10 Questions on Health Care

by Nick Stone of Drawnlines Politics.
As our congress barrels ahead toward health care reform at the urging of the president, it seems an appropriate time to consider the merits and faults of two different ideologies. Below are excerpts from two astute pieces that raise valid and important concerns from both sides of the aisle. I hope that you take the time to read the full articles by clicking on the links provided, decide for yourself to learn more, and engage your congressman/woman.


First, five questions for the president from Mitch McConnell's floor speech June 24th:

Will the President use his veto pen to make sure Americans aren't kicked off their current health plans? Will he oppose any legislation that increases the nation's deficit? Will he oppose any bill that raises taxes on middle-class families? Will he reject any bill that excludes common-sense wellness and prevention programs that have been proven to cut costs and improve care? And will he disavow legislation that denies, delays, and rations care?

Highlights from McConnell's speech:

The President and Democrats in Congress have repeatedly promised Americans they could keep their health insurance. Yet the independent Congressional Budget Office says that just one section of the Democrat bill being rushed through Congress at the moment would cause 10 million people with employer-based insurance to lose the coverage they have.


Another independent study of a full proposal that includes a government run plan estimates that 119 million Americans, or approximately 70 percent of those covered under private health insurance, could lose the health insurance they have as a consequence of a government plan. America's doctors have also warned that a government plan threatens to drive private insurers out of business. And yesterday, the President himself acknowledged that under a government plan, some people might be shifted off of their current insurance.


The President also said that health care reform can't add to the already-staggering national debt. Yet once again, the Congressional Budget Office has said that just one section of the Democrats' HELP bill would spend 1.3 trillion dollars, while others estimate the whole thing could end up spending more than two trillion dollars. And here's how the CBO put it: ‘the substantial costs of many current proposals to expand federal subsidies for health insurance would be much more likely to worsen the long-run budget outlook than to improve it.'


Let me repeat that. The Congressional Budget Office says that some of the proposals in the Democrats' bill would be much more likely to worsen the long-run budget outlook than to improve it.


The American people want Republicans and Democrats to work together to enact health care reform, but they want the right kind of reform - not a massive government takeover that forces them off of their current insurance and denies, delays, and rations care. Americans are right to be concerned about what they're hearing from Democrats. It's my hope that the President addresses those concerns tonight once and for all.

Second, Slate's Christopher Beam poses five hard-hitting questions to the Republicans from his post on June 15th:

Do you think health care reform is necessary? Doesn't a public option actually increase competition? Doesn't the government already run health care? Is it possible to achieve universal coverage without mandating it? Wasn't America's first universal health care legislation signed by a Republican?

Beam interjects:

Of course, all these questions come with rejoinders or parallels for Democrats. Republicans may have trouble admitting that health care reform is necessary, but Democrats may have trouble saying they support a single-payer plan run by the government. If a public option really is market competition, then by supporting it, aren't Democrats implicitly agreeing that market competition can improve health care? And if the government already runs so much of our health care system, then why is it so broken?


These questions may be easier for Democrats than the other questions are for Republicans, partly because Democrats don't have to defend the status quo. Democrats also have first-mover advantage: Their proposals are driving the debate. Until Republicans come up with some plausible answers, they may find that most of America's health care paradoxes work against them.

Posted by Nick Stone on 12:54 AM. Filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0