Duped!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 08:09AM 
Evidence of the power and influence of the insurance-pharmaceutical-medical device interests in this country is the fact that the passage of a health reform bill hinges on the Massasschusetts Senate race and the Democrats retaining a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the senate. Even worse, polls show that a majority of Americans don't believe that healthcare needs reforming.
Americans have been duped. Lost in the noise were these simple facts, which alone should have convinced anyone that reform was needed.
- Despite the fact that real wages have not increased since the 1970s and inflation has been low, healthcare costs and insurance premiums have risen at double digit rates. Our personal insurance, which we pay for out of our business, has increased from about $700/month in 2005 to about $1,300 per month in 2010.
- Over 44 million Americans are uninsured, but more than twice that many are underinsured--their deductibles and co-insurance (the 20 percent or more they would pay for treatment of major illness or serious injury) is enough to bankrupt them in three to six months. Underinsurance also takes the form of lack of coverage for pre-exisitng conditions. Tens of millions of Americans who lose their jobs also lose coverage from the illnesses or injuries for which they are most likely to need coverage.
The only people making money in an overly-expensive healthcare industry that provides crappy care are insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and providers of medical devices and they carried the day in the rhetoric war.
They deliberatiely told the following lies (among others) and convinced voters to believe that:
- Competition of insurers across state lines would not result in greater consumer choice and lower premiums;
- A public option would be tantamount to (God forbid) socialized medicine and would not really provide greater choice, lower costs, and broader coverage;
- Greater regulation of advertising and conflicts of interests between physicians and pharmaceutical and medical device makers would not lower costs and protect consumers from over-prescription; and
- The cost of healthcare reform would break us as a nation.
The truth is the health insurance industry in a monolithic powerful force for which interstate competition and competition with a government oprtion is an anathema. Insurers feat competition because they know that their pricing and policy design is so full of holes and faulty assumptions that in a competitive environment more could easily be delivered for less.
The truth is that pharmaceutical companies and medical device providers fear regulation because they realize that "demand" for their products is driven as much by advertising and provider push as it is by an aging population.
The truth is that healthcare reform as originally proposed by the Obama Administration would more than have paid for itself through more competitive policies and tighter regulation and oversight. Furthermore, more people would have received better coverage at lower cost.
Unfortunately, this messaging has been lost in the noise of Right Wing Talking Head Cases and Tea Baggers. Even if the current healthcare bill passes it has been gutted by the likes of Joe Lieberman (who, guess what, represents Connecticut, where most of the major health insurers are based).
When did it come to pass that people began to believe that governement elected by the people and for the people was a greater evil than profit driven insurance companies and pharmaceutical makers?
Health insurance, Healthcare reform, Tea Baggers in Political 
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Reader Comments (15)
What a mess?
My sister Kathy lives in Massachusetts and will be here for dinner on Saturday. I have many questions for her, as you can imagine. She is quite politically opinionated -- I won't have to ask much to get her started. One sip of wine and she'll be off and running.
I'm quite interested in her take on the election for Ted's seat, and on the Massachusetts version of universal health insurance. She was a benefits specialist in DC for 30 years, and knows all the ins and outs of it.
Here's a tidbit: My new health insurance has a $1500 deductible. Meaning that I get no reimbursement until I hit that threshold. I was shocked, but from what I hear, that is about the norm these days for corporate-offered plans. Wow. Probably won't be any more expensive over the course of the year, but it front-loads the cost for members. Interesting.
Another tidbit: Global R&D for Pfizer is located in Groton, CT, which may also influence Joe Lieberman. The average person cannot visit this site, so I'll tell you -- it is incredible. Huge, well-funded, and always growing. Looks like a college campus. I'm not hearing any industry buzz about this whole health-care thing, however. In the 90's I did, but not this time. I wonder if it has been factored in already by the big pharma companies.
If I hear anything interesting about the Massachusetts election, I'll pass it on. My other sister, who lives in Connecticut, will be here also. My older brother, a government retiree, has government health care. And my mother is on Medicare, though in something called the doughnut hole, where benefits are restricted. Could be an interesting discussion.
