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Alegre's Corner
We're not finished folks - not by a long shot!

Obama Creates a Fund for Health Care Reform

by: campskunk

Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 20:16:36 PM EST


After all the health care bamboozlement during the primaries, during which Obama first ran against universal health care by attacking it from the right using Harry and Louise talking points, then insisted that his non-universal health care plan was in fact universal, and finally seemed to come out in favor of a non-mandate chimera that didn't please anyone, I wasn't expecting much. Obama's health-care plan was a back-of-the-napkin scribbling by someone who didn't care all that much but needed something to show folks that he was a serious candidate.  I figured Obama would propose a dead-on-arrival mess, let the Congress vote it down, and say he tried.

So I don't know what to make of this bit in WaPo about Obama setting aside some fairly serious money in his budget proposal for health care reform...

Obama Budget Would Create $634 Billion Health-Care Fund

President Obama intends to release a budget tomorrow that creates a 10-year, $634 billion "reserve fund" to partially pay for a vast expansion of the U.S. health care system, an overhaul that many experts project will cost as much as $1 trillion over the next decade.

And I like where it's coming from... the repeal of the Bush tax breaks for the rich, and putting the squeeze on big health care. He also needs to squeeze big pharma, by the way.

Obama would pay for the expansion by trimming tax breaks for the wealthy and tightening payments to insurers, hospitals and physicians, according to a senior administration official.... Under the Obama budget blueprint, about half of the new "health care reserve fund" would come by limiting the tax break on itemized deductions for families with incomes above $250,000. The proposal would reduce the value of tax deductions by about 20 percent, a change which would generate about $318 billion over the next 10 years, according to administration documents provided to The Washington Post.

I'm hopeful in a manner born of desperation, but I'm also very afraid this will be a squandered opportunity to do the right thing, and give the moneyed interests another dozen years like the ones they got by killing the 1995 proposal. Check out the article and decide for yourself whether this signals a willingness to get serious about health care, or whether he's going to cave in to the corporate interests who put him in the White House.

campskunk :: Obama Creates a Fund for Health Care Reform
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Obama Creates a Fund for Health Care Reform | 34 comments
krugman says (0.00 / 0)
very leary. tommorrow he will unveil 8 points on healthcare or womsthing. krugman says this thing is moving fast. but as dean and hillary and edwards told us-if you do not have a public option then forget it. better it be killed.
Computerized records can only do so much (0.00 / 0)
Everything I've heard him or his buddies say so far suggests the first want to cut costs by computerizing everything. Only after costs are cut will he move to expand access to health care.

"but I'm also very afraid this will be a squandered opportunity to do the right thing, and give the moneyed interests another dozen years like the ones they got by killing the 1995 proposal."
As much as we need expanded access to healthcare, my first instinct with him is to say no to what he's proposing here. He just shows no appetite for offending monied interests.

yeah, he stole that from hillary. (0.00 / 0)
if you don't mind getting mad all over again, go read hillary's health care plan. it's all there - even where the money would come from.

http://www.hillaryclintonquart...

Barack Obama's election proves that any male can grow up to be president, provided he's willing to use misogyny as a campaign strategy.

[ Parent ]
the best I hope for (0.00 / 0)
is for him to steal all her homework.  I wish he'd also steal her personnel list, she had retired professionals ready to come back as caretakers in agencies, to clean stuff up and make a transition to the newer generation.  He had no need to have so many jobs unfilled, he just needs to pick up the phone and call Bill.  

Hillary - alternative energy
[ Parent ]
Setting aside 634 billion dollars for over 10 years for health care reform, but wanting 75 billion (0.00 / 0)
to fund the wars through September, just seems like an obscene concept.  Plenty will be crying about the health care funds, but not say a word about the war funds.  It will be republicans who complain the loudest. And of course the amount for health care will be much lower after Obama and his cohorts in congress get done gutting it to please republicans, who will then not give it one single vote in the end.  

Beside the fact that Obama has already decided that he will just let the tax cuts for the wealthy expire in 2010 rather than offend the republicans.  God only knows what else will be backed off of in the name of pugs by 2010, because so far Obama hasn't caught on that pandering for bipartisanship doesn't change a thing in reality.  God help us all.

