Health Care For America Now

We're beginning to see a pattern. President Obama's overture to Republicans to come up with ideas has unfortunately led to the mainstream media's opinion pages filling up with those ideas, put forward by the forces trying to kill health care reform.

The ideas put forward are coming in one of two flavors - ideas that are already in the health care bill or stale ideas that don't do anything to expand coverage, lower cost, or hold insurance companies accountable. The Republican ideas are always coupled with the assertion that the writer has no interest in upholding the status quo, even though their ideas would not actually solve any of the big problems that Americans face. Given that contradiction, it's hard not to see how Republicans and their allies aren't arguing for the status quo.

The other day, I went through an op-ed in The Hill by R. Bruce Josten, executive vice president of government affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the front group through which the insurance companies funneled $10-$20 million to kill health care reform. Yesterday, with many of the same arguments, we have Newt Gingrich and John Goodman in the right-wing Wall Street Journal.

Gingrich and Goodman - Republican party hacks for decades - come out by stating that they are here to answer the President's challenge and put forward "better ideas" for health care, ideas they insist aren't present in the current bills. So what are those ideas? Well, a good many of them are already in the bills.

First, they say:

The current taxation of health insurance is arbitrary and unfair, giving lavish subsidies to some, like those who get Cadillac coverage from their employers, and almost no relief to people who have to buy their own.

Well, the Senate bill includes an excise tax meant to help with this perceived inequity, even though all it would do in its current form is increase costs for workers. They go on to propose a tax credit so people can afford insurance, something that's at the heart of the current health care bills.

Next, Gingrich and Goodman propose making health insurance portable by allowing people to purchase insurance across state lines. Unfortunately, a version of this disastrous policy - albeit much curtailed to keep people from being taken advantage of by insurers - is already in the bill as a concession to Republicans.

Gingrich and Goodman next want changes in the health care delivery system by giving customers access to better treatments and giving doctors incentive to work for health, not just deliver more care. These delivery system changes are already in the bill. But curiously, Gingrich and Goodman's policy solutions to these problems - namely more Health Savings Accounts - wouldn't accomplish what they want them to accomplish. Health Savings Accounts are little more than an insurance industry scam - they are high deductible plans that are attractive to the wealthy and (temporarily) healthy.

Next, Gingrich and Goodman recommend customers get more information about whether a treatments works well or is cost-effective, provisions for which have already been passed in the economic recovery package and were bitterly fought by Republicans.

And of course, Gingrich and Goodman have to trot out that old workhorse - tort reform. Once again, it would do nothing to rein in costs while it would deny people who are maimed by medical malpractice compensation for the destruction to their lives.

Finally, Gingrich and Goodman come to what they see as the biggest place to control costs - curbing Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse. Guess what - the savings in Medicare and Medicaid used to fund the health care bill are largely created by curbing fraud and abuse, including overpayments to private insurers through Medicare Advantage, and yet Gingrich and Goodman rail against these "cuts" in their op-ed.

All in all, like Josten before them, Gingrich and Goodman bring "new ideas" to the table that are either already in the health care bill or wouldn't do anything to cover Americans adequately, rein in costs, or hold the insurance companies accountable. And yet, even though there is so many of these ideas represented in the health care bill, they're still against it.

That fact - that a lot of these ideas are in the bill - coupled with their continued objections to the bill show you Gingrich and Goodman's true goal. They want nothing more to kill health care reform, and they're resorting to illogical arguments to achieve it.

Democrats in Congress, don't be fooled. Republicans have no intention of solving the health care crisis. They and their insurance company allies want the status quo. It's up to you to ignore their "ideas" and finish reform right.