This article from the Washington Post should be a sobering reminder to us all about what will happen if we cower from fighting for real reforms to the system, and the devastating effects of cowering away from single-payer to begin with. Experts are warning even after the junk reforms of Baucus that too many in our party seem too willing to settle for, discrimination by insurers is likely to continue:
Any health-care overhaul that Congress and President Obama enact is likely to have as its centerpiece a fundamental reform: Insurers would not be allowed to reject individuals or charge them higher premiums based on their medical history.
And to avoid patients with costly, complicated medical conditions, health plans could include in their networks relatively few doctors who specialize in treating those conditions, said Mark V. Pauly, professor of health-care management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
"It would probably increase the incentive for cherry-picking," Pauly said. "I'm strongly motivated to try to avoid you if I'm not allowed to charge you extra."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
When confronted with this fact, Max Baucus seemed to worry little about it and indeed sounded as if he would just defer the problem to a later time:
In response to questions about the risk of continued cherry-picking under his legislation, Baucus provided a statement that "the difference in the market will be like night and day" compared with today's "wild West." But he also offered a qualification.
"These regulations are the first step to a market where consumers can be confident in the coverage they purchase," he said.
So the question we should be asking Baucus, Obama and any of our other leaders who seem willing to abandon single-payer and a robust public option is "How many steps will there be until consumers can be confident in their coverage"??
All this talk is running around in circles. It seems as if the only real step being taken is mandating coverage. How will Americans be confident in reform if the only step is that they are now required to buy something they cannot afford?? Is having a hollow victory to brag about in the press passing a bill that hurts the very people it was supposed to help and rewards the very people who have caused the problem with millions of new costumers while not really making them end the practices that have resulted in sky-high costs and millions of uninsured really the course we have chosen??
There are many leaders in our party that do not want to run around in circles and want to seek real reform. The problem is that many folks are so concerned with passing anything as a "victory" that they have lost sight of what reform was needed in the first place. I do not want to be critical of Democrats or our President but what I see from them is increasingly frustrating.
I beg President Obama, and the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate to get serious about this and think about how what they are doing is going to effect the millions who really need real reform. Without single-payer our only hope is a robust public option that Americans without insurance can have faith will be there, will be affordable, and will not be constantly seeking to figure out a way of cheating them out of coverage because they are sick and can provide no profit for the insurers.
If so many folks with coverage are so afraid of the public option costing them their coverage, then why do we not just create a public option that only those who cannot afford or have been denied coverage are eligible for?? Why are the leaders of my party seemingly negotiating for me to still be at the mercy of an insurance company that already has proven they do not want my business and will do everything in their power to deny me coverage even after the government gives them a huge corporate welfare payout and forces me to deal with a bunch of people that see me only as some sick person that they must try to screw over at all costs???
I simply do not want to be forced to buy a product from an industry that I trust about as far as I can throw them. I have more faith that Cameron Diaz will have my love child than I have that these insurers will deal with me fairly once I am forced to deal with them and they have basically stolen hundreds of billions more taxpayer dollars to keep up the same greedy, heartless and in my view corrupt practices.
We are running around in circles with our current approach to this debate. Not matter how many subsidies are given to big insurance after it is mandated that I must deal with them as a Type 1 Diabetic they are still going to do everything in their power to take my money and give me nothing in return, and with a mandate I will no longer have the luxury of telling them to go to hell like they will me.
I know that the Republicans care little about me and in fact believe as Alan Grayson put it that since their corporate masters cannot make a profit off of me that they would just as soon that I "die quickly" and my spot can be taken by someone that they can make money off of. What was once hope for me just after the election when this debate first began that I would have a government option that I could pay fair premiums for and would treat me fairly is now giving way to a pressing fear that not only will I still not have one ounce of coverage, but I will be forced by the very folks I voted for and trusted to fight for people like me to deal with a bunch of crooks that simply do not care if I live or die by a mandate that just compounds the problems for the other millions just like me. The hope I had at the beginning of the year has now given way to a crushing fear that is only compounded with each news cycle.
To the President, Max Baucus, Mike Ross, all the BlueDogs and moderates in the Senate I can only beg you to have mercy on many of us and do not force us to deal with folks that have shown they would rather we died than treat us fairly because we represent no chance for them to profit.
Please give me a robust public option provided by the government, or better yet single-payer or do not mandate coverage and merely let me survive on my own devices with my disease like I have for some time now. I already live in fear for my future because of my disease and now I must live with the fear that I will have to pay still more money out of my pocket besides the hospital bill I am making payments on and the medicine I must buy because under the current debate I am going to be forced to pay even more money for being sick, this time to a bunch of crooks who have shown they care nothing for anything but the bottom line.
Please do not mandate me to buy coverage from an insurance company and give me a robust public option that I can have faith will be there for me and will be affordable. Since getting mad hasn't worked I am resorting to begging.
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