Richard Moore and Health Care
Submitted by Robert P. on Thu, 09/20/2007 - 4:12pm
I'm glad to see that Richard Moore has put out a Health Care Plan - but I find it lacking. His "bold step" is to insure all children. That's great and all, but it is very 2004. If you want to make a change that would have a positive effect - insure everyone. Everyone. As I read more about his stance on the issues, I can't help thinking that it there is one word I WOULD NEVER use to describe it - bold. More after the vid, after the break.
p.s What plan? I can't find any "plan".
To address this problem, there are some obvious steps we can take:
A couple things. We're well on our way to a high-risk pool, so suggesting this isn't really "leading". Plus, keep in mind y'all that the high risk pool will cost US money. Not saying it is a bad idea, but if WE are going to pay for health insurance, shouldn't we be getting our money's worth?
Next, we are also well on our way to insuring every child in the state. Again, not really leading.
Lastly, how are you going to help out small businesses? Please tell me you aren't going to give hand-outs to the insurance companies are you?
You want to know a plan for better health care in North Carolina?
Health Care for All would be one.
Beyond that, if you aren't willing to be THAT bold, how about this:
- Offer public insurance to state employees, the same way you offer public retirement to them. John Edwards opens up Medicare to all Americans, you open up Medicaid. Currently, every North Carolinian pays about $250 a month for every state employee to be insured by BCBS. BCBS continues to raise rates and lower benefits and North Carolina employees continue to have one of the highest rates in the country. Is that what YOU ARE paying for?
- Mandate that every North Carolinian have health insurance, cap the rate that small businesses can be charged by BCBS, and allow small businesses to buy into Medicaid. If it's good enough for Wal-Mart, it is good enough for other businesses.
- Do away with Medicaid, and S-CHIP, and the state employees plan, and all the other little "plans" and make one BIG North Carolina Public Health Care. Less paperwork, less bureaucracy, less costs.
I hesitate to say it, but I don't think we'll see much difference between the two candidates on this position. Insure children, screw the working class, kiss up to BCBS and their ilk.
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I hope you're wrong.
The feds have nixed NC's program to insure all children, and Moore has taken steps to advocate to eliminate that problem. In my opinion, it shouldn't be just Moore doing that. It should be Moore, Perdue, Easley, and every other legislator who represents someone from North Carolina.
The cost for small businesses to insure their employees is prohibitive, and will only go higher as our workforce ages. This calls for - as you say - bold leadership. Small business really is the backbone of North Carolina. With mandates for health insurance as part of the Goodyear giveaway, it sounds like NC is trying to do something about it, but I'm willing to bet that most North Carolinians work in a shop that is less than 50 employees big. Those small businesses should be allowed to pool their workforces to create a larger group.
I know I harp on this all the time - but - child care providers - people who take care of 56% of the children under the age of 5 in the state, often have no health care coverage themselves. This means that even though they are exposed to a myriad of respiratory and digestive tract infections during the course of their work, they do not have coverage to see a doctor to take care of them. What happens then? They come to work sick - because of course, many of them have no paid sick leave. And that's just one service industry.
It's time for systemic change; it's time for truly visionary leadership to take us there.
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
__________________
"My darling girl, when will you understand that 'normal' is not necessarily a virtue. It rather denotes a lack of courage." - Alice Hoffma
I want to hear a candidate say this:
By the way, I do have the magic answer on how to make this happen. But I ain't tellin' just yet.
Tolerance ends
If you've got the answer, man, you'd better give it up.
Because there are thousands of people suffering because they can't afford the meds they need. They can't afford the doctor visits they need. C'mon dude. Share.
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
__________________
"My darling girl, when will you understand that 'normal' is not necessarily a virtue. It rather denotes a lack of courage." - Alice Hoffma
I need a few more ingredients
to complete the plan. Give me a couple of weeks.
Tolerance ends
Words are cheap
I don't want to hear them say it. I want to see them prove they can make it happen.
Robin Hayes lied. Nobody died, but thousands of folks lost their jobs.
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Currently lacking a witty signature.
I agree except for one caveat...
To do it, they will have to stand against the powerful interests and lobbyists of the health care industry. If they aren't willing to do that NOW when there isn't even a proposal on the table, out of fear, then what hope do we have when they get elected that they will develop guts?
One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me
It's not a plan, it's a subsidy
What might a real plan look like? Can anyone say "single payer?" But I suppose if the best we get from our "leading Democratic Party presidential candidate" (sic), Ms. Hillary, is a rush to subsidize insurance company profits, then we really can't expect any better from Moore. (At least not from this particular Moore...)
It's not a plan, it's a subsidy
Great line.
Tolerance ends
None of the Candidates Get It
There are certain things that must be done to extend coverage, improve outcomes, and reduce cost:
1. Have a single large pool of risk instead of cherry-picking separate pools and dropping the rest in a high-premium pool. Every single person has a certain risk of showing up in a high-premium pool regardless of their behavior or plans.
