ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist&reg;.com: Duke's Damage Control</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style2 { width: 240px; } h2 {margin-bottom:.0001pt; text-align:center; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Arial; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; } h1 {margin-bottom:.0001pt; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; } .style3 { text-decoration: underline; } .style4 { font-size: large; font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } .style5 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0" class="style2"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="24" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="18" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr height="26"> <td width="624" height="26" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#149; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#149; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#149; <a href="teflon.html">THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#149; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">REACTIONS</a> &#149; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="1"> <td height="2574" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0" class="style2"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td height="1" colspan="3"> <br /> <span class="style4">Barack&#39;s Health Plan</span><br /> </td> <td width="18" height="2574" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> <tr height="2573"> <td height="2573" colspan="3" align="left" xpos="116" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> &nbsp;<p><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b>by John M. Curtis<br> (310) 204-8700</b><br> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright July 3, 2009<br> All Rights Reserved.</i></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span class="style5">B</span>attling the same special interests that torpedoed then First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton s 1993 national health plan, President Barack Obama s work got a little easier with Al Franken (D-Minn.) officially beating Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama now enjoys a potentially filibuster-proof majority, as long as Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) go along.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama wants to offer 50 million uninsured Americans a version of the same health plan given to members of the U.S. Congress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Barack s plan doesn t go as far as Hillary s that would have provided a true single-payer national health plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While not all the details are yet available, Obama plans to provide government insurance, only available to those lucky enough to have federal employment. Speaking at a tightly choreographed event in Annandale, Va., Barack vowed to help the struggling uninsured.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Republican opposition, like it did in 1993, stems from the insurance industry, fearing a hit to profits should the government compete in the private insurance market.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Unlike private insurers that exclude so-called preexisting conditions, Barack s  group plan would require no proof of insurability, covering everyone applying for coverage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> We are going to try to find ways to help you immediately, said the president, responding to Debby Smith, 54, whose kidney cancer left her jobless and uninsurable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Private insurers claim they would be hurt by a government plan, cutting into their near monopoly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Insurance companies routinely provide unrestricted coverage to groups, making individuals pay higher premiums and suffer exclusions for preexisting conditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Barack s plan would insure all individuals under group health coverage, excluding no one or prior conditions.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;</span>Republicans call Barack s plan  socialized medicine, a vast government plan introducing mediocrity into the health care system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>They object to the government picking up the tab but have no problem with subsidizing foreign wars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Americans are already skeptical about the cost and adverse impact of the president s health care plan, said Republican National Committee spokesman Trevor Francis, in Orwellian-like doublespeak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span> Today s 50 million uninsured Americans don t object to the government helping them with health insurance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>They object to insurance companies excluding them from coverage and charging extravagant premiums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Those same Republicans objecting to national health care were the same voices opposing Medicare in 1964.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Members of Congress and wealthy senior citizens have no problems letting the government pay their insurance bills.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Banning insurance companies from excluding pre-existing conditions is an essential part of Barack s plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Private insurers beholden to Wall St. or private investors show no mercy to consumers, especially individuals without the benefits of group plans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Providing a national insurance would correspondingly reduce the costs for Medicare and Medicaid, the two behemoth federal health plans designed for seniors, the disabled and the poor, respectively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Republicans, during the reign of former President Lyndon B. Johnson, fought the idea of a single-payer national health plan for seniors, known as Medicare, tooth-and-nail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Republican seniors in Congress have no problem using their Medicare, not complaining one iota about  socialized medicine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Those same Republicans are leading the fight against Obama s national plan, despite knowing it s not socialized medicine.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Obama will have to make some concessions to the insurance lobby, whose fears about declining profits are at the heart of the industry s objections to national health care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Allowing insurance companies to sell government plans to individuals and employers groups should solve the conundrum of how to get the industry to buy in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Medicare currently allows insurance companies to offer senior advantage plans, making sizable profits for the industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Though it would add to the government s costs, incentivizing insurance companies is the best way to win approval.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Selling government plans would enable the insurance industry to make hefty profits by adding bells-and-whistles to the McDonald s-style plan likely to emerge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Obama wants to reduce costs but he can t do so at the expense of the insurance industry profits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Giving the insurance industry a way to make money is the shortest path to approval.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>President Obama is in the driver s seat, pushing his version of national health care.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While Republicans will keep squawking, they know they ve run out of arrows in the quiver now that Franken becomes the filibuster-proof vote in the U.S. Senate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>It won t take too many concessions to bring independents Lieberman and Sanders along to support Barack s plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> The biggest thing we can do to hold down costs is to change the incentives of a health care system that automatically equates expensive with better care, said Barack, urging physicians to join his historic effort to hold down costs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Like Medicare, physicians will have to get used to reduced reimbursements to make national health care work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Using Medicare fee schedules should help make national health care affordable, while, at the same time, satisfying the government s interest in assuring insurance industry profits.</p> <p class="style3"> About the Author</p> <p><b>John M. Curtis</b> writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor OnlineColumnist.com and author of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet</a> and <a href="books.html">Operation Charisma</a>.<br> </p> <p></p> </td> <td width="1" height="2573"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2573"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td height="1" class="style2"><spacer type="block" width="116" height="1"></td> <td width="24" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="24" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td height="1"><spacer type="block" width="283" height="1"></td> <td width="18" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="18" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong>Home</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> || <a href="articlesindex.html">Articles</a> || <a href="books.html">Books</a> || <a href="teflon.html">The Teflon Report</a> || <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com">Reactions</a> || <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">About Discobolos</a></strong></font> <div align="left"> <p><font size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">This site designed, developed and hosted by the experts at</font><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"> <a href="http://www.cmeonline.net" target="_blank"><img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">&copy;1999-2002 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>