Is it true single payer would distrupt...? No. You`re right. That went straight passed me. I missed that. What a slime.
On the CBC. I tracked down a Glen Ford (Black Agenda) video of one of the women members who gave a House floor speech yesterday before Obama spoke. She implied the CBC would vote against any plan without what she called a `robust' public option and that didn't address `health equity' Even after listening to Barbara Lee (another member of CBC) I can't exactly tell what `robust' means. And I am still unclear how `health equity' is addressed. (See below for more of my difficulties*)
Here is the video of the floor speech:
http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/black-caucus-and-obama-one-way-loyalty
Here is Glen Ford's short essay that helps explain what's going on:
``Despite Obama’s dismissal of progressives on issues of peace and social justice – issues still dear to a core of Caucus members – Black lawmakers still feel that history demands their allegiance to this president. Obama, however, takes such loyalties for granted, and has left the Black Caucus with little ground to stand on as they try to prop up his presidency. On health care, he has become a heavy burden for even the Black Caucus to bear, as he searches constantly for allies on the Right. Among the 64 progressivesthat vowed in August to vote against any health care bill that does not include a strong public option, 25 are Black. Under the leadership of California Congresswoman Barbara Lee, the Black Caucus issued a letter last week expressing “deep concern” that “a robust public option and myriad health disparity elimination provisions… may be stricken” in order to cut the cost of the legislation. Lee emerged from a conference callwith the White House still insisting on a public option and emphasizing the need for measures to eliminate disparities in health care, through better data collection, greater diversity in the health care workforce, and more community health care workers. Yet the White House seems prepared to jettison health equity, to appease the Right. If that happens, the Congressional Black Caucus will utterly lose face.
The Black Caucus has made the health equity issue its own. In recent years the Caucus has dedicated resources and prestige to documenting the huge racial disparities in health outcomes, and exploring ways to confront the problem. This April, the Caucus held a health equity forum, at which Georgia Congressman John Lewis spoke of the need to launch a “health equity movement” to ensure that the issue is “an integral component of health care reform.” But the Caucus will be in no position to lead a “health equity movement” or anything else if it allows Obama to discard the equity issue without a fight.
As an institution, the Congressional Black Caucus has no choice but to resist the first Black president, or submit to voluntary irrelevance on an issue they have told their own constituents is vital to the community.
In their letter to the president, the Black lawmakers assured him they are “committed allies and partners in the fight to reform America's broken health care system.” It is Obama's commitment that is so very much in question.''
*Poor and low income families have more health problems all around including more disabled kids. Race, immigrant status, and non-English speaking all act like multipliers. In addition, the Medicaid income scales are so low you lose coverage or go on a sliding scale if you have even a marginal income. Most of these low income jobs do not have any benefit package or one that is too expensive to sign up for, or even if provided is worthless. Adding family members is extra and each child extra. Most of these plans have high deductible, like 2000/yr, at least 20% co-pays after the deductible is met. There are no dental or eye glasses in the basic plans. And the plans have preferred providers, i.e the doctor or service provider they specify.
So these are some of the `health equity' issues Lewis and Lee are talking about.
But the devil is always, especially in health care in the exact details that never seem to be exposed to the light of day, until it's too late. For example, I just realized what Lee meant by Medicare linked providers. It may not be as much as I thought and wanted. It may only mean that whoever is providing health services is on the Medicare provider list. That only means her plan is not like an HMO who all have preferred providers. I sure hope there is more than that.
I guess I need to add that the last time I knew the figures the majority of poor, low and moderate income people in the US were non-hispanic white. Even if the figures have changed to a non-majority, whites make-up a significant percent. So, the point is that Lee, Lewis, Ford, et al. are addressing the conditions of a large number of whites, who mostly don't realize it.
CG