According to an article in The New York Times, it looks like the chance for health reform is in the hands of a bi-partisan committee of six senators. This committee has already rejected the notion of a government-run insurance plan that would compete with private insures and it has also dismissed a plan by House Democrats to pay for health reform via an income surtax on high income earners.
An article by Nathan Newman at Talking Points Memo analyzes this small, but evidently, crucial senate group. In “The Tyranny of the Tiny White States,” Newman identifies the senators and shows that they are from tiny states with mostly white populations:
- Max Baucus of Montana (pop 935,670- 89.2% white)
- Kent Conrad of North Dakota (pop 636,677- 90.1% white)
- Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico (pop 1,928,384- 42.8% white)
- Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming (pop 509,294- 88.8% white)
- Charles E. Grassley of Iowa (pop 2,966,334- 91.5% white)
- Olympia Snowe of Maine (pop 1,321,505 – 96% white).
Newman writes: “Altogether, this rump group of negotiators represent just 8.3 million Americans or less than 3% of the population and only 1.6 million non-whites. Subtract Bingaman and that last number drops to just 521,000 non-whites represented by this group of Senate negotiators deciding the fate of health care for a diverse population of almost 300 million Americans.
“Structurally, this is what bipartisanship means. The tyranny of tiny states and the exclusion of non-white concerns.
“This is the structural racism built into a Constitution two hundred years ago to exclude the voting power of slaves and to this day privileges the power of a handful of small, mostly white states to undermine the will of the majority in our nation.”
At least we have a few who are willing to stand up for the citizens of this country. Government run health care – what a joke! Look how they run medicare, social security, etc. I don’t need the government between me and my doctor.
People in this country need to take responsibility for their lives.
The mantra of personal responsibility covers for a lot of stuff, much of it bad. It has been used to justify the strong harming the weak who are then blamed for their plight. In fact we have a complex society but one in which wealth and power are becoming more concentrated.
Chances are you can not pay your doctor yourself. We have a system where private insurers compete to exclude people or conditions form coverage as that is where the profits are in private insurance. We also have a system where paying for health care through a job excludes large number of people, particularly those who are self employed or work for small businesses. We could and should do a lot more to make government responsive to needs but it is going to do a lot more than the business sector, which caused our economic mess by unrestrained greed. Medicare and Social Security have their strong points and would probably be in better shape if conservatives were not always promising to get rid of them, in order to divide young from old, and if they were funded more realistically. While health care is complex and has competing interests, if conservatives were more interested in solving our problems rather than just defeating Obama and maintaining their ideological purity, Congress could probably come up with a health care system that would be a major success.
Being a Utah health insurance underwriter for http://www.BenefitsManager.net and http://www.DentalInsuranceUtah.net I have the opportunity to consult within many state insurance committee meetings. Some interesting changes took place in Utah with the passage of House Bill 188 that other states should pay attention to and perhaps the federal legislation. The bill created a state insurance pool requiring private health insurance carriers to come together and underwrite risk. Through governmental guidelines (which I have traditionally opposed in the past) they created a arena of underwriting rules that essentially guarantees the participating insurance carriers a ?no loss? or ?no gain? over each other. What this essentially means is that they pool the underwriting medical risk and spread it evenly among each carrier. All the sudden, we see guaranteed issued policies. We see rates drop by as much as 13% In Utah, our average monthly family rate is $867 for a $500 deductible plan. Some of the family rates within the ?Utah Insurance Exchange Portal? are approaching $700.00 now. To see more of HB 188 and see how Utah wrangled change without increasing taxes or rationing go to: http://www.prweb.com/releases/utah_health_insurance/health_care_reform/prweb2614544.htm
The private insurance sector can be corralled into cooperation where they can meet their goals. You have to understand that health insurance carriers are only looking for a 4-5% administration fee. That is it and they are more efficient as compared to a governmental portal that will cost more money. Take a look at Utah folks!
I only want the same health care plan that John Boehner enjoys. And I don’t see why tax dollars should pay for his and not for mine.
Those saying that public health care is a joke are trying to divert our attention from our current mongrel system, which is travesty.
If you want the same health care as John Boehner then you should get elected to public office.
The “current mongrel system” which you say is a travesty is still the envy of the world.
I must have missed the part of the Constitution that provides health care for Americans.