Health care reform is the "foremost economic and moral issue that this administration is determined to deal with," Joe Biden said during a recent White House meeting. "Our hospitals are cracking under the weight of providing quality healthcare for Americans who lack insurance," he added. "The status quo is simply unacceptable. Rising costs are crushing us. They're crushing families, crushing businesses, crushing state budgets -- and they are crushing the health-care industry itself.”
The good news is that the White House struck a deal with the Catholic Health Association, the American Hospital Association and the Hospital Corporation of America to forgo $155 billion in government healthcare reimbursements over the next 10 years. If you’re keeping track, the pharmaceutical companies hopped onboard last month, offering up another $80 billion to help make all of Barack and Joe’s healthcare dreams come true. If you were reading this with a calculator in your hand, you’d see they need $765 billion for their estimated $1 trillion plan.
In his affable way, Biden assures us,"Folks, reform is coming. It is on track. It is coming. We have tried for decades and decades to fix the broken system and we have never in my entire career in public life been this close."
“But Joe, where will this money come from?” we ask. The Wall Street Journal reported that the administration can add another $540 billion over 10 years by upping the taxes for households making more than $350,000/year. Under Charlie Rangel’s proposed plan -- which has been outright rejected by nearly all Senate Republicans -- these households would not only pay their 39.6% income-tax rate, but they would also pay another 1-3% surtax for the health plan. Even if this measure was passed, that still leaves us a $225 billion discrepancy to fill... unless, of course, this money is just being used to keep the over-inflated plan under a trillion, as USA Today suggests… and unless you tack on the $500 billion it’d cost to expand Medicaid and Medicare (to households making as much as $33,000/year). Yes, Houston, we’ve got problems – even assuming “over two-thirds of the money is already in the system,” as Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius reports.
Then there’s the even bigger question: “But Joe, how will you reconcile Republican and Democratic differences on this sensitive issue?” And what if we stall so long that ailing members of congress like Robert Byrd and Ted Kennedy aren’t well enough to vote on this issue they feel so strongly about? And if we stall past August recess on this, how will you combat the massive ad campaigns being waged by Patients Now, Health Care For America Now, MoveOn.org, the Laborers International Union of North America and Conservatives For Patients Rights? So far, these groups have pitched in more than $18.4 million to air their objections on national television.
Democrats from the Blue Dog Coalition say the current healthcare bill “lacks a umber of elements essential to preserving what works and fixing what is broken.” The 52 members comprise a major voting block in the House’s Democratic Caucus, which makes it impossible for legislation to move forward as quickly as President Obama and Vice President Biden would like. This is one point that both Republicans and Democrats can agree on. “I think they’re trying to put together one-sixth of the American economy in too short a period of time,” says Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT).
In addition to financing discrepancies and uncomfortable timetables, Democrats and Republicans aren’t so sure about some of these proposals. One idea Joe Biden mentioned last week is that we could have a public healthcare OPTION to compete with private healthcare companies to keep prices lower and more competitive. Yet, Mike Ross, a Democratic Representative from Arkansas, argues, “If there is a public option, it can’t be based on Medicare rates unless the regional disparity in Medicare rates is fixed.” Even if we expanded on Medicare and created the government option, there could still be as many as 15 – 20 million uninsured Americans (which is still almost half of the 46 million uninsured today).
Another idea is that the government could mandate more businesses to offer health insurance plans to their employees. However, as Joe Biden sums it up:“They are faced with deciding to provide coverage that is increasingly swallowing up more and more of their bottom line, not providing coverage at all or having to raise the cost of the service or product they’re selling, making them uncompetitive.”
A third healthcare proposal, offered by individuals, is that a new culture must take root in America to decrease healthcare costs for everyone. We must exercise, eat healthier and make smarter choices. While corporations and insurance companies are beginning to reward Americans for good behavior, it’s chilling to think what could happen if there is a “national requirement for all Americans to participate in fitness/wellness programs,” as Phil Hauck of the Brown County Healthy Lifestyles Cooperative suggests. While it may sound outlandish, President Obama has already taken an aggressive stance on smoking regulations, touting his new anti-smoking bill as "a victory for health care reform, as it will reduce some of the billions we spend on tobacco-related health care costs in this country."
Knowing that “we cannot sustain the trajectory of healthcare costs,” Joe Biden is given the unfortunate task of meeting with health care representatives and publicly trying to put a positive spin on this whole plan… even though it’s currently one big mess.
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