Did progressives win anything in the health reform negotiation process?by: Chris Bowers
Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 15:48
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The entire reconciliation bill now posted on House Rules Committee website. Did progressives win anything?
Changes from the Senate billPolitico has a long summary of how it differs from the Senate bill. The very existence of the reconciliation bill comes from a refusal of House members, most of them Progressives, to just pass the Senate bill as is. Every single change Politico lists is thus a concession to House Progressives, and supplements the other ways that the bill became more progressive progressives.
Number of people on public insuranceCompared to current, 16 million people are projected to receive public health insurance as a result of the reconciliation bill (PDF, page 7). This compares to 21 million projected in the House Ways and Means bill, and 14 million people in the Senate Finance Committee bill (page 14). That is closer to Baucus, but it isn't nothing.
While it is true that there is a substantive difference between Medicaid and a public health insurance option tied to Medicare rates in the exchange, it is also true that the bill strengthens Medicaid in important ways. By moving most of the funding to the federal level--a $99 billion addition to the Senate Finance Committee bill--Medicaid recipients in red states are now in little or no danger of having their public health insurance taken away by local right-wing governments. Cutting Medicaid now becomes nearly as politically difficult as cutting Medicare.
Number of people receiving public primary careAdditionally, there is $11 billion extra for Community Health Centers in the reconciliation bill over five years. At current rates of patients receiving care (20.27 million annually) to federal funding for Community Health Centers ($2.5 billion annually), that projects to an additional 17.8 million patients receiving public primary care from the bill. This compares to zero extra patients in the Senate finance committee bill, and 22.7 million extra in the House bill in November.
Since this concession was directly made to win progressive votes, again I guess it means Progs got nothing.
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It is factually untrue that progressives won no concessions in this bill. People are free to debate over whether the concessions are enough either to support the bill or to demonstrate increased influence, but it is simply untrue that they won nothing in return for their support.
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Link:
http://www.openleft.com/diary/17895/did-progressives-win-anything-in-the-health-reform-negotiation-process:shrug:
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