US Ready Comprehensive Health Reform? .... Tom Daschle Thinks So

[RedEarth]

The Surprising Optimist: Why Tom Daschle Believes That The Country Is Ready For Comprehensive Health Reform

For the former Democratic leader, it’s not a question of “if”
but of “when” the United States will embark on a path toward change.
.......

I would say that the prospects of being a top issue are greater than they’ve been at any one time. We’re reaching a series of tipping points. By 2008 there is a real prospect that, according to one forecast, health costs will exceed the profits of Fortune 500 companies. By that time, there is the real possibility that we will have crossed the fifty-million-person threshold in terms of the uninsured. We’ve already seen, in the last five years, wages go up 15 percent, while health care premiums have gone up 73 percent. So, if trends continue, cost and access issues are going to be far greater than they’ve ever been before.<...>
I believe that you could run our health care system in a way similar to our federal reserve system. Our federal reserve system works, in large measure, through the private sector but is governed by decisions made within a federal governmental infrastructure. I think you could do the same thing in health policy. Already, over half the people obtain their health care in this country from a public or publicly funded source. So, we have, in some ways, the same circumstances in health care that we have in our monetary system.

I would like to see a framework that begins with a recognition that there has to be an infrastructure in place that allows for the public sector to be able to set in motion a politically insulated decision-making process that would allow us more collectively to make decisions about cost and financing. If we could fix our financing system, I think we could fix a lot of the other problems involved with our health care system today.




http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.25.w26/DC1

[Atman]

1. Tom who? Wasn't he that anthrax guy? I hear it ate away his spine

He slithered home to the Dakotas on his belly, or so the legend goes.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. "...a framework that begins with a recognition that there has to be an..."

...infrastructure......in place that allows for the public sector to be able to set in motion a politically insulated decision-making process that would allow us more collectively to make decisions about...

I just can't imagine how it is our messages aren't getting through.

[leftstreet]

3. Ted Kennedy's Medicare For All plan

Daschle says:
I would like to see a framework that begins with a recognition that there has to be an infrastructure in place that allows for the public sector to be able to set in motion a politically insulated decision-making process that would allow us more collectively to make decisions about cost and financing. If we could fix our financing system, I think we could fix a lot of the other problems involved with our health care system today.

WTF does that mean?

Ted says:

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0112-37.htm


An essential part of our progressive vision is an America where no citizen of any age fears the cost of health care, and no employer refuses to create new jobs or cuts back on current jobs because of the high cost of providing health insurance.

The answer is Medicare, whose 40th birthday we will celebrate in July. I propose that as a 40th birthday gift to the American people, we expand Medicare over the next decade to cover every citizen - from birth to the end of life.

For those who prefer private insurance, we will offer comparable coverage under the same range of private insurance plans already available to Congress. I can think of nothing more cynical or hypocritical than a Member of Congress who gives a speech denouncing health care for all, then goes to his doctor for a visit paid for by the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan.

I call this approach Medicare for All, because it will free all Americans from the fear of crippling medical expenses and enable them to seek the best possible care when illness strikes.

The battle to achieve Medicare for All will not be easy. Powerful interests will strongly oppose it, because they profit immensely from the status quo. Right wing forces will unleash false attack ads ranting against socialized medicine and government-run health care.

But those attacks are a generation out of date - retreads of the failed campaign that delayed Medicare in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, we are immunized against such attacks by the obvious success of Medicare. It is long past time to extend that success to all.

[sui generis]

4. but this one is a take no prisoners fight

It has to be non-regressive
It has to regulate prescription and procedure costs effectively
It has to take a stab at elective, life saving, heroic measures and chronic treatment definitions and commitments
It has to NOT have lifetime caps or long qualifying waiting periods
It has to be paid for out of our taxes, even if it means a tiny increase in our taxes
The revenues have to be guaranteed
It has to encourage more people to become medical professionals
It has to be an honest to goodness social program designed to promote the health and wellbeing of all Americans.

None of this "forced insurance" or medical savings account bullshit that is JUST bullshit that will guarantee fewer people who need coverage will actually be able to afford it or get it.

And its enemies are legion.

[shraby]

5. Why don't they just combine

medicare and medicaid and cover everyone under one umbrella? It would be cheaper to run one program as opposed to two separate ones.