Catching the Can’t-Do Spirit
Link to article
By Barbara Ehrenreich
After their roaring two-house victory, the Democrats are squeaking about micro-policies. There’ll be no impeachment, we’re told, though maybe a bit more oversight of Halliburton-style war profiteering. No withdrawal from Iraq, only a “phased redeployment.” And, the New York Times assures us (11/12/06), that the Dems “ have largely dropped … talk of a Canadian-style national health insurance.” Instead, they might try to reverse the Medicare drug plan’s ban on bargaining for drug price discounts.
They’ve caught the can’t-do spirit that hovers over that former malarial swamp, Washington D.C. Well, maybe they caught it long ago, when the Republican congressional sweep of ‘94 sent Bill Clinton into long policy ruminations on school uniforms and midnight basketball. Since then it’s been non-stop can’t-do, with the initial exception of war: Can’t do Social Security, can’t do universal health insurance, can’t do hurricanes. Then it turned out that we couldn’t do war either, at least if that meant whipping the Taliban or finding an honorable way out of Iraq.
Well, here’s a “phased redeployment” plan: First, bus the troops to the nearest functioning airport in Saudi Arabia, then put them on regular commercial flights to the U.S. According to Travelocity, the airfare part would cost about $1500 a person (coach class), or $225 million for 150,000 troops. If the government won’t come up with the ticket price, I’m sure thousands of ordinary citizens would happily dig into their own pockets. Hell, I’d spring for first class.
When it comes to health care, the more cautious Dems trace their can’t-do spirit to the great Hillary health reform debacle of 1993. We tried, they say, and it didn’t work. But what did they try? The Hill health plan would have created a vast new level of bureaucracy to contract for health insurance from the existing health insurance companies, thus tightening their evil grip over American health care. I described that plan in a 1993 essay in Time as “the ultimate medical nightmare:”
You slip under the anesthesia confident that your problem will be solved with some simple procedure — a polyp excision, for example, or tubal ligation. But when you wake up you find your breasts are missing or your intestine now terminates in a plastic bag.
Look, millions of voters didn’t swing toward the Democrats because they wanted a $15 discount on their statins and beta-blockers. They voted out the can’t-do Republicans in part because health costs are an immediate threat to ordinary Americans’ livelihoods and lives. They want a solution, and they want it now.
How could we do that? The cautious way would be to expand Medicare to cover everyone. No new program would have to be devised, and the fight over whether Medicare would lead to socialism was resolved over 40 years ago. Just extend it to everyone of any age.
The only problem with that is that Medicare is as full of holes as the Bush rationale for the Iraq war. It’s not enough to have Medicare Parts A and B, you need supplementary health insurance to cover the co-payments. As for Part D, aka “Part Doughnut Hole,” no one has as yet been able to comprehend it, though it seems to work fine for people who are willing to substitute shark cartilage and lemon grass tea for prescription drugs.
So the most sensible plan is the one put forward by Anna Burger, head of labor’s Change to Win coalition. She proposes extending the health insurance plan that currently covers Congress to everyone. “If it’s good enough for [congress],” she asks, “Why isn’t it good enough for every American?”
Hey, we can do it, or at least something very similar. Recall that as of a week ago, raising the minimum wage was another “can’t do” issue: Can’t do it because it might lead to inflation or unemployment, might offend the Chamber of Commerce or, god knows, cause acne. But six states just raised their minimum wages and Nancy Pelosi has promised to raise the federal minimum in her first 100 hours as Speaker of the House.
If the Dems can do that, they can do health care. Just renounce the can’t-do spirit and start echoing the little blue engine: “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.”
November 16th, 2006 at 11:47 am
It seems that the only choice at election time is between a conservative and a reactionary—in other words, how quickly do we want to regress to the Dark Ages. Liberals, let alone radicals, are a thing of the past, and the country is poorer as a result.
November 21st, 2006 at 4:37 pm
Re: Health care.
Much of the arguementation over health care relates to cost. Turn the arguement around; What are the cost to the US for NOT covering Americans. The average hospital emergency room that treats simple injuries that got worse due to lack of immediate care is one clue. Later treatment for a bigger problem cost more than early treatment for a small problem.