You know... (0.00 / 0)
....I was very suspicious of Obama when he was running. Got banned a number of places for talking about it.

But...

You folks are getting a wee paranoid here. Did you watch the speech? The man looks to be mutating into the ReThugs worst nightmare.

How about you cut out the 'conservative' talking points and give the dude a break.

Hillary did.

Um, no. I live in a very liberal state (0.00 / 0)
that enacted very bad health reform.  I really could care a less if he's morphing into the Republicans worst nightmare, that is meaningless to me.  But when a state like PA is close to passing single payer, and the people are asking for it in my state, and CA has twice passed a single payer bill vetoed by their Republican Governor, and Minnesota has passed single payer through committee, I don't want some national version of Romney-care superceding real progress in the states.  Rhetoric is absolutely meaningless to me.  I only care about policy.  And, becoming the worst nightmare(though I hardly think that is the case) of what has become basically a regional Party means even less.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights
[ Parent ]
I don't know about PA, although that was Rendells previous wish. (0.00 / 0)
Right now, he is busy cutting social service money, and figuring out how to twist a knife in the back of state employees.  Maybe he can add health care to education and wring some funds for it out of some sortof gambling, and legalized poker machines.  No kidding.  He loves the revenue from gambling. Every kind of it.
[ Parent ]
My Governor, Axelrod's "dry run" (0.00 / 0)
tried to get us on the casino bandwagon and he's busy applying restrictions to homeless shelters like they have to work 30 hours a week and save a 1/3 of their income to apply, right now.  Gee, with liberals like these...However, I have read several recent stories that PA is still heading toward single payer.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights
[ Parent ]
universal health care is a core democratic value. (0.00 / 0)
the "conservative talking points" can be found here in obama's harry and louise flyer, attacking health care from the right.

i know you're fond of obama, but attacking universal health care like he did during the primary isn't what this party is all about.

Barack Obama's election proves that any male can grow up to be president, provided he's willing to use misogyny as a campaign strategy.

[ Parent ]
here's a link to the whole flyer. (0.00 / 0)
obama's "source" for this pack of lies about hillary "forcing" people to buy insurance they can't afford is an iowa student newspaper, the Daily Iowan.

http://www.politico.com/pdf/PP...

Barack Obama's election proves that any male can grow up to be president, provided he's willing to use misogyny as a campaign strategy.

[ Parent ]
Would you like the world to be made up of either mesmerized zombies, or (0.00 / 0)
republicans, or is there a place for some critical thinking in between?
[ Parent ]
Obama is democracy's worst nightmare, (0.00 / 0)
always was and always will be.  Some of us that democracy more seriously than you do.
[ Parent ]
Well, does it include Medicare access for all (0.00 / 0)
Americans?  If it does not, it's worthless.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights
I'm wary (0.00 / 0)
If you fund it by taxing the rich, then it's welfare & it's means tested - that is if, in fact, it expands coverage at all. There's no way of telling from this what he has in mind. And as for cutting payments to providers: aren't Medicare rates so low that the providers have to charge everyone else more to make up for it? One thing I was hoping we'd get rid of is the crazy cost shifting that makes the uninsured pay a 300% markup.
Medicare payment (0.00 / 0)
schedule is so low that quite a lot of doctors will not take Medicare patients now.  Cutting those payments further is not a good idea.
[ Parent ]
I'm for the increase on the wealthy, (0.00 / 0)
but yeah, i'm not for everyone else not paying in and this doesn't sound like a step to single payer that would necessitate everyone paying their part.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights
[ Parent ]
Having read the plan, I very much (0.00 / 0)
approve of the additional tax hikes on the rich.  I do think that will go a long way toward restoring income equality.  Indeed, Medicare for All would achieve much income equality in a New York minute.  I hope he continues in that way.  His budget seems at odds with much of what he has done so far.  The budget, so far, is sounding good. Krugman thinks passing UHC with the subsidies will be enough to grant Obama a good legacy.  I think he has to open up Medicare to all Americans.  The private insurers here in MA proved that affordable, universal coverage is simply at odds with their fiduciary duty to shareholders to make profits.  Never shall the two meet.  Private insurance is a market failure, and no amount of subsidizing will change that.  Think of it this way, Obama readily and thankfully admits Medicare Advantage(ie government subsidized private insurance) is costing billions in wasteful spending.  It doesn't work.  Well, neither will new subsidies for private insurers.  I frankly doubt the public will stand for anymore public dollars to private companies for a service the government can do at a fraction of the cost.  This is Obama's moment, and I would be happy to see him seize it.

