Howard Dean to Think Progress...the president is considering a health mandate.

[madfloridian]

Run time: 02:18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AI75cMQK06w   Posted on YouTube: March 04, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: March 04, 2009 By DU Member: madfloridian Views on DU: 1267

 
This is a part of an interview with Think Progress. More of the interview will follow.

Think Progress Wonk Room: Dean doesn't think a health mandate would work.

Dean: "I don’t have an objection to a mandate. And I know Senator Clinton – now Secretary of State Clinton – who I have enormous respect for — argued for one. The president is considering changing his mind and doing one. I don’t have strong feelings against it. I just don’t think it will work. I don’t think the American people like mandates."

More from Think Progress:

If you look at almost every state in the country that requires mandates for health insurance, people find ways to get out of it. You can’t convince me that a twenty-four year-old is gonna choose to comply with a mandate for 3000 bucks, as opposed to making a down payment on a Harley Davidson. You know, twenty-three-and-four year-olds don’t think anything’s ever gonna happen to them, and frankly, it usually doesn’t. When it does, it’s really serious, but it usually doesn’t.

Now, this is not something we’re gonna do in Congress – but if I was gonna push a button to design any health care system I wanted after pretty much a lifetime of experience in this, I would make health insurance free for everybody under twenty-five in this country. Especially eighteen to twenty-five, because from eighteen to twenty-five you’re in college, you’re out of college, you’re working, you’re working for yourself, you’re working with no benefits – it’s a mess. A very high percentage of kids under twenty-five, or even under thirty, are not covered, and they are very cheap. We did health insurance for everybody under eighteen in my state without a tax increase.

Now, granted, 50 percent of it was paid – or a little more than 50 percent – by the federal government because we did it by expanding Medicaid with a waiver from the Clinton administration. But it is very cheap insure young people, and we ought to do it because you get paid back many, many times over when they’re sixty-five.

Combine that with the fact that single payer advocates are not invited to the health care summit.

Even John Conyers has not been invited.

Combine that with Zeke Emanuel's idea not to enroll anyone else in Medicare and Medicaid.

That would effectively phase those programs out. :shrug:

[Divine Discontent]

1. well...

that makes me feel horrible about my longevity. I haven't had 'routine maintenance' for over a decade!

Love Dr. Dean...

[madfloridian]

10. Yeh, well, all us oldies are supposed to feel bad about that.

It's the new "generational divide" as touted by the Republicans who would rather we would die off quickly and leave the world to them. :rofl:

[Hissyspit]

14. Here's the VIDEO:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=280107&mesg_id=280107

[ProfessorPlum]

2. Interesting

[DFW]

3. Howard uses logic and good sense. But then, Howard is in NO ONE'S pocket, either

I wouldn't want to place all my marbles on that being the case with all parties to the discussion.

[madfloridian]

8. I wonder how the MA health mandate works?

I wonder if it is serving the right people or if the very needy can afford what they need? Someone posted a comment at the Wonk Room that TX had that mandate I think for auto liability...and 20% went without.

You are right, DFW, Dean is not beholden. That is a good thing.

[bfealk]

4. Conyers was invited

I got an e-mail today that Conyers was invited and we're being asked to call the White House to get other single-payer advocates into the summit also.

[madfloridian]

6. Did you see this?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5169537&mesg_id=5176960

I wonder if he JUST got invited? This is from a couple of days ago from nyceve at Daily Kos rec list at the top.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/3/3/111940/4558/728/704063

UPDATE:

There were several comments asking whether John Conyers, the father of single payer and HR 676 would be at the White House Summit. I made some inquiries and have the following information.

I just received a phone call from a source who wishes not to be identified at this time. He advised that Chairman Conyers was not invited to the White House Healthcare Summit. I was also told that Dr. Quentin Young and Dr. Marcia Angell were proposed as participants, but are also not attending.

You are obviously free to draw your own conclusions.

I also read that at other sources previously.

Glad he is going. :hi:

[harun]

5. Good stuff from Dean (as always)

[madfloridian]

7. His advocacy for the Medicare opt in is the simplest and best yet.

But it will never happen if insurance companies have too much say.

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/02/24/dean-public-option/

It would solve the problem of laid off older workers before they quality at age 65. The idea is too simple, I guess.

Dean:"If Barack Obama’s bill gets changed to exclude the public entities, it is not health insurance reform…it rises and falls on whether the public is allowed to choose Medicare if they’re under 65 or not. If they are allowed to choose Medicare as an option, this bill will be real health care reform. If they’re not, we will be back fighting about it for another 20 years before somebody tries again."

More from the Wonk Room:

"Progressives argue that regulated competition between a public and private health insurance plans would lower health care costs and improve quality. In other words, allowing patients the choice of a private plan or a public plan would re-invigorate real market competition. Private and public plans would have to deliver the highest quality at the lowest possible cost to attract patients.

This is certainly a familiar argument, but Dean is going one step further. He’s suggesting that a public option is a key progressive value, on par with universality and affordability of coverage. President Obama is expected to lay out his health care principles during tonight’s address. We’ll have to see if the President agrees with the Governor."

Apparently there is a sway toward just requiring people to buy health coverage. :shrug:

[madfloridian]

9. Another part of the interview posted.

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/03/04/dean-single-payer/

Not "require" single payer, but provide it as an option.

