Here I’ve been worrying myself silly the last day or two with the possibility of the public option getting kicked to the curb during the next few weeks of negotiations. So when I was out for my morning walk today, I tuned into Thom Hartmann, thinking I’d get a good dose of people-power, and a stern rebuke from Thom not to give up the good fight. Instead, he said something I didn’t expect to hear. Reading his open letter to President Obama, he began:
I understand you’re thinking of dumping your “public option” because of all the demagoguery by Sarah Palin and Dick Armey and Newt Gingrich and their crowd on right-wing radio and Fox. Fine. Good idea, in fact.
What?! Is this the Thom Hartmann, defender of unions and the middle class? One of the most anti-corporate talking heads on radio? A progressive who’ll call out any politician from any party for his or her hypocrisy, cronyism, or corporate shilling? That Thom Hartmann says “no” to the public option? WTF?
Now I’m wondering if Big Corporate Cash has bought off Thom Hartmann and Air America too. I wouldn’t be surprised. Before tuning to Thom I was listening to the local NPR station about Obama’s talk this morning here in Phoenix, and they spent a while interviewing “regular folks on the street” opposed to reform. Then the very next underwriting announcement, I kid you not, was for Cigna. Anyway, so after saying dropping the public option is a good idea, Thom continues:
Instead, let’s make it simple. Please let us buy into Medicare. It would be so easy. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel with this so-called “public option” that’s a whole new program from the ground up. Medicare already exists. It works. Some people will like it, others won’t – just like the Post Office versus FedEx analogy you’re so comfortable with. Just pass a simple bill – it could probably be just a few lines, like when Medicare was expanded to include disabled people…
Thom continues with some thoughts about how to make the system revenue neutral, how to manage it, and other administrative details, which you can read at the link. But two other parts are worth citing. First, the one that resonates in our home:
Most of us will do damn near anything to get out from under the thumbs of the multi-millionaire CEOs who are running our current insurance programs. Sign me up!
We have private insurance through UnitedHealthCare. The premiums have shot through the roof in the last five years, the deductibles have increased significantly, the benefits keep evaporating, and negotiating with them for the simplest procedure is like visiting a deep circle of Dante's Hell. And we are the fortunate ones, with insurance. At the same time, I see that Mr. Stephen Hemsley, the CEO of UHC, made $124 million last year, and that doesn’t include his stock options and other bonuses. As Hartmann has said repeatedly, America is the only industrialized nation where it is even legal to make a profit from basic health care. It’s obscene. I’d love the “option,” however it’s framed, “to get out from under the thumbs of the multi-millionaire CEOs…”
Thom would suggest a few changes, like permitting Medicare to negotiate drug prices, but the beauty of his proposal is its simplicity, and that it builds on something most people already know and trust, even some Republicans.
Simple stuff. Medicare for anybody who wants it. Private health insurance for those who don’t. Easy message. Even Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley can understand it. Sarah Palin can buy into it, or ignore it. No death panels, no granny plugs, nothing. Just a few sentences. Replace the “you must be disabled or 65” with “here’s what it’ll cost if you want to buy in…”
Thom would prefer something more progressive and fair, as would many of us, what he calls “single payer Medicare for all,” but at this time, how about “Medicare for anyone who wants to buy in”? It is an option, it is public, and it already exists. I can imagine what some of the wingnut opposition would sound like (mostly about cost, which Hartmann addresses), but are their progressive objections too?