My favorite provision requires that all members of Congress give up their federally-funded health care benefits and join the health care exchanges that will be set up by this bill. This is brilliant politics, addressing the tide of populist anger and fears of incipient socialism. But it also makes an important substantive point. The future of health care reform in this country will depend on how effectively the exchanges–health insurance super-stores–are working. If members of Congress have to participate in this system, you can bet they’ll insist on a array of choices, similar to the system they currently use, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan.
Anyone who’s ever taken the subway to Ronaldus Magnus National Airport knows that Congressmen know how to look after their own interests (the thing is so convenient you feel like you must be in a foreign country). Forcing Congressmen to get health care through the exchanges is a simple way to make sure that someone in the government is trying to make sure the exchanges don’t suck.
valdivia
wasn’t Joe Wilson who put this on the bill in the house? thinking it would sink it?
demkat620
That’s how it should be.
valdivia
sorry I got that wrong he proposed this
licensed to kill time
__
Ha! Good one!
Chuck Butcher
I don’t suppose it requires them to pay for it out of their salary?
phantomist
Well, the ones that aren’t on Medicare and don’t have access through their wives, are millionaires and will purchase supplemental policies that most of “us” can’t. Also what health care company in their right mind would deny or recind one of their benefactors.
PeakVT
And Union Station is even more convenient. High(ish)-speed rail to an urban core – it’s soshalism, I tell ya!
Requiring congresscritters to join the exchanges is a great idea, but it has about a 1% of making it through the conference committee.
Chuck Butcher
@Chuck Butcher:
Re that comment, $185K doesn’t go real far when you consider the costs of 2 homes with DC prices and travel.
mistermix
They also have a personal physician on call 24/7 (supplied by the Navy, iirc). And, the Metro is nothing — they also have a private subway between the Senate buildings and the Capitol.
But this is still important, because their kids and spouses will be on the plan. It will be a good reality check.
Martin
@phantomist:
Well, let’s consider Joe Biden who was commuting to Delaware and had a very modest net worth. Even if most of Congress doesn’t need to participate in this, enough will to make a difference.
Just Some Fuckhead
I’m pretty sure it was Glenn Beck’s idea.
WereBear
Dagnab, that’s an excellent idea.
Maybe a bunch of presidential staff could get on it, and shame the rest of them into it?
Senyordave
I’m truly starting to wonder whether Obama should give a speech after every action he takes to explain what happened. Before his Asia trip I did’nt expect mountains to be moved. Now its a major failure according to the press.
Maybe he should just call the GOP out on making this country ungovernable.
I really do believe this administration should specifically call Palin out when she lies about Health Care Reform. Call her a liar, maybe the press will do their damn job.
rikyrah
thanks for pointing this out
Texas Dem
I hope I’m wrong about this, but I fear this discussion about “health care exchanges” and whether members of congress should join them is purely academic because there won’t be a health care reform bill–either this year or next. There are just too man ideological divisions in the Democratic party, and the President has been AWOL on health care for too long. He was obviously waiting until House/Senate conference to intervene, but that’s probably going to be too little, too late.
After that, the course of events will go something like this: Dems will suffer catastrophic losses in the 2010 elections, losing control of the House and at least 3 and possibly as many as 5 or 5 Senate seats. Republicans will then intensify their withering assault, using the subpoena power to launch investigation after investigation. With the remaining conserva-Dems moving rapidly to the right to save their asses, say goodbye to action on climate change, immigration, or repeal of DOMA or DODT. Forget about closing GITMO. Obama will have his hands full just keeping the GOP from moving the country further to the right.
Martin
@Chuck Butcher:
Well, it wouldn’t, since it would be considered employer-paid, but it also suggests that the coverage from the exchange only covers what everyone else gets – so all the insurance that they’re accustomed to might have to come out-of-pocket. More likely Congress will cover their ass and use the federal plan as supplemental.
But what would be a better amendment to this would be to full-on replace the federal insurance plan with the exchanges for all federal employees – including Congress. The resulting shitstorm from everyone from their aides to the mailroom guys to the Capitol police over anything gone amiss would motivate legislators more than anything we can say.
Even if legislators can pay their own way, their staff can’t and they will move heaven and earth for their staff.
soonergrunt
This will never happen because what’s good for the country is most definitely not what’s good for the villagers.
We all know this, so why are spending ANY energy talking about it?
Why do you think the federal employees get such great health insurance? It’s so that congress can brag about how they only have the same insurance as federal employees do. Never mind the fact that there’s not a single person outside the federal government getting insurance like that without taking a hard shot to the pocketbook.
