Obama Brings Together Old Health Foes to Start Work on Overhaul

[babylonsister]

Obama Brings Together Old Health Foes to Start Work on Overhaul

By Aliza Marcus


March 5 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama’s decision to bring together historical adversaries for today’s health care summit may be the easiest step in making sure everyone can afford coverage, said Republican U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch.

“There will be some broken pottery” by the time Congress finishes the job Obama is demanding, Hatch said in an interview. Hatch will take part in today’s White House conference, where Obama will hear from Democrats wanting a government alternative to private coverage, Republicans opposing that, doctors demanding no reductions in their fees, and insurers arguing against rate cuts.

The administration says it wants insurers, drugmakers, consumers, hospitals and others in the health-care field to talk about how to make affordable medical coverage available to everyone. It’s an attempt to provide the open process that Obama has promised. To succeed, he is trying to build support among groups that helped sink former President Bill Clinton’s 1993 attempt to reshape the health system.

“We have learned lessons from what happened in the past,” said Melody Barnes, who directs Obama’s Domestic Policy Council, in an interview. “It is important to bring everyone together and important for us to next engage with Congress.”

Obama’s budget to Congress last week proposed creating a $634 billion fund over 10 years to use to begin getting everyone health insurance. The president didn’t offer an exact plan, saying he was open to “all serious ideas,” including taxing employer-provided health, something he opposed during the campaign.

Obama also said Congress will have to come up with additional money to pay the full cost of making health care affordable to all and available to the 46 million Americans now without medical insurance. It would take more than $100 billion annually to meet that goal, according to health economists.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=washingtonstory&sid=aItjxdHgPnC0

[midnight]

1. "The administration says it wants insurers, drugmakers,

consumers, hospitals and others in the health-care field to talk about how to make affordable medical coverage available to everyone." This group has never been in the business of making this service consumer friendly. I can't wait to hear what there input will be.

[babylonsister]

2. The fact that this is even happening is astounding to me. I love

this new admin!

[Cleita]

3. If Orrin Hatch is in favor of this you can be sure it's wrong. The fact is

his health care gurus don't want single payer advocates to also have a place at the table to discuss this because Senator Baucus told them not to. This will be a HUGE mistake down the road on Obama's part.

[babylonsister]

5. So Dr. Dean is wrong also?

I really don't know.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=8244379

[Cleita]

8. He's not wrong because he's not excluding anyone. Obama is. For some

reason single payer advocates are considered looney lefties but actually in health care matters they are the middle. They advocate for privatized health care. The only thing run by the government is collection of funds and payments to health care providers. It has to cut out the insurers to do this so instead the single payer advocates have been cut out and the insurers invited to help write the legislation. This is what happened with Medicare part D and it has been useless as a help for senior citizens to get drugs yet the drug companies not only are getting Medicare funds but have raised the prices of drugs for everyone sometimes even doubling and tripling the price, thanks to this Medicare faux pax. Dr. Dean on the other hand knows it's going to be hard to dump the insurers so he's extending a second best thing letting them compete with Medicare offered to everyone not just senior citizens.

Obama thanks to advice from Senator Baucus whose campaigns are well funded by the insurance, health care and PhRMA industries and Zeke Emmanuel has agreed to keep single payer off the table and therefore advocates from the Physicians For a National Health Plan and the California Nurses Association are not allowed to send representatives to sit at the meeting. The insurers know that if they can make their case, they won't stand a chance, so they just shut them out and they can't bring in their expertise. It's so last eight years Republican to me. Remember when the Republicans were in charge? They shut out the Democrats in any meetings they had to make legislation in Congress.

[babylonsister]

12. Is Emanuel in this admin? I keep reading he is, but have not

seen any supporting evidence. Thanks for any clarification.

And I had read that Baucus didn't think it was a great idea at this point, but not because he's 'well funded by insurance'. He considers healthcare reform one of the biggest challenges of his life. Go figure.

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003064848

[Cleita]

16. Go to Open Secrets and look at his most recent campaign funders.

Every time I see some pol talking about bringing the Massachusetts health plan to us (one that is failing incidentally)I go look at their funding and find out that they are pretty well propped up by the insurance, for profit health care and PhRMA industries. I have links to Zeke and all but I have to go to work and don't have time to do it right now.

[babylonsister]

17. Wrong answer.

You're assuming an awful lot.

I'll wait for links on how Emanuel works for this admin. And also links that indicate the pols are in it for themselves and their insurance interests.

