There was an earlier diary here tonight on this topic and I wanted to provide some background.
Congressman Jim Cooper was an early endorser of Barack Obama's, and has appeared as a surrogate for the campaign on TV, but he is not hired by the campaign or worked for the campaign. He volunteers as a supporter as most of the rest of us do. Jim Cooper was in the early 90's and remains a centrist Democrat in the House of Representatives. He is one of the Democrat's that the next President must be able to work with if we are to enact health care reform with a goal of universal coverage.
David Brooks wrote an op-ed a few weeks ago about Cooper's cold reception by HRC when he met with her back in 93 and 94. Cooper has been very critical of the "my way or the highway" approach she took back then.
SOURCE: The Cooper Concerns
By DAVID BROOKS
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/davidbrooks/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
Published: February 5, 2008
The column below the fold . . .
One of the references that Brooks cites repeatedly in his column is Broder and Johnson's book, "The System." It is one of my favorite analyses of the failure of the Clinton Health Care Reform and I often assign it to my masters and doctoral students. It is unfortunate that many of the important documents from that effort 15 years ago have still not been released to the public.
By posting this, I do not mean to imply that I agree with what David Brooks has written. I usually disagree with David Brooks. But he does seem to know his history on this issue and I give him high marks for his reliance on Broder and johnson's book.
For those of you who are interested in health care reform and what really happened in 1993/94, I would urge you to read The System. There are more excellent books that I often assign to students and probably one of the best is Theda Skocpol's (Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard), "Boomerang: Clinton's Health Security Effort and the Turn Against Government in U.S. Politics." New York: W.W. Norton, 1996.
Barack Obama understands that the both the health care system and the health insurance system in the US are broken. What Barack Obama has promised is that every single American who wants it will have affordable comprehensive health insurance coverage. No one will be denied coverage for ANY reason and no one will be left to the sharks in the private individual health insurance market, where you would be lucky to afford a $5,000 deductible health plan (that is actually what Arnold Schwarzenneger proposed for the people of California).
Under Obama's plan every American can expect to receive health care in a system that is caring and supportive and is of high quality, where patients get the care they need, when they need it in a humane, compassionate, and respectful way -- including coverage for primary and preventive care, prescription drugs, hospitalization, and management of disease --as he says repeatedly, "as good as members of Congress get."
Obama is also the only one to include public health funding for preparation for bioterrorism and a flu pandemic. Obama wants to protect and preserve the public's health. He is a constitutional scholar. He understands that Americans cannot live life, enjoy liberty, or pursue happiness without good health.
Mandates, shmandates, to borrow a phrase (tips to jm). In the United States, it is against our most basic principles to approach public policy first with the use of coercion and sticks, unless you are fighting a serious foe. Respect for autonomy and individual liberty are at the core of who we are as a people. But in the case of health care reform, the American people are not the enemy, they are the victims. They are in need. They need the government's help in affording a basic human right that has been priced out of the reach of tens of millions Americans -- access to high quality and compassionate health care. The market has failed these people, and the last thing they need is for the government to make them pay even more than they are now for a product that will not even pay their medical bills or provide coverage for the treatments they need.
A dirty little secret about mandates is that you need to make sure their is an "affordable plan" that you can force people to purchase. In Massachusetts, it is a $2000 high deductible health plan and in California is was a $5,000 high deductible health plan. The last thing the American people need -- is the extension of lousy health insurance to more people. Achieving so called "universal coverage" by giving people lousy high deductible health plans would be nothing to crow about.
What Barack Obama wants to do is help those who want help first; those who need help paying for their health insurance, and need help paying their medical bills will.
Many health care leaders are in agreement that Barack Obama's plan will cover 95-98% of all Americans when fully implemented. And if we as a nation feel the need to force the last 2-5% to buy coverage, we can do that.
But we shouldn't start with a mandate. To force people to buy coverage until you are sure there is something worth their while to buy (something of value) is foolish and will not fly politically - particularly with some Democratic Congressmen, like Jim Cooper. And if the Congress doesn't pass a reform proposal, our opponents can spew policy details at us until they are blue in the face, and it won't change a thing. The Congress is the one who will decide all of the details (the devil is in the details), and the President will be the one to establish goals and set a tone and direction and vision for the system we build for the future.
Finally, what is all this I hear about free riders? I have spoken to voters all over the country and have not heard one person brag to me about how they can get "free" care. There really is no such thing as free care. Yes, an emergency room has to treat you, but there is no law that says how long they can make you wait or how long they can stash you in a corridor. That is the "free" care you can get, and even then it is rarely fee. Most hospitals charge the uninsured high prices for the little care they receive and many end up with collection agencies hounding them for payment. Charity care does not begin to cover the need. And hospitals write off much of this care as bad debt -- which ends up costing all of us more. Free care for free riders is a myth.
A system that forces people to rely on emergency rooms is not the kind of health care the American people deserve. They deserve to be treated with respect and dignity and compassion. They deserve care that will keep them healthy and treat them when they are sick and injured. Obama believes that this is how the government should treat the American people. And that is why he will first make sure that those who want affordable comprehensive coverage have it. And then figure out to do with all those "free riders" later.
Obama has promised to start work on health care reform with a goal of universal coverage in his first year in office. Americans can take him at his word.
Bill and Hillary are trying to scare the American people into believing that Obama will not work to achieve universal coverage. What is so ironic about this is that it is Bill and Hillary who failed when they had the chance.
The truth is that Obama already has had success in this arena in Illinois, where he helped pass a bill that extended health insurance to 150,000 residents of Illinois, including 70,000 more children. He has proven he can work with Democrats and Republicans to make government work FOR the people.
Here is Brooks' column:
The Cooper Concerns
By DAVID BROOKS
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/davidbrooks/index.html?inline=nyt-per>