Wish you guys could join in -- it would be fun, except that you'd have to fight to get a word in edgewise! Me, I'm going to serve drinks and dinner, and soak it all up.
By the way, you hit on several interesting points one of which is that insurers have been pushing costs off on insureds in ways other than premium increases for years in the way of higher deductibles, higher co-pays, higher co-insurance, lower lifetime limits, restrictions on coverage, etc.
As for the Mass Plan, the biggest beneficiaries of a plan that requires everyone to have health insurance with an in-state carrier and provides no viable public option are the insurance companies.
Bon Appetite!
There is no way that I can see this mess turning into anything other than a corporate free-for-all. The industry engineered demise/emasculation of the national health insurance plan is a product of the system the way it was before this ruling. It's just an anemic sample of what is coming. I can't imagine the abuses that we will see.
This leaves the collective wisdom and intelligence of the American people and their ability to separate fact from election rhetoric as the only line of defense to combat a total appropriation of the American way of life by big money interests. Is there any historically aware, thinking individual who can imagine how this is going to be anything other than a disaster?
I am at an age where I have seen every dire prediction that I have made over the last 40 years, concerning everything from the PennCentral merger to bank and telephone company deregulation to the oil crisis to the war in Iraq, come true.
Please, despite my record, will somone tell me I'm full of shit this time?
The situation is pretty damned depressing. No way around it. Wish I could aim a little ray of sunlight at it and feel better, but that just isn't happening right now. Give me a month to see how this plays out, and I might be able to spin some optimistic tale. Right now, I'm fresh out of cheery rhetoric. It seems that Ted Kennedy's decades of good works just got stomped and kicked down the gutter. I'm dumbfounded at how fast it all took place. I suddenly miss his presence on the floor of the Senate. A lot.
Maybe we needed this setback to make Obama more determined, focused, and organized. That is my theory at the moment. Time will tell.
Not that it makes me feel any better, but I guess we are in good company since the President, Vice President and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee have all gone on record as thinking the court decision was wrong. While I obviously agree with the President, I'm not sure I like the fact that he publicly disagreed with the court during his State of the Union Address. I'm not sure I have ever heard a President do that. Of course I liked Justice Alito's reaction even less. I have always given a degree of reverence to the separation of powers. Any thoughts guys?
Now. that was a separation of powers problem.
My older sister, from Massachusetts, let on that her son had helped Scott Brown campaign up there. Which just about brought our dinner to a total stop. We have no idea where this streak got into him. We are reeling. I'll give more perspective when I am able to distill it adequately.
Obama had quite a week. Maybe he needed to eat some crow, and work to bring the other side on board. If that is even possible. I have my doubts. I hope that I am wrong. In any event, we have a two-party system, and if both parties are willing to be involved (again that question) we will have a much more effective outcome.
I guess I should share that am a registered Independent. I have strong leanings, but I try to see both sides. And sometimes that is very difficult.
I have a co-worker who constantly bashes Obama in a passive-aggressive manner. Almost every topic eventually leads to the comment, "That will all be fixed under Obama-care." Which is meant as a slam. So now I say, in reply, "No, we have to wait for Limbaugh-care -- that will fix everything for the whole nation."
If Obama can reach out -- as he repeatedly promised he would -- he can be the leader we hoped. Or I had hoped, at least. He is new at this, he rose fast, he needs a learning curve. Yep, I'm OK with that. JFK did too, as you may remember. I know you both remember the Cuban Missile Crisis -- my family lived 100 miles from Washington, and our neighbors built bomb shelters. There was a lot of angry talk about who would be let in, and who would not. It served as the crucible of my political life. Our neighbors feuded over it, and never resolved the anger. I never got over it. Some neighbors never spoke to each other again. I was bereft.
For all I knew, my life would end at age 11 or 12. It was very serious at the time. We calculated the reach of a nuclear cloud in 6th grade science. (I later failed 7th, which accounts for the years. I chalk up my academic indifference to knowing that I was a dead person.) We were toast. I wish that I could express the desperation that we felt at the time. Our tuck and roll drills were not very funny. We knew we were goners. I still feel the resignation. It taught me to live in the present, when I could. I guess that is the up-side of those times. Every day is a gift. I have felt this for almost 50 years now. And I'm not joking, not a bit. Every day is still a gift.
