House Health Reform Passes! An Early Start to the Holiday Season
Published November 09, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
We got an early start to the holiday season during an exciting and historic weekend. Obama reminded House Democrats that they have developed more comprehensive reform than any Congress in the last 70 years, and that it was a historic opportunity to pass it. Democrats responded by passing HR 3962 by 220-215 (two more votes than necessary) and with one Republican to make it “bipartisan”. Like Thanksgiving, though, it didn’t happen without a lot of carnage beforehand. Now the rude and boorish relatives are settling in until the New Year.
First, if you missed the Republican “debate” on the bill, you can see it at the end of yesterday’s post. Apparently acting like a bullying child in response to women exercising their right to free speech is what passes for public representation now. The GOP alternative healthcare reform “plan” was just as hollow, and following an amusing rant by Education and Labor Chairman George Miller, below (“Wanna buy it? Wanna try it? Wanna sell it? Come on America, buy this one. You're guaranteed to be left behind if you're left behind today."), the House duly rejected it 176-258.
Canadian Healthcare Equality Meets H1N1
Published November 08, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Events in Calgary last week provided a stark illustration of how Canadian healthcare values differ from American ones. As we’ve seen here in the US, H1N1 (which some health workers now call “heinie”, because patients tend to think it’s spelled HiNi) vaccine has been delayed and in short supply. The CDC has determined some vaccination priority groups in the midst of the pandemic. But none of us would really be surprised to find out that the wealthy and powerful, sports stars and celebrities were able to jump the line. Canadians generally would be mortified by this. But provincial health officials don’t just get mad – they get even.
The Senators -- and the Yankees -- Need to Get On With It
Published November 06, 2009 @ 07:03PM PT
The New York Yankees may be World Champions, but they’re noteworthy this year for another reason: they have come up with the most obnoxious way to prolong games. All other teams in baseball have “mound conferences” -- timeouts when the catcher, the pitcher and sometimes the pitching coach meet on the pitching mound to make sure they know how to handle the next batter. But the Yankees do it with chutzpah -- all of the infielders are there discussing what pitch to throw next. I guess they think the second baseman might have a good idea on whether the hitter is thinking fastball or curve. Even that may be ok, but the Yankees also do it with shocking and excessive frequency -- including eight times in a single inning for one World Series game. The delays not only make already-long games much longer, but they’re prompting Major League Baseball to consider rule changes and disciplinary action.
I say if MLB does find a solution to the Yankees having Tupperware parties on the mound every time the score gets close, we should use it on the United States Senate.
If all goes well, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on a historic comprehensive health reform bill tomorrow night. If all isn’t well, it may take a couple of extra days, making this the first health care deadline that the House leadership has missed in this months-long process. But the Senate is a different story. Despite a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee bill that was finished in mid-July and a Senate Finance Committee bill that was finished over a month ago, Majority Leader Reid still has given no clear indication of when a Senate debate is likely to start, let alone end. The same Senate health care bill process that Sen. Max Baucus once confidently predicted would be over by the Fourth of July will now be lucky to finish by Christmas -- but, the Majority Leader cautions, don’t hold us to that.
Your Doctor's Health Advice, Brought to You by Coke
Published November 06, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
We are on the eve of a historic House vote for a healthcare reform bill that, while it addresses some healthcare issues, carefully avoids the profit elephant in the sector. Now would be timely for another exposé, yes? This time it has nothing to do with greedy insurers. No, the latest absurdity comes straight from those who generate the vast majority of healthcare charges. Lo and behold, a sugar-sweetened baby elephant just turned up in your doctor’s office.
The American Academy of Family Physicians recently announced a six-figure deal with Coca-Cola Corporation. The alliance deals with (of all things) consumer educational materials on soft drinks for the AAFP health and wellness website. AAFP CEO Douglas Henley of course assures us that the deal won’t affect family physicians’ public health messages. I’ll bet.
Harvard nutrition expert Dr. Walter Willett begs to differ. He says the AAFP has muzzled itself when it should be a vocal critic of products like Coke. Sodas “cause enormous suffering and premature death by increasing the risks of obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, gout, and cavities.” Well, cigarettes have similar negative public health effects, and that didn’t stop paid physicians advocating mild cigarettes as safe in 1960s advertisements.
Fortunately this time there has been more outcry. Twenty-one doctors near San Francisco resigned their AAFP memberships in protest. Another 22 health specialists sent a protest letter to Henley urging him to abandon the Coke deal, as they question the safety of artificial sweeteners and feel the AAFP should be strongly speaking out against sugary drinks.
Coke spokeswoman Diana Garza Ciarlante says all this criticism "misses the point of the partnership which is to provide education based on sound science." Yep, just like the Healthy Choices program was all about promoting healthy eating via Froot Loops. The AAFP’s president-elect Dr. Lori Heim confirms it: the idea is to “to develop educational materials to help consumers make informed decisions so they can include the products they love in a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle."
All of this is pretty ironic, given the latest Commonwealth Fund study released. The survey of over 10,000 primary care doctors in 11 developed countries (US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom) again repeated that the US spends more than twice what other countries do, while lagging on quality measures. But more specifically, it found cost and access to care were the major primary care barriers in the US – 58% of doctors say their patients struggle to pay for medications and care.
So why doesn’t the AAFP suggest Coke sponsor medication subsidies, health fairs, or free health clinics? It could hand patients free samples of new Coke Zero on their way out the door. I guess that wouldn’t send the same subliminal “AAFP wants you to incorporate Coke products into your diet” message as educational pamphlets. I keep forgetting, it’s about profits, not health.
