What the hell. I, like most Bernie supporters, have spent these last several weeks since the Convention, waiting patiently to hopefully see more signs of Hillary’s progressive side. And there have been moments of joyful surprise and moments of cursing. One of the more discouraging moments was Hillary’s pick for VP – Tim Kaine. Possibly the most boring establishment choice ever. I, like many others, had hoped for a Progressive, even if it wasn’t Elizabeth Warren. But okay, we need to win Virginia, and we’ve been told that he’s not that bad and the good people of Virginia seem to like him.
For many, one of the bigger disappointments in the primary results was the lost dream of a Single-Payer, Medicare-for-All Healthcare system. Hillary has since come out in support of a public option, and so has Obama. And it’s in the Democratic Platform. Great! If we can’t get universal healthcare, at least give us a public option. And support for a public option is pretty good among polled voters - “only 13 percent of people said they opposed the public option, which would give individuals the choice of buying healthcare through Medicare or private insurers”. The majority of Democrats believe that we need to move forward on Obamacare to make good on the promise of more AFFORDABLE healthcare. According to a November 2015 Gallup poll, 78% of Americans are dissatisfied with the total cost of healthcare in this country. (I don’t think I need to go into detail about the challenges that the ACA is facing now with the private insurance companies that just can’t make enough profit to suit them).
So last Thursday, a Senate resolution was introduced calling for a public option in the health insurance market. It was introduced by Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt)., Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and cosponsored by the following 22 Democratic senators:
Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).
From Bernie’s press release:
“The Affordable Care Act has made great progress in helping millions of people get access to health insurance. But at a time when 29 million people are still uninsured and 31 million are underinsured, we must continue to make needed health care reforms so that the American people can have health care as a right, not a privilege. Insurance companies have shown they are more concerned with serving their shareholders than their customers. Every American deserves the choice of a public option in health insurance,” said Sanders.
“The Affordable Care Act has already expanded health coverage to millions who were previously uninsured and given countless Americans greater peace of mind. We should build on this success by driving competition and holding insurance companies accountable with a public, Medicare-like option available to every American,” said Merkley.
“Rather than refighting old political battles and trying to put insurance companies back in charge, Republicans should join Democrats in expanding choice for consumers by supporting a public health insurance option. We need more competition in the insurance markets, not less, and this plan would help reduce costs and provide consumers with more affordable options when it comes to their health insurance,” said Schumer.
“The passage of the Affordable Care Act was an important step toward making health care more affordable and accessible, but it shouldn't be the last step we take. I believe that there should be a public option in our insurance marketplaces to help reduce premiums, compete with the insurance companies so that consumers are put first and give working families across the country more affordable choices,” said Murray.
“Ensuring that everybody in America has access to quality affordable health care is something that generations of leaders have worked toward. The Affordable Care Act was a massive step toward that goal, but it’s critical that we continue to push until we achieve it. A public option would get us there by increasing competition and accountability in the health insurance market and saving taxpayers billions of dollars,” said Durbin.
Specifically, the resolution states support for efforts “to build on the Affordable Care Act by ensuring that, in addition to the coverage options provided by private insurers, every American has access to a public health insurance option which, when established, will strengthen competition, improve affordability for families by reducing premiums and increasing choices and save American taxpayers billions of dollars.
And according to Politico:
Thirty-three mostly liberal Democrats, including all the Senate leadership, have signed onto a nonbinding Senate resolution introduced last Friday to add the public option to Obamacare, arguing that it is needed to fix problems with the president’s signature health care law.
But missing from the list are vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine and a half-dozen other moderates who face reelection in 2018 — when the map that favors Democrats this year will flip to favor Republicans.
Kaine’s absence is especially striking since Hillary Clinton embraced the public option in July.
So I guess we can reluctantly forgive these moderate red-state democrats, since they have calculated that it could be harder for them to win their re-election campaigns by openly supporting what the Republicans are already calling “Obamacare 2.0”. (Although I have often heard that “When Democrats run as Republican-lite, they frequently lose”). But there are also other groups advocating for a public option that will help educate voters and garner support: Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Presente.org, UltraViolet, Working Families Party, MoveOn.org, Democracy for America, and Daily Kos. They have already launched a grassroots campaign to make a public option for healthcare a reality. You can sign their petition here.
Back to Tim Kaine (from New York Magazine):
Tim Kaine, however, has no excuse. He’s the party standard-bearer’s second-in-command. He has no business rebuking a policy that the sitting Democratic president sees as an essential reform to his signature health-care law.
Kaine has no right to be worrying about a Senate race in 2018. And even if he did, Virginia ain’t Montana. The Old Dominion State is growing bluer by the day; Democrats can do better there than an avuncular figure who loves the harmonica but isn’t crazy about publicly provided health care.
A Clinton campaign spokesperson told Politico that Kaine is “supportive of a workable public option for health care insurance.” But when politicians want to lend their full support to a policy, they don’t typically avoid signing resolutions that say so. Nor do they qualify their support with an adjective like workable, which projects skepticism about the program’s feasibility and establishes an off-ramp for withdrawing support from any specific public-option proposal.
In light of all of this, I find it irritating that our vice-presidential nominee, Tim Kaine, chose not to sign onto this resolution but issued a weak statement instead.
So, what’s up, Tim Kaine?