Call John Boccieri and Tell Him to Support Health Care or You Won't Support Him

The Columbus Dispatch ran a story yesterday that said that Congressman John Boccieri is now "undecided" on whether to vote for the Senate healthcare bill when it comes back to the House. If you live in the 16TH Congressional District, and want healthcare reform, now is the time to make sure that Bocceri hears from you. The numbers to call are:

Boccieri District Office

300 W Tuscarawas St.
Suite 716
Canton, OH 44702
(330) 489-4414
(800)826-9015

Boccieri DC Office

1516 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-3876

As always, be police and civil, but let the staffer know that you are willing to consider not voting in the Congressional race if Bocceri votes against healthcare reform.

Will Congressman John Boccieri Back Insurance Companies Over People?

In 2006 Congressman John Boccieri, then a State Senator, came to Medina County to ask local Democrats for their support. He assured several of them that he supported health care reform. Based in part on those assurances, many of Medina County's Democrats took the time to canvass for him, to campaign with him, and to sponsor house parties for him. Many others gave him campaign contributions. This effort paid off with Congressman Boccieri not only winning the 16TH Congressional District, but also winning Medina County.

Many of these same Democrats were deeply disappointed when he voted against the House's version of health care. Not only did he vote against the House's health care bill, but he voted for the Stupak amendment which imposed restrictions on the use of subsidies contained in the bill to purchase health insurance policies which provided abortion services. (His vote against the health care reform bill, but for the Stupak amendment was actually more conservative than the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Conference backed the health care reform bill once the Stupak amendment was included.)

Recently Congressman John Boccieri met with a group of local Medina County Democrats to discuss his health care vote. His explanation of why he had voted against the health care was interesting.

Initially, when people called his office right after the vote to complain about his vote, his staff told them that Congressman Boccieri was concerned about the cost of the health care bill. When he met with the Medina County Democrats, his explanation was different.

During the meeting, he didn't mention cost, but talked about how the House bill would affect a particular company in Stark County. He claimed that the House bill could cost 600 jobs in Stark County, although he didn't really explain how that would happen. He also regurgitated a favorite GOP talking point about how the mandates in the bill could lead to people being fined without seeming to understand that the bill has to contain mandates to get enough uninsured Americans to buy insurance to make sure that premiums stay relatively low.

When asked what the bill would have to contain to get his support when it came out of a House-Senate conference committee for a final vote, he wouldn't answer. When asked why Medina County Democrats should continue to trust him, he didn't have an answer. He repeatedly told us how he was sacrificing time with his family to meet with us on a Sunday afternoon, even though he had chosen the date and the time. In short, he was defensive, evasive, and condescending.

Here's a news flash for Congressman Boccieri: you can side with the insurance companies on this bill, or you can side with the people, but you can't do both. You can either vote to stop insurance companies from denying people with pre-existing conditions health insurance or you can vote to allow them to continue such discrimination. You can either vote for a bill that removes caps from medical insurance coverage, or you can vote to continue to allow caps and the accompanying medical bankruptcies. You can either vote to help expand health insurance coverage to 31 million more Americans, or you can vote for the status quo. What you can't do is vote for the status quo and then tell us that we should continue to support you anyway. It's time for Congressman Boccieri to choose between people or insurance companies.

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.

Senator Sherrod Brown Co-Sponsors Diabetes Bill

One of the real passions that drives Senator Sherrod Brown is a concern for improving the health care of Americans. His interest in this area is long-standing. It started early in his life since his Dad was a family doctor in the Mansfield area. While he was in the United States House, he took the lead on trying to get the Federal Government to do more on breast cancer. Now that he is in the United States Senate, he is taking on diabetes care and treatment.

Ohio.com has an article up its website dated Friday, December 14, 2007 about Senator Brown working with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, to pass the Catalyst to Better Diabetes Care Act, which he plans to introduce with Coryn. The reason why this caught the attention of Ohio.com is that since 2000 only two other counties in Ohio have had as big a jump in diabetes cases as Summit County. Those counties are Mahoning County and Montgomery County.

