Health Care For America Now

NEWS

Health industry's political giving rose 14% in '09 - USA Today

Pharmacists, optometrists and groups representing an array of medical specialists boosted their political giving in 2009, as Congress worked on health care legislation that would dramatically reshape their industry, a review of new campaign-finance reports shows.

Gibbs ducks questions on merged bill - Politico

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs ducked questions during the press briefing Tuesday on whether the president would post his own merged bill on the Internet ahead of the health care summit, given that congressional leaders are still struggling to agree on a way forward.

GOP sees possible upside in health care summit - AP

Congressional Republicans see a chance for political gain in President Barack Obama's televised health care summit next week, even though the president will be running the show.

Senators urge Reid to revisit public option - Politico

Four Democratic senators — including two in tough reelection battles — sent a letter Tuesday to Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) urging him to bring the public insurance option back up for a vote.

Almost without fail, whenever a group of people get together to discuss what can be done to pass health care reform, someone mentions "taking it to the streets." A lot of different ideas might fall under that banner but the sentiment is clear - get people into the streets for health care reform so we can get it done and get it done right.

Well, it's time for that street movement.

All over the country starting tomorrow, February 17th, there will be marches, rallies, vigils, and protests around the country. We'll have 5,000 in Seattle. Thousands in California. Big turnout in Chicago. In all, more than 70 events in state after state, mobilizing tens of thousands of people.

The message we're sending is simple: Congress, listen to the American people, not the insurance companies. It's time to pass health care that works for us - now.

Also, this is about more than just health care. We voted for change in 2008 and we need Congress and the President to deliver on the changes we need. We need jobs and workers' rights. We need to beat back climate change, rein in Wall Street, and cut off corporate influence in Washington. But if health care fails, our chances of doing any of those things plummet. This is about the entire agenda, and we're in this together.

If there ever was a time to take it to the streets, now is it. Both houses of Congress have passed health care bills, but those bills must be merged before they can pass both houses again and be sent to the President's desk. And merging the two bills means finishing reform right. The President's bipartisan summit is coming up on February 25th, with all parties involved creating their own health care plans in preparation. So if there was ever a time to make your voice heard, now's the time.

You should join us at one of these events. Chances are there's one happening near you. Click here to find one, or make one of your own.

One of the events that deserves a bit of highlighting is Melanie's March, where activists will walk from Philadelphia, PA to Washington, DC - over 150 miles.

Melanie Shouse was a health care activist. She had breast cancer. She battled with her insurance company to get the care she needed. And she just died.

Here's what the President said about her after she passed:

I got a letter — I got a note today from one of my staff — they forwarded it to me — from a woman in St. Louis who had been part of our campaign, very active, who had passed away from breast cancer.

She didn't have insurance. She couldn't afford it, so she had put off having the kind of exams that she needed. And she had fought a tough battle for four years. All through the campaign she was fighting it, but finally she succumbed to it. And she insisted she's going to be buried in an Obama T-shirt.

But think about this: She was fighting that whole time not just to get me elected, not even to get herself health insurance, but because she understood that there were others coming behind her who were going to find themselves in the same situation, and she didn't want somebody else going through that same thing.

How can I say to her, 'You know what? We're giving up'? How can I say to her family, 'This is too hard'?

One of her last wished was to have political rallies for health reform held in her honor. One of those events is called Melanie's March.

Starting on February 17th, a group of health care activists, insurance company survivors with stories of their own, and supporters will be walking from Philadelphia, PA to Washington, DC. Along the way, they'll be having rallies, vigils, and meetups to spread the word about Melanie and health care reform and demonstrate how committed we the people are to health care reform.

If you live in Philly or DC, or anywhere along the route, you should come out to walk with these marchers in support. Here are details about the route and the events along the way.

Health care and the rest of the progressive agenda hangs in the balance. It's time Congress heard our voices ringing in the streets.

NEWS

Excise Tax Loses Support Amid White House Push - New York Times

An agreement to tax high-cost, employer-sponsored health insurance plans, announced with fanfare by the White House and labor unions last month, is losing support from labor leaders, who say the proposal is too high a price to pay for the limited health care package they expect to emerge from Congress.

In California, Exhibit A in Debate on Insurance - New York Times

When Bernhard Punzet opened the dreaded envelope from Anthem Blue Cross one recent Saturday, it ruined his weekend.

Insurer Delays Rate Increase in California - Wall Street Journal

Health insurer Anthem Blue Cross will postpone its much-criticized plan to raise rates for some California residents who buy insurance on their own, after reaching a deal Saturday with state regulators.

Republicans Spurn Once-Favored Health Mandate - NPR

For Republicans, the idea of requiring every American to have health insurance is one of the most abhorrent provisions of the Democrats' health overhaul bills.

Reconciliation Alive Despite Health Care Summit - Roll Call

Senate Democrats say they see no need to abandon the idea of using reconciliation to pass health care reform this year just because President Barack Obama has scheduled a bipartisan summit next week to try to break the impasse on Capitol Hill.

