1. Don’t Forget Tomorrow’s Rally.
2. Special Monday Update from Professor Leveen
3. An F1200’er writes in: “Not so fast there, Eva!”
4. Why This Week Matters for Single Payer in California
5. Leveen’s detailed answer on the National Insurance Exchange
1. Don’t Forget Tomorrow’s Rally.
You keep writing in about how angry you are about the Democratic Party’s disappointing leadership. Well, MoveOn.org is making it easy for you to bring that point home tomorrow. Remind your Democratic representatives just WHO it is who put them in office: YOU!
Put on your Sunday best (or seriously, just show up) and thereby send a message to those Democratic leaders you keep telling me you’re so mad at. The San Francisco event is tomorrow at 6 p.m. at the Montgomery BART station and is titled “Where Have All The Democrats Gone?” Here’s the rally link.
2. Special Monday Update from Professor Leveen:
Some of you have asked why I keep referring to Professor Deborah Leveen. Who is she? As I’ve written before, Leveen is a retired Emeritus professor from SFSU who taught health policy for over 25 years. She’s worked on California’s single payer effort since Prop 186 in 1994, and has been involved in analysis and advocacy regarding the national health effort for the past two years.
I first heard Leveen speak at a League of Women Voters event last fall. I’ve been impressed by her fierce intelligence, and her unfailing efforts (in the face of great discouragement) to keep pushing for reform. I disagree with her on many points, especially the value of the Senate bill, but I value her input and outlook.
Today, Leveen wrote in about three issues:
a. Leveen wanted to forward a link to this letter from 47 top health policy experts urging passage of the Senate bill and using the reconciliation process, requiring only 51 votes, to pass a second bill addressing as many of the key concerns from House members as can be agreed to. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/
b. Leveen urges you to use the next 48 hours to contact Reid and Pelosi, because they are now in negotiations. Leveen cites a New York Times article that claims Feinstein’s office is receiving 4:1 calls against the senate bill, so if you want to change that ratio, start dialing. She suggests that you include the link to the health policy experts’ letter. (Editor’s Note: I have to wonder what part of that high “anti” ratio is due to former HCR supporters who are now so distrustful of the White House and Congress’ ability to achieve anything through reconciliation that they’re now calling in against the “senate bill + reconciliation” idea.)
c. Leveen wanted to answer one of your questions about the definition of the national insurance exchange. It’s a detailed answer (Leveen is no slouch!), so I’ve included it at the end of the newsletter.
3. An F1200’er writes in: Not So Fast, Eva!
An F1200’er writes in response to my suggestion that we need to move on from health care reform, now that it looks like the Senate bill is very likely dead:
“I'm sorry, but I became one of the "Feinstein 1200" because I thought Obama and the Democrats actually believed this was an important issue, even a priority issue--despite the hard economic times. Now I discover it was just something to pass the time, to be dropped when it became inexpedient. It sure (doesn’t) make me want to devote my time and energy to Democratic causes to know that politicians in Washington can get me mobilized and engaged on a supposedly critical issue and then just flip a switch and drop the whole thing the moment it no longer suits their political calculations. So, no thanks, I won't be jumping on any more bandwagons for a while.”
Who can blame you? I myself spent a sick amount of time and my own money trying to support a health care reform plan, which the President said he himself supported, even as he was sealing the sorry fate of the public option in a secret deal with insurers. But despite the hopes of longtime advocates like Leveen, the Senate bill appears to be dead on the operating table.
Later, the same F1200’er wrote back:
“It's one thing to lose. It's another to forfeit the game with a 59-seat majority. I believe the Feinstein 1200 should be expressing outrage right now at Obama and the Democrats, and I doubt I'm alone in feeling that way.”
(Editor’s Note: It's more like a 58-seat majority. And no, you’re not alone, judging by the email I receive.)
“They need to know there will be a price to pay for abandoning their base. What I have done, besides contacting my Congresswoman, is to unsubscribe to the OFA e-mail list. They give you an opportunity to explain your reason for unsubscribing, which I have done. Others may be uncomfortable about unsubscribing, but there are certainly other ways for them to convey their feelings.”
Here’s the DC contact information Deborah Leveen included. Depending on where you stand, it’s up to you to urge them to:
a) support the Senate bill + reconciliation package as Leveen suggested (don’t forget the link to the letter she included), or
b) proceed, without passing “Go”, to the next legislative proposal (likely jobs and some diluted version of bank reform), or
c) let them know “there will be a price to pay for abandoning their base.”