Cain
The press has turned on us. Clearly, we need to stop watching them and make sure that the whole business is a losing money. Get some startups to actually do real reporting and then see where it goes. But first, starve the beast.
cain
Mako
National Airport didn’t used to have the Metro right at its door you know. Used to be the hoi polloi needed to be dropped off or take a cab. Congress, of course, had their own special parking area…
But seriously, single payer health care makes sense. This idea makes sense. Which is why it will never fly.
Because, (1) it is a frightening power grab by democrats who want to take over our lives and destroy our wonderful free market insurance industry and (2) it doesn’t work in other countries like Canada and Europe and Japan where people wait years, literally years, for necessary surgery and they all hate their national health care and (3) Ronald Reagan.
So buck up, stop with the grousing, celebrate your country’s mediocracy already.
Oh, and buy guns and bullets. Lots of them.
The Other Steve
The thing is… The Federal Government already runs a health care exchange for their employees. They have options available in all 50 states.
This is where Congress critters obtain their insurance. Consider that they spend a good portion of their time back home, and generally their families live back home, they need an option that works in their state.
However when they’re in DC then they are treated by the military doctors from Bethesda.
The amendment was non-sensical from a practical point of view, although I understand the childish politics.
mcc
Obama’s talking point for the since day one has been that the exchange program should be as much like FEHBP as possible. I think taking the next logical step and rolling the two into a single entity is actually a great idea.
The dumb thing about all this talk about the government taking over health care and socializing medicine and I don’t know whatever the hell is that even the most liberal proposals on the table basically just do things the government is already doing and has been doing for decades. There’s nothing that drastic or innovative here. The exchange is basically just FEHBP that a private citizen can buy. The public option is or ought to be just Medicare that a private citizen can buy.* Maybe we should have pitched the bill from the beginning that way and made the exchange literally be buying FEHBP coverage, the public option be literally buying a medicare policy. I get the feeling the democrats would have done it that way to begin with if it wasn’t that back when they were making their plans the Republicans still hated Medicare.
* Meanwhile, the VHA seems to be more socialist than anything in any version of the health care bill.
mcc
Arrgh, held for moderation. Trying again:
Obama’s talking point for the since day one has been that the exchange program should be as much like FEHBP as possible. I think taking the next logical step and rolling the two into a single entity is actually a great idea.
The dumb thing about all this talk about the government taking over health care and soc ializing medicine and I don’t know whatever the hell is that even the most liberal proposals on the table basically just do things the government is already doing and has been doing for decades. There’s nothing that drastic or innovative here. The exchange is basically just FEHBP that a private citizen can buy. The public option is or ought to be just Medicare that a private citizen can buy.† Maybe we should have pitched the bill from the beginning that way and made the exchange literally be buying FEHBP coverage, the public option be literally buying a medicare policy. I get the feeling the democrats would have done it that way to begin with if it wasn’t that back when they were making their plans the Republicans still hated Medicare.
† Meanwhile, the VHA seems to be more soc ialist than anything in any version of the health care bill.
Chuck Butcher
@Mako:
Do you have any idea how stupid you make yourself look repeating fake GOP talking points on a site that knows better and has Canadian members? Your other shit is primarily philosophical and not really arguable – but utter bullshit is laughable – making you exactly that. A fucking joke with a keyboard and a connection.
Just Some Fuckhead
Haha. As inconsistent as we Ravens have been this year, we haven’t lost to a losing team yet. Cinci, you could make me happy again today.
TaosJohn
I’m not so sure that Swampland thing is true. I heard that the other day in the context of it being a joke.
Martin
@Cain:
That’s what ProPublica is designed to do. They got a private grant to do in-depth reporting with the goal of pushing it out via existing media outlets, plus their own online outlet. Basically an AP for long-form reporting.
Cain
@Martin:
Hot..! That’s good to know, the faster we dump these bozos the better it will be. I want real information not what these morons do with their horse race analysis and what not.
cain
Kevin Phillips Bong
@Chuck Butcher: Time for a snark detector calibration I think.
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
@Texas Dem:
I think living in Texas may be clouding your judgement, I think that’s the most pessimistic reading of the situation I’ve ever heard.
soonergrunt
@Kevin Phillips Bong: You called it.
Rekster
I’m sure this provision will be gone once the bill goes to the conference committee.
It will never be in the final bill. Which will be a steaming pile of shit.
Mako
@Chuck Butcher:
Dude, I know you have a blog and all, but seriously, are you new to the internets?
Oh, and screw Canadians, their health care can’t begin to compare to Japan’s. Canadians are all about, “I sprained my back climbing into my igloo and my national health care won’t allow me access to a vertebrae fusing” while the Japanese are all in their pajamas trailing a catheter bag on a wheelie and standing out in the smoking area. Why else would Obama bow to the happy little emperor?