Trial lawyers to Obama: Don’t deal on tort reform in healthcare neogtiations - The Hill

President Barack Obama wants a bipartisan deal on health reform, but trial lawyers don’t want him to deal on a top Republican priority: tort reform.

GOP, Expecting Little, Will Attend Health Summit - Roll Call

Having received invitations to President Barack Obama’s Feb. 25 health care summit and reviewed its proposed format, Congressional Republican leaders are dismissing the event as a political farce — albeit one they’re likely to attend.

NEWS

Administration Rejects Health Insurer’s Defense of Huge Rate Increases - New York Times

Anthem Blue Cross, the California health insurance company that was criticized by the Obama administration for raising its premiums, said Thursday that the increases of up to 39 percent were driven by rising health care costs.

Report: Top five insurers made $12 billion in profits last year, dropped 2.7 million people - Politico

With health reform floundering, Democrats have renewed their attacks on the insurance industry and a new report out today hopes to bolster their case that insurance company practices need to be reigned in. The report finds that the top five largest for-profit insurance companies increased their profits by $12.2 billion last year while dropping coverage for 2.7 million Americans.

Democrats skeptical health care summit is answer - AP

First he called congressional Democrats' yearlong march toward health care overhaul an ugly process. Now President Barack Obama wants to talk directly with Republicans, the very people his Capitol Hill allies call obstinate and uncooperative.

New jolt for healthcare reform? Insurer hikes rates 39 percent. - CSM

Democrats are using the decision of WellPoint to raise rates for some customers by as much as 39 percent – despite a $4.75 billion profit – to rally supporters.

Family feud: Nancy Pelosi at odds with President Obama - Politico

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s increasingly public disagreements with President Barack Obama are a reflection of something deeper: the seething resentment some Democrats feel over what they see as cavalier treatment from a wounded White House.

Sen. Conrad: Media focusing on 'side issues' in health debate - The Hill

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) on Thursday implored reporters to improve their coverage of the healthcare debate, which he described so far as incomplete.

Billy Tauzin to step down from PhRMA - Politico

Billy Tauzin, the backslapping former Louisiana congressman who went on to earn $2 million a year as head of the drug industry's powerful Washington trade group, is stepping down from his post in June.

The Republican geyser of "new ideas" in response to President Obama's outreach continues. And it continues in the same pattern - Republicans offering "new ideas" that are mostly already in the bill or would do nothing to expand coverage, lower cost, or hold the insurance industry accountable and yet decrying the status quo and opposing the health care bills on the table. It all adds up to an endorsement of the status quo.

First, we had R. Bruce Josten, executive vice president of government affairs for the insurance industry front group U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Next we had Newt Gingrich and John Goodman. Today we have Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Representative Bill Cassidy (R-LA).

It's hardly worth going through all the ideas again - they're the same no matter which Republican puts them down on paper. They endorse exchanges, transparency, selling of insurance across state lines, and in theory ending the most egregious insurance company abuses (though the bills they propose do none of those things), all things that are already in the bills. And their "new ideas" - tort reform, health savings accounts, state high risk pools - either do nothing (in the case of HSAs and tort reform) or have already been tried and failed (in the case of state based high risk pools).

(For an in-depth look at how closely Judd Gregg's proposal matches the Senate bill already passed, Jon Walker has an excellent run-down.)

In all, it's a lot of rhetoric, especially about ending insurance company abuses like denying care for pre-existing conditions and charging more if you're sick, but no actual proposals to do any of that. And the proposals they do put forward - tort reform, HSAs, high risk pools - have already been proved not to expand coverage, lower cost, or rein in the private insurance industry. What the Republican ideas that have been left out of the bills have in common is that they would be bad for people.

So let's see if I can get this straight. The majority of "new ideas" Republicans put forward are ideas that are already in the health reform bills. The "new ideas" they put forward do nothing to further the goals of coverage, lower cost, and stopping abuses. And yet, they oppose the passage of health reform. If you can't come up with new ideas that aren't already in the bills or would actually solve the fundamental problems in our health care system and you still oppose the bills on the table that do these things, then you are arguing for the status quo.

The Republicans are hypocrites, plain and simple. Democrats should move forward to finish health reform right using majority rule.

Health Care for America Now has a new report out today on the insurance industry's profits and customer base [pdf] and the statistics are shocking:

The five largest U.S. health insurance companies sailed through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression to set new industry profit records in 2009, a feat accomplished by leaving behind 2.7 million americans who had been inprivate health plans. For customers who kept their benefits, the insurers raised rates and cost-sharing,and cut the share of premiums spent on medical care. Executives and shareholders of the five biggest for-profit health insurers, UnitedHealthGroup inc., WellPoint inc., Aetna Inc., Humana Inc., and Cigna Corp., enjoyed combined profit of $12.2 billion in 2009, up 56 percent from the previous year. It was the best year ever for Big Insurance.

