Matt Rothschild offers the most accurate assessment of the healthcare plan unveiled by the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats yesterday. There are good elements likely to improve the system, but it “isn’t near perfect.”
Rothschild offers several points: “it doesn’t allow the government to set the reimbursement rates,” giving insurance companies the power “to negotiate those rates with the government.” That’s a prescription for higher insurance company profits, but not a lot of consumer savings.
And while it creates a public plan, it “would not be open to everybody,” meaning that it cannot act as real competition, making it unlikely that it would keep costs down.
And it doesn’t cover everyone — not the undocumented, who seem to be on the outside no matter who’s writing the legislation, but about 10 million Americans. That’s not just morally indefensible, but foolish. Real reform, as Rothschild points out “must include health care coverage for everybody in America, not just citizens.”
He writes about the undocumented, but his argument is valid for everyone left without insurance, that the uninsured “will end up going to the emergency room for costly care when they could have been treated initially, at much less cost, if they had health care coverage.”
I suspect that the Pelosi will get through the House and then get watered down in the Senate. If that happens, it will once again show that the Democrats do not know the first thing about negotiating — which would leave us with weaker reforms than we need, without much of a chance for a second bite at this apple.
Hank Kalet 