News & Comment

Texas Gov. Rick Perry was one of the first Republican governors out of the blocks to vow he'd never take any of that federal Medicaid expansion money after the Supreme Court ruled that states could refuse to participate in that provision of the Affordable Care Act. He announced on July 9 that he'd reject the program. Either he didn't send that message to the rest of his administration, or he was lying. read more »

I read a news story this week that sent me on a nostalgic trip down memory lane. This past Monday, July 30th was the 47th anniversary of Medicare, and to celebrate it, the “Raging Grannies,” as they’re known, gathered outside the county office building in Rochester, New York to protest rumored cuts to their Medicare coverage. They praised Medicare in song as “the best deal we have in the country,” and even called for expanding it Medicare into universal health care for everyone. It seems the Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner, was coming up from Washington to raise funds for Republican congressional candidate Maggie Brooks. The “Raging Grannies” wanted to make certain Ms. Brooks didn’t sign on to the GOP budget which includes cuts to Medicare. For myself, the “Raging Grannies” channeled a familiar voice, the Texas twang of my boss back in 1965, Lyndon Baines Johnson. read more »

Aetna's had a lot to say lately about how  business is good. The company disclosed last week that it made $458 million in profits this spring, and said it expected to make more money this year than executives previously thought possible. The firm also signaled it set aside three quarters of a billion dollars from policyholders to buy back shares of its own stock instead of paying more claims. But a few days before that, Aetna's CEO got a real-world understanding of just how inadequate some of the company's policies are. And thanks to Twitter, the rest of us got a better understanding of how U.S. health insurers are able to profit so handsomely from the inadequate policies they sell, especially to students. read more »

It is becoming increasingly apparent that it’s important for the poor to stay healthy. There is no way the seventh richest country in the world is going to be able to care for the poor if they get sick and they owe it to the rest of us to stay healthy. If they don’t, it inflicts on the more fortunate a sense of guilt, except of course, among those who attribute the state in which the poor find themselves, to their own lack of initiative. Those are people like Rick Perry, the governor of Texas. read more »

I was on Minnesota Public Radio's "The Daily Circuit" yesterday, to talk about the Obama campaign's tailored health care reform pitch to African Americans and Latinos. It's one of the few times I can recall the White House being as specific about the benefits of health care reform as it should have been all along. The basic message is that African Americans and Latinos, who are uninsured at rates much higher than whites, stand to gain a lot from access to preventative care, and other measures to reduce health disparities in both communities.  But while the White House is working to make African Americans and Latino voters aware of those benefits and how to access them, the president might ad that those very benefits are now threatened by the newest "Death Panel" to enter the seemingly interminable health care reform debate. read more »

What a country. read more »

Unless you've been off the planet for the better part of this year, you've heard all about Mitt Romney's vulture capitalist career at the helm of Bain Capital — the private equity firm founded by Romney, where he gained the experience he touts as his chief qualification for the presidency. You've heard about how Romney pioneered the practice of offshoring while at Bain, made millions sending more jobs to China than he created here, and made even more money by investing in Chinese firms that benefited from the offshoring of American jobs. You've also heard how the jobs Romney takes credit for creating are low-paying jobs with no pathway to middle class living. You've heard about the closed factories and laid-off workers. If you've been reading here for a while, you get that private equity sounds like a business play by Tony Soprano: cheat main street and get rich. Now imagine Bain Capital running your health care, or even your child's care. Imagine Bain capitalism as the basis for our health care system. read more »

In a previous post, I wrote that Mitt Romney was booed at the NAACP convention when he reiterated his support for repealing health care reform was because,  what health care reform means for African Americans. Many people in the audience probably knew what health care reform means for them, their families, and the communities. Romney offered the standard conservative "one-size-fits-all" solution for health care. Free enterprise is still the greatest force for upward mobility, economic security, and the expansion of the middle class. We have seen in recent years what it’s like to have less free enterprise. As President, I will show the good things that can happen when we have more – more business activity, more jobs, more opportunity, more paychecks, more savings accounts. Romney either ignored or failed to grasp that his experience with the free market is very different from the experiences of many people in the NAACP audience. read more »

Before Andrew Leonard's paean to paying taxes (inspired by his house catching fire) sparked me to write a different post on Friday, I'd intended to write a wrap-up post, comparing Mitt Romney's NAACP speech to Joe Biden's speech. Something Vice President Biden said in his speech reminded me of something else I heard from a speaker at the closing plenary of the Take Back the American Dream conference this year; something brings into focus the stark choice facing voters in November, and why the NAACP audience responded so differently to Romney and Biden. Vice President Biden got to the meat of his speech right from the beginning. read more »

And he's supposed to be one of the reasonable ones: Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.) said on Monday evening that he didn't believe highly expensive health care should be provided to uninsured patients with pre-existing conditions... read more »