Now is the time for true health care reform

In a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 76 percent of respondents said they felt that there needs to be a choice between a public and private health insurance plan. You would think if the public feels that strongly, and we have a Democrat-controlled Congress and a Democrat president, it shouldn’t be that difficult to get true health care reform passed. We’re not even talking about a single-payer plan here. Instead, it simply means that people can choose to keep the plans they have now, or choose to get coverage through the public plan.  

So what’s the holdup? It seems Republicans, along with some Democrats, have caved in to the pressure from the American Medical Association, the pharmaceutical companies and the big insurance companies that are fighting this tooth and nail. The reason they hate the idea is that they would be forced to make major reforms that would cut into their huge profits. Well, isn’t that really the point, anyway? It’s starting to sound like 1993 all over again.   

Republicans had no problem in supporting the out-of-control federal spending in the Bush administration. Now they say health care reform will be too expensive. One reason cost estimates remain high is that a public health plan option has not been included in those estimates, since it is not yet officially part of a plan from the Senate committees. The cost savings that would result from a public plan being in place would dramatically lower the cost to the entire health care system.  

One argument against a public plan is that it would have an unfair advantage over the private insurers. They say having such a large pool of people would give them more negotiating power in containing costs. And exactly why is that unfair? Isn’t one of the main reasons that health care costs have risen so dramatically because of the huge profits going to private companies? It seems that they have not really had enough incentive to negotiate lower prices for consumers in the past. That really needs to change.

Critics also argue that the public plan would be subsidized by the government. Actually, under the plans being discussed on Capitol Hill at this time, subsidies would go directly to families who need them and they could use those subsidies to either purchase a private plan or the public plan. The public plan itself would be self-supportive.

Because of political pressure, some in Congress have come up with some strange alternatives disguised as “reform.” The most recent is the idea of local and state cooperatives, which were actually tried following the Great Depression. Unfortunately, such cooperatives fall short of having the necessary clout in negotiating lower rates with drug companies and other providers and they do not have the power to bring significant health care reform to our nation.

What can we do about all this? We need to let our representatives in Congress know how we feel. And we need to do it soon. Another chance to pass truly meaningful health care reform may not come along for a very long time. Here are the phone numbers to call. Ask them to support health care reform legislation only if it includes a public health insurance option.

Sen. Pat Roberts:  (202) 224-4474

Sen. Sam Brownback:  (202) 224-6521

Rep. Lynn Jenkins: (202) 225-6601