Local lawmakers across the South are stepping up to weigh in on the health care debate. On Monday the Atlanta City Council passed a resolution calling on Congress to enact "comprehensive, quality, affordable health care legislation for all Americans."
This resolution represents a major departure from the recent action of conservative Georgia lawmakers. Earlier this month, a group of Georgia Senate Republicans announced plans to introduce an amendment to the state constitution during this winter's legislative session that would would opt Georgia out of federal health insurance reform, reports the Atlanta Business Chronicle. The state's constitutional change would be subject to a statewide referendum in November 2010, and is aimed at stopping federal lawmakers from enforcing health care reform in the state.
The Georgia legislation is based on the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which declares that any power not explicitly granted the federal government in the Constitution is preserved for the states. As Think Progress reports, "tentherism" is just the latest in a series of far-right political movements to counter the reform efforts of the Obama administration.
Other Georgia lawmakers say that health care reform, inclusive of a government-run public option, is necessary to reduce the costs of health insurance. According to Atlanta Business Chronicle:
The [Atlanta City Council's resolution], sponsored by a dozen council members, cites the rising costs of health care and health insurance and the growing number of uninsured Georgians as reasons for federal lawmakers to act on the issue.
It also points to decreasing competition among health insurance companies, a trend revealed by the American Medical Association in a report showing that the number of health insurers in the U.S. has declined by nearly 20 percent since 2000.In Georgia, according to the 2007 study by the American Medical Association [pdf], two insurers -- WellPoint and UnitedHealth Group -- hold a 69 percent share of the market. WellPoint, a Blue Cross/Blue Shield licensee, holds a whopping 61 percent of that share. In the Atlanta metro region both of those insurers hold a 66 percent share of the market.
As Facing South has reported, conservatives and other opponents of the "public option" for health care say that it would hurt competition. But as researchers point out, in the health insurance market, introducing another choice -- a public health insurance option -- would actually dramatically increase competition. Due to unprecedented consolidation of the health insurance market over the past decade, the industry has created near-monopolies in all Southern states, driving up the cost of insurance.
The U.S. Justice Department considers a market "highly concentrated" if one company holds more than a 42 percent share of that market. As a recent report on health industry consolidation notes, these near-monopolies mean that an insurer could raise premiums and/or reduce the variety of plan or quality of services offered to customers with impunity.
Shrinking competition among health insurance companies is also a major cause of spiraling health insurance costs. In fact, health insurance premiums in Georgia have skyrocketed, increasing 73 percent from 2000 to 2007. Advocates of a public option plan, including President Obama, say that it would provide needed competition to force price reductions from private health plans.
Fearing more competition, insurers continue to fight the public option. WellPoint and UnitedHealth Group, Georgia and the nation's two largest carriers, have spent millions to lobby against a public option. Both insurers were recently accused of violating labor laws when they pressured their employees to contact members of Congress and lobby against health care reform proposals that the companies disagreed with.
And as the Huffington Post pointed out today about WellPoint:
WellPoint is one of the insurance industry giants leading the charge against President Barack Obama's plan to create a "public option" - essentially an expansion of Medicare for working families - to create more competition and give consumers more choices.
Ironically, WellPoint is one of a handful of insurance companies that have a virtual iron grip on the insurance market in almost every state. The American Medical Association reports that 94 percent of insurance markets in more than 300 metropolitan areas are now highly concentrated. WellPoint runs Blue Cross-Blue Shield plans in 14 states. In Maine, for example, WellPoint controls 78% of the health insurance market. It dominates the market in Missouri, with 68% of the business, as well as in its home state of Indiana (60%), Georgia (61%), New Hampshire (51%), Kentucky (59%), Connecticut (55%), Virginia (50%), Ohio (41%, with the next largest company garnering only 17% of the market), and Colorado (with 29%, larger than runner-up United Health Group, with 24% of market share). In New York and California, WellPoint ranks second, with 21% and 20% of the health insurance market, respectively, in those two huge states.
These near-monopolistic conditions -- where one or two companies dominate the insurance market --allow big corporations like WellPoint to drive up premiums, restrict coverage, and take advantage of consumers. Nationwide, health insurance premiums have been rising much faster than family incomes. No wonder WellPoint wants to quash potential competition from a public option.
To thwart such competition, and to limit government regulation of its practices, WellPoint has spent millions of dollars - dollars it gets from the families and businesses paying sky-high premiums - to wield political influence.
According to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, WellPoint employees and associates have contributed more than $922,000 to federal political campaigns over the past two and a half years. And the corporation has spent $7.8 million lobbying Washington policymakers over the same time period.