2. End the notion that healthcare is an employer responsibility.
3. End the notion that adequate healthcare is a fringe benefit.
4. Break the inefficiency of having to bill, collect, and audit payments based on fees for ever more refined services. Getting a lab test today is not just a lab test; there is a fee for venipuncture, a fee for collection, a fee for analysis, and a fee for interpreting the results.
5. Load the incentives toward prevention instead of toward the emergency room.
None - absolutely none of the healthcare plans of the candidates for president or any other office are ready to do what needs to be done. It is not about patients and healthcare but about insurance and subsidizing insurance companies and providers. And that won't fix what's ailing people.
50 states, 210 media market, 435 Congressional Districts, 3080 counties, 192,480 precincts
50 states, 210 media market, 435 Congressional Districts, 3080 counties, 192,480 precincts
I have a different take
I'm something of an incrementalist, so I think Moore's plan is a good one. Sure, I'd love for us to have universal coverage tomorrow, but I also realize that it's not going to happen. Likewise with single-payer: it ain't going to happen. That doesn't mean we can't come up with a really good way of covering everyone that saves us all a lot of money and keeps us healthier.
I see Moore's plan as an important step towards universal coverage. It's workable, it's not extremely costly, and it can be done on a bipartisan basis. Just about everyone who looks at our healthcare situation recognizes that something has to be done about small businesses that can't afford to cover their employees. And since you're not going to enact a Medicare-for-all kind of plan, you have to help these folks pay the bills. Call it a subsidy if you like, but it keeps people out of the emergency room.
While the idealist in me wants single payer RIGHT NOW
I certainly understand what you're saying.
There are two good examples of steps being taken in NC by non-governmental entities to help make health care available to groups that traditionally don't have it available.
1. TEACH, which is basically a higher education scholarship program for child care providers offered through Child Care Services Association in Chapel Hill, also has a program to help child care facilities provide health insurance to their employees. As long as the facility has one employee enrolled in higher education and using the scholarship program, TEACH will pay 1/3 of the health insurance costs of all of the employees of the institution. The employer must pay 1/3, and the employee must pay 1/3. Since this is still cost prohibitive for many child care providers, who are, as you know, small businesses with a very low profitability rate, Smart Start partnerships in several counties have created programs to pay 1/3 of the cost, so that in those counties, TEACH pays 1/3, Smart Start pays 1/3, the employer pays 1/6, and the employee pays 1/6, which brings the cost within reach for both the employer and the employee.
2. First Carolina Care, a health insurance program offered through FirstHealth of the Carolinas here in the Sandhills has a special program for employers who have employees who are paid less than $10. per month.
The first approach combines private and state funds to approach health care funding for a traditionally under-insured population.
The second approach uses mainly grants and donations, and was created by a local health care provider because of the number of working uninsured in its service area.
Neither one is perfect, and neither one captures all individuals in its target population. We need Health Care for All. But these are a few ways that North Carolinians took matters into their own hands and said "The heck with you gubmint folks, we ain't waitin'."
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
__________________
"My darling girl, when will you understand that 'normal' is not necessarily a virtue. It rather denotes a lack of courage." - Alice Hoffma
Incrementalism doesn't solve it
We have had incrementalism in the post-Hillarycare era, and it has not reduced the total cost of healthcare, reduced the number of people outside the system, or improved quality of care. That is because incrementalism cannot address the very areas that are the source of the inefficiencies in health care--risk pool separation, employer resistance, and expensive paperwork. As a consequence, incremental plans cannot capture any savings that might be gained by those areas of a single-payer, universal plan. Incremental plans plus the current system increases the total expense in the name of not increasing government expense.
And the sad part is that reasonable plans cannot be done on a bipartisan basis at all because almost all Republicans insist that healthcare is a market and should be operated to ration on the basis of ability to pay.
Incrementalism is a figleaf to pretend you are doing something to solve the issue when you are not.
50 states, 210 media market, 435 Congressional Districts, 3080 counties, 192,480 precincts
50 states, 210 media market, 435 Congressional Districts, 3080 counties, 192,480 precincts
I wasn't suggesting that incrementalism solves it.
I was pointing out that people are so damn frustrated waiting for solutions that we're getting piecemeal private solutions that still let thousands fall through the cracks.
Until there is Health Care for All, however, I'm still going to promote those solutions that exist for the people who qualify.
Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
__________________
"My darling girl, when will you understand that 'normal' is not necessarily a virtue. It rather denotes a lack of courage." - Alice Hoffma
Well said.
Tolerance ends
If you support incrementalism, then that is one thing...
but why support a plan that pushes only for those incremental changes that we are already well on the way to passing? It reminds me a little of the debate about iraq. Listen, we're leaving Iraq, it's just a matter of when. Why can't we talk about AFTER Iraq, how we fight to make the Middle East a less violent place?
One of the pitfalls of childhood is that one doesn't have to understand something to feel it. - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Jesus Swept ticked me off. Too short. I loved the characters and then POOF it was over.
-me