Let's keep positive, and see how this goes. Obama has 3 years ahead in this term.
About the Supreme Court, I defer to both of you, who each have more education, knowledge, and experience on that front. I was pleased that he fired a shot across their bow. Appropriate, in my opinion. He can do that. He occupies the bully pulpit, until he blows it.
To end this post, which is hard for me, I want to express my appreciation to each of you for sharing your thoughts so openly.
I've always been an Independent. Going back to Nixon and Humphrey, I knew which way I leaned, but could not commit to being a party voter. I am still that way. I was furious with Lyndon Johnson about Vietnam. Still am. Furious with Nixon too. Leaves me sort of like a man without a party.
Yes, I agree about Obama. I watched his Inauguration intently, and I hoped for the best possible outcome. We still could have it. But first we have to go through this rough time. He has the wisdom and talent, in my opinion. He is up against some very vile forces.
I'm still optimistic. You know that I came around to Obama late in the game, but I came around and I am still on board. He was clearly the best choice, in my opinion. Still is. He has a hard job ahead, and I support him. When it is all behind us, I believe that history will treat him with the respect that he is due.
This is almost a footnote, but the timing is interesting. A friend and former co-worker e-mailed me today that her brother just took a job in the London Embassy, working under the Obama Administration. Just got his security clearance. It was announced in the Washington Post today. She forwarded me his e-mail to her, which was quite upbeat. I wish him all the best.
In Indiana, a voter has to declare a party affiliation in order to vote in the primary, so technically I am a Democrat. But as I am fond of saying, “It’s not so much that I am a Democrat, but that I am NOT a Republican” which I guess really makes me an Independent. Like Bill, I have a hard time embracing the party of either Lyndon Johnson or Richard Nixon. Both parties have had enough scoundrels over the years to alienate me.
It is ironic that the subject has come around to the Independents, because on them is where I see Obama finally recognizing that he needs to concentrate his energy. And it isn’t among Independents like Bill and me. It is with the group that I call the doubters. They may have supported Obama expecting him to deliver anything from jobs to energy independence. But after a year, they are doubting his ability to deliver what they expected, and his words, deeds and performance have not given them reason not to.
Not unlike every one of his predecessors, Obama overplayed his mandate. Considering the political acumen surrounding a modern President, it astounds me that they pay so little attention to what made up their plurality once elected. Given the scrutiny that every voting block receives during the election, it seems that the day after the election, they suddenly view the constituency behind their mandate as a monolith in lock-step. They forget that many who voted for them didn’t make a decision until they entered the voting booth, and were doubting it when they left.
What he missed was best expressed by Kipling in his poem “If”.
“If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too…”.
“But make allowance for their doubting too…”.
There are no doubters in the ranks of the Obama loyalists and there are none in his opposition. Their minds are set. For them, whether they supported him or not, Obama delivered as promised. The doubters are still waiting for at least some assurance that what they expected is coming. And they, like Bill’s nephew, are who tipped the scale it Massachusetts.
What he needs to recognize now is that a doubter is not a mortal enemy, unless you make him into one. A leader needs to reassure his doubters, inspire his followers and not pander to or patronize his adversaries. It will take some restraint, but Obama needs to make sure that he doesn’t confuse his doubters with his enemies as so many of his predecessors have. But as his first year has proven, he can’t confuse them with his followers either. His followers will take the doubters for granted, his enemies will welcome their company.
What elected Obama was not his ability to reach across the isle, but to attract those in the middle of it. He needs to forget about his most vocal and vile opposition. It is tempting to react to those shouting the loudest, but sometimes it is more important to embrace and reassure those who would just quietly walk away.
“But make allowance for their doubting too”.
While he is at it, it may be worth his time to read Kipling a little further, as I did last night:
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise….
I slept well last night, for the first time in a fortnight.
We are all shocked at my nephew, but he is in a life-transition and may be rebelling in his own way. Trying to change what he sees as the system. Or something. Your comments about the doubters caught my eye. I need to ponder that.
Very good posts, guys. Thought-provoking. At a time where very little thought is coming out of either end of the political spectrum.