What's interesting about Brown working with Cornyn is that Cornyn is a very conservative Republican from the very red state of Texas. Yet, Brown is able to work with him on this very important piece of legislation. Sometimes we get so caught up in the partisan bickering in Washington that we don't realize that there are many issues which cut across partisan lines. Diabetes treatment is apparently one of them. Both Senators Brown and Cronyn deserve our thanks for working together on this legislation.

"Insuranization" of Medicine

Radical right-wingers speak of the evils of "socialized medicine" when they attack plans such as the S-CHIP or the health care plans of Hillary Clinton. They act as if the American medical system is some perfect system and that adoption of government programs such as S-CHIP will ruin this perfect system for everyone. They say that if the government assumes a bigger role in providing or guaranteeing medical care for Americans, it will lead to government telling citizens what kind of care they can get and who can provide that care.

What they don't talk about, however, is the fact that for most of us we already exist in such a system, only it isn't the government telling us what care we can get or who can provide it, it is private insurance companies. Companies that aren't accountable to anyone but their owners and officers.

This "insuranization of medicine", to coin a phrase, means that the medical care that you get is dependent on decisions made by your insurance company. The insurance company decides what care is allowed and what care is not allowed. It decides what should be covered and what shouldn't be covered. It decides what medical providers you will be allowed to see and what providers you won't be allowed to see, if you want reimbursement for the cost of those providers.

This system has led to the average cost to employers for medical insurance coverage for a family of four being, on average, $11,500 per year and has led to the average family of four paying $3000 a year toward their own insurance coverage. These figures, by the way, are from the National Coalition for Health Care.

The issue before Americans isn't whether some powerful institutions are going to control their health care and dictate their coverage. That ship has sailed. The issue before Americans is who will hold such institutions accountable, the public or private individuals? That's the real issue and that's what Americans who want health care reform should be pointing out to Americans.

Link S-CHIP and Iraq War Funding

Americans want Bush's request for Iraq War funds cut and they want the States Children Health Insurance Program funded. There is an obvious connection here. Democrats should work to cut the funding for the war and transfer the money to the S-CHIP. Obviously Republicans would filibuster this if they could and there are probably not enough votes in the House to override a Bush veto, given the fact that most commentators expect Bush's veto of the S-CHIP bill to be upheld.

It is not enough, however, to just support S-CHIP. Democrats need to drive home the point that Republicans would rather spend money in Iraq than on American kids without insurance. Most Americans don't support that choice and Democrats should make Republicans pay a price for choosing Iraqis over American children.

Regula Bucks Bush, Votes for CHIP Reauthorization Act

Today, September 25, 2007, Congressman Ralph Regula voted against what Bush wanted and for America's uninsured children. The House passed by a margin of 265 to 159 to approve the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act. This program, which Bush has pledged to veto, will expand health insurance opportunities for American children who lack health insurance.

This is from a Baltimore Sun article about this bill:

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), pressing for passage of the bill today says: "This is all a matter of priorities. And we can see what the president’s are...Each day we spend $333 million on Iraq. That’s over 23 times what we currently spend on children needing health care every day. For one day in Iraq, we could cover the healthcare of over 256,000 American children.

The message that Democrats ought to send is real simple: Republicans like Bush and House Minority Leader John Boehner care a lot more for Iraqis and their security than they do for America's children. It is a very simple message to send and it is true.

Fact Checking the Prez Over Children's Health Insurance Program

The Center on Budget Policy and Priorities has a articleresponse fact-checking the Prez on a bill which will expand the availability of health insurance to uninsured children. The response is dated September 20, 2007. It refutes several of the Bubble-Boy's claims including:

1. His claim that families with incomes up to $80,000.00 will be covered;
2. His claim that this bill doesn't target low-income families; and
3. His claim that this bill would lead to a government run health care system.

If you have an interest in this legislation, check out this article. It is just one more example of BB's willingness to lie to get what he wants.

Why Paul Krugman Likes John Edwards' Health Insurance Plan

Click on the link in this entry's title to learn why New York Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman likes the new healthcare proposal made by John Edwards. It is a very interesting analysis on the Edwards plan.