As Congress goes on recess, the battle to reform healthcare continues to heat up. Here is a look at the players and what is at stake.
President Obama has put his popularity, and some argue his presidency, on the line by calling for a massive overhaul of our nation’s healthcare system by the end of this year. While many progressives have applauded the president’s commitment to a government financed public program to guarantee coverage for the uninsured, so far his efforts to sell this proposal have been insufficient. [AP Images]
Two key allies of the president in the battle for healthcare reform are Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and legendary Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. Kennedy in particular has been an advocate for universal healthcare for many decades but recent illness has diminsihed his influence in this debate. Still, his version of a reform bill, put together by the HELP committee, is widely viewed as the most promising of the plans emerging from Congress. [AP Images]
Several national polls show that roughly 70 percent of Americans favor a Medicare-style public plan as part of healthcare reform. Regardless of whether you think healthcare is a basic human right or a responsibility of the state, it is time for a public option. [AP Images]
On August 8 Congress will break for a recess until September 8. With healthcare reform still an unresolved issue, some fear that the right will use the break to crank up scare tactics and thus impede passage of a reform bill. [Reuters Pictures]
Conservative Democrats, led by Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus of Montana, are notorious for ignoring the pleas of advocates for real healthcare reform. His insistence on negotiating with Republicans on the final bill prompts The Nation‘s Chris Hayes to ponder, “What the hell is Max Baucus thinking?” [AP Images]
“The House Blue Dogs (like Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark), pictured center) and conservative Democratic senators are doing just about everything they can to cripple real healthcare reform,” writes The Nation‘s editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel. Surprisingly, mainstream media continue to label them as moderate, centrist and guardians of core American values. [AP Images]
A public healthcare option is “gonna happen,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this July. Unfortunately, this may not occur until after the recess. However, this period provides a unique opportunity for single-payer advocates to influence their local lawmakers. It’s been fifty-five years since President Truman first called for a national healthcare system, and we can no longer afford to delay reform. [AP Images]
A small but very vocal and angry group of right-wing extremists is carrying out an organized, nationwide campaign to undermine the efforts of those working to pass Obama’s healthcare plan. Their strategy involves using almost any means necessary to disrupt pro-reform town halls. The reality is that these partisan protesters don’t represent the majority of public opinion on healthcare. [AP Images]
Nearly 50 million Americans remain uninsured today. Many of these citizens are filing for bankruptcy because they failed to read the fine print on their health insurance brochures. Thirty-four percent of college graduates spend some time uninsured in the year following their graduation. Millions are denied coverage or have to pay higher premiums because of “pre-existing conditions,” which can be as common as high blood pressure, asthma and diabetes. [Reuters Pictures]
Republican rising star Rep. Paul Ryan is aggressively pushing his Patient’s Choice Act that would allegedly give people “the ability…to have a plan just like the one we have here in Congress.” The truth is that the bill will fail to make coverage affordable for many low-income people, would cause employers to drop coverage and allow insurers to charge higher premiums for sicker people. [Reuters Pictures]
“How should serious supporters of healthcare reform spend the month of August?” asks The Nation‘s John Nichols. “Not by getting trapped in the narrow ‘debate’ between ‘party of no’ Republicans, who favor no reform at all, and Blue Dog Democrats, whose ‘reform’ is to make a bad system worse. They should do so by advocating even more aggressively for single-payer healthcare.” [Reuters Pictures]
Congressional Republicans are hoping to torpedo efforts for healthcare reform just the way the Joker blew up a hospital in a scene from The Dark Knight, according to Nation blogger Melissa Harris-Lacewell. Blue Dog Democrats are currently helping to make the metaphor a reality: “they are turned by the Joker’s chaos tactics into two-faced madmen willing to leave the nation’s future to chance.” In this climate, progressives have to step up to the challenge of reforming healthcare and not allow the nation to be led astray by conservative fearmongering. [AP Images]