Chuck Butcher
@Mako:
Sorry, I read “Matko” not “Mako”
Chuck Butcher
@Chuck Butcher:
IOW i were a dumbass
jwb
@The Main Gauche of Mild Reason: Pessimistic, but certainly within the realm of possibility. Of course, it’s also within the realm of possibility that the Dems go on a role of getting legislation passed, the goopers go all teabaggy and so the Dems actually pick up seats. I don’t see either scenario as likely.
Mako
@Chuck Butcher:
No worries mate, we’re all dumbass sometimes
Toni
@Texas Dem: I think Obama’s hands-off approach which comes off as AWOL to many is the correct one because of what you cite as the differing ideologies in the democratic caucus. On a contentious issue like the public option, he has not made it absolute which makes progressives mad but it keeps all 60 senators at the negotiating table. They are still there and the public option is still in play even though it’s supposedly been dead since August.
I think for the average voter it will be about the benefits from the bill that is passed. It needs to have as much tangible benefits as possible starting right away. It will give enough of the base something to rally around. If that is coupled with an improving job market, which rallies the base and independents, they will minimize their losses in 2010 such that they still keep their majorities.
Joel
I think “REAGAN” needs to be a new conservative battle cry. WOLVERINES! is getting a little tired.
mcc
Where the Japanese health care plan really shines is in its treatment of the elderly. Only in Japan do retirees have a legally mandated right to a robotic hospital bed capable of assimilating electronics into itself and destroying entire cities once it has grown to enormous size.
fred
Congress has 89 reserved parking spaces at Reagan Washington National Airport (the airport we locals call National Airport).
http://www.wtop.com/?sid=1286126&nid=226&pid=0
Congress folk are almost universally too schedule driven to be able to use the subway/Metro.
Mako
@mcc:
That and it only costs a couple hundred a year to get your card and receive excellent service. Cuz you know, it’s socialist.
Fuck, you know even Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world, has national health care. If you can afford the couple of bucks for antibiotics and a scalpel and you are a citizen, you can get an India-trained doctor in a crumbling hospital to cut the ugly infected abscess out of your neck.
But, like all sensible thinking americans, I would much rather support the invisible hand of capitalism, because- Reagan.
Mako
heh, the f-word triggers moderation.
Because, of course f-ing is wrong.
Martin
@The Other Steve:
But that’s my point. If the Feds already have an exchange, what’s the (theoretical) difference between that exchange and the one they are proposing for the rest of us? Functionally, they may be different, but that functional difference is what will make the world go round.
Are congressmen any different from consultants that pack up for other states for a month at a time, or airline pilots, or 100 other professions? No. So, the road to a good exchange is one that is good enough for everyone.
Notorious P.A.T.
Aha! But it is about to get a fresh coat of paint:
Remake of ‘Red Dawn’ puts metro Detroit in the spotlight
Thank goodness that, after 20 years of Reagan and Bush, my state looks enough like a war zone to host this movie!
Starfish
@Martin: Joe Biden has a very carefully crafted image. He has one son who is running for Senate and another one that is a lobbyist for health care companies or has lobbied for health care companies at one time.
Kirk Spencer
I hate to tell you all this, but the current Congressional health plan would meet the requirements.
Setting aside certain frills, it has to cap certain costs to the insured and it has to provide a certain minimum of benefits. Nothing in there says the plan can’t be BETTER than the minimums, nor does it say the plan can’t cap costs at a lower level.
Smedley
@soonergrunt:
How is the FEHB plan so wonderfully different than plans offered by industry? I take a “hard shot” in the wallet for my FEHB plan. I have friends at Ford, IBM, Caterpillar who have a much sweeter deal and better benefits like dental and vision coverage with in their plan. Perhaps a little research on your part would make it less likely that you would sound like a tea bagger. Every one, including my congress critters pay into the plan. How sharp the hit really depends on the size of the wallet. From my perspective the FEHB program looks very much like an exchange. A wide variety of plans negotiated from providers offering an array of options. You choose the best based on coverage and cost. BTW costs are going up next year substantially but pretty much in line with non FEHB programs I implore all of you to do some research before you spout off about the wonders of Federal bennies…. The FEHB does closely resemble what the exchanges might look like as I understand this weeks version of the health care bill. And as such makes an excellent model for program available to all. But you will pay for it… A “sharp hit” to the wallet.
Smedley
@Chuck Butcher:
Umm they do pay for their family coverage out of their pocket just like any other business. Look it up and stop sounding like Palin…
licensed to kill time
I’m retrieving my reply arrow from those Evil Overlords who steal it every night whilst I’m asleepin’.