The drama and serious missteps surrounding the roll out of the Affordable Healthcare Act offers us a number of lessons to take into account... First lesson is that when we have the intersection of what should be a basic human right, in this case our individual and collective health vs the desire to make profit and the legal obligation to satisfy shareholders, then the latter will be pushed forth at all costs...Our current medical situation has now dissolved to a point where patients are going on the internet and bidding for doctors... What Im describing is not limited to healthcare and hence should serve as a reminder that making money even if it means leaving many upended and destitute is actually being celebrated and presented as one doping sound business... One of the main sticking points that led to the push for the Affordable Care Act was insurance companies refusing to take on patients who had what they described as pre-existing conditions...I knew people who were cancer survivors, had asthma or had injured themselves years ago playing sports who could not get insurance unless they were willing to pay something that was beyond their reach even if they made six figures. We later came to find out that women who were pregnant or had complications during previous pregnancies were deemed uninsurable Many of us never really stopped to address such a draconian wrong-headed policy. Instead we allowed ourselves to buy into the false narrative put forth by lobbyists and pundits of the insurance companies that uninsured people are not being responsible. We allowed ourselves to believe that the false narrative that folks were spending their money on basketball shoes and iPads vs health insurance..In short we adapted the make money at all costs-survival of the fittest mindset of the insurance companies... When President Obama came on the scene to push for Health Reform, he made some crucial mistakes which we should all learn from. First he attempted to show some good faith and bring people together all the major players meaning Health insurers and Big Pharama by taking Universal healthcare (single payer) off the table before he even started negotiating. Obam knew that was main sticking point for insurance companies and that it was main policy upheld by progressives and poor folks on his side of the political aisle... As a candidate seeking to win our support Obama backed universal healthcare.. When it came time to push for HCR he threw it and the years of work many in the grassroots had put in, under the bus.. At the time when people objected, we were told Obama is playing chess not checkers and that we need to fall back and let him work his magic.. Obama never got anything back in return for this compromise... It was around this time I was in DC and had the opportunity to speak with a number of lawmakers and policy makers including John Conyers, and Dennis Kucinich who while sticking to a set of talking points from the White House and then House speaker Nancy Pelosi also expressed concern that Obama had over compromised. They had noted that he took single payer off the table and they very people he attempted to appease were still fighting him at every turn not to have the Affordable Care Act.. What was the payoff? They didnt have single payer to worry about and they were going to benefit by having an estimated 40-50 million new customers who would be required by law to obtain health insurance.. Initially Obama attempted to hold up the public option as the fallback plan for not having Universal Healthcare..I remember interviewing former senator Howard Dean at one of these DC health conferences I was covering and he was gung-ho about it.. Public option was supposed to be put in the Affordable Care Act and that would be a key facet that would allow those of us who wanted Universal Healthcare to hang our hats on leverage years down the road... The biggest road blocks to the Affordable Care Acts and the public option were Blue Dog Democrats who severely weakened the super majorities Democrats held in both the house and the Senate. More compromises were made as each Blue Dog would seemingly stand up and promise to derail all efforts unless they got something favorable for the health insurers who were backing them.. Finally enough votes were garnered with public option still in play.. and thats when Senator Joe Liberman came from under his rock.. Liberman was angry because progressive leaning Democrats, tired of his conservative ways mounted a successful challenge to his bid for Senate in 2006..He was ousted as the Democratic challenger and decided to run as an independent.. He eventually won his seat back and was allowed to caucus with the Democrats.. When Obama ran in 2008, Liberman who was former Vice Presidential candidate attended the GOP Convention and endorsed John McCain.. After Obama won, Liberman was set to be banished and stripped of his chairmanships for his betrayal was spared when Obama Intervened and advocated that they let Liberman keep his chairmanship for Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs... Liberman said he would still Caucus with the Democrats and become that crucial 60th vote to prevent filibusters.. When Obama pushed the Affordable Care Act at the 11th hour Liberman decided to get revenge on the Democrats and not only threatened to with hold his yes vote but even filibuster if Obama didnt get rid of public option.. This is outlined in a book called Fighting for Our Health by Richard Kirsch.. He has an entire chapter on Libermans Revenge which he levied not because he was in the pockets of health insurance companies, but because he was pissed that he was challenged.. With respect to the Blue Dogs dems who made passing the Affordable Care Act so difficult, Obama backed many of them in their bids for re-election in 2010. He did this in spite of the fact that many of them were being challenged in the primaries..He used his influence to save them and get them to the general election. Progressive forces were ridiculed and chastised for challenging incumbents. Almost all of them of them were ousted for Tea Party candidates. the largest Caucus in the house, progressive Democrats held on to all but one seat, Alan Grayson.. The shalacking that Obama received in 2010 was the Blue Dogs being ousted. Democratic leaders than tried to blame progressives for the loss..vs the billion dollar bankroll many had via the Koch Brothers and after the Supreme Ct ruled on Citizens United which allowed unlimited corporate money to come into elections. The Tea Party folks who came on board had been hell-bent on overturning Obamacare.. They have taken more than 40 votes since 2010 to get rid of the policy... The lesson learned from all this is to not try to compromise with devilish people and if you must in the arena of politics at least get something meaningful in return.. With respect to the confusion around the Affordable Care Act.. Since its past Ive been to 4 or 5 healthcare Reform conferences that were designed to communicate to the public about what was in the bill. The last one I attended was in last spring where they rolled out how folks would register.. Many of yall have heard those interviews to date I have almost 150 of them.. And with each person I spoke to from sitting senators and congress folks to healthcare pundits to the surgeon general, most have strictly followed a stale set of talking points vs engaging folks and getting feedback to compelling questions that would help alleviate confusion.. The general talking points were: 1-kids get to stay on parents health insurance till 26 2-you can get insurance with pre-existing conditions 3-you can keep you great insurance and for those who cant afford it will get subsidized 4-women can get preventative healthcare like breast screenings 5-An insurance pool will roll out in fall of 2013 and there consumers will have a wide range of choices to get robust health insurance.. I recall asking questions like what happens to folks whose parents are no longer employed or dont have health insurance.. The largest growing segment of unemployed were folks in their 40s and 50s..Time and time I would ask if the parents and kids would separately have to get insurance or will there be family policies.. Many simply did not have clear-cut answers I would ask if folks will be able to register for health insurance without going on-line, because many only have cell phones and dont have PCs.. I was told the registration process would be easy and there would be 800 numbers for folks to call I also asked about how they were outreaching to urban and poor communities..I was concerned because I didnt see large numbers of urban outlets at these conventions.. To this day I still have not seen or heard media sweeps or even commercials on many urban outlets detailing how one can get coverage.. lesson to be learned here: clear communication is essential especially with so much at stake.. The conversation around HRC shouldve been ongoing since its passage.. Instead what we saw was constant attempts to undermine and get rid of it and not enough conversations/ town hall etc about how to enroll and get whats needed. There was also an underestimation about all the folks who have been underemployed or had no choice but to start their own businesses and thus get individual insurance.. Those folks are being dropped from coverage and looking at new bills that have doubled and tripled in price... Not sure where all this is going to end, but what we should note is that those who are charge of providing healthcare at this point will probably shortchange us on coverage even as they are getting all this money from tens of millions of new customers. Theres no way the public can hold private companies accountable, except by taking your business elsewhere..Sadly there isnt too much of difference between the health providers that are currently in these pools.. What we are going to get a serious lesson in is what happens when something so essential is privatized and you have no choice but to use them.. For many they are still at square one.. How to get accessible, affordable healthcare..
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 16:36:33 +0000
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