –keeping in mind the old adage “an apple a day keeps the doctor away—with a bushel of Honey Crisps and a giant jug of Purell for good measure. Think I’ll call my congressmen first.
Health insurance is the biggest LEGAL scam out there. For those of us lucky enough to have coverage, we pay and pay our premiums (or our employers do but then let’s face it–that benefit comes out of our hide one way or another) only to find that when we really need it–the insurance companies have many tricks and loopholes up their greedy sleeves. Not to mention the idiocy of how preventative care and well-visits are not always covered. Yep, these companies would rather take a gamble and see if you really get sick than encourage better preventative care. I am a mother of a child with Special Needs, and I have had to jump through more than one hoop for my insurance company to get the proper therapies needed for my son. In the end, most is not covered due to before mentioned loopholes, and I end up with the choice, pay it completely out-of-pocket or deny my son the help he needs to function better in society. And I am one of the lucky ones with health insurance. I cannot imagine how many sacrifices I would have to make if I had no coverage at all. It is horrible that a country as rich as ours (a self-proclaimed Super Power in the World) has so many people without health care. Shameful. We need a public option that is affordable and all-encompassing.
Good for Olympia Snowe – at least she votes with her brain not just to go along with her party. It would be nice if the Insurance companies were made accountable for their actions. They can cover something one time and then in another instance for the same thing decide not to cover it. We are all at their mercy. We should not have to go through so much trouble when we have paid for our insurance – when really needed it’s a hit or miss to get the coverage. Let’s take the Insurance companies to task and make some changes there.