Parnell Continues to Fight Health Care for Alaskans
It’s been a big hairy week in Washington, D.C., with landmark Supreme Court decisions. Bigger than any of it is the way policy and politics are being touted as home runs and touchdowns by both political parties and pundits. It boggles my mind when two sides call the same point for themselves.
I live and breathe politics like many people follow sports. Sometimes the stress is enough to make me want to pull the covers over my head and peek out around Thanksgiving.
The tea party reaction was bizarre and almost comical. Congressman Mike Pence, R-Indiana, likened Thursday’s SCOTUS decision to the 9/11 attacks. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said, “Just because a couple people on the Supreme Court declare something to be ‘constitutional’ does not make it so.”
Back here on the home front, it’s been a bad week for the Parnell administration. We’ve spent time and treasure, entrusted to Gov. Sean Parnell, challenging the Affordable Care Act. “We don’t need no stinkin’ health care!” In a shock switch of what has become customary corporate pandering, Chief Justice John G. Roberts joined the usual minority four justices and Obamacare was deemed constitutional.
Parnell was the only governor to turn down more than $1 million of federal money to create offices for uninsured Alaskans to collectively purchase affordable coverage. Hard red states like Florida, Texas and Alabama accepted that federal grant money. Even the poster child of Republican nirvana, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, took the money.
After learning of the Supreme Court decision, Parnell released a statement: “On the federal level, it will take congressional action to roll back what now appears to be the single largest tax increase in American history. This tax will not hurt the rich, because they have insurance. It will not hurt the poorest Americans, because it will not apply to them. It is a tax on the working poor and middle class Americans. …”
You know what’s expensive for people in the private sector, governor? Having no insurance at all. Having insurance companies deny coverage because of a pre-existing condition. Having your 20-something children, forging their own trail, have an accident with no insurance coverage. Having your insurance premiums eat up more of your paycheck every year. Having those same insurance companies pay their CEO $100 million-plus a year by denying a procedure, test or medication their doctor has determined suitable for their condition — profiting by saying no.
Not to go all free-markety on you but you know what else is expensive, governor? Providing medical care at the most expensive real estate in the hospital — the ER. In emergency rooms across Alaska, uninsured patients receive medical care regardless of their ability to pay. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act has been a cornerstone of American health care. It was passed by a bipartisan Congress and signed into law by the Gipper himself, Ronald Reagan. Who pays? We all do through hospital tax write-offs and higher premiums.
I don’t even know why I bother. Parnell has insurance. It comes with his job — working for the government. When you’re covered, it’s pretty easy to forget about those who aren’t. But here’s the thing: If you already have insurance coverage you are completely unaffected by Obamacare. In fact, you’re better off. No longer can insurance companies, aka Death Panels, deny a pre-existing condition or medical therapy or procedure they deem experimental, unnecessary or too expensive.
The United States is the only Western industrialized nation on the planet that allows for-profit corporations to exclusively dictate the terms of our health care.
Even if you hate Obamacare, there’s an out. In 2011, Vermont launched the first single-payer health care system in America, signed into law by newly elected Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin. Shumlin said, “We gather here today to launch the first single-payer health care system in America, to do in Vermont what has taken too long: have a health care system, the best in the world, that treats health care as a right, and not a privilege.” As early as 2014, Green Mountain Care will cover all of Vermont’s 620,000 citizens. The cost? The Vermont Legislature commissioned Dr. William Hsiao, a Harvard economist who helped design health care systems in seven countries, to perform a cost-benefit analysis. His conclusion? Vermont’s single-payer plan would be approximately 25 percent cheaper for consumers, businesses and the government than the current private health insurance system. The savings: $500 million in just the first year.
Hmmm. Alaska has about the same population as Vermont and far more wealth. It’s time for single-payer coverage.
And, if there was any justice, legal or poetic, “loser pays” would apply to Parnell. He should have to personally pay back any state funds that supported his losing effort suing the federal government.
Mr. Parnell gets to look big with the Republican power brokers, we the citizens of the state get hurt.
CNN did a report on an Los Angeles hospital and the costs of a CAT-SCAN. $4468…insurance only covers $2400 of it…so they called to ask how much would it cost if they paid cash? $250!! That is what is wrong with the system…cooking the books one more time…
I generally enjoy your writing. However, you display your ignorance by referring to the health care reform act as “Obamacare”. A derisive term dreamed up by the conservative dimwits and halfwits that inhabit the Repub and Tea Party’s.
Unless you are one of the dim halfwits (and I don’t believe you are), why don’t you call it what it is: Corpcare or Healthindustrycare or Lobbyistcare or some such thang?
After all, the legislation was largely written by the health insurance companies, their lobbyists and corporate types.
Obama may have pushed hard for it, but the final bill was certainly not authored by Obama.
Lighten up, Al. Consider it claiming a derisive term and turning into recognition of accomplishment.
Or Affordable Care Act is also acceptable.
And I’m pretty sure a huge chunk of all legislation passed since Reagan has been crafted by lobbyists and corporate shills. What else is new? Now they get to overtly buy elections, too.
