In her SFGate Blog this morning, Carolyn Lochhead gives us reason to hope that the good Senator is moving on this issue and can be persuaded to support a strong public option in the healthcare bill. I know that many readers here will disagree, but I am not going to give up on this.
Read between the lines of Lochhead's post of Feinstein's list of what she does support below the fold.
"1) Reducing costs and expanding coverage
- Prohibiting the denial of insurance because of pre-existing conditions
- Moving toward either a non-profit model of medical insurance or to one where premium costs can be controlled, either through competition in a public or cooperative model or through a regulated authority.
- Assuring the financial survival of Medicare, because it is slated to run out of money in 2017.
- Preventing the transfer of Medicaid costs to states, which could result in billions of dollars of additional loss to the State of California.
- Establishing means testing for programs like Medicare Part D, which pays for prescription drugs
Clearly, the individual mandate - and how it is funded - is the critical, and as yet unanswered, question."
Since in her own view, how any new health care option is funded is the critical variable, I recently wrote to her acknowledging that it will be politically difficult to find ways to control the costs of the public option that the President supports. However, I do believe that the revenue side of the equation has a myriad of enhancement possibilities. I suggested the following few.
- The defense budget is bloated with the inclusion of spending on weapons systems that are redundant and/or unnecessary.
- The Bush era tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy still need to be heavily pruned.
- Instead of taking tens of billions of dollars away from Medicare to fund a federal option, a small percentage increase in the payroll tax together with raising the cap on income that is taxed will raise enormous sums.
- A modest increase in Medicare premiums would raise billions.
- A public option, as opposed to the CO-OP plan envisioned by Senator Dorgan, will have the potential leverage to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in savings as it bargains for lower prices.
I am currently a Medicare recipient, age 75, and feel that Medicare works well for me. I never feel that a government bureaucrat is getting between my doctor and me and I am confidant that I am getting the care I need when I need it Medicare is a proven model for the robust public option that President Obama envisions. I am happy to make the sacrifices necessary to be able to pay a little more so that such a plan might emerge.
As I type this, my wife is in the next room with a friend whose sister we will call Mary. In the past year Mary was diagnosed with blood cancer which has now reached her bones. She went on disability a few months ago, but because she felt she should pay her hospital bills, was unable to make her house payments. She has now lost the house of 20 years, which ironically qualifies her for MediCal insurance. A system that allows this to happen cannot stand.
Together we can convince Senator Feinstein (Office phone: 202-224-3841 Fax:202-228-3954) that it is time to lead and not time to cave in to the intense lobbying of big pharma, the health insurance companies and the AMA and to support a strong public option.
Yes we can!