Commentary By Ron Beasley
I don't often agree with Senator Mitch McConnell but he's right;
To Get it Right, Let�s Hit the Reset Button on Health Care Reform
Now of course we don't agree on where this should lead but I do agree with Thom Hartmann.
Medicare Part E: Everybody
The President this morning admitted on national television that he lost
control of the message with health care. It's time to reboot - and use
a very, very, very simple message so all Americans can understand it.
Let's use Medicare, which nearly every American understands. Just
create