Finally! Someone takes a stab at the right thing!

By Carl

It's about fucking time:

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democratic leaders, pledging to meet the president's goal of health care legislation before their August break, are offering a $1.5 trillion plan that for the first time would make health care a right and a responsibility for all Americans. Left to pick up most of the tab were medical providers, employers and the wealthy.

"We cannot allow this issue to be delayed. We cannot put it off again," Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee, said Tuesday. "We, quite frankly, cannot go home for a recess unless the House and the Senate both pass bills to reform and restructure our health care system."

Healthcare ought to have been a right in the Constitution from the get-go, but back then, people didn't see doctors unless they were dying. And the average age a man lived to was 40, a woman with children had an even shorter life expectancy.

See, it's in the Declaration of Independence, and these asshats who always look to the "intent of the Founders" ought to reacquaint themselves with that document.

There's an awful lot of good in the proposal, as highlighted in these paragraphs:

Under the House Democrats' plan, the federal government would be responsible for ensuring that every person, regardless of income or the state of their health, has access to an affordable insurance plan. Individuals and employers would have new obligations to get coverage, or face hefty penalties.

The legislation calls for a 5.4 percent tax increase on individuals making more than $1 million a year, with a gradual tax beginning at $280,000 for individuals. Employers who don't provide coverage would be hit with a penalty equal to 8 percent of workers' wages, with an exemption for small businesses. Individuals who decline an offer of affordable coverage would pay 2.5 percent of their incomes as a penalty, up to the average cost of a health insurance plan.

In other words, you can't really opt out of the insurance. One way or another, we're not going to let you drag our healthcare costs up by treating the emergency room as your family physician anymore. By the same token, no employer is going to make an extra couple of pennies off the backs of his poor workers by depriving them of the most essential tool they need to do their jobs: their health. I know an awful lot of people who would give up the cafeteria/lunchroom or the soda and candy machines for affordable health insurance.

It's not perfect, it's not even that close to perfect, but it looks like it might be an interesting first step towards what this nation truly deserves: single-payer health insurance whereby NO ONE can make a profit off your body.

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)

So what about health care reform?

By Michael J.W. Stickings

As is so often the case, Paul Krugman makes a compelling point today:

The whole world is in recession. But the United States is the only wealthy country in which the economic catastrophe will also be a health care catastrophe — in which millions of people will lose their health insurance along with their jobs, and therefore lose access to essential care.

Which raises a question: Why has the Obama administration been silent, at least so far, about one of President Obama's key promises during last year's campaign — the promise of guaranteed health care for all Americans?

I have long made the case -- and I make it partly from first-hand experience living there for many years -- that the U.S. has the best health care in the world... if you can afford it. Which is to say, the actual care aside, the system, one that leaves so many without insurance, and therefore without access, is an embarrassment (to say the least).

If there was ever a time to move forward with large-scale reform, now -- a time of "economic catastrophe" -- is it. On this I agree with Krugman. (Consider that, as the WSJ reported the other day, "[a]t least 25 states have enacted or proposed cuts in health-insurance programs for the poor, potentially leaving millions of patients with reduced levels of care or no coverage at all." -- via TNR's The Treatment)

However, it is not entirely accurate to say that Obama has been silent on the issue. While his focus, and that of his administration, has obviously been primarily on the economy, and on the stimulus package, in the very early days of his presidency, it seems unlikely that there have been no behind-the-scenes discussions both internally and with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

On that front, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has indicated that there might not be any action taken this year -- what's worse, he wants to combine health care reform with an overhaul of Social Security, which could doom reform entirely and/or play right into the hands of Republicans) -- a position backed up by Majority Whip James Clyburn, but Henry Waxman, the influential chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, stated yesterday, definitively, that he intends to take action this year: "This is our time... We need to get this job accomplished this year and get a bill to the president." And Speaker Nancy Pelosi seems to agree:

There are some incremental steps that we are taking — first we did SCHIP, then in our economic recovery package, we have money to help stem the tide of people losing health insurance — coverage for Medicaid and COBRA. There is also money for quality, health IT, comparative effectiveness and wellness, and money for prevention. And we will take a major step forward this year to increase the number of people who have healthcare coverage,

declared her office, as reported by The Hill.

Does anyone really believe that Obama isn't somewhere behind all this, given his enthusiastic support for the SCHIP bill, given that reform advocate Tom Daschle is his HHS secretary, and given that he himself is committed to reform.

So, yes, while there are certainly legitimate concerns that health care reform will go nowhere this year, there is reason to be optimistic that Obama's "silence" will end and that, once the economic stimulus package is finally passed, it will be at or near the top of the White House's agenda.