Progressive Democrats of America-Illinois (PDA_IL) Demands Truly Universal, Comprehensive, Cost-Effective, Equitable Quality Health Care For All
WE OPPOSE PROFIT DRIVEN 'REFORM!'
Under the proposed health insurance reform bills, the American people lose, the corporate world wins. The present bills if passed create a tax-payer supporter welfare program for the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries. How did this happen? Through campaign finance donations, lobbying, and revolving-door payoffs. Here is why we oppose the bills:
- The current bills will strengthen the most destructive and wasteful parts of America’s health care system: the profit-driven medical insurance industry. Even though they add no value to health care, insurance companies are guaranteed millions of new customers, and hundreds of billions of additional premium dollars through individual mandates. Despite Obama’s campaign promise of no mandates, with his approval, mandates are included in both the Senate and House versions. More premiums, more profit. (The mandates may be unconstitutional and are likely to be challenged in the courts.)
- The government will subsidize those who cannot afford the premiums. Those subsidies are inadequate and will leave many families having to pay 20% of their income toward health care. Moreover, our taxes, in form of the subsidies, will essentially reward a profit-driven industry. These additional profits will allow the insurance industries to further lobby against the people’s interests and any reforms included in the current bills.
- The bill would leave many millions of Americans with inadequate insurance – an "actuarial value" as low as 60 percent of actual health costs. Predictably, as health costs continue to grow, more families will face co-payments and deductibles so high that they preclude adequate access to care. Insurance ‘coverage’ does not equal access to care.
- Most of the provisions in the bills are scheduled to take place in 2013 or 2014. No explanation is given for this long delay. Medicare, which provided health insurance for millions, was implemented within a year after the legislation was signed into law—in a computer-less age!
- The bill is over 2,000 pages long and getting longer. Such a massive, convoluted document is likely to be read by only a few and understood by hardly anyone. Where’s the transparency? This is not only ridiculous, but suspicious as well; what motivations are at work here? HR 676, the Conyers/Kucinich bill that would implement "Expanded & Improved Medicare for All," consists of just 30 pages. The Senate version, S 703, "The American Health Security Act of 2009," contains only 172 pages.
- The current bills do not rescind the provision prohibiting Medicare from negotiating drug prices for its beneficiaries. --The Veterans Administration has such negotiating power and can purchase drugs at substantial savings.-- While the legislation does cover the "doughnut hole," the coverage is inadequate. In addition, the new legislation will drain money from Medicare because some Medicare funds will be used to fund part of the new bill.
- The current legislation does force insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing conditions, but various loopholes exist that cast doubt on the effectiveness of this provision. Insurance companies will be able to charge higher premiums, deductibles and co-pays, with no limits. As a result, people with pre-existing conditions may have insurance, but still be reluctant to seek medical attention due high deductibles and co-pays.
8.The following dubious provisions are also part of the bills:
* Permitting insurers and companies to more than double charges to employees who fail "wellness" programs because they have diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol readings, or other medical conditions.
* If the Senate version prevails (which is likely), medical insurance will be sold through state-run exchanges. Insurers will be permitted to sell policies "across state lines," exempting patient protections passed in other states. Insurers will thus set up in the least-regulated states in a race to the bottom, threatening public protections won by consumers in states with better regulations.
* Insurers can charge up to four times more based on age, plus more for certain conditions, and to continue to use marketing techniques to cherry-pick healthier, less costly enrollees.
* Insurers may continue to rescind policies for "fraud or intentional misrepresentation"—the main pretext insurance companies now use to cancel coverage.
- The government’s ability to prevent insurance companies from rescinding policies for people with serious illness is questionable. Loopholes are growing and serious oversight of the insurance industry is lacking now and will be more difficult after this complex legislation is passed.
- Too many will still be uninsured. The Senate bill would cover 31 million people, but at least 46 million are uninsured. Denying care to 15 million people is wrong.
- Women’s right to choose is severely curtailed. This is unacceptable. Abortions are a legal medical procedure. Catholic Bishops must not be allowed to dictate their demands in a national health care bill via surrogates in Congress.
- The excise tax on so-called "Cadillac" health care benefits is an additional, backdoor tax on the middle class, making health care less affordable for working people. By 2019, most middle class families will be affected by the tax. The notion that salaries will rise as a result is laughable. Keeping the Bush tax cuts for the rich while further taxing the middle class through the health care bill is unconscionable betrayal of the promises the President and Democrats made during the 2008 campaign to working and middle class voters. During his campaign, Obama harshly criticized John McCain for proposing just such a tax.
- The bill preserves insurance companies’ exemptions from the anti-trust laws and therefore from fair competition. Only insurance companies and Major League Baseball are exempt from anti-trust laws.
- This bill is likely to be a political disaster for the President and the Democratic Party. It will increase public cynicism about the role of government and its ability to solve social and economic problems. It is also likely to cause the Democratic Party and the President to lose much of the good will and support that led to their victories in 2008, thus opening the door to right-wing resurgence.
This is not reform! This legislation is designed to benefit insurance and pharmaceutical companies, not the American people. Democrats should kill this bill and introduce a real reform like Improved Medicare for All, which provides truly universal, comprehensive, cost-effective and equitable health care for everyone.
Your comments are welcome.
PDA-Illinois