Progressives and health care reform

By Max J. Castro
majcastro@gmail.com

Could a Dennis Kucinich become the Ralph Nader of health care reform?

(Editor’s Note: Before closing this edition of Progreso Weekly, Rep. Dennis Kucinich held a press conference announcing he would support the health care bill before congress.)

What should be the stand of progressives regarding the current health care bill?

Some progressives, including Rep. Dennis Kucinich, think the bill has been so watered down and is so laden with concessions to insurance companies and other corporate interests that it should be rejected. Kucinich says that the bill will not change the fact that one of every three dollars spent on health care goes to executive salaries and profits. Other progressives see the legislation as seriously flawed but still a great advance from the status quo. They argue that it will take a long time before another opportunity will come along to adopt comprehensive health care reform.

It’s a tough call. It’s clear that a national health care system with a single payer, namely the government, is the most effective system. It’s cheaper and it covers everyone. It works all over the world. But the employer-based, insurance dominated system is so entrenched in the United States that the single payer system is not politically viable. At the same time, the current system, which excludes 45 million people and swallows up a huge and growing percentage of the GDP, is untenable.

The current legislation would curb some of the worst excesses of the current system. It would end denial of insurance because of pre-existing conditions and end the practice of dropping coverage when someone gets sick. It would reduce the monopoly power of insurance companies, thus causing them to curtail the escalation of premiums. It would provide coverage to 30 million people, a large percentage of the currently uninsured.

The fear among many progressives is that the health care bill could be a bonanza for health insurance companies who would get 30 million new customers without having to trim the cost of premiums or their gargantuan profits. They wonder if the new system would help the United States move from #37 in health care results and #1 in health care costs.

With a very close vote expected in the House, the fate of the bill could be determined by the votes of a handful of progressives. Could a “no” vote from a Dennis Kucinich sink health care legislation? Could Kucinich become the Ralph Nader of health care?

That would be a tragedy. There is much to commend the health care bill despite its glaring faults. Moreover, a defeat of the bill would be a defeat for the Democrats and a huge victory for the Republicans. They would see it as driving a stake through the Obama presidency. It would send a message to the American people that the Democrats can’t govern.

The health care bill has been successfully demonized by the GOP and the Tea Party group. Socialism, death panels, government takeover: every lie has been deployed against the bill. The polls reflect this. But by the time November comes around people will have realized the modest and mostly benign consequences of the health care reform. No government takeover. No socialism. No death panels.

What Obama and progressives have to worry about politically is the dire state of the economy at the grass roots level. With real unemployment at nearly 17 percent, any political party will get hammered. Obama has to figure out a way to overcome Republican obstructionism and speed up job creation in the United States between now and November — or at the most 2012.