…

The 2009 financial reports from the nation’s five largest insurance companies reveal that:

• The firms made $12.2 billion, an increase of $4.4 billion, or 56 percent, from 2008.
  • Four out of the five companies saw earnings increases, with CIGNA’s profits jumping 346 percent.
• The companies provided private insurance coverage to 2.7 million fewer people than the year before.
  • Four out of the five companies insured fewer people through private coverage. UnitedHealth alone insured 1.7 million fewer people through employer-based or individual coverage.
  • All but one of the five companies increased the number of people they covered through public insurance programs (Medicaid, CHIP and Medicare). UnitedHealth added 680,000 people in public plans.
• The proportion of premium dollars spent on health care expenses went down for three of the five firms, with higher proportions going to administrative expenses and profits.

The numbers may be shocking, but they shouldn't be surprising. This is how the industry makes money, by charging people more and cutting the unprofitable people from their rolls. In fact, the one company who's profit margin went down slightly this year - Aetna - was also the only company to add more customers to its rolls in 2009.

But the industry will go to any length to "justify" their profits and their policies of dropping their sick or expensive customers.

NEWS

Pelosi Makes Her Case: A Majority Is 51 Votes - Roll Call

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is pinning the blame on Republicans for a lack of bipartisanship in Congress and plans to bypass them if they continue to oppose efforts to enact near-universal health care.

Anthem Asked To Justify Insurance Rate Hike - NPR

An investigation in California over dramatic health insurance increases is spurring a federal inquiry. Two congressional committees have asked executives from WellPoint, the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross of California, to explain why the company is raising premiums by as much as 39 percent for some customers.

A Simple Health-Care Fix Fizzles Out - Wall Street Journal

It sounds like such a simple concept: Study different medical treatments and figure out which delivers the best results at the cheapest cost, giving patients the most effective care.

Can Judd Gregg help White House save health bill? - Politico

Is Judd Gregg a tease or a real potential partner for President Barack Obama in trying to salvage some health care reform in this Congress?

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.

There's a new poll out today from the Washington Post. It's got a few findings that Congress would do well to pay attention to.

Here's the main point:

A huge majority of Americans want a comprehensive health care bill passed. That includes 88% of Democrats, 56% of Independents, and almost a majority - 42% - of Republicans. If Congress thinks they can get away with not passing a bill, given those numbers, they've got another thing coming.

When you add these numbers to a few other questions in this poll, you get a picture of the electorate that really wants reform done right.

The poll shows that 49% oppose the health care bills in Congress and 46% support. But when people are asked about whether they support major features in the bills, they say yes. Banning denials for pre-existing conditions is popular with 80% of people. Requiring employers to offer insurance to full time employees is supported by 72% of people.

The picture is becoming clear: America wants to see a comprehensive bill passed and they support major components of the legislation. They also don't see the current bill in the Senate as the final bill - they want to see some changes before President Obama signs something. And there's no doubt that a great many people have been influenced by the negative advertising the insurance industry and its allies have been flooding the airwaves with, coupled with the media's focus on process rather than policy.

So how do we get comprehensive reform done? Again, the poll is telling. 58% think Republicans in Congress are doing too little to compromise with Obama, and 68% think Republicans should rarely use the filibuster to block legislation. Though the poll didn't ask whether people would support passing health care by majority rule using reconciliation, one can assume those numbers would be favorable.

Putting it all together, America wants comprehensive reform, they want reform finished right before a bill is signed, and they think Republicans are standing in the way, which gives an implicit endorsement for Democrats to use majority rule to do what the American people want.

America wants real health care reform, wants it done right, and wants it done now.

NEWS

Congress opens probe into Anthem Blue Cross rate increases - LA Times

Two House panels announce they are investigating the hikes, which take effect March 1. Lawmakers ask the company's CEO to explain the reasons for the increases.

How Health Overhaul Would Affect The Uninsured - Kaiser Health News

As Democrats have pushed for a comprehensive overhaul of the country's health system, much of their plans and rhetoric have focused on providing coverage for America's uninsured.

Poll: Bipartisanship popular, compromise tricky - Washington Post

Americans spread the blame when it comes to the lack of cooperation in Washington, and, in a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, most want the two sides to keep working to pass comprehensive health-care reform.

President Obama to GOP: Work with me - Politico

President Barack Obama said Tuesday he’s prepared to cut deals with Republicans in order to create jobs and improve the nation’s health care system, but he said he’s seen few signs so far that the GOP is willing to support any of his policy initiatives.

Reps. Boehner & Cantor Falsely Claim Health Care Bills Would Kills Jobs - Media Matters

On February 8, 2010, House Minority Leader John Boehner and House Minority Whip Eric Cantor wrote a letter to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel falsely claiming current health care reform legislation would kill jobs. In reality, the bills in front of Congress could create up to 400,000 jobs.