TARP For Insurance Companies

Also known as the Senate Health Care Bill.

McJoan at DailyKos has a summary of some of the provisions in the bill. It's the good, the bad, and the ugly all over again, and by my take, the bad and the ugly far outweigh the good.

McJoan makes one good point:

Bottom line, Americans are still going to be forced to buy insurance that for too many people will be unaffordable. As long as that's the case, and until there's a true alternative public option that provides people real choice, the insurance companies shouldn't get that one thing in the legislation they want: the mandate.

I defy any sitting senator to explain with a straight face why I should be forced to participate in a non-competitive market for health coverage at prices set by the industry and policies regulated by the industry.

By the way, it's not just the insurance companies who have Obama hornswoggled. Drug manufacturers have set him up for extra duty as a ping-pong ball. David Sirota has a good run-down:

The good news is that the furor seems to have exacted a commitment out of the White House for future action:

Speaking on CNN's "State of the Union," David Axelrod, Obama's top political aide, said the White House still favors drug re-importation and wants to move forward on it.

"Let me be clear. The president supports re-importation. As he said, safe re-importation of drugs into this country. There's no reason why the Americans should pay a premium for pharmaceuticals that people in other countries pay less for," Axelrod said. "We will move forward on it."

Substantively, this is still dishonest - as I noted in past reporting on this, if the administration really wanted to do importation, as Axelrod claims, it has the statutory authority right now to allow it via a certification by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. We're all somehow supposed to ignore that reality - as if we're all idiots. We're all also supposed to ignore Obama's campaign commitment - Axelrod offers up no explanation as to why Senator Obama co-sponsored the Dorgan amendment he worked to kill nor any explanation as to why candidate Obama's campaign promise to support it was broken.

I don't believe it. More nice words from an administration that can't seem to come up with anything else.

My first impulse is to say "Kill the Senate bill." The House bill isn't nearly as bad, but Ben Nelson (D-National Right to Life Committee) is threatening to kill any compromise that doesn't include an outright ban on abortion -- or as well as. Maha takes a a look at the realities:

Think of this bill as a foot in the door. Once provisions begin to go into effect, once people realize their lives are less in jeopardy, there are no death panels, and Soviet tanks don’t appear in the streets, most Americans will support it, and more reforms will be possible. Yes, I agree with Digby that a large portion of Americans are so lost in their mythic fantasy land they wouldn’t recognize reality if it showed up with fireworks and a brass band. But I think that while most Americans can be confused and bamboozled about new or foreign things, once they have direct experience with something they are not so easily fooled. They saw through George Bush’s Social Security privatization scheme, for example.

I'm not nearly so confident that we'll be able to improve on whatever mess the Congress and Obama come up with. There is as much likelihood that health-care reform will get worse rather than better as they tinker. Obama can't be counted on to fight for anything, and the Republicans and those Senators who are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the insurance industry (Max Baucus, Olympia Snowe, Joe Lieberman -- for some reason those names leap out at me) will do their best to weaken anything that does anyone besides their main constituents -- that is, those insurance companies (and drug manfacturers -- don't forget the drug manufacturers) that are paying for their campaigns -- any good.

You reach a point where you just have to junk it and start over. I'm almost there with health-care reform. I'm way past that with the Congress.

Update:

Jane Hamsher comes up with ten reasons to kill the bill:

Top 10 Reasons to Kill Senate Health Care Bill

1. Forces you to pay up to 8% of your income to private insurance corporations — whether you want to or not.
2. If you refuse to buy the insurance, you’ll have to pay penalties of up to 2% of your annual income to the IRS.
3. Many will be forced to buy poor-quality insurance they can’t afford to use, with $11,900 in annual out-of-pocket expenses over and above their annual premiums.
4. Massive restriction on a woman’s right to choose, designed to trigger a challenge to Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court.
5. Paid for by taxes on the middle class insurance plan you have right now through your employer, causing them to cut back benefits and increase co-pays.
6. Many of the taxes to pay for the bill start now, but most Americans won’t see any benefits — like an end to discrimination against those with preexisting conditions — until 2014 when the program begins.
7. Allows insurance companies to charge people who are older 300% more than others.
8. Grants monopolies to drug companies that will keep generic versions of expensive biotech drugs from ever coming to market.
9. No re-importation of prescription drugs, which would save consumers $100 billion over 10 years.
10. The cost of medical care will continue to rise, and insurance premiums for a family of four will rise an average of $1,000 a year — meaning in 10 years, your family’s insurance premium will be $10,000 more annually than it is right now.

. . .

The Senate bill isn’t a “starter home,” it’s a sink hole. It needs to die so something else can take its place. It doesn’t matter whether people are on the right or the left — once they understand the con job that’s about to be foist upon them, they agree. That’s why Harry Reid and President Obama are trying to jam it through as fast as they can, before people get wise.