"Dean predicted that more Americans would chose a public plan, but he ultimately argued against a single-payer proposal: (Actually IMHO to be fair he is arguing against JUST single payer as the only option)

"The American people will preferentially choose Medicare, but not all of them will choose Medicare. So we will have a hybrid system. Many more people will be in a public sector because it will probably be better for them. But they will only be in the public sector if they want to be, and they can get out of the public sector if they choose to try something different later on. That seems fair to me. I don’t think we should impose a single payer on everybody, but I do think we should give Americans the choice of having one if they like it. If it works for them, that’s what they’ll choose; if it doesn’t work for them, they’ll choose the private sector. But I don’t buy that the private sector has a right to compete and be more inefficient. I don’t think anybody has a right to serve people worse than somebody else just because they’re private sector."

Some of that I agree with, some of it I don't agree with.

I don't think we the people will have a level playing field. Too many Democrats even are beholden to the insurance industry for there to really be change I fear.

I think they should leave Medicare intact. I doubt they will.

[Myrina]

11. ... a mandate for everyone to BUY insurance?

:shrug: so in other words, the Obama Administration is beholden to the Insurance Industry and is, in effect, going to provide them a pre-emptive bail out by requiring Americans to buy policies?

That shit is just wrong.

For-profit health care - insurance, pharma - are just as evil as the Wall Street leeches, if not worse, and they need to be knocked way the hell out of the policy-making loop. Period.

[madfloridian]

12. That's the impression I get. Not a good idea.

[Myrina]

13. ... well that explains why they didn't want Doc Dean at HHS ...

... he would have put up one hell of a fight against that "mandate", IMO.

Sigh. :(

[quidam56]

15. We need a cure for health care in America

http://www.wisecountyissues.com It's alarming what is deemed, defended and supported as acceptable care in East Tennessee and SWVA, nothing at all like the snake oil merchants claim they are in fancy ads.

[madfloridian]

16. Checked out your site.

Very difficult to realize that things like that happen in our country. :hug:

[Bluenorthwest]

17. people who have no coverage

also don't have $3,000 to buy coverage. And to demand by law that they pay what they do not have to make profits for those who have much is simply wrong, as well as impossible. They don't have 3 Grand to chip in for Humana's Corporate retreat to Orlando, or for anything else.
Mandating a huge expense to a population that is already overburdened, already seeking less income and more money spent, is criminal. Repulican even.
If they lack the courage to do this right, and cover those who need it but can not afford it, single payer for all, then they should not bother. A waste of time and effort.
Those who lack coverage don't have $3,000 a year to donate to the Insurance Industry. They just do not have it. They do not have the money.

[madfloridian]

22. Very well said.

If we don't do it right this time while we control congress and the WH....there may not be another chance.

[erebusman]

18. i feel gut punched that dr dean isnt HHS

it becomes clearer and clearer every day whats going to happen to us all; they are shutting out talk of true progressive healthcare systems (single payer) while using speech to claim they are all inclusive and 'inviting everyone to the table'. Its clear they are inviting big pharma and big insurance reps to the table to make sure they get a plan that insures they lock us in as indentured servants to their for profit systems.

[iamjoy]

19. The Case For Mandated Coverage

Saying we shouldn't mandate coverage because people will get out of it is like saying we shouldn't have progressive income taxes or estate taxes because the truly wealthy find ways to avoid paying.

There is a case to be made for mandated coverage. If you do not mandate coverage and do not exclude pre-existing conditions, people will wait until something is wrong to enroll. Then it would be like waiting until you're on Hurricane Warning to buy Homeowner's Insurance (and in fact, you wouldn't be able to do this). IF the "group" policy only has people with health problems in it, it's going to be very expensive. And who is going to pay that?

Of course, that doesn't mean Dr. Dean's points aren't valid. The truth is, there's no easy answer. The insurance companies and so-called individualists will fight single payer coverage. If you don't have a single payer system, mandates are the only way to get near universal coverage. The insurance companies will love this, the "individualists" will hate it. IF you have a single-payer system, employers would love not to have to offer insurance benefits to be competitive. They would then reward their executives and shareholders with the money they are saving. Either way, taxes would have to go up to pay for everyone to have affordable coverage.

One way or another, universal coverage means the young and healthy have to "sacrifice" for the old and sick. That sounds wrong, but it seems the alternative is a free market approach in which the kind of health care you get depends upon how much money you have. It will be interesting to see what comes out of these meetings.

[madfloridian]

20. Our party has more power right now than it has for years and may have later.

For us to have to fight to keep them from turning over our Medicare and Social Security to private companies is appalling.

I fear the fight is just beginning.

We have the power, we should use it now...right now.

[McCamy Taylor]

21. I'm waiting for the outrage from the folks who (pretended) to be outraged when other Dems considered

this very idea.

Come on. Surely you folks believe in principles, right, not personalities. If you believe in personalities, you are no better than the Republicans that gave W. a free pass for everything he wanted to do because he seemed like a nice guy they could drink a beer with.

I am not being silly here. The electorate needs to keep an eye on its politicians, especially the ones we elect. Because the more they are willing to compromise to get elected, the more they will compromise to increase their power while in office. So, unless your goal is to see certain politicians become all powerful it is a good idea to watch them like hawks. Even Democrats.

That said, the only sensible health care plan is one with 100% participation. But an informed and empowered electorate is not one that you tease along with the small amount of change that they can believe in before they vote and then zap with a much bigger change when they have no choice. That is a baited and switched electorate.

If we do not rein in executive power now, President Jeb Bush is going to be fucking czar.