Not surprisingly, these legal bribes aren't given out randomly. The top recipients are key members of the Senate and House with influence over health care policy, including Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a leading opponent of the "public option" in health care reform.
Moreover, WellPoint is a seasoned player in the Washington "revolving door" game. For example, WellPoint's former Vice President for Public Policy and External Affairs, Elizabeth Fowler, now serves as Senior Counsel to Baucus. Fowler's predecessor in Baucus' office, Michelle Easton, currently lobbies for Wellpoint as a principal at Tarplin, Downs, & Young, a well-connected lobbying firm.
As the debate continues to heat up in Congress, health reform advocates are more organized than ever. Across the nation Tuesday, health care reform grassroots groups and advocates are attending rallies and protests in more than 150 different cities. Groups are visiting WellPoint's Indianapolis headquarters and the headquarters of other insurers -- to highlight abuses in the industry. The national day of protest is sponsored by Health Care for America Now, a coalition of more than 1,000 health care groups advocating for public health insurance, MoveOn.Org, and others.
Advocates hope that public mobilizations will help push Congress -- including several conservative Senate Democrats now resisting a public option -- to enact significant reform.
ATTENTION!! Congress Has The Votes Needed To Pass A Public Option - TODAY http://bit.ly/TCq7O
Why A Strong Public Option Is Essential - By jacksmith - Working Class
Robert Reich explains the pubic option: http://bit.ly/dDYSJ http://robertreich.blogspot.com/
Hollywood Supports The Public Option :-) http://bit.ly/3XLwPi
It's not just because more than two thirds of the American people want a single payer health care system. And if they cant have a single payer system 77% of all Americans want a strong government-run public option on day one (86% of democrats, 75% of independents, and 72% republicans). Basically everyone.
It's not just because according to a new AARP POLL: 86 percent of seniors want universal healthcare security for All, including 93% of Democrats, 87% of Independents, and 78% of Republicans. With 79% of seniors supporting creating a new strong Government-run public option plan, available immediately. Including 89% of Democrats, 80% of Independents, and 61% of Republicans, STUNNING!!
It's not just because it will lower cost. Because a strong public option will dramatically lower cost for everyone. And dramatically improved the quality of care everyone receives in America and around the World. Rich, middle class, and poor a like.
It's not just because it will save trillions of dollars and prevent the needless deaths of millions more of YOU, caused by a rush to profit by the DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX!
It's not just because every expert in every field, including economist, and Nobel laureates all agree that free market based healthcare systems don't work. Never have and never will. The US has the only truly free market based healthcare system in the World. And as you all know now, IT IS A DISASTER!
It's not just because providing or denying medically necessary care for profit motivations is wrong. Because it is WRONG! It's professionally, ethically, and morally REPUGNANT!, Animalistic, VILE and EVIL.
THE REASON THE PUBLIC OPTION IS ESSENTIAL:
The public option is ESSENTIAL because over 200 million of you are trapped in the forest of the wolves. Which is the forest of the DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX! With no way out except through needless inhumane suffering, and DEATH. While the wolves tear at your flesh, and rip you limb from lib. Then feast on your lifeless bodies like a dead carcase for transplant parts.
At the most vulnerable times of your lives (when you were sick and hurting), millions of you have had to fight and loose cruel, but heroic battles. Fighting against the big guns of the DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX! in the forest of the wolves. All because you have no place else to go. You have no other CHOICE!
But the PUBLIC OPTION will give you someplace safe to go. And it will give us someplace safe to take you. The public option will be your refugium (your refuge). Where the wolves cannot get at you when your down, hurting, and vulnerable. Where everyone who needs it can find rest, security, comfort and the care they need. Protected by the BIG GUNS of We The People Of The United States. THE MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE AND COUNTRY ON EARTH.
This is why it is so critical that we do not lead another 50 million vulnerable, uninsured Americans into the forest of the wolves, without the protections of a Strong Government-run public option. We The People Of The United States MUST NOT LET THAT HAPPEN to any more of our fellow Americans. If healthcare reform does not contain a strong public option on day one. YOU MUST! KILL IT. Or you will do far more harm than good. And millions more will die needlessly. Rich, middle class, and poor a like.
To those who would continue to obstruct good and true healthcare reform for the American people, and who seek to trap millions more vulnerable Americans in the forest of the wolves. We will continue to fight you. We are prepared to wage all out war against you, and will eagerly DESTROY! you. Time...is...UP! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! No Co-op's! No Triggers! NO INDIVIDUAL MANDATES! without a Strong public option on day one.
Healthcare reform can be the GREATEST! Accomplishment of our time and century. A time when future generations may say of us, that we were all, AMERICAS GREATEST GENERATIONS.
