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The Starter House Oxymoron

By Pat Racimora on January 6, 2010 at 3:30 PM in Current Affairs

Forget “friendly fire,” “legally drunk,” ”working vacation,” “morbid humor” and the like.

Senator Harkin’s (D-Iowa) recent statement that “What we are buying here is a modest home, not a mansion. What we are getting here is a starter home” to describe the Senate version of Health Care “Reform” is the new granddaddy of all oxymorons.

A “starter house” for 870 billion dollars?

“Big Tent Democrat” writing for Talk Left attempts to perfume Harkin’s statement by suggesting that this bill shouldn’t be misinterpreted as being anything really good.

In an important way, this is quite helpful. One of the more frustrating aspects of the debate this past week was the attempt to sell the Senate bill is a great piece of progressive legislation. It simply is not. It is not only modest in it attempts at reform, it is flawed politically and in terms of policy. If you believe it is a start on reform, and I do not, then do not oversell it as the end. Understand that you have NOT solved the problem. Acknowledge that you have not solved the problem. And most importantly, PROMISE to keep working on the problem. Harkin strikes the right tone.

We will likely get something passed soon enough. When I look at summaries of the differences between House and Senate bills, I see where merging the two will not be difficult. This starter home will contain some reforms (it does have a toilet that flushes out some nasty insurance company practices currently in effect), but overall it is a boon to the private insurance industry with little that passes as true health care reform. Every American will be forced to buy insurance or pay a fine. Kids will get to stay on their parents’ insurance longer, but you won’t want to get near this house if you are older because you will pay two or three times more. A public option (as in the current House bill) is unlikely to survive negotiations.

Trying to make sense of the Senate bill is difficult (over 2,000 pages of goop again), but it appears that insurance companies will have considerable flexibility in what they can do. Jon Walker at Firedog Lake has serious concerns here

Plan design flexibility will encourage private insurance companies to continue to game the system, create a large amount of administrative waste, and make true comparative shopping difficult. Allowing the sale of low actuarial value insurance will simply replace the uninsured with the very underinsured. High cost sharing will still leave actual health care unaffordable for many. This will discourage people from seeking care until it is too late and the eventual treatment will be much more expensive. High cost sharing is simply not the solution to our out-of-control health care costs.

That we need true health care reform is not at issue here. But why can’t we start out with a high quality house given that we have to pay so much for it?

(For an extended version of Harkin’s comments, see Lynda Waddington’s story in the Iowa Independent here.)

mountainaires

What we are “buying here” is a PIG IN A POKE.

Even Bob Herbert says there’s a smell coming from the bill:

“There is a middle-class tax time bomb ticking in the Senate’s version of President Obama’s effort to reform health care.

The bill that passed the Senate with such fanfare on Christmas Eve would impose a confiscatory 40 percent excise tax on so-called Cadillac health plans, which are popularly viewed as over-the-top plans held only by the very wealthy. In fact, it’s a tax that in a few years will hammer millions of middle-class policyholders, forcing them to scale back their access to medical care. Which is exactly what the tax is designed to do.

The tax would kick in on plans exceeding $23,000 annually for family coverage and $8,500 for individuals, starting in 2013.
In the first year it would affect relatively few people in the middle class. But because of the steadily rising costs of health care in the U.S., more and more plans would reach the taxation threshold each year.

Within three years of its implementation, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the tax would apply to nearly 20 percent of all workers with employer-provided health coverage in the country, affecting some 31 million people. Within six years, according to Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, the tax would reach a fifth of all households earning between $50,000 and $75,000 annually. Those families can hardly be considered very wealthy.

Proponents say the tax will raise nearly $150 billion over 10 years, but there’s a catch. It’s not expected to raise this money directly. The dirty little secret behind this onerous tax is that no one expects very many people to pay it. The idea is that rather than fork over 40 percent in taxes on the amount by which policies exceed the threshold, employers (and individuals who purchase health insurance on their own) will have little choice but to ratchet down the quality of their health plans.”
http://www.alternet.org/story/144909/senate%27s_proposed_health_care_tax_isn%27t_aimed_at_the_rich%2C_it%27s_aimed_at_you
mountainaires

Secret Deliberations on the Health Care Bill.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/peter-roff/2010/01/04/democratic-leaders-plan-secret-health-reform-deliberations.html
creeper

Harkin grows further out of touch with his constituents here in Iowa every day. Unfortunately, we’re stuck with him until 2014. Not a pleasant prospect.
Johnny B

Pat: Thanks for the reminder “Health Care Reform” is a sham under what is going to be passed. Here’s what George McGovern wrote in September:

It’s Simple: Medicare for All
http://www.healthcare-now.org/its-simple-medicare-for-all/

By George S. McGovern for the Washington Post –
For many years, a handful of American political leaders — including the late senator Ted Kennedy and now President Obama — have been trying to gain passage of comprehensive health care for all Americans. As far back as President Harry S. Truman, they have urged Congress to act on this national need. In a presentation before a joint session of Congress last week, Obama offered his view of the best way forward.
But what seems missing in the current battle is a single proposal that everyone can understand and that does not lend itself to demagoguery. If we want comprehensive health care for all our citizens, we can achieve it with a single sentence: Congress hereby extends Medicare to all Americans.

