My letter to the editor on health care in the New York Times

In a letter to the editor that I wrote to The New York Times this week (scroll down, it's the fifth one if you want to read it) I asked "Is Obama punking us?" This was the title of one of Frank Rich's columns this summer, and I wanted to use it because it expressed exactly what I, and many of the people who voted for Obama in November have been wondering as we watch the President backpedaling on promises he made during the campaign. The NYT edited out the "punking" part but the message is still clear: The change we believed in is not exactly what we had hoped it would be.

OBama gave a strong speech before a joint session of Congress Wednesday night, where he laid out his plan for health care reform. But he wavered on what I believe is the central issue of health care reform, which is the public option, a government run Medicare-like insurance plan that Obama himself has said, "will provide the competition needed to keep private insurance companies honest and keep prices down."(Click here here for a thourough discussion of the topic and scroll down to find the public option portion of Obama's speech.)

While Obama endorsed the idea of a public option in his speech,he didn't insist upon it. In fact he brought up triggers (the idea the public option kicks at some indefinite time in the future if insurance companies don't follow through) and co-ops ( this is where smaller groups in each state band together to purchase insurance), alternatives to a public option which have been proposed by conservative democrats from red states like Kent Conrad and Max Baucus who are opposed to the public option. Ideas that have been widely discredited (here and here and here) but that nonetheless have garnered support from the White House (in his speech, Obama said they were ideas worth exploring) because they would like win over Olympia Snowe, the one Republican who might be willing to come on board, in hopes of having what they can call a "bipartisan" bill.

Without the public option to provide cost competition, Obama's health care plan, with mandates for the 47 million uninsured Americans to purchase insurance, would be nothing less than a gift to the private insurance industry which will have 47 million new customers.

Competition is the whole point. Obama's plan provides serious and much needed regulation over private insurance. It requires a cap on out out of pocket expenses for policy holders, keeps private insurance companies from canceling policies when customers make claims and will not allow them to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. But what is to keep private insurance industry from passing on the costs of reform to their customers, by raising the price of premiums if they don't have competiton to hold the price down. People would flock to a public-run plan that offered fair and affordable health care, and they should. That 's why the insurance industry is fighting so hard against the public option. They don't want any real competition.

Obama also said that only small businesses and the uninsured will be allowed to buy into the public option. But what about the rest of us who might prefer a public plan, if it were available, to the high-priced private plans we are forced to pay for now?

It is hard to understand why Obama and legislators from both sides of the aisle are tying themselves in knots to protect the profits of the insurance industry.The system we have now is unsustainable, as Obama stated, and the problems of lack of insurance for close to 50 million people and under insurance for millions more must be addressed by real and meaningful legislation that will result in this country providing affordable coverage for all Americans, as does every other wealthy nation in the world.

Obama told the story of a nurse from Texas with breast cancer whose insurance company canceled her coverage just before she was scheduled for a double mastectomy. Months later, with the help of her Republican Congressman, she eventually got her coverage reinstated, but not before her tumor had expanded and reduced her chances for a successful outcome. (You can watch Robin Beaton testify before a congressional committee here, and watch portions of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee Hearing on “Terminations of Individual Health Policies by Insurance Companies” here.)

The horror stories abound. It's time to do something about it.
I don't think we should pull the plug on grandma but we definitely ought to pull the plug on private insurance.

Start by letting the President and your Congressmen know that they should not vote for any legislation unless it contains a public option.

Here's a video by former labor secretary and Huffington Post contributor Robert Reich, explaining why the public option is so important.
It's short and easy to follow. Pass it on!