If you read The Wall Street Journal, as I do, you have to take some bad with the good. The good includes some of the best writing in print journalism (still), with something fascinating on pretty much every page of the paper. The bad includes putting up with the drip, drip, drip of op-ed columnist who HATE the very idea of medical insurance reform, and have scoffed, excoriated and lambasted every attempt by anyone to move us to a more rational system. They’ve been really, really insufferable about it, pretty much all year.
But now, as they do their best to drive that last nail into the coffin of reform here on the eve of final passage, they finally have a point worth making, even if it isn’t the one they’ve been making all along: What’s the point in passing this legislation? Check out this piece by columnist William McGurn:
Whether it’s a “big victory” for the Democratic Party depends on whether you buy Mr. Emanuel’s wager about 1994. The Emanuel Wager goes like this: It was the Democrats’ failure in 1994 to pass a health-care bill that ushered in the Gingrich takeover of Congress. In his own meetings with Democrats, former President Bill Clinton has pressed the same line.
This was the message Mr. Emanuel delivered personally to Mr. Reid, when he urged him to cut a deal with holdout Joe Lieberman. This was the message the president echoed two days later in the West Wing, when he told Democrats that no piece of legislation would be perfect. And this appears to be the message embraced by Mr. Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, given their willingness to accept any amendment to get some health-care bill passed.
So here’s the rub: Emanuel’s Wager holds only if the merits of the legislation matter not at all.
Indeed. I’m about at the point of saying, Vote this thing down, because if THIS passes as health insurance reform, we’ll never get the real thing.
We were headed in the right direction there for awhile. The House had the public option in there. And at first, it looked like the Senate would pass an expansion of Medicare to those of us who are 55 and older, which would at least be a step toward the Medicare for all that we should have. (An account I read said the premiums for those of us 55 and older would have to be about $600 a month to pay for it, which would be OK by me. I’ve always expected to pay for my coverage the way I always have; what I object to is not being able to get it at all unless I work for the right company.)
But now, nothing worth calling reform. Apparently there will be something in there about requiring everybody to have insurance — which would make sense if you were requiring everybody to be in the same pool, thereby spreading the risk throughout the population. But no one dares say “single payer.”
There are some provisions in this bill that sound sort of promising — such as this new insurance option based on the benefits available to federal workers — but I’m not hearing enough details on them to know whether they will do any good at all (questions such as, who would be eligible, or what would it cost?). All I seem to hear is the back and forth fighting over the side issue of abortion, which in and of itself demonstrates exactly what’s wrong with Washington. In other words, maybe there’s a case to make for this legislation. But I haven’t heard anybody make it. All I’ve seen is a bunch of Democrats who seem to be as shallowly willing to claim a “victory” as the Jim DeMints are to claim a “Waterloo.” And I’m fed up with it.
The only thing worse than failing to pass real reform would be passing this and then going around telling the world you’ve gotten the job done, thereby taking the steam out of any real reform for another generation.
And I don’t know about you, but I’m not up for waiting another generation. I’ve been waiting ever since I heard Ted Kennedy going on about it one day in Memphis in 1978, and I think I’ve waited long enough. So have you.
And when this is over, and we’ve failed to reform the system yet again, I’m going to blame these spineless Democrats who didn’t deliver, especially if they go around trying to tell me that they did.
But don’t rub your hands in satisfaction over this Waterloo, Republicans. I’m going to blame the feckless Democrats second. I’m going to blame you death-panelers first, because without you, they might have had the guts to do something worthwhile.
Don’t blame Repbulicans for this bill. It’s a Democrat special delivered vote-by-vote by Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi by selling out regular Americans for lobbying groups representing the worst parts of the healthcare issue: pharmaceutical companies, AARP, unions, trial lawyers, etc.
What Reid and Pelosi did to write specific kickbacks to states where the Senators held the bill hostage was obscene. Louisiana and Nebraska both got multi-million dollar payoffs. Taking the bribe was just as shameful as the offering made by Reid and Pelosi to get the vote.
