Regroup and Reload, The War on Health Care Looms

I cannot explain how much my heart aches over soon to be Justice Samuel Alito.  It wasn't so long ago that I attended my first oral argument at the Supreme Court.  I remember freezing, awestruck, as I entered the room.  This was where Brown was decided.  This was where Baker and Reynolds demanded fair elections, where Lawrence, Griswald and Roe screamed out "get your motherfucking hands off of my body!"  Because of the Chief Justice's health, the center chair was open, and I remember staring at it thinking "Earl Warren sat there."

So tonight I will cry over Justice Alito.  I will weep over the promotion of a man so undeserving, so antithetical to the greatness of our Constitution, but I will have to move on.

We lost a terrible and crippling battle today, but an equally important conflict looms on the horizon.  Tomorrow, Bush will declare War on Health Care.  He will use his State of the Union to propose replacing health insurance with so called "health savings accounts" (HSAs).  If you have time, I suggest reading this comprehensive Think Progress post describing the danger presented by HSAs, but for the busy and the sorrowful, I will include a short explanation here.

Health insurance works on the notion of "risk shifting."  Under the existing insurance model, customers young and old pay premiums, with the understanding that they will receive reimbursements for expensive health care should a need arise.  In practice, this means that young, healthy people, who generally need very little health care, pay more money than they get back.  As they age, and their health fails,  their need for benefits increase, until they begin drawing more out than they pay in.  The young support the old, so that when they are old other young people may support them.

Bush's plan kills this structure.  Under the Bush plan, young, healthy people are given valuable tax benefits in return for accepting cheaper, higher deductable health plans.  This means that the healthiest taxpayers are given some financial security against being forced to pay a higher deductable, and thus they can safely afford to pay less money for their health plans.

This may sound like a great idea, but remember that the overwhelming majority of health care costs are borne by the oldest and the sickest.  Without an influx of young, healthy money into the insurance system, insurance companies will have no choice but to jack up the premiums on the most vunerable.  Many of these older, sicker customers will be unable to afford these premiums, so they will be forced to drop their insurance, thus saving the insurance company the cost of paying out expensive benefits.  Its a great deal for the companies, who lose many of their expensive customers right as those customers stop being profitable, and the only losers are the people left to get sick and die.

Make no mistake, HSAs are the first wave of the War on Health Care.  Once they take root, much of America will enjoy Iraqi-style Freedom, unshackled by the burden of health insurance, affordable care, and life-saving treatment.  Health care will be all but forgotten in much of the nation, and fat-cat Republicans can have the nation's hospitals all to themselves.

In the face of the War on Health Care, Democrats will have two choices.  They can meet the President with the same force and vigor which saved Social Security, or they can cower and run as they did with Samuel Alito.  Either way, they must make no mistake, there will be a War on Health Care, and Congressional Democrats are the only soldiers health care's got.

Now is the time to marshall the troops.  We may be beaten and bloodied, but America cannot afford to lose this war.  I urge all Kossacks to call their Congresspersons and Senators, not just to explain the threat of the War on Health Care, but also to demand that they devise a battle plan.  We need a communications strategy.  We need designated spokespeople.  We need a unified message.  And we need a media strategy.  We cannot afford disorganization against the Bush phallanx, and if Joe Lieberman disagrees, he should be hung for desertion.

Tomorrow, President Bush will begin an unprovoked attack on our health and well-being, and history will remember how the Democrats respond.

•  Tips are good.

  phone calls to Congresscritters are better.

  by captainebo on Mon Jan 30, 2006 at 07:29:02 PM PDT

•  HSAs are horrible

  I am against them for a variety of reason. In theory the idea works; but, in reality, it doesn't. And I will tell you why.

  First of all this assumes that most young people rarely get sick and only go to the doctor for a sinus infection once a year or so. Secondly it assumes that the amount of money saved on premiums would be put into the accounts.

  These propositions are dicey at best. First of all most young people in their twenties and thirties, especially those in big cities like Washington, NY, LA, San Fransisco, and Chicago, can barely make ends meet. Salaries have not risen with the cost of living. On top of that they have student loans to pay.

  HSAs are a risk. I guess that you could say that if you were in your twenties and thirties, the only coverage that one really needs is catastrophic. That being said, should someone need an operation, it would really be horrible to have to pay $1000 or $2000 out of pocket.

  So I am against this proposition. I don't think it's a good idea. Frankly what it amounts to is pushing the cost of health care away from employers and the government toward individuals.

  by jiacinto on Mon Jan 30, 2006 at 07:35:10 PM PDT

•  Scam

  This is just another way to separate people from their money. The wealthy will have access to hopitals while the rest us would be lucky to be able to enter the property. Medicare Part D pissed off the elderly but if they buy this crap, they get what the deserve. If Dems support this, I am done with their anti-American views. It's a natio of people, not corporations.

  by Tux on Mon Jan 30, 2006 at 07:48:26 PM PDT

  •  Well

    I don't like HSAs either.

    by jiacinto on Mon Jan 30, 2006 at 07:53:06 PM PDT

•  HSAs are based on the flase assumption

  that we have enough left over after payign for food and housing nad utilities and clothign to SAVE for a ehalth emergency.

  I have cataracts. My fiurst eye was operated on on the 19th.  The toal cost for both surgereis will be $6000. WHen you toss int he 9 visits and all the tests--it will be between $7 and 8,000. Did we nto have cheap health isnurance (Tricare becasuse my hsuband put in 23 years iwth the Navy--logn deplpyments, lots of nasty danger)  I owuldn't have had hte option of chosing surgery.

  Let's strip Bush of hsi money and family and dump him soemwhere int he U.S. and let him see what it's liek to need medical attention withotu money or insruance.

  by irishwitch on Mon Jan 30, 2006 at 08:50:12 PM PDT