I also like the carbon permitting.  Is that cap and trade or a straight forward carbon tax?  A carbon tax would be preferable.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights

Well the way he's handing money to the banks (0.00 / 0)
and asking them nicely to lend or refinance, instead of just making the government a direct lender or just nationalizing the banks, (or fully nationalizing Fannie and Freddie,) it's still possible he'll subsidize private insurers.

Sounds crazy if he's admitted publicly, as you say he has, that government subsidizing of private insurance is wasteful, why would he do something he's publicly admitted is wasteful? Well he's done it before.

[ Parent ]
Well, all Democrats, by and large, admit Medicare Advantage is wasteful. (0.00 / 0)
That's because our seniors have single payer health care, and obviously private insurers can not compete so the whole venture just proved a wasteful boondoggle to the private insurers.  You would think the logic would flow through that the example of private insurance in the single payer Medicare system proves Medicare is the better model, but those private insurers mean a lot to the campaigns of our political leaders.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights
[ Parent ]
Anyone remotely in charge of changing health care or developing a health care system (0.00 / 0)
should have no healthcare of their own, and should be dependent upon the one they develop for care in the future.  People like Obama or Daschle are only half interested in the final product.  Let Obama loose his for the duration and then we will see what the product looks like in the end.  Same with SS.  Obama should be allowed no other source of income other than SSA upon retirement from the program "reformed" under his watch.

John Edwards wanted to take away Congress's healthcare unless they came up with a system.  The missing link would have been to make them have to be covered by the system they develop when they are done.  I know--his plan was unconstitutional, but people who are not going to suffer no matter what product they come up with should not be in the business of having a say in the matter.

Please ignore the above problem with spelling. (0.00 / 0)

[ Parent ]
Is it an expansion or an overhaul? And does it get more people health care? (0.00 / 0)
In normal circles, "vast expansion of the health care system" means you're bringing health care to "vastly" more people.

But it could also mean vast expansion of the medical records databases. Vast expansion of profits for health care company CEOs. Vast expansion of __ (fill in the blank.)

Also, referring to this project as an "overhaul" leaves them an out - just in case they don't expand access to health care to more people.

A long article in last month's Harper's describes Max Baucus' (and Hillary Clinton's and Tom Daschle's) proposal for a "market-based" universal healthcare system which rations healthcare using a massive computerized system being developed by a Silicon Valley company.

I explained that I had been thinking a lot about information. The profit in the current system, after all, comes not from acquiring as many customers as possible but rather from creating two classes of possible customers-good risks and bad risks-and avoiding the latter class entirely. As we get better at understanding why people get sick, we will also get better at deciding whether or not to insure them. Ultimately, the entire nation could be reduced to two perfect circles: the people who pay for insurance and don't need it, and the people who need insurance but can't pay for it. "I mean, asymptotically," I said, "you will slowly approach perfect knowledge . . ."

"Which will be a terrific thing for patients, a terrific thing for clinicians," Ignagni leaped in. "It'll be a terrific thing in terms of actually improving health." Which is true. Genetic medicine, everyone agrees, will likely help millions of people enjoy longer, healthier lives. But Ignagni was not addressing my concern about groups. Doctors can use evidence to achieve their ends, I proposed, which presumably are to improve the health of their patients. But insurance companies can also use it to achieve their ends, which presumably include reducing medical losses. "But that's not true in the health-care arena," Ignagni said, "because they passed the genetic nondiscrimination bill."


Just one more blurb on the technology-based care (0.00 / 0)
from the same Harper's article, the future of market-based universal healthcare will be less about human doctors listening to you describe your symptoms. And it will be more about genetics.
If the insurance companies themselves were openly endorsing a non-market solution-albeit one that required millions of new customers to buy their products-then what else could be preventing Americans from embracing single payer?

Another possibility is that Americans believe technology itself will be their salvation. If nothing changes in the next decade, at least one fifth of our economy will end up devoted to health care. And most of that money will be spent not on basic care or preventative treatment but on expensive new technologies such as thallium heart scans. One report, from the Center for Studying Health System Change, suggests that new technology may account for as much as two-thirds of spending growth.