If you actually get their staff on the phone, why not go for broke and tell them all three? The last two are virtually guaranteed.
President Obama: http://www.whitehouse.gov/
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: http://www.speaker.gov/
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: http://reid.senate.gov/
Key committee chairs:
House Ways and Means: Charles Rangel. http://rangel.house.gov
Subcommittee on Health: Pete Stark. http://stark.house.gov
House Education and Labor: George Miller. http://miller.house.gov
House Energy and Commerce: Henry Waxman. http://www.waxman.house.gov/
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions: Tom Harkin. http://harkin.senate.gov/
Senate Finance: Everybody's Favorite - Max Baucus. http://baucus.senate.gov
Senators:
Diane Feinstein: http://feinstein.senate.gov/
Barbara Boxer: http://boxer.senate.gov/
Local representatives: Barbara Lee: http://lee.house.gov/
4. SB 810 will be voted on this week.
Information from Don Bechler. It’s kind of amazing that it’s up for a vote this week, with so much else going on. Worth it to get involved with Bechler’s group – even if you’re not interested in Single Payer, they get some interesting speakers at their events.
“Senate Bill 810, the California Universal Healthcare Act, is scheduled to be voted upon in California’s State Senate during the week of January 25 – 29. This bill would replace private health insurers with a state-run, single payer system that would a) cover everyone, b) eliminate co-pays and "pre-existing condition" exceptions, and c) save money and cut bureaucracy.
“Sixteen of the 40 State Senators are already co-authors of SB 810. The are Alquist (D-13), Cedillo (D-22), Corbett (D-10), DeSaulnier (D-07), Florez (D-16), Hancock (D-09), Leno (D-3), Lowenthal (27), Oropeza (28), Padilla (D-20), Pavley (D-23), Price (26), Romero (D-24), Steinberg (D-6), Wiggins (D-2), and Yee (D-8).
“Please call your State Senator to vote yes. If your senator is a co-author, thank them for their support and ask them to work hard to pass SB 810. If your senator is not a co-author, please ask them to vote yes on SB 810 and to become a co-author. SB 810 delivers healthcare to everyone, is comprehensive, saves billions of dollars, and is publicly accountable.
“Your state senator and contact information can be found here.
Please call Don Bechler at 415-810-5826 or email dbechler@value.net to let us know how your senator responded.”
5. Deborah Leveen’s answer to your question, What Is the National Insurance Exchange?
We went over this at the seminar months ago, but who can blame you for forgetting? Here is Leveen’s explanation.
“The national insurance exchange included in the House bill represents a vast improvement over the current individual insurance market.
It will have the authority to negotiate contracts with health plans and reject excessive premium increases, and to enforce the new insurance reforms (guaranteed issue, no denials of pre-existing conditions, no premium rating based on health status or gender, etc). As a national exchange, it will represent an enormous pool of customers and thus constitute a market which insurers cannot ignore: it will therefore have substantial bargaining clout with them. The Exchange is also expected to generate price competition among insurers, as they compete for this new market.
“The House bill also includes a new public plan within the Exchange, which will obviously have lower overhead costs than the private plans in the Exchange, generating even more price competition with private plans.
“The Senate bill is not as strong: indeed I would hope that the top two items achieved through a reconciliation bill, in which the House won improvements to the Senate bill, would be higher subsidies (affordability is my top concern--and that of much of the leadership) and a national Exchange--I would hope that a strong argument could be made that it would save money and thus have the budgetary impact required for its inclusion in a reconciliation bill. (Certainly one national exchange would cost far less to administer than 50+ state exchanges, and I assume we would find CBO support for the argument that it would be able to produce lower premiums than the state-based exchanges.)
“Diane Feinstein has really been out front in many ways on health reform. She has proposed a medical loss ratio of 90%--limiting insurer spending on overhead and profits to 10%--vs the current bills requirements of 80-85%. She submitted an amendment proposing a national rate setting authority. I know she was recently quoted as suggesting maybe we need to back off: it was also reported a week ago in the New York Times that her office is getting calls on a 4:1 basis AGAINST reform: we have to remedy that!
“You can check her website for her statements on health reform: they surprised me. Here are two of the key links:
1) Her statement on the Senate bill.
2) An earlier statement from the Senator: “My Current Thoughts on Health Reform. October 9, 2009."
Thanks for hanging in there,
Eva
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