Jon Walker on Ezra Klein's "absurd claim that Senate bill closely resembles Obama's promises"

[mcablue]

Ezra's claim:

The health-care bill that looks likely to clear the Senate this week is not very close to the health-care bill most liberals want. But it is very close to the health-care bill that Barack Obama promised.

Walker's response: "This claim, I feel, is just not based in reality. The following is a list of all the promises broken:"

Promise: "Under the plan, if you like your current health insurance, nothing changes, except your costs will go down by as much as $2,500 per year."

WALKER: "The CBO has concluded that premiums for employer-provided insurance will not drop by anything close to $2,500 per year. Without reforms like drug re-importation, direct government drug price negotiations, a robust public option, or a central provider reimbursement negotiator, I see no way this reduction can happen with the Senate bill."

Promise:Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s new National Health Insurance Exchange will also help increase competition by insurers.

WALKER: "The Senate bill will use state-based exchanges. This is not some minor technical distinction. By using state-based exchanges, it relies on state insurance commissioners to enforce the new regulations. State insurance commissioners do not have a good track record policing the insurance companies. They often lack the power, funding, or will to hold them accountable. Regulation without strong enforcement is meaningless."

Promise: Allow consumers to import safe drugs from other countries.

WALKER: "This is a pure broken promise. Obama traded it away to PhRMA as part of a secret backroom deal (which itself breaks another promise: to make all negotiations public on C-SPAN). He actively worked to kill drug re-importation when it had a real chance of being added to the bill."

Promise: Allow Medicare to negotiate for cheaper drug prices.

WALKER: "Again, this is another broken promise that was part of Obama’s secret sweetheart deal with PhRMA."

Promise Through the Exchange, any American will have the opportunity to enroll in the new public plan or an approved private plan… The Exchange will require that all the plans offered are at least as generous as the new public plan and meet the same standards for quality and efficiency.

WALKER: "There is no public option in the Senate bill. In the health care system that Obama promise the public option was not just some “small sliver.” It was going to be the benchmark against which all private plans would need to be measured."

Promise: Affordable premiums, co-pays and deductibles. Participants will be charged fair premiums and minimal co-pays for deductibles for preventive services.

WALKER: "I do not believe the subsidized premiums are affordable and the subsidies are only for the 70% actuarial plans. Plans with this low of an actuarial will likely have high co-pays and deductibles."

Promise: EMPLOYER CONTRIBUTION. Large employers that do not offer meaningful coverage or make a meaningful contribution to the cost of quality health coverage for their employees will be required to contribute a percentage of payroll toward the costs of the national plan. Small businesses will be exempt from this requirement.

WALKER: "The Senate bill does not have a real employer mandate based on payroll. It only has a small “free rider” provision. Because of the lack of a real employer mandate, the amount of employer-provided coverage will drop by $5 million."

link: http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2009/12/21/senate-health-care-bill-is-built-on-obamas-broken-promises/

[ProSense]

1. This is what happens when people don't understand what they're reading.

The majority will realize more significant savings.




The CBO chart Walker provides also notes: Total Difference Before Accounting for Subsidies

[Hello_Kitty]

2. Ah, the "family of four" again. 27.5% of US households have children living in them.

Yet we never see HCR proponents illustrating the plan with single adults or DINKs.