[lbo-talk] How about some honesty and integrity?

[Jim Westrich]

It would be nice that people who proclaim themselves experts about policy get
some of the basic facts straight.  Fully implementing ALL of Kerry's ideas
would have reduced the (future) uninsured by over 20 million (which is a good
thing) mostly by expanding children's access to Medicaid.  Please note that the
reinsurance schemes he proposed would have helped insure around 2 million (which
is a good thing and a proposal I agree with).  Given that the uninsured will
soon reach 50 million (my own 2006 estimate) in this country, Kerry's proposals
would have increased access to 40% of those people.  THIS IS NOT UNIVERSAL
HEALTH INSURANCE let alone universal health care (millions of poor people with
health insurance face cost barriers to health care that Kerry was largely not
addressing).

Quoting Nathan Newman's butchering of Kerry's platform
<nathanne at nathannewman.org>:


> * Universal health care

Democrats constructed a "universal health care" proposal in Maine which as of
this date has managed to sign up less than 2000 people of the 150,000 uninsured
in Maine (more to come surely but there is nothing universal about it as it is
purely voluntary).  It is very possible that that is the best one could do
given the political climate (but Maine has an unusually expensive health care
system that is driving the popular support for the reforms and yet the proposal
as implemented sadly does little about directly addressing health care costs.

I think the loss in California of the "pay or play" financing mechanism for
their health care expansions is sad but not particularly surprising (given that
it has already happened elsewhere).  It proves what I have been saying for many
years that any health care expansion has to be intricately related to a clear
progressive, fair way of containing costs (a meassage Democrats and many
progressive forces sadly address with lip service).  I do think the American
people are capable of seeing that. While there are many complicated issues, we
need people who actually care about the population honestly talking about these
tough issues.

P. S., A colleague of mine just showed me her itemized bill from her routine
ob/gyn checkup-- around $2000!!!  I keep my mother's bill for my birth over my
work area--delivery, nursery, 4 days in the hospital, and it is only $178.50
(around $1050 in current dollars using CPI).

P. S. S.  I agree 100% with Nathan's thoughts about reasoned dialogue about
"moral issues".  I know that many people think that this is just code for
bigotry but it is more complicated than that and festered because it was seldom
addressed directly in the campaign (Kerry, to his credit, tried a bit but the
press was not biting).

Jim

If you could hold the frozen flow of New Hope Creek
And hide out from the one they said you might meet
If you could unlearn all the words
That you never wanted heard
If you could stall the southern wind
That's whistling in your ear
You could take what is
What is
What is
To what can never be

         -Katell Keinig, "Gulf of Araby"