Any Bad Results from Obama's Health Plan?

I just saw a pro Newt Gingrich anti Romney ad airing in Florida that, unsurprisingly, attacked Romney-care in Massachusetts as being the basis for the "disastrous" Obama-care.

I put "disastrous" in quotes because every time I hear something like this, I wonder, what, exactly is the disaster that has occurred because of Obama's health plan?

I'm not talking about some courts that have said the mandate part of the law may be unconstitutional.  I disagree with everyone being obliged to get health are, whether or not they want it, too.  But that's hardly a "disaster" - it's just a part of the law that I and many disagree with.

To say the law has been a disaster would indicate, I would think, that one of more patients or people needing medical care died or got or remained very ill due to some application of the health law.  Or maybe that a doctor went bankrupt or had to give up her or his practice as a result of the law.   Or a hospital had to close.  Or a business of any sort had to shut down because it could not meet some provision of the law.  Or, even, an insurance company went bankrupt (I can't see being too upset about that, but I'll list it as a criterion of disaster just to show how reasonable I am).

So ... any takers?  Can anyone cite a single instance of a bad result obtaining from Obama-care?   Not a disagreement in policy, not a concern that something bad will result from the law, but an actual, real-life, non-hypothetical, bad result?

If not, then, the incessant Republican repetition that Obama's health care plan is "disastrous" is just a piece of classic propaganda - tell a lie often enough, and maybe you'll get some people to believe it.

Thoughts on the Coakley Loss

1. This is the way of democracy.  Surprising.  Take nothing for granted.  America has been split 50/050 politically at least since 2000.   Every race is potentially close.  Next time, if you're running for the Senate in a race crucial to the country - and these days, all races are - don't take any votes for granted, don't take a Christmas or any holiday vacation.

2.  Health care reform is not dead, it's just more complicated.  Think about this: if Franken had not won by that narrow margin in Minnesota, would Obama and all those interested in meaningful health care reform just have given up and gone home?  Of course not, they would have figured out another way to get there.  That's what they and we need to do now.

3. One of the ways that could work is the House just signing off on the Senate's bill, which would send it straight to Obama for his signature.  This would at least have one big advantage: the Senate bill has no Stupak amendment.

4. Other people running for the Senate next year - incumbents and otherwise - better wake up.   If Democrats run anyone other then the strongest possible candidates, they'll be in for more of the same.  In Massachusetts, think about what might have happened tonight had someone from Ted Kennedy's family - or the larger Kennedy family - stepped up.

Why The Public Option Is Crucial

A brief reminder about why a public option in health care is so important:

Insurance companies are in business to make money, or financially profit from their work. The time-honored way of maximizing profit is straightforward: increase income and reduce costs. In terms of health care, this translates into raising the cost of health care to businesses and consumers, and turning away or refusing to pay for as many claims for health care as are legally permitted. In other words, a health care system motivated only by profit is bound to cost more and do less for the population as a whole.

Good things can and do come from private enterprise in health care - in stimulating research and increasing patient choice. A public option won't limit that - it will only offer health care to Americans locked out of the profit-making system, and provide more choices for people who already receive health care.

See also Private, For-Profit Health Care Is Self-Contradictory

Advice to Democrats in the Health Care Debate: Finale Song of 'We Sing in Sillyville"

Somehow this seems like very appropriate advice for the Democrats and all who favor major, meaningful health care reform in our country .... the finale of the 1989 "We Sing in Sillyville"...

Thoughts on the Speeches at Ted Kennedy's Wake

The memorial service for Ted Kennedy at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston earlier tonight was extraordinary. Almost all of the tributes were superb. Here are the ones that struck the deepest chords in me ...

Joseph Kennedy, II, former Congressman, son of Robert Kennedy, set the tone with captivating anecdotes and restatement of Ted's political ideals. I hope he runs for Ted's Senate seat.

Chris Dodd spoke of what it was like to have Ted Kennedy as a close political ally and friend. I was impressed with Dodd during the 2008 Democratic primary. He has a crispness of vision, and should play a crucial role in the battle ahead this September for health care.

John Kerry's speech at the Democratic convention in Denver last year wasn't carried live by the networks and all-news cable. But it was one of the best at the convention, and his speech at the JFK Library tonight was the most politically powerful. (I saw Kerry briefly this June, as he was boarding a boat in Hyannis. I was too far away to tell him how much I appreciate his continued fight for a better America.)

Orrin Hatch's speech was also impressive, especially given that he, too, was a close friend but also a staunch political foe of Ted Kennedy. I wonder - will Hatch search his soul and find room in there to do the right thing and help all Americans get good, affordable health care? Maybe.

