Category: Public Policy

Note: this is about 1800 words long. You might want to print it out. The health care reform legislation that will be enacted by Congress later this month contains a number a different elements. It’s not easy to grasp it in its entirety. But there are a few key parts that you should understand for two reasons: first, because there is still time to make the legislation better and second because you should understand how much this legislation will accomplish, even if it doesn’t contain everything we want. Let me say one word on the last point before jumping into the details. We are not going to get everything we want in this legislation. But don’t let your disappointment about that blind you to how much we will accomplish, especially if we get most of the best provisions of the House and Senate bills in the final legislation. We will… Continue reading

There have been many moments in the campaign for health care reform that have been hard and frustrating. But two things have kept me going: the stories I’ve heard about people who are suffering or have died for lack of health insurance and the effort so many Pennsylvanians have made to push Congress to enact good reforms. I’ve been inspired again and again by these stories and by the hard, thankless work so many people have done on behalf of reform. On December 17 I took part in an event that moved me more than anything else I’ve done in the 18 months of the campaign because it joined both of these elements. Continue reading

Published in the Harrisburg Patriot-News, December 31, 2009 http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2009/12/holden_needs_to_get_facts_stra.html It’s sad but not unusual to find big insurance companies misleading people in their fight against health care reform. But it’s distressing to see a member of Congress, Tim Holden (D-Schuylkill), repeating these same misleading claims to justify his vote against legislation that would benefit so many people in his district. Congressman Holden said he voted against the health care reform bill because it included cuts to Medicare and Medicaid benefits. This is what the big insurance want people to believe. It is what their misleading TV ads directed toward seniors say. It is simply not true. Continue reading

Published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Sunday,  December 20, 2009 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09354/1022041-109.stm   A smaller and smaller percentage actually goes to health care, reports MARC STIER of Health Care for America Now Do you know where your health-insurance premiums go? Fifteen years ago, the answer to that question was easy. Whether you got insurance from a for-profit insurer, a nonprofit insurer or Medicare, the answer would about the same: 95 percent of your premiums (or, in the case of Medicare, your tax dollars) went for health-care benefits. Fast forward to now and things are very different. Continue reading

See two notes at the end, where I point to one unfinished part of this analysis and also show how my approach is similar to and different from that of Nate Sliver at 538. With the possibility that a public option won’t be part of the health care reform legislation passed this year, progressives are looking more closely at the rest of the legislation. And some of them have been worried by what they are seeing. For even when subsidies are applied in the Exchange, moderate income families will pay a substantial amount for health care in both premiums and out of pocket expenditures. Some progressive are asking how we can justify asking moderate income families to pay so much for health care? But, in fact, the health insurance program that would be created under the House legislation would be highly beneficial to moderate income families. Subsidized insurance under the Exchange… Continue reading

Just to let you know: I’m keep track of all the so-called progressive so-called organizations sending me emails saying we need to kill health care reform. In the future, when they jump on another issue campaign to build their email lists—and that is when you hear from them because basically that is all they do–I’m going to get out here, on Twitter, on Facebook my blog and anywhere else I can, a reminder that these are the people who care more about attracting your dollars with misleading appeals to ideological purity, then about doing something that actually makes life better for poor and working class people. Continue reading

I argued in my last post that we should stay the course and make the final bill as good as possible. This mostly means replacing some provision in the Senate bill with provisions form the House bill in four areas. I’ll discuss them and then turn to some good features of the Senate bill we want to keep. Continue reading

I want to report to you on where the health care bill is as of this moment. The news is not as good as I hoped it would be. But there is every reason to keep working hard to make this legislation as good as possible. Continue reading

I wrote this about three weeks ago as an op-ed for a local paper. But, by the time the editor got to it, the public option was in trouble in the Senate where it remains. It might be dead this year. But let’s not forget that the House voted for it. And a House-Senate conference committee will have to figure out how to merge the two bills. As we move closer to that moment, the public option, which has been counted out more than once before, may make a comeback. And the fundamental reason is that it just makes sense. That’s why public support for the public option remains high as 60 and 65 percent of the public think it is a good idea. Continue reading