[Cleita]

18. You do what you need to do.

I myself have not been wrong in my instincts since 2001 so I will go along with them and the evidence that presents itself that bolsters them

[babylonsister]

19. I will, just as you are. Maybe the sky isn't falling as far as you'd

like to think. But go for whatever makes you feel better.

I think getting 120 people together to talk about the way forward on health care is a pretty big bone to throw to us, even skeptics such as yourself. Obama is trying to start a conversation; too bad there are people who won't even bother to listen.



Obama tries to start conversation on health care

RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
AP Features

Mar 05, 2009 10:59 EST


The nation can't afford to wait for the economy to recover before tackling out-of-control medical costs, President Barack Obama is telling some of the most powerful players in the health care reform debate.

"If we want to create jobs and rebuild our economy, then we must address the crushing cost of health care this year, in this administration," Obama says in remarks prepared for delivery to a White House forum on the issue Thursday. Excerpts were released by the White House.

"Making investments in reform now, investments that will dramatically lower costs, won't add to our budget deficits in the long term — rather, it is one of the best ways to reduce them," Obama said.

Obama has invited to the forum more than 120 people who hold a wide range of views on how to fix the world's costliest health care system, one that still leaves an estimated 48 million people uninsured. Doctors, patients, business owners, insurers and drug industry representatives were to gather in hopes of building support for big changes. Republicans are invited, and they're expected to speak up.

"The president wants to engage with Congress in a transparent and bipartisan fashion," said Melody Barnes, who heads White House domestic policy.

more...

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/03/obama_tries_to_start_conversation_on_health_care.php?ref=fp4

[Cleita]

6. I don't know who these health "economists" are but if they listened

to the PNAC physicians, there would be no reason to pay more for universal and quality health care than we are paying today and down the road costs could be less as the system is implemented. Medicare for all is the way to go. It's the most comprehensive and least costly way yet those meeting at the summit are all from the same choir. No others are allowed.

[Thrill]

7. There are single payer advocates at the table.

But it doesn't matter. Because it has zero chance of passing the Senate. Thats why Obama isn't going to even try and fight that losing battle. Too many Democrats against it

[Cleita]

9. Who?

The experts John Conyer's and anyone who favors single payer wanted seated have not been invited. Drs. David Himmelstein and Quentin Reynolds are not invited and they are the most expert in the field.

[Thrill]

10. Oliver Fein, president of PNHP will be there

[Cleita]

11. I have the PNHP website open right now and I can't find any Oliver Fein

on there, nor any press release that they have been given a place at the meeting. However, if Obama's team has relented because of the big outcry and petitions we have forwarded to them, then I'm grateful. I hope they allow him time for a decent presentation.

[Thrill]

13. Here you go

http://www.healthcare-now.org/2009/03/we-have-good-news/

[Cleita]

15. Fantastic.

Thanks for posting this. It looks like all our work these past weeks trying to get the Obama's administration's attention paid off at the last minute.

[Jackpine Radical]

4. Actually, if you consider the total that we're paying for health care right now

(about 16% of GDP), there is more than enough to pay for everyone if we eliminate the obscene profits and inefficiencies brought about by the insurance companies. For example, I practice in a small outpatient mental health clinic and we have one person in the support staff whose primary job is to fight with the insurance companies over payments. The insurers have a large variety of tricks they keep playing: sending partial payments, "losing" electronically submitted billings, denying services they had previously authorized, ad infinitum, so when you provide a service you never know whether you will be paid, or whether you will get a full payment. Sometimes when you call them, they just put you on Hold and go out to lunch or something. The insurance-company-fighter has to be a special kind of person, with immense patience and the tenacity of a bulldog.

Most providers would gladly take a reduced fee if they could simply be assured that they would receive it without hassle and without battling for it. The problem with single-payer is one of how to get there from here--considering that you would have to totally rebuild the billing systems, re-educate all sorts of people, etc., and do all of this while facing an onslaught of propaganda from an incredibly rich and powerful industry that sees itself fighting for its life--which indeed it would be.

Remember--the rest of the industrialized world provides care for all their people for 8-12% of GDP, not just care for some, at a cost of 16% of GDP like us.

[Cleita]

14. I've been writing to Obama about all these points on a daily basis. If everyone

does it, we might change the direction this health care debacle is taking.

[Cha]

20. I didn't see any "broken pottery"

but I did see orrin sneering outta the building.