Guaranteed Healthcare

Before I go through my own personal list, we should all kneel in front of Senator Kennedy. 

Though the healthcare reform plan he is working on, is far from the ideal single payer plan many of us believe is the only solution to our national catastrophe, Senator Kennedy will force healthcare reform to the top of the legislative agenda, and God bless him for that.

But, now is the time to get it right, even if we need to take a bit more time.

To Senator Kennedy or anyone working with him, I'll echo the words of John McCain's failed VP candidate.  Thanks but no thanks on any version of Romneycare.  It's a failure in Massachusetts and it's a non-starter for the American people.

Today on Daily Kos,  a diarist  reminded us that  on Tuesday, the people of Massachusetts,  voted against Romneycare and overwhelmingly for single-payer. It would be a tragedy, if Romneycare became the law of the land.  We have waited far too long for what would amount to a huge gift to the insurance industry and nothing for the American people.

And though the  New York Times  thinks that the deep recession will force President Obama to curtail healthcare reform, many believe we have a once in a generation opportunity to extend affordable and guaranteed healthcare to every single citizen in the United States. This is the change the American people voted for.

Here's where we would be headed if President-elect Obama invited me to join his healthcare transition team. Keep in mind, these are all common sense (non radical or, heaven forbid, socialist) changes.

1. President Obama would sign an executive order freezing or even better rolling back the healthcare extortion premium many of us pay. To what level?  I'm not sure, but a significant price reduction. I know, ain't happening, but it should.  My Congressman pays less than half of what you and I pay.

2. An additional executive order would prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against sick people. It would make community rating and guaranteed issue the law in all fifty states. It would prohibit insurance company cherry picking (insuring only the young and healthy), underwriting and all pre-exisiting condition exclusions.

3. Another executive order would prohibit the crime of retroactive recission which the insurance industry pursues with abandon in the state of California. It would make the practice of retroactive recission a crime punishable with significant time in jail.

4. Insurers would be prohibited from second-guessing doctors. If a doctor orders a test, medication, surgical procedure, the insurer cannot overrule this--ever.

5. Medicare Advantage which is nothing more than a taxpayer giveaway to the insurance industry, is thrown in the garbage can.

6. Within the first 100 days, President Obama would send Congress real prescription drug coverage for senior citizens, our most vulnerable. Congress would immediately kill Medicare D and replace it with authentic drug coverage with no doughnut holes.The legislation would require Medicare to negotiate for the lowest prices with the pharmaceutical industry.

7. Another executive order would prohibit Congresspeople from ever working for K Street or any industry they have supervised as a member of Congress.

8.On his first day in office he eliminates the taxpayer subsidies for all Congressmembers and Senators on their FEHBP health benefits. This would mean, they'd just be paying the same rates extortion as the American people.

9. Affordable and guaranteed dental care would become an integral and non-negotiable part of the ultimate health reform package.

10. Doctors should be paid what they're worth, which is a hell of a lot more than the .20 cents on the dollar most insurers reimburse.

11. If doctors must accept such woefully inadequate reimbursement, then medical school should be free or heavily subsidized.

12. Caps on the salaries of health insurance industry executives, and a  swift  immediate phase out of the for-profit insurance industry as the country replaces the dangerous, failed and corrupt for-profit model with single payer.

13. President Obama would use the bully pulpit and his enormous popularity to champion HR 676 and single payer healthcare. He will use his huge mandate to explain to the American people that single payer is a simple and elegant solution--private delivery of healthcare, paid for by a single government entity.

14. Another executive order making illegal the practice of charging women more than men for the identical health insurance policy.

15. And probably most important, single payer advocates would have as many seats at the negotiating table as all the AHIP stakeholders.

And 1-15 is just for starters.

How's this for lukewarm congratulations?

This was all the enthusiasm the monsters lobbyists at AHIP could muster.

AHIP Congratulates President-Elect Barack Obama
   
Washington, DC – Karen Ignagni, President and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), today issued the following statement congratulating President-elect Barack Obama:

“We congratulate President-elect Barack Obama for his historic victory last night.  Now is the time for health care reform, and we look forward to working with the Obama administration and the new Congress to develop workable solutions to the health care challenges facing the nation.  We support coverage for all Americans, coverage they can afford, and coverage they can keep.  We will work collaboratively with other stakeholders to achieve these objectives."

Change is coming--and they know it.