Those of us over 65 have been enjoying this program for years. I go to the doctor or hospital of my choice, and my taxes pay all the bills. It’s wonderful. But I would have appreciated it even more if my wife and children and I had had such health-care coverage when we were younger. I want every American, from birth to death, to get the kind of health care I now receive. Removing the payments now going to the insurance corporations would considerably offset the tax increase necessary to cover all Americans.
Pat Racimora

Oh, yes–I’ve got to do that pig in a poke cartoon. Thanks for reminding me Moutainaires.
nick matyas

i like the post.”

<a href=”http://www.webroyalty.com”>Webroyalty</a>
Doc99

The term “White Elephant” comes to mind.
mountainaires

:-E Pat, I hope you don’t think my outburst was criticism directed at you! Not in the least; I love your stuff! But, a pig-in-a-poke cartoon would be fun! :-[
Pat Racimora

Oh, no, Mountainaires–didn’t think that. It’s just that I was ponderinbg a while back about how good a pig in a poke toon would apply to so much that is going down–and I can see it in my head. Then it just slipped my mind. Just need to do it and pick a target (which is rather like shooting fish in a barrell, given my many options! Unfortunately….)
Peggy Sue

Harkin’s housing metaphor is lousy. What we’re being asked to buy is a hovel with bars on the windows and cops at the door [ready to tax us or jail us if we don't get in line].

And that paragraph from Talk Left, Pat, is remarkably honest but seriously illogical. Why should any American be expected to buy into this when:

IT DOESN”T SOLVE THE PROBLEM?

Big Tent Dem needs to have his or her head examined. Buy into legislation at a cost that will break our backs and we don’t get reform or cost containments and people are still left uninsured? And please, let’s not forget how women are treated under this “historical bill.”

I’ve got news for these people. This will be the end of the Democratic Party for a long, long time. And I’m not one to think the Republicans are going to “save” us.

This is the screwing of America. And people will not forget.

Thanks for the toon, Pat.
Texas Playwright

Congress/WH people lie so easily. That’s the biggest irritant of all for me. Looking forward to all state AG’s challenging this illegal mess of a secret bill.
don x

The clamor and disagreement over health care reform brings to mind the story of the blind men and an elephant which supposedly emanated from India years ago. There are various versions of the tale. In one version, a group of blind men are asked to touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one is asked to touch a different part, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk or the tail. They then compare notes on what they felt, and learn they are in complete disagreement. The story is used to indicate that reality may be viewed differently depending upon one’s perspective, suggesting that what seems an absolute truth may be relative due to the deceptive nature of half-truths.

The complicated nature of the various versions of the health reform bill are so cumbersome, nobody can fathom what will be the end product. All we get are half-truths and pieces of the puzzle along with politicized commentaries. When the puzzle is finally assembled into something that gets passed (if it does), I think it is likely that it will be a monster with effects that we won’t fully realize for several years down the road.

In the meantime everyone has their own perspective as to what is in the bills, what is wrong with the Senate and House versions, and a lot of fear as to what kind of monster is being created.
Stan Davis

Speaking of mixed metaphors, when the “starter home” hit the street it was basically in the same sentence as having only a few yards from the goal line. Let’s see…what kind of running back is a starter home?
Stan Davis
Lakewood, CO
TeakWoodKite

Pat, I heard the “starter house” was purchased with a sub prime and is now in a forclosure proceding.
I want to thank you once again for a good Laugh.
Solara 9

LOL!!! Good one TeakWoodKite.
tek

I am livid that Obama is insisting on taxing existing healthcare plans. This bill is awful. If people were responsible and worked at jobs that gave them less pay in exchange for health care benefits, now they will have to pay taxes on that healthcare. Disabled people who can’t work already have benefits from SS and Medicaid. So who are these people Obama has to tax us to give healthcare? Lots of them are people who just won’t work, or they’re criminals who have no visible means of income, or they’re crackheads who need expensive medical care and they’re too fried to work. Obama’s bill is completely discriminatory and lacking.