Joe Biden gave another very moving tribute, as only someone who has had such close personal tragedy in his own life could provide. I don't know what the Vice President has been doing behind the scenes in the health care legislation discussions, but I'd like to see him set loose to ply his unique political skills with recalcitrant Senators.

John Culver, former Senator and Ted's Harvard classmate, provided comic relief, in the best sense of the phrase at a time like this. His story of how he wound up on a small boat with Ted, inveighed to go sailing, brought tears of pure laughter to my eyes.

In contrast, Caroline Kennedy's concluding tribute brought tears of something else. As did Joe, she brought home what it meant to have Ted as an uncle. I still can't forgive Gov. Patterson in New York for not appointing her to Hillary Clinton's Senate seat. Our state and our nation would have benefited greatly.

Tomorrow Barack Obama gives the eulogy at Ted Kennedy's funeral.

And then the full business of governance resumes in September. There are two possible paths to universal health care. One comes from a few Republicans and recalcitrant Democrats truly taking a chance on reform and the American people. The other comes from Obama leading a take-no-prisoners charge, and getting the needed legislation with no Republican help. I'll take whichever works.

I Strongly Support Health Care Reform But Not Boycotts of Whole Foods

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey has angered many of his customers - including me - by writing in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that American citizens have no "intrinsic right to health care". This has ignited a boycott against Whole Foods.

I strongly support health care reform, I disagree utterly with Mackey's logic, but I won't be boycotting Whole Foods.

First, I think health care is not only an intrinsic human right, but the government is required to help provide it when private enterprise fails - under the general welfare provision of our Constitution. And I think private enterprise stands intrinsically and hopelessly in contradiction to provision of health care for all Americans, because pursuit of profits means you need to limit costs, which in turn means denial of treatment to some people. (See my Private, For-Profit Health Insurance Companies are Self-Contradictory for more.)

But boycotts add nothing to this debate. They won't convince anybody.

What we need are continued rational arguments, and continued exposure of Republican lies.

When the truth is on your side, the best course of action is to relentlessly speak it, not refuse to go shopping in a store whose chief exec doesn't get it.

See also Is the Whole Foods Boycott Fair? for an argument in favor of the boycott.

Private, For-Profit Health Insurance Companies are Self-Contradictory

Private, for-profit health insurance companies are self-contradictory. They cannot pursue profits - try to make as much money as possible - and support necessary health care. I know this from first-hand experience.

Years ago, when our son was a little boy, he contracted a type of pneumonia that did not respond to the usual courses of antibiotics. After several rounds and weeks of fever on and off and on, his doctor decided to admit him to the hospital. You can imagine how upset my wife and I were. As we were talking about this, in the doctor's office, we heard him talking to our insurance company - Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield. "No, no, he's a professor. They're not those kinds of people. This is legitimate, I can assure you," our doctor said to Empire on the phone. (I was professor then not at Fordham.)

This went on for about 10 minutes. Finally, our doctor got Empire's agreement. By this time, we had walked out into hall, and he saw that we had heard the conversation. He shook his head sadly, and said, this is what you have to go through....

And I couldn't help thinking - let's say I hadn't been a professor. Let's say we were "those kinds of people" - people who had been paying premiums, but for some reason were not held in high regard by the insurer. Our son's hospital bills would not have been covered?

Our son did finally get an antibiotic that worked in the hospital. But my wife and I learned an important lesson about health insurance that day: the companies that provide it it are mainly in for the money. Accordingly, they do anything they can to limit their expenses. That's just good business.

I had actually learned this about insurance companies (actually, a car company that provided warranties) years earlier, when I was driving a new Oldsmobile to another school. The car up and died on the highway - the engine expired. When I got on the phone, later that day, to the car warranty company, I was treated to "do you have any proof that you were driving your car safely"? I replied that unless Oldsmobile which had happily taken my money for the car and the warranty now paid for the car's repair, and I was assured within an hour that this would happen, I would go to the media and tell them about their shoddy way of doing business. And I would have - but some supervisor called me back 10 minutes later and apologized for the first conversation. "He was only doing his job," he said of the first guy I had talked to. Exactly. Of course he was, and that was the problem. Just good business. Limit expenses.

The car was aggravating. The repairs were just about money, for me as well as Oldsmobile. But health coverage obviously can be a matter of life and death.

We can no longer afford to leave such matters in the hands of people and companies whose main goal is not to protect health but make a profit. I'm all in favor of making money. Profit and capitalism continue to do great things. But they've failed in this country to give adequate health care, even for people they accept in their plans.

It's time to break loose from these hopelessly conflicted, oxymoronic for-profit health insurers. And vote out of office anyone who opposes this long overdue, humane, clearly rational reform.

Government programs are certainly not flawless. But at least they don't work against their own stated goals.