Photo http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3632/3559771258_5bac2c6891.jpg // CC BY 2.0
Kucinich Tries to Kill Vote on Medicare For All
Published November 05, 2009 @ 06:33PM PT
In a stunning about-face, Dennis Kucinich made a statement questioning a scheduled stand-alone vote on HR 676, Medicare For All. It was to be voted on Friday. Then he sent an email to supporters urging them to convince congressional leaders that now is not the time to vote on the single payer bill. Why would he try to kill his own baby?
It appears the House weakened the bill beyond recognition, as Kucinich says:
"... we want to offer a strong note of caution about tomorrow’s vote. The bill presented tomorrow will not be HR676. While we are happy to relinquish authorship of a single payer bill to any member who can do better, we do not want a weak bill brought forward in a hostile climate to unwittingly accomplish what would be interpreted as a defeat for single payer."
There has been no Congressional debate over HR 676. There has been no mark-up of the bill. The CBO apparently scored a weakened version of the bill unfavorably. This is of course after Nancy Pelosi inexplicably removed Kucinich's state single-payer amendment from HR 3962 after the bill had been released. She disengenuously called it a "mistake" at the time, fooling no one. Then she didn't allow it back in via manager's amendment (somehow it was okay for the Republican "plan" to get in via manager's amendment, even when the CBO thrashed it.)
Overall it seems a patented "kill switch" political trick to do a test vote on HR 676 now. Pelosi killed state single payer by playing dirty pool. Now she's trying to kill single payer, period, by forcing a phony vote on a weakened HR 676. That is why Kucinich is now calling on his support base to temporarily surrender rather than go down in flames. Sadly, it seems Congress is hell-bent upon passing weak healthcare reform, no matter what dirt it has to pull out of its bag of tricks.
You can send an email to your representative here.
UPDATE: Anthony Weiner's amendment to HR 3962, which was a substitute for HR 676, has now also been sacrificed. Nancy Pelosi convinced Weiner to accept a no-vote for the good of overall reform. Her argument is not to let perfect get in the way of pretty good. In this case it would be more accurately stated as not letting good get in the way of pretty weak.
Photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/rustydarbonne/2099154382/sizes/m/ // CC BY 2.0
House Light Hits Predatory Insurers and Complicit GOP
Published November 05, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Well at least one of the two manager’s amendments to the final version of HR 3962 could be useful. It addresses the “Wall Street Effect”, most obviously in a section entitled Sunshine on Price Gouging by Health Insurance Issuers. The Wall Street Effect was observed when banks and credit card companies were told regulations would be tightened the beginning of 2010 – they promptly raised rates and found all sorts of fees and penalties they could assess customers prior to that. Expecting private insurers to do the same thing when faced with health reform legislation, John Dingell created preemptive strikes to ward off predatory rate spikes.
His amendment also gives states more insurance oversight power, including up to $1 billion in regulatory grants. Insurers can also be kicked out of Exchanges for bad behavior, similar to non-profit BlueShield of California losing its risk pool participation rights next year for deliberately overcharging members. While risk pools and overcharging go together like peanut butter and jelly, Blue Shield was charging 1.5 to 3 times what the other two insurers in the pool were. This was in direct opposition to state law that premiums be no more than 125% of regular market rates. Worse, it was getting reimbursed similar to the other insurers for its supposed losses.
This sort of bad behavior has a ripple effect. You see, Blue Shield also conveniently used its inflated risk pool rates as the basis for HIPAA insurance rates (an option for those whose COBRA benefits have run out.) Since California law caps HIPAA rates at the average of risk pool rates, Blue Shield was able to milk yet more profit (oops, I mean surplus) from people with no other insurance options. Speaking of having no options, perhaps the most amusing inclusion in Dingell’s amendment is the explicit exclusion of illegal immigrants from participating in the temporary national risk pool. Like they could afford it anyway?
Can Children Get Congress To Protect Their Health?
Published November 04, 2009 @ 06:43AM PT
Marian Wright Edelman is a lifelong advocate for disadvantaged Americans and is the President of the Children's Defense Fund (CDF).
In 1931, Grace Abbott, the Chief of the U.S. Children’s Bureau, gave a speech about her long and frustrating workdays in our nation’s capital trying to advocate for children’s needs. She said she felt all alone standing with her baby carriage on the sidewalk watching a great traffic jam moving toward the Capitol where Congress sits.
She saw all kinds of vehicles including the tanks and trucks the Army put into the street; "the handsome limousines in which the Department of Commerce rides…the barouches in which the Department of State rides with such dignity…[and] the noisy patrols in which the Department of Justice officials sometimes appear." And so she stood on the sidewalk watching, "because the responsibility is mine and I must, I take a very firm hold on the handles of the baby carriage and I wheel it into the traffic."
And so must we parents and grandparents and child care providers and educators grab the handles of our baby strollers and the hand of our children and walk into the traffic headed for Congress. We must make them hear and respond to the urgent, but still too ignored, needs of our 8.1 million uninsured children. We must break through the political den of powerful special interests like the insurance and drug companies with their fleet of well paid lobbyists.
Today, the Children’s Defense Fund is organizing a Champions for Children’s Health Stroller Brigade in the nation’s Capitol to send an urgent and clear message to our political leaders that real health reform for children must be enacted this year. Children’s unmet health needs have been lost in the debate’s "big" issues. Unless we act now, millions of children could be worse, rather than better off, as a result of pending health reform legislation.
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