A new analysis from the Center for American Progress demonstrates the benefits of passing health care reform on the American economy. Passing reform, say the authors, could increase the number of jobs in the United States by about 250,000 to 400,000 per year over the coming decade.
Skeptics of health care reform argue that it will do little to control health care spending in the long run. Yet even the skeptics agree that successful health reform will reduce uninsurance by expanding private nongroup, private small group, and public insurance coverage. This expansion in insurance coverage will likely increase health care jobs since the newly insured will need doctors, nurses, and other health care personnel to meet their medical needs. So even those with doubts about reform would have to recognize that it will likely create jobs and also improve the well-being of the currently uninsured, many of whom are unemployed.
A more optimistic view of health reform recognizes its potential to improve the efficiency of the U.S. health care system. More efficient health care will lower the burden of health insurance premiums for firms, and in turn allow them to hire more workers. This will also increase the number of jobs and at the same time reduce the financial woes of those struggling with uninsurance and a depressed labor market.
A recent poll conducted by the Progressive Campaign Change Committee, found that 62% of Minnesota voters support health care reform that includes a public option.
A new ad from MoveOn.org shows actress Heather Graham as the public option, forcing “lazy, bloated” private insurance companies to get back in the race and compete.
“Insurance companies have gotten lazy, bloated from the profits of raising our health care costs sky high while the health care crisis keeps getting worse. A public health insurance option is the key to quality affordable care for Americans. And over 70 percent of Americans want the public option. Some in Washington say this is unfair competition. But competition is as American as apple pie.”
Working families have been diligent in their fight for health care reform that includes a public option. With the Senate vote at hand, things are bound to move quickly through Congress this month.
That's why it is important that Senators Franken and Klobuchar hear from you TODAY so they get the message loud and clear for quality, affordable health care we can count on.
Tell our two senators that we can’t wait any longer for health care reform that:
* Controls costs and doesn’t tax our benefits.
* Provides guaranteed coverage to all Americans.
* Includes a public health insurance plan option.
* Holds insurance companies accountable.
* Requires all employers to pay their fair share.
Thank you for making the calls.
Minnesotans have been working together through the Health Care for America Now! coalition to build support for federal health care reform in Minnesota. They accomplish this through coordinated efforts to write and call legislators, as well as actions that escalate the awareness and need for reform now.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who accompanied President Obama on his trip to Minneapolis over the weekend, just released a new analysis of the latest Census numbers regarding the uninsured.
The results, which found that the number of uninsured jumped from 39.8 million in 2001 to 46.3 million in 2008, "only serve to further confirm a reality that far too many American families live with every days," says to Secretary Sebelius. "Our health care system has reached a breaking point. The status quo is unsustainable, and continuing to delay reform is not an option."
The status quo is not an option. The number of uninsured in Minnesota has increased from 370,000 in 2001 to 444,000 in 2008. The percent of non-elderly adults without insurance increased from 9.4% to 11.1%. And this number only considers people who are uninsured for an entire year – it does not include people in Minnesota who have more recently lost coverage through the recession, or who had shorter gaps in their coverage.
Private coverage is eroding under the status quo. The percentage of people with employer-based coverage decreased from 84.3 % of the population in 2001 to 76.8% in 2008.
More workers are being left without protection from health care costs. Too many workers in Minnesota do not have health coverage, at 290,000 in 2008. And the proportion of workers from Minnesota without insurance has increased, from 8.9% in 2001 to 10.6% in 2008.
The problem of the uninsured is a problem that crosses income brackets. The new Census numbers also drive home the fact that everyone in Minnesota is vulnerable to losing health insurance. An additional 12,000 from high-income households are now uninsured.
At the Target Center on Saturday, President Obama called for health insurance reform that brings stability and security to those with insurance and affordable coverage to those who don't, including the choice of a public health insurance option. But if we're going to make President Obama's vision a reality, we need to take action now. Populista over at the Minnesota Progressive Project explains how:
We are closer than ever to winning. 4 out of 5 congressional committees have passed health reform that meet the President's principles, hundreds of thousands of Americans have contacted their representatives for health reform in 2009, hundreds of thousands of Americans showed up at health townhalls this August and made suporters of reform outnumber the teagbaggers, 6905 have donated to representatives who stood up for the public option, and many more have taken action in other ways.
Minnesota was front-and-center in the health care debate this weekend, when CNN's State of the Union show, hosted by John King, broadcast live from the Minnesota State Fair.
