That’s the question for me. Now granted – the President delivered an amazing health care address before the Joint Session of Congress. In the midst of a partially hostile crowd and during a time when the “discussion” around health care has reached a fevered pitch in this nation, Obama delivered the type of cool and captivating oration that we’ve come to expect from him. He has a gift (or his speech writers do) of calling forth the best in us to rise to the challenges of our day. (Even in the face of blatant and uncouth disrespect coming from the likes of Joe Smith, Republican Congressman from South Carolina)
As promised, President Obama also delivered some details of what he envisions for this health care insurance reform proposal. He believes that this is the path to universal health care coverage. While I embrace a different avenue toward that goal based on a single payer system, I appreciate him laying out how he thinks universal coverage can be obtained.
What I didn’t appreciate was his characterization of the universal single payer health proposal as a “radical” position. What’s so radical about expanding medicare to all citizens? The only “radical” thing about it is the dismissal of insurance companies who focus on profits over people. And I firmly believe that there are social arenas where profit should not be a factor at all – health care being one of them.
What also is a source of concern for me is the very last sentence of President Obama’s proposal. It says: “Individuals who can afford [insurance] will have a responsibility to purchase coverage – but there will be a hardship exemption for those who cannot.” In his speech before the Joint Session of Congress, he put it this way: “…under my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance – just as most states require you to carry auto insurance.”
This for me was a terrible analogy because as one who lives in a state that requires owners of vehicles to purchase auto insurance, I know first hand that there are gross inequities in this system. Those in the “mostly-Black, unprivileged” city of Baltimore are charged higher rates than those living in the “mostly-White, privileged” suburbs of the city. The Jobs Opportunities Task Force released a report in 2007 entitled, “Overpriced & Underserved: How the Market is failing low-wage Baltimoreans..” Beginning on page 53, this report shows how low wage workers in Baltimore are charged nearly 60% more for auto insurance compared to their suburban counterparts. It shares the statistic that 1 in 4 city drivers are uninsured because they simply can’t afford the insurance. Once it’s discovered that they don’t have insurance, they are charged a $150 fine for the first 30 days of being uninsured and $7 per day thereafter. (Do you see the economic avalanche yet?)
Even though Maryland provides auto insurance of last resort called MAIF (Maryland Auto Insurance Fund) for those with economic hardship or a history of moving violations; current law forbids subscribers to MAIF from paying for their insurance in installments like others with regular insurance. MAIF subscribers are expected to pay the more than $1700 premium on the spot or go to a financing company that charges them on average 25 – 30% interest on the dollar. That’s why as recently as the 2008 Maryland General Assembly, legislation was introduced (as it has been for the past 4 years at least) to curb predatory financing connected to MAIF and allow installment payments, but the bill dies in committee every year.
So you can see why I got nervous when President Obama compared his plan of pushing people to purchase health care insurance to state-mandated auto insurance law. Unless great effort is dedicated to ensuring that people cannot be exploited by this element of his plan; many people will still be pushed to the brink of economic ruin by corporate profiteers who will take advantage of the least in our midst. Unless the “hardship exemption” is robust enough to include the unemployed, underemployed, and working poor, then we still will have uninsured people in this country.
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I am just walking in the house so I have not watched the speech yet, but I agree bad analogy.
As I see it, the solution to the high cost of healthcare, and practically everything else in the nearly impossible to afford American economy, will only be resolved when the American people have a change of heart followed by a demand that all other American institutions, including local, state and federal governments change.
The imposition of any insurance plan, amd the ones that are currently in place, simply put continues to feed the hands of the ones that bite us!