Medina Dems Go After Boccieri on Health Care Vote on Talking Points Memo

Two Medina county Democrats who go by the initials "DB" and "JK" reported to Josh Marshall at www.talkingpointsmemo.com about the recent meeting that Congressman John Boccieri held to discuss his "no" vote on the House health care reform bill. You can read their report here.

What has to be understood is the sense of betrayal that is evident in the article that the two Medina County Dems sent to Marshall. In 2008 then State Senator John Boccieri assured Medina County Dems that he was for health care reform. Yet, when the vote went down, he backed the GOP and voted against the Democratic bill. This vote has cost Boccieri much support in Medina County.

Just to make it clear, we are not talking about casual supporters. These are people who threw fund raisers for him; who canvassed for him; and who helped him take Medina County while the county was voting for John McCain over Obama. There is a very simple way for Boccieri to get this support back and that is to vote for the health care bill when it comes out of conference committee.

Medical Insurance Competition in Ohio

Health Care for America Now, (HCAN), published a report showing the state of health insurance competition in America. Basically, to cut to the chase, it sucks, and Ohio is no different.

According to the report, 58% of the health insurance market in Ohio is controlled by two companies. These companies are Wellpoint, which is run by Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Medical Mutual.

The report notes that from 2000 to 2007:

1. The cost of health insurance premiums for Ohio working families has gone up 76%;

2. The average annual combined premium for employers and employees went from $6596 to $11636;

3.Employers saw their portion of annual premiums go up by 75% while employees saw their share increase by 80%; but

4. The median earnings of Ohio workers increased by 9%, from $25017 to $27255.

(You can read the full report here.)

One of the favorite talking points for Republicans is that somehow Obama's plan for a public option for health insurance will "destroy" the marketplace. Well, guess what, in a lot of states, including Ohio, there is not much of a marketplace left to destroy.

Maybe what we need is some good, old-fashioned, Teddy Roosevelt-style, trust busting. Maybe its time, in fact, past time, to unleash the Justice Department's anti-trust division on some health insurance providers.

Why John McCain is Bad on Health Care

"Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."-John McCain

McCain's whole approach to health care reform is market based. He believes that opening up health insurance markets will somehow create relatively low-cost insurance policies that will allow Americans to pay less for health care. There are three components to his plan:

1. End the health insurance deduction for companies that provide health insurance for their employees;

2. Tax health insurance premiums paid by employers as income for the employees; and

3. Give employees a tax credit which they can use to purchase health insurance. Single employees would get a $2500.00 tax credit, married employees would get a $5,000.00 tax credit.

Here are the problems:

1. There is no evidence that employees could obtain the same coverage they are getting now from their employers for either $2,500.00 or $5,000.00.

2. Most of us don't have the expertise of corporate human resource personnel to know what to ask when we are purchasing health insurance on our own.

3. Federal regulation, or lack thereof, of health insurance companies could lead to the same problems in the health insurance field that we recently saw in the financial service field. Would anyone want to see the problems of AIG manifest themselves with a health insurance company?

So, if you want to pay taxes on your employer provided health insurance; give an incentive for your employer to get rid of your health insurance plan; and trust the health insurance industry not to make the same mistakes we have recently seen in the financial services sector, then by all means, vote for John McCain. High paid health insurance executives will be glad you did.

Sandusky Register Story on Finding Docs Who Accept Medicaid

The Sandusky Register ran a story dated Sunday, October 21, 2007 about the difficulty Medicaid recipients are having finding both doctors and dentists. This is a quote from the article:

Health care providers say what the government is willing to pay falls far short of the actual cost.

In 2006, government payments to Firelands Regional Medical Center for Medicare and Medicaid patients fell $15.5 million short of actual costs, according to a hospital brochure.

Earlier this week we ran an entry from a column in the Houston Chronicle by Froma Harrop which contained the following quote:

Note how Bush does this big "compassionate conservative" thing about very much wanting SCHIP for poor people. Programs for the poor are fine, because you can always cut the living daylights out of them. Politicians who mess with middle class benefits find their heads in the return mail.

This article by the Sandusky Register is a reflection of that attitude. Note that it is Medicaid recipients and not Medicare recipients that are having problems finding medical providers. Why? Because Medicare is better funded because the people who receive Medicare vote and politicians know that they vote.

The real genius of the social welfare programs enacted during the New Deal were that they benefited everyone because they weren't means tested. The result is a constituency that puts pressure on politicians to keep such programs going. If you want to help the poor, include the middle class in the program. That's the lesson from the New Deal and Democrats and progressives need to remember it.