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Robert Reich: ObamaCare Won't Cut Costs OR Improve Health Care
Former Clinton Labor Secretary and current Obama economic adviser Robert Reich believes healthcare legislation currently being debated on Capitol Hill "won't offer most Americans any appreciable decline in the cost of their health insurance nor clear improvement in the efficiency or quality of the health care they receive."
robertreich.blogspot.com
Contrary to what President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and their media minions are shamefully telling the public, the current bill results in "extra costs [that] will be borne by those Americans who will be required to buy insurance but won't qualify for federal assistance, along with Medicare beneficiaries who will be paying more and receiving less."
Maybe more importantly given Friday's announcement that the nation's unemployment rate jumped to 10.2 percent in October, Reich believe's President Obama is doing America a disservice by focusing all his attention on healthcare reform instead of trying to create jobs.
Although Reich posted this at his blog on Sunday, I could find no major media references to his rather startling commentary on robertreich.blogspot.com :
I sincerely hope America gets genuine health reform and I hope it's stronger than what's emerging in the Senate...I worry, though, that Obama's strategy may turn out to be a mistake comparable to Clinton's overemphasis on deficit reduction. Obama's focus on health care rather than jobs, when the economy is still so fragile and unemployment moving toward double digits, could make it appear that the administration has its priorities confused. While affordable health care is critically important to Americans, making a living is more urgent. Yet the administration's efforts to date on this more basic concern have been neither particularly visible nor coherent.
The current rate of unemployment would have been even higher were it not for the federal stimulus package, but the stimulus should have been much larger. Especially with the states still cutting back on spending and raising taxes, the federal stimulus will be barely enough to keep unemployment from hitting 11 percent by the middle of 2010. Yet as the rate of unemployment continued to rise faster and higher than the White House anticipated, Obama could not return to Congress to seek a larger stimulus. He was spending political capital on health care. [...]
While health care reform, if done right, can help American families stay afloat in the economy, the current bills won't offer most Americans any appreciable decline in the cost of their health insurance nor clear improvement in the efficiency or quality of the health care they receive, and those who will benefit won't see the benefits until 2014 at the earliest. [...]
That and other deals cut with industry -- including promises to Big Pharma that Medicare wouldn't use its bargaining clout to reduce drug prices, to the AMA that doctors wouldn't have to face larger cuts in Medicare reimbursement rates, and to private insurers that the White House wouldn't fight hard for a public insurance option -- are likely to make the resulting reform far more costly than it would be otherwise. These extra costs will be borne by those Americans who will be required to buy insurance but won't qualify for federal assistance, along with Medicare beneficiaries who will be paying more and receiving less. These people may not know they're indirectly paying the costs of buying off these industries, but they'll know they're getting shafted (Republicans will be sure to make them aware, even though the GOP has a much longer record of shafting the middle class for the benefit of big business). [...]
If Obama and the Democrats lose one or both houses of Congress in the midterms, it will be because the president learned only the most superficial lesson of the Clinton years. Health-care reform is critically important. But when one out of six Americans is unemployed or underemployed, getting the nation back to work is more so.
Although I don't agree with Reich's stimulus ideas, his point about job creation being far more important than healthcare reform at this time in history is spot on.
That ObamaCare-loving media choose to ignore such logic is totally mind-boggling.
Note: This item contains 1 connected file and 2 connected links (see top right)
Added: Nov 6 2009 In: news_politics
By: spadata 
- Tags:
- obamacare,
- lie,
- robert reich
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Comments - sort by newest to oldest
Reich suffers from the Keynesian affliction, but the fact that he's willing to come out and say that the propaganda from the White House, Pelosi and Reid is bullshit is refreshing.
It will, of course, be largely ignored by the MSM.
Posted Nov-6-2009 by "vicsemprini" (R)
Does anybody outside the Obama/Pelosi/Reid triumvirate really believe anything these clowns are saying?
Oh, is it just me or is there a con****uous absence of willy, las and kiwiboy around here these days?
Posted Nov-6-2009 by "copperdog3" (R)
Oh, is it just me or is there a con****uous absence of willy, las and kiwiboy around here these days?
"Does anybody outside the Obama/Pelosi/Reid triumvirate really believe anything these clowns are saying?"
Everyone at MSNBC.
Posted Nov-6-2009 by "vicsemprini" (R)
Oh, is it just me or is there a con****uous absence of willy, las and kiwiboy around here these days?
"Does anybody outside the Obama/Pelosi/Reid triumvirate really believe anything these clowns are saying?"
Everyone at MSNBC.
I wonder if even those pissant twits actually believe it...
Posted Nov-6-2009 by "copperdog3" (R)
The only problem with that is that it WILL cut costs. You can speculate and blog all you want. Facts are stubborn things.
Posted Nov-6-2009 by "corgnar123" (R)
It will lower costs by raising the over ONE TRILLION DOLLARS!!
With your phenomenal mathematical skills, you gotta be a progressive democrat!
The Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain %u201Cacceptable health insurance coverage%u201D and who choose not to pay the bill%u2019s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.
Posted Nov-6-2009 by "spadata" (R)
"This is the ultimate example of the Democrats' command-and-control style of governing %u2013 buy what we tell you or go to jail. It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately."
Key excerpts from the JCT letter appear below:
"H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax." [page 1]
- - - - - - - - - -
"If the government determines that the taxpayer's unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply%u2026" [page 2]
- - - - - - - - - -
"Criminal penalties
Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses. Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:
%u2022 Section 7203 %u2013 misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.
%u2022 Section 7201 %u2013 felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years." [page 3]
When confronted with this same issue during its consideration of a similar individual mandate tax, the Senate Finance Committee worked on a bipartisan basis to include language in its bill that shielded Americans from civil and criminal penalties. The Pelosi bill, however, contains no similar language protecting American citizens from civil and criminal tax penalties that could include a $250,000 fine and five years in jail.
"The Senate Finance Committee had the good sense to eliminate the extreme penalty of incarceration. Speaker Pelosi's decision to leave in the jail time provision is a threat to every family who cannot afford the $15,000 premium her plan creates. Fortunately, Republicans have an alternative that will lower health insurance costs without raising taxes or cutting Medicare," said Camp.
According to the Congressional Budget Office the lowest cost family non-group plan under the Speaker's bill would cost $15,000 in 2016.
Posted Nov-6-2009 by "spadata" (R)