King got right down to business, immediately asking Senator Amy Klobuchar if she supported a "trigger" mechanism for the public option, which would only "trigger" a public health insurance option if certain conditions weren't met by the private market after a certain time period had elapsed.
Senator Klobuchar indicated her openness to a trigger component to the public health insurance option, but made it clear that competition would be the main goal of any legislation:
You know, I'd want to see what those triggers are, what the benchmarks are. Because when I get around our state, talk to, like, a small business, a backpack company up in Two Harbors, a guy there owns a company, $24,000 a year he's paying for his family of four, and he says he wouldn't even have started the company 15 years ago if he knew that.
So what I want to see is something where small businesses, self- employed, small businesses are paying 20 percent more than people who work at big corporations, that they have a chance to buy into something. And certainly it's worth looking at, but we have to push competition. We have to do a better job of putting some rules on the insurance companies.
So I think a combination of pushing on with some competition, whether it's some kind of a public option, or any kind of a push, and also have those kinds of rules. We need to do something, and that's a consensus I see developing.
While Klobuchar's overarching goal in terms of health insurance reform seems to be making the market more competitive, supporting a "trigger" for a public health insurance option doesn't make sense. I'll let Senator Chuck Schumer explain why (emphasis in the original):
Some who have been skeptical of a public plan have been calling for a "trigger," that would introduce a public plan some time down the road if certain conditions were met. Today's report blow away the idea that we should wait for a trigger. Today's report seems to suggest that any reasonable criteria for triggering a public plan has already been met.
After all, if we were to write a trigger into comprehensive health care reform, what would it look like? The main criteria would be market share and premium price. This report today shows that in many states, both conditions have already been met. Premiums are high, and either one or two insurers dominate the market. As we've seen with Medicare part D, a trigger option has so far meant no public option at all.
Every day,190 Minnesotans lose their health insurance.
Two health insurance companies control 76% of the of health insurance market in the stat.
Minnesota has seen a 20% rise in the number of uninsured during this same period. But having coverage doesn't mean you're without worry. The average Minnesota family pays $400 in higher premium costs because of a broken health care system that costs the American economy between $124 billion and $248 billion in lost productivity this year alone due to the almost 52 million uninsured Americans who live shorter lives and have poorer health.
As Senator Schumer said, it doesn't make much sense to include a trigger for a public health insurance option when all the trigger conditions have already been met.
The GOP strategy for dealing with health care reform became abundantly clear yesterday when an internal RNC memo made its way to the Huffington Post. It claims the Republican Party will “engage in every activity we can to slow down this mad rush.” They also make the absurdly ridiculous claim that the “reckless speed” with which Democrats are trying to pass a health care bill “is a grave threat to America’s health care, and America’s health.”
That’s hard to believe when 76% of the public support comprehensive health care reform. A June New York Times survey found by 72 to 20 percent, Americans favor the creation of a public plan. They also think that the government would do a better job than private insurers of holding down costs and providing coverage, according to the Washington Post.
If, as the RNC memo claims, they will promote sensible alternatives to the health care reform being discussed, where is the Republican health care plan? What is their strategy, besides being as uncooperative and destructive to quality, affordable health care for the entire country?
The answer is: they don’t have one. Their only objective right now is to derail the health care reform America wants and desperately needs. The whole mission of the RNC is to force health care reform to come to a screeching halt in order to make the President look bad. Republican Senator Jim DeMint summed up this effort: “If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.”
Republican opposition to health care reform has nothing to do with their concern for saving money for American families or ensuring that rising premiums do not kill our economy, but about making the Obama administration look bad. They are putting all their time and energy into scare tactics phrases such as "bureaucrat boogeymen" and "socialized medicine," but the American people are not fooled. We know that health care reform cannot wait. When you sign the Americans United petition and forward the Republican Health Care Horror Show video (the image is a screen capture from it) to your members of Congress, you can show them that you wholeheartedly support comprehensive health care reform and they should, too.
Congressman Keith Ellison took his Flip cam into the Capitol and interviewed his colleagues about health care and their support of a public option.
Check out the video:
A recent New York Times poll found that three out of four Americans support a public health insurance option, but the health care industry is spending millions of dollars and hiring hundreds of former members of Congress to lobby against a public option.
As this legislation is being written, it's important for your elected representatives to know you support real health care reform.
The GOP strategy for dealing with health care reform became abundantly clear yesterday when an internal RNC memo made its way to the 
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