BUT WE MUST ACT!
I therefore call on all my fellow Americans and the peoples of the World. To join us in this fight so that we may finish becoming the better America that we aspire to be for everyone.
SPREAD THE WORD!
I have been privileged to be witness as many of you fought, and struggled to take your first breath, and your last breath on this earth. Rich, middle class, and poor a like. Life is precious.
Whatever the cost. WE! MUST SUCCEED.
God Bless You My Fellow Human Beings
jacksmith - Working Class
Things You Can Do To Help NOW! http://www.everydaycitizen.com/2009/09/tired_of_watching_people_die_n.html
No Triggers! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-rosenbaum/a-trigger-for-the-public_b_277910.html
Triggers http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/weve-seen-these-triggers_b_283583.html
Krugman on heathcare (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/why-markets-cant-cure-healthcare/)
Senator Bernie Sanders on healthcare (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSM8t_cLZgk&feature=player_embedded)
John Garamendi on the Public Option and the Grassroots: http://bit.ly/TJMty
Howard Dean on the Public Option http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SKfW2dUnow&feature=player_embedded
We're Number 37! in quality of health care http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVgOl3cETb4&feature=player_embedded
Twitter search (#welovethenhs #NHS #hc09 #hcr #healthcar #obama #p2 #topprog #) Check it out.
September 22, 2009 3:03 PM | Reply
Good reporting and a clear analysis of the situation!
An unregulated market can lead--and in the case of health insurance, has led--to monopolies. And when you're dealing with a service that's required for survival, such as health care, monopolies are lethal. Period.
Furthermore, and importantly: Health insurance reform with a public option is no more the start of a "socialist takeover" than was U.S. public education or Medicare. Decades ago, opponents of those two things warned that they were the beginning of socialism. That was BS then, and it's BS now. Don't buy that tired line.
To be sure, widespread public health care won't suddenly make everything rosy. The government will use our tax money well and run public health care well only if we demand that they do so. To make that demand and to get it met will be challenging--but it will be far, far easier than trying to make a private corporation do the right thing. You simply can't depend on an insurance company to cover you, its customer, because the company's very survival depends on its screwing you as badly as it possibly can. (Worried about rationing? Put pressure on your Senator! Worried about your insurance company denying you coverage when you need it most? Good luck!)
Finally: Overwhelming evidence for the success of public health systems can be seen in countries where such systems work extremely well (i.e., France) and even in countries where they work only fairly well (i.e., the UK). Polls consistently show widespread satisfaction for such systems. Citizens of such countries who are dissastisfied do exist, but such people are a small minority--and the numbers IN NO WAY COMPARE to the level of dissatisfaction here in the U.S.
AND EVERY SINGLE FIRST WORLD COUNTRY, EXCEPT THE U.S., HAS A ROBUST PUBLIC HEALTH CARE SYSTEM.
So: DO NOT BE A PAWN OF HEALTH INSURANCE CORPORATIONS, WHOSE BOTTOM LINE DEPENDS ON DENYING THEIR CUSTOMERS--YOU--COVERAGE! SEE DEMOCRAT SENATOR BAUCUS, HIS DEMOCRAT GANG OF SIX, AND A LARGE CHUNK OF GOP SENATORS FOR WHAT THEY ARE: PAID REPS FOR THE HEALTH INSURANCE INDUSTRY! Get active, put pressure on Olympia Snowe and others in the Senate, and help get a public option passed. Forget about whether you usually vote Republican or Democrat. Just help get this done, now. There won't be another chance.
HEALTH CARE REFORM--WITH A ROBUST PUBLIC OPTION--NOW!
September 22, 2009 3:26 PM | Reply
I totally agree with the comments made. I was a nurse for 23 years, starting out as an LPN and ending my career as a Nurse Practitioner. Now, I am a small business owner. Although I make less than half of what I made in the medical field, I am totally happy.
The medical industry has become a joke! Doctors work too many hours for too little money and seem very unhappy. They are constantly having to jump through hoops (playing the 'coding')game in order to get reimbursement from the insurance companies. In addition, they lie about the patients medical history in order to get reimbursed for tests and procedures that are considered to be the standard of care. Why do they do this? Because if they fail to, and the patient is later diagnosed with a disease that could have been curtailed, then they would be suied!
Don't get me wrong, I know there are doctors who could care less about the patient and should have their license revoked. But there are just as many medical students who want to be general practitioners but don't because of the money.
Get rid of the insurance monopoly and decrease frivolous law suits! Trade the middle man for a public health care option!
October 6, 2009 7:34 PM | Reply