An Independent’s Take on Obama’s Health Care Address
I found the full text of Obama’s speech, and while no one really cares what I think, I’ll give my thoughts on each of his points anyhow, just like I did with John Mackey’s proposal earlier.
- Those people with insurance who are happy with it won’t have to change. (good)
- “against the law for insurance companies to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition” (good)
- “against the law for insurance companies to drop your coverage when you get sick or water it down when you need it most” (good)
- “They will no longer be able to place some arbitrary cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime.” (good)
- “We will place a limit on how much you can be charged for out-of-pocket expenses” (I don’t get this, does that mean that high deductible insurance plans will be banned? What does this mean?)
- “insurance companies will be required to cover, with no extra charge, routine checkups and preventive care” (generally good)
- “creating a new insurance exchange - a marketplace where individuals and small businesses will be able to shop for health insurance at competitive prices.” (I think this is a great idea. I assume this will be, what John Mackey and others talked about allowing consumers to shop across state lines. Seems like there are dozens of reasons this is a great thing to do. If it takes the government to create some “exchange” to encourage competition between various insurance companies, then so be it, lets do it.)
- “For those individuals and small businesses who still cannot afford the lower-priced insurance available in the exchange, we will provide tax credits” (good)
- “we will immediately offer low-cost coverage that will protect you against financial ruin if you become seriously ill” (I don’t entirely know what this means. He said it was John McCain’s idea. It is probably good and benign, but I’m not totally clear on it.)
- “individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance” (I couldn’t disagree with this point more. I am very, very much against this. As he noted, I am young and I am healthy. That doesn’t make me irresponsible to not get insurance that makes me SMART. Why pay money for something I don’t need? Why should I have to choose between my rent and health insurance that I don’t use and won’t benefit me? This is bullshit and not only a bad policy but it goes against a campaign promise he made to be against health insurance mandates. Without a doubt this is the low point of his plan for me. Ugh.)
- “public insurance option” (On principle I don’t like this, but as far as these things go it is something I could live with. It is hardly a “government take over of health care”, especially if the CBO is right (and they rarely seem to be) that less than 5% of the people will opt for it. Plus, as he said, it will be cheap & non-profit, but not free. Again, if he is right that it’ll be funded entirely by the consumers who opt for it, it seems quite acceptable. Government run, but not tax-payer funded. Now obviously those are some really big IFs. But I at least am not totally opposed to the idea, guess it depends on the implementation.)
Money stuff:
- “I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits - either now or in the future. Period. And to prove that I’m serious, there will be a provision in this plan that requires us to come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promised don’t materialize.” (This sounds amazing, and I want to believe him, I really, really do, but damn… I don’t see how this will remotely happen. I call bullshit on this.)
- “most of this plan can be paid for by finding savings within the existing health care system” (Again, I really want to believe this, but I am quite skeptical)
- “The only thing this plan would eliminate is the hundreds of billions of dollars in waste and fraud,” (Good luck, I’m rooting for you)
- “This reform will charge insurance companies a fee for their most expensive policies” (He didn’t elaborate on this, I have no idea what he is talking about.)
- “I am proposing that we move forward on a range of ideas about how to put patient safety first and let doctors focus on practicing medicine.” (Rather dodgy language for proposing this. I’ve never been terribly sold on the importance of tort reform, but I do very much appreciate that Obama is reaching out to Republicans and offering to adopt some proposals (like this) that they have been arguing for tirelessly for a while. So if nothing else I appreciate the olive branch.)
Those are pretty much all the hard details. Overall I really, really liked the tone and scope of the speech. While I don’t always agree with him on issues I commend and respect the President for seeming to genuinely care about all sides in the debate. He didn’t lampoon or ignore the other side he made very real references to ideas and policies from both sides. Some he even incorporated in his plan. Now I’ve heard that he talks a good game, but he doesn’t back it up with action. I don’t know about that, but from what I heard tonight and in many other cases he really seems to have a genuine understanding of many perspectives on the issue. Far better consideration is given to competing ideas by Obama than… just about any friend or colleague I know on the right or the left when it comes to health care.
If nothing else happens after this I really, truly hope we can all take a moment to try to understand the ideas and proposals of our opponents. Perhaps for a moment stop thinking of people as opponents and think of us all in this together trying to come up with ideas to fix this issue. Whether good ideas come from “our guy” or “their guy” shouldn’t matter. I am an independent and I am SICK of all the hatred and anger on this issue. Everyone is digging in their partisan heels and refusing to listen or understand anyone else. I don’t owe allegiance to any party or ideology and I can say that both (or all?) camps should be ashamed for how they’ve handled themselves.
While there is shameful partisanship on both sides the lies spread about the health care proposal do need to be addressed specifically. I’m glad the President did. No funding for abortions (yay), no funding for illegal immigrants (eh), no death panels (obviously, yay). The hecklers who started shouting about the illegal immigrant thing were definitely out of line. Congressmen should have some more decorum I think. I could be wrong (and often am) but I don’t remember similar heckling during any of Bush’s speeches. It is also wrong however to take the few wingbats circulating lies and extreme statements about the health care bill and pin their antics on every one who disagrees with the health care plan. That kind of black & white, us vs. them thinking is what everyone hated about Bush. Don’t repeat the same mistakes. Some people oppose the plan and are crazy, some people oppose the plan and have lots of really good reasons for doing so and also some good ideas for making it better. Listen to them. It seems Obama is. I like this guy. 
So… back to the details. Almost all of the plan he outlined sounds good. Or at the very least, quite acceptable.
The mandatory coverage though… that is a very bitter pill. A few weeks ago I called my whole congressional delegation and told them not to support any insurance mandates. Such a proposal punishes the young and it punishes the healthy. It hits home for me because I don’t have health insurance and I don’t want any. At least not at the moment. I have very, very limited income and don’t want to have to choose between paying rent or paying for insurance that I’m not going to use. Obama is wrong that we are foisting our costs upon others. I have very minimal medical needs, but in the rare cases where I’ve needed a doctor in the last seven years I’ve paid cash out of pocket. It was far more affordable for me to do so than pay for some insurance racket. This is not irresponsible this is sensible.
Sure I could get hit by a car tomorrow. Sure I could suddenly get struck with an expensive exotic disease. I understand there is a risk, but I have undertaken that risk willfully and knowingly. I haven’t had health insurance for seven years now and it has made a big positive difference in my quality of life. I don’t know what I would have done if over the last seven years I’d incurred hundreds or thousands of additional expenses going to some insurance company. If skipping out on these payments now means I should pay more in my 40’s, then so be it. I’ll be making more money then and will be able to afford it then. I can’t now. Young people are, as a class, poorer than middle aged adults. Shouldn’t we (all you progressive tax enthusiasts) have to pay less? Shouldn’t there be a health dividend?
Those are my thoughts. I am very upset over the mandate. Otherwise I think the speech and the plan was really good. But since I’m not a partisan warrior I can step back enough to point out the parts I really like and the parts I really don’t like without feeling I’m betraying my “team”.