We keep hearing that conservative and moderate Democrats and the so-called Blue Dogs are dragging their feet on health care reform and complaining about the public option, but their complaints are hard to understand because their constituents would in many cases benefit disproportionately from a bill. They also say that they wish to reduce the cost of reform but oppose measures that would accomplish this end.
NPR shed some much-needed light yesterday on just how grim the health care situation is in one county in a Blue Dog district: Wise County Virginia. Wise County is a rural area of western Virgnia, and many of its residents along with the people of neary counties are in desperate need of affordable quality health care now.
A Remote Area Medical (RAM) Expedition team made of of physicians, dentists, nurses, and other health care professionals came to Wise County to provide a free clinic. Thousands came from miles around, and some arrived days in advance to make certain of getting a good place in line.
The scene, people in dire need lining up for the chance to get medical care does not seem fitting for the world's chief economic power. Here's how the reporter described the RAM clinic: "It was a Third World scene with an American setting. Hundreds of tired and desperate people crowded around an aid worker with a bullhorn, straining to hear the instructions and worried they might be left out." A team of dentists pulled almost 4,000 teeth in less than three days. For more see: http://www.npr.org/...
See also: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
The desperate situation makes the politics of health care reform all the harder to explain. Wise County is represented in Congress by Democrat Rich Boucher. But Boucher expresses deep concern about the house bill and the public option. See: http://www.boucher.house.gov/...
Why is this? Surely, Boucher's constituents would benefit disproportionately from real health care reform. Many more will received subsidized care than will be the case in the average congressional district.
Boucher also argues that setting reimbursement rates in the same manner that Medicaid does will damage hospitals in his district. If this is really true some concessions may be necessary for making certain that rural hospitals do not collapse, but we also keep hearing that moderate Democrats care about the deficit, and yet it seems that they want both cheaper and more expesive health reform at the same time. They claim to be deficit hawks, so they want to hold the cost down, but they also oppose measures that will actually reduce the cost of health care. Which is it?