So here was another clue. One of the major trends in U.S. health care is "evidence-based medicine," which calls for making medical choices by comparing empirical evidence about an individual patient's condition to a larger body of best practices. This may sound like common sense, but medicine for most of history has been imprecise, decentralized, and as much an art as a science. With extremely complex and expensive genetic and proteomic procedures increasingly defining the future of medicine, however, doctors-and insurers-will come to rely on the same industrial practices that previously made it possible to manufacture jet fighters or set up an international retail operation. At least that is the hope.


[ Parent ]
Well, a) I support the use of genetic (0.00 / 0)
information in health care.  B) Baucus and Hillary don't have the same health plan.  Hillary would allow every American to opt-into Medicare, Baucus would not.  C).  Hillary supports team health care, ie a team of doctors working together on diagnosis rather than in silos so I hardly think she doesn't want doctors listening to symptoms.  Having said that, I think it was a mistake for Hillary not to support a simple plan to allow all Americans to opt-in to Medicare.  Indeed, I believe it cost her the election.  But this is a case where the tipping point is coming very quickly, and the public seems way out ahead of the politicians.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights
[ Parent ]
Scarey...I just read rham's brother, zeke, health policy adviser to the pres., (0.00 / 0)
wrote a book arguing against Medicare for All.  Yikes.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights
all this is left to congress (0.00 / 0)
obaam is leaving the whole thing to congress to sort out. our only hope lies in the house with the black and progressive caucuses. that si where the fight will lie.
[ Parent ]
Lambrew Comits to Public Option (0.00 / 0)
Jeanne Lambrew, who is coordinating health care policy inside the White House for President Obama, told a Washington conference this morning that the president remains committed to including a public plan that would compete with private insurance plans as part of health care reform. According to Sarah Arnquist of The Health Care Blog:

Lambrew reiterated Obama's commitment to offer people the option of buying into a public plan despite criticism that this would be a move toward government-provided health care. People should have a choice of a reliable, safe public insurance option, she said, given the complexity of the offerings on the market. "If we really do believe in competition, why not give the public plan a chance?"


http://www.gooznews.com/archiv...
[ Parent ]
Contact Info for Lambrew at WH- (0.00 / 0)
target lambrew-she is deputy director fo healthcare reform in the whitehouse. she served in the clinton admin and was key in creating schip among other things. push her on the medicare public option. its the backdoor to single payer so push for it
Dr. Jeanne Lambrew
Office of Health Care Reform
By fax to 202 690 7203
By email to Jeanne.lambrew@hhs.gov
[ Parent ]
Excellent news. But let's make sure it is an (0.00 / 0)
option for all of us.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights
[ Parent ]
Well, wait, that is from February second. (0.00 / 0)
I'd like something more recent.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights
[ Parent ]
this is what he did on the stimulus... (0.00 / 0)
...throw up his hands and let congress write the legislation the way they want it. the single-payer HB 676 is just sitting there, ready to go, but the insurance and health care companies will try to kill it.

Barack Obama's election proves that any male can grow up to be president, provided he's willing to use misogyny as a campaign strategy.
[ Parent ]
Dr Tim Johnson on ABC (0.00 / 0)
Insurers etc, mobilizing against it. Healthcare people like the direction it's going. This is decent news. I think the people will add their voices to the healthcare side. Insurers etc don't have much, if any, goodwill with the people. I'm going to dare to "hope" that, for the moment, gone are the days when we put much stock into what certain industry biggies have to say. And not just on the HC front. Heh, perhaps the Repugs, over the past 8 yrs, really did manage to give the voice back where it belongs. Now that would be some nice Kharma, lol!~

Obama better not squander it.

That's exactly what happened. (0.00 / 0)
November, 2006, was the month the modern conservative movement started by Nixon died.  I think if Obama and the Democrats continue the way of today's budget proposal, it will be a very long time until the Republican Party reestablished itself.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights
[ Parent ]
Obama Creates a Fund for Health Care Reform | 34 comments
"Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. When you stumble, keep faith. When you?re knocked down, get right back up. And NEVER listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on."
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