Since the indigent patient can pay, at best, a small portion of the cost, the rest of the balance eventually get covered by other insured people or the government.
Since it is cheaper to treat mild illnesses and injuries, states have been slowly picking up the cost of preventative medicine like flu shots and vaccinations for children. There seems to be a slow movement to universal coverage.
It might just be cost effective to just get the matter over with and provide universal coverage.
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:31 pm
Prescription for Disaster: A Medicaid Malady
by Elyssa Durant, Ed.M.
I just returned from my monthly visit to the doctor, and subsequently a visit to the pharmacy. Nothing unusual with my medications—they have been stabilized for several months. Yet this time the pharmacy could not provide my customary refills. My Medicaid will not pay for them. Not this time.
Together the whole lot of medications costs just less than $900. Nine hundred dollars that I don’t have, and nine hundred dollars that I have no way of getting. I have no other benefits, no Social Security checks to count on; no disability payments to pull together; no Medicare to meet me when the bottom falls out, again.
This surely is not the first time my Medicaid has not come through as a reliable source of payment. It is not even the second or third time. It’s more like the eight or ninth, maybe more often than that. I only recently qualified for Medicaid some eight months ago! Since then, I have already acquired several thousand dollars in unpaid medical expenses that have made their way to collection agencies.
I constantly ask myself why does this happen to me? Am I part of some diabolical scheme to do away with public health efforts? Silence the noisemaker! Or is it just a coincidence that I spent three years in a doctoral program studying health law and policy specific to mental health and Medicaid. Don’t they know how much more it hurts me to know exactly which systemic cracks I am falling through? Why have I encountered so many random barriers to health care in addition to those obstacles strategically placed in the system? We all know them: the endless forms, the incompetent employees, the negligence that already works to deter consumers such as myself from using the public health programs to which we are entitled. Yes, entitled. Medicaid is in fact an entitlement program no matter what they would have us believe.
Don’t they know who I am? Who I could be? Who I might be if only my mental health and medications would remain stable? If only my health could be stabilized, I could live the rest of my life in rhythm without having my peace of mind tampered with by bureaucratic negligence and oversight. Without having my benefits tampered with by bureaucratic negligence and oversight! I could be a real noisemaker, if only…
Unfortunately, no one in the Medicaid office knows who I am. I remain a faceless, quantifiable case number who means nothing to them. And I am not alone. But I need your help. Together we can fight to change Medicaid prescription limits and managed care formularies. I am not alone. Let your voice be heard.
November 25th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
Healthcare should be a right, not a privilege, and certainly not just for the privileged. We spend billions on war-related activities. The same amount of money could be infused into our healthcare program. Preventative medicine is also key. Finally, we need to take care of our elderly. Many are looking down the abyss of the famed ‘donut hole’ with no relief in sight. For our parents, ourselves, and future generations, we must ensure coverage for all.
November 26th, 2006 at 10:21 pm
Universal preventative care can be the first step. That shouldn’t cost as much as the emergency care we now provide to the indigent.
December 17th, 2006 at 10:31 am
I need a reason to vote. The distinction between the Democrats and the Republicans appears illusory. I can always vote for whoever is the “other” candidate, but the truth is these candidates do not stand a chance of victory for too many reasons to list here.
On the presidential front, Clinton, Obama, and Williams will be vying for the democratic nomination. There will be more hopefuls making squeaking sounds of desire for the top spot. I hope that a truly effective coalition of the “screwed” will make their unifed voice heard, as sung by Woody Gutherie, from “California to the New York Island”. The consequences of failure are dire: Will the line “this land belongs to you and me” become a historical curiosity? Will this land belong only to the wealthy . . . for now, and then one day to the foreign interests that own ever increasing interests here?
The work and challange we face is about preserving economic justice (this includes our public policy on access to medical services) and the global environment. On the later issue, see the December 17, 2006 Sunday Tribune’s Front page story, presented as a “special report” titled “China’s Big Grab”.
The link to the Tribune is:
http://www.chicagotribune.com.
The link to the article is:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-china-cashmere-htmlstory,1,1760776.htmlstory?coll=chi-news-hed.