Obama has embraced it. He says he doesn’t mind people calling it Obamacare, because it shows that “Obama cares.”
I’ll just leave this here:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=487963897896929&set=a.224321947594460.75723.224319224261399&type=1
“How will we remember Sean Parnell?”
Who?
liberals wanted single payer health care. Coservatives said no, and suggest private insurance with an individual mandate. Liberals said no.
Fast forward a decade or so and a moderate president proposes an individual mandate and private insurance. Liberals aren’t thrilled, but agree to support the conservative solution. Conservatves now reject their own plan. Why? Is it because the President is a Democrat? Or because he is black?
The Affordable Care Act is far from perfect; I’d have preferred Medicare-for-All as a starting point, instead of having had it taken off the table before the horse trading even began.
That said, It is an enormous step in the right direction. I haven’t qualified for health insurance through an employer in decades. Because I’m so brilliantly, vibrantly healthy, I chose not to pay for health insurance (but did keep some money aside for an emergency).
Nearly three years ago, when I was horribly injured in an accident in a bodega, I paid for everything out of pocket. That meant multiple visits to an orthopedic surgeon, X-rays, MRI, and months of twice weekly physical therapy, as well as some adjunctive care like herbs, TCM over-the-counter pills, supplements, and acupuncture. I was reimbursed for most of it when my case was settled. However, had I needed surgery, I might very well have been ruined financially; joining the ranks of the medically-induced bankrupt.
When people telling their stories say things like, “You’re one surgery away from bankrupt,” or “You’re one illness away from homelessness,” they are not exaggerating. This is especially so because, unlike the insurance industry, individuals are charged “retail” for all procedures. The uninsured pay more for everything because there’s no one to negotiate on their behalf. Btw, I added up everything I paid out-of-pocket while healing from the injury, then divided that number by the number of months till I healed. It cost me less than the monthly premium I pay at present. Health and peace, even in Alaska.
Watch out for those bodegas, zxy . . . they bite.
In case you missed Tom Tomorrow this week:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8neIKHoFXuI/T_DkUdTGNQI/AAAAAAAAEyA/EftVNMVIW6s/s1600/TMW2012-07-04colorlowres%2B%25281%2529.jpg
Thanks, Mo. How did you know I missed TT this week?
I made two trips to the emergency room w/o insurance in the last ten years and I paid every single penny of the bill. When my son lived with me and caught pneumonia I was billed and had to pay every penny of his bill. Not all emergency room visits are free.
Emergency rooms aren’t free. But they can’t deny you care if you can’t afford it. Hospitals then classify the amount waived as Charity Care. Non profit hospitals have to meet certain levels of Charity Care to maintain ther non profit status as well. For profits get tax breaks for Charity Care.
Eight years ago, I made a trip to the emergency room (badly cut index finger). It took a very long time for me to be seen (it was Labor Day if memory serves, and holidays in Bellevue mean crowds), but I was well taken care of. I paid every cent of the bill.
According to HealthCare.gov, managed by federal HHS, to-date about 9000 young Alaskans, and about 3 million young adults nationwide, have enrolled for insurance coverage for age 19-25. In addition, 45 Alaskans, and 67,482 citizens nationwide have enrolled for pre-existing condition coverage. Whether Parnell likes it or not, Alaskans are already being covered by Obamacare.
If Alaska was doing the planning (it is not), we could have health care exchanges in-place and functioning by 2014. We could join the State of Washington and form a multi-state exchange, in order to take advantage of higher levels of competition, improve the number of choices, and to reduce our administrative cost. Must we petition the Alaska Legislature to get the health exchanges which are now our right as citizens?.
But really, Parnell is a right-wing extremist. If Parnell could he would eliminate social security, Medicaid, Medicare, children’s insurance, and the Affordable Health Care Act. How is any of that Christian? Parnell wears Christianity loudly on his lapel, but fails to act like a Christian. Where are the acts of caring and compassion for our children, for our seniors, and for the unfortunate? Where are the acts of compassion and caring for struggling Alaska families? “Obamacare” reminds us that apparently, it is only President Obama who cares. The “Roberts Decision” will secure the legacy of Justice John Roberts. How will we remember Sean Parnell?
All of the people I talk to that are against health care and other safety nets provided by the government fall back on a consistent argument. They read somewhere about welfare fraud and those that scam the system, so therefore these systems are bad. They seem to think that te vast majority are abusers of these benefits. So they would rather do away with the benefit than see the rare example of someone stealing their tax dollars. Bizarre.
Those opinions are indeed bizarre. Affordable Care Act insurance policies will be standard insurance policies, not welfare. There are 28 pages of standard health care choices available to families in Massachusetts (see: http://hcqcc.hcf.state.ma.us/ ). The State of Washington health care exchange is being assembled right now, and will be up in 2013 (see: http://www.wsha.org/0440.cfm ).
Looking at the choices in Massachusetts and the prices, there is no question that insurance companies are competing for business, and the competition is driving costs down. People should just go look for themselves and get past the fear of change.