All we need to wait for now is for Obama to drive an ambulance himself into a hospital parking lot where a bunch of handpicked workers in multi-colored scrubs will stand by applauding as Obama delivers a speech in front of a “Mission Accomplished” banner.
If you thought this ever was going to work, you are either ignorant or live in a fantasy world.
And it’s going to get worse.
The government can’t solve problems. Especially when they are the problem.
Lindsey Graham had the best world to describe this process: a debacle.
The only correct vote for this bill is an absolute “NO”. Let’s start the process to eject all the leadership of both parties.
The Senate bill fines people for not buying health insurance. The fine? $95. When? In 2014.
You can’t make this stuff up when it comes to the idiocy known as the U.S. government.
All government policy should be debated in public and recorded. Then we could see which moron came up with the $95 idea and laugh at him.
And another idea: every sentence of every bill should have the name of the person who actually wrote the words as well as the name of at least one Congressman who will personally take ownership of those words. That would help us see who is driving all the pork barrel politics.
Doug, you’re right this is not a great bill. Still if it helps add 30 million folks to the rolls of the insured it will be worth all the bad stuff. My bill would simply eliminate the age requirement for medicare. This would allow us to eliminate schip and medicaid.
Be careful what you wish for Bud. Medicare is a sham and one of the primary causes of increased health care costs. Doctors will never accept a single payer option. The best doctors would opt out.
If we made everything single payer, where exactly would the best doctors opt to—Dubai? I think a whole lot of un- and under-insured and expensively insured people would be happy to see one of the more civic-minded, less greedy doctors. There are a lot out there who are quite excellent. Many professionals are motivated by more than money….
“The best doctors would opt out”, Doug? Opt out to where? Aruba and Barbados couldn’t hold all the opt-outs. About the only places that most would WANT to go are places with some variant of universal health care already. Besides which, I know a fair number of doctors who are indebted up the wazoo and haven’t the financial wherewithal to opt out.
Kathryn,
Are you telling me you want a system that forces doctors to accept whatever payment the government decides is right for them?
It will not happen.
I can give you the name of one of the top ortho surgeons in the area who told me specifically that if single payer ever was forced on him, he would quit practicing medicine. And he’s not alone.
The best doctors will move into a cash-only model or establish their own payment plans. Think of how cosmetic surgeons work now and then expand that to every practice.
I spent a month in Canada this fall. Their system has just as many problems as ours – just different ones. I asked Canadiens what they thought of the system. The general attitude was “it’s fine as long as you aren’t really sick or don’t mind hospital stays in wards versus private or semi-private rooms”
Single payer is similar to the concept of generating electricity from the air. A great idea that is impossible and unattainable.
Steve,
Would you allow the government to set your salary? What would your response be? How much of a cut would you take before you looked for other options?
Smart guys like surgeons have plenty of options.
Find some doctors and talk to them about the heathcare bill. Call your own doctors and ask them what they think. Instead of listening to what Harry Reid thinks we should do, maybe we should be asking doctors.
It’s funny how people have such easy solutions when it involves cutting the pay for someone else.
The government sets my husband’s salary. He went to school at least as long as medical doctors. He works his butt off, too. Folks are quite happy to cut funding for the University….
The government set my father’s salary, too. We lived just fine and I did not turn into a princess, either (drat!).
Our brave fighting men and women have
their salaries set by –ta da– the government! Lawyers, who are required to take court appointments, have their “salary” set by the government –when they actually get paid at all. Try paying for an office and staff on bubkes. Mnay clamor for those government-set salaried jobs where they just show up and practice law and someone else takes care of the other headaches, like running a business…
What exactly is wrong with the government’s setting a doctor’s salary? They use many of the fruits of our society to get paid extremely well in many cases–why else would marrying a doctor be the gold standard?
Any super-greedy doctor can go wherever. I’m sure there are plenty of highly qualified candidates happy to work for somewhat less than the current “business-model” medical practices’ pay, especially in exchange for less stress about the business and the paperwork of health insurance. The move of many docs to becoming hospitalists speaks of this. My primary care docs are fine (although I miss the one who became a hospitalist) and have never been overly concerned with getting theirs financially. That’s probably why I trust them.