Health Care Summit: Single Payer Excluded?
Institute for Public Accuracy
3 March 2009
STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER/DAVID HIMMELSTEIN
“Many people are looking to the Massachusetts plan as a model, but it’s extremely problematic. In fact, there are lots of uninsured people left in Massachusetts despite massive spending.
“A huge part of the problem is that the politicians reflect their funders. Max Baucus, who’s the driving force in the Senate at this point, is one of the biggest recipients of HMO dollars in this country. He got $200,000 in donations. The only people who got more were John McCain and Hillary Clinton.
Sen. Baucus wants CBO to be “creative”
Don McCanne, MD, Physicians for a National Health Program, 2 March 2009
In this closing exchange (2), Sen. Max Baucus seems to be annoyed with Douglas Elmendorf, Director of the Congressional Budget Office. What is the background here?
Sen. Baucus is determined to lead the way to comprehensive health care reform. His model is basically the Hacker/Obama/Kennedy/Daschle/Massachusetts/Commonwealth model which is based on expanding the use of regulated private health plans, while continuing to expand existing public programs.
To help Congress with its efforts on reform, CBO recently released two volumes on 1) issues on analyzing health insurance proposals, and 2) budget options for health care (both available at the CBO website www.cbo.gov). It is quite clear, based on these two reports and on the innumerable analyses in the health policy literature, that Baucus’s model would be scored by the CBO as outrageously expensive while falling far short on many of the important goals for health care reform.
Related:
Obama to Single Payer Advocates: Drop Dead – March 3, 2009
Corporate Crime Reporter
President Obama’s White House made crystal clear this week: a Canadian-style, Medicare-for-all, single payer health insurance system is off the table.
Not All Invited to Obama’s Health Reform Forum – March 3, 2009
Published by Swing State Blog
One group is being left out of the White House’s health reform forum Thursday: supporters of single payer health care.