THE BIG LIE is that the current Senate healthcare reform proposal - eviscerated by Republicans, Joe Lieberman, and others - is actually a good bill and we should rally around it and support it.
THE BIG LIE is that we can have substantial healthcare and health insurance reform without a public option.
THE BIG LIE is that although a "budget reconciliation" bill is not subject to filibuster and only needs 50 votes (plus Joe Biden) to pass the Senate, healthcare reform cannot occur through budget reconciliation because the reforms we need are not budget items.
THE BIG LIE is that Democrats are not caving to Republicans; are not caving to Joe Lieberman and right-wing members of their own party; are not caving to insurance industry lobbyists and insurance industry money; and are actually standing up for Americans even though they are sacrificing everything that was promised.
LIES, LIES, LIES.
We are told that the current Senate proposal will provide health insurance to 30 million Americans who currently lack coverage; that this bill will impose restrictions on health insurance company practices so that people cannot be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions; that there are provisions in this bill that will force insurance companies to keep rates from rising and reduce administrative expenses; and that this bill is the only way to achieve those reforms. LIE.
THE TRUTH is that the current Senate bill will not substantially reform healthcare, will not reduce exploding healthcare and health insurance costs, and will not reform the insurance industry practices of increasing profits by raising rates and denying people needed medicine and treatment.
THE TRUTH is that health insurance companies are able to make obscene profits by constantly raising insurance premiums because people have no other place to go. Their choice is either pay the higher premiums or lose their health insurance. The small amount of premiums lost because some people and employers are forced to drop health insurance and go uninsured is more than offset - much more than offset - by the many people who stay insured and swallow the ever-ballooning cost of insurance. The truth is that the Senate bill - by not offering an alternative - does nothing to stop insurance companies from profiting from their greed.
THE TRUTH is that the current Senate bill will be a boon to insurance companies because it will require almost everyone to have health insurance - and with no public option, that means a huge increase in premiums collected by insurance companies. And because people will still have no other place to go, insurance companies will continue to increase their rates. Under this bill, their profits will increase even more dramatically because the government will penalize anyone who drops health insurance coverage even in the face of increasingly unaffordable rates.
THE TRUTH is that the only substantive way to achieve the reforms we’ve been promised (short of a single payer system) is through a very robust public option and the only way to pass a very robust public option in the Senate is through budget reconciliation.
THE TRUTH is that all the things that the current Senate bill supposedly will do can be done even better by simply enacting a robust public option and forcing insurance companies to compete with that public option.
With a public option, if insurance companies raise their rates like they have been, many customers will switch to the more affordable public option. For the first time, insurance companies won’t be able to increase profits by simply raising rates. Instead, to increase profits they would have to cut rates and attract more customers. Through competition, insurance companies would actually compete for customers and would actually have to make their health plans more customer-friendly.
Quite simply, all Congress has to do is pass a bill that sets up a public health insurance plan that competes with private insurers. The plan would require all Americans to have health insurance and require all medium and large employers to offer health insurance to their employees. The public option would not be a huge burden on taxpayers and would pay for itself because it would not be profit-driven, would offer a low cost alternative to private health insurance, and would attract not just people who have significant health issues but also young and healthy people who would pay more in premiums than they would receive in benefits.
The mandates that are in the current Senate bill would be unnecessary because the existence of a public option- the existence of real competition - would itself result in the very reforms that the current Senate bill would mandate. And because a public option proposal would not impose any reforms on insurance companies, it could be passed as a budget reconciliation bill. Don’t believe the liars who tell you otherwise!
There is an alternative to the horrible, tortured process we have witnessed these last few months. There is a better way to achieve healthcare and health insurance reform. There is a way to avoid the Senate filibuster and take power away from Senate Republicans and Joe Lieberman and his ilk. There is a way, and its time we the people demanded of our President and of our Senators and members of Congress that they take the better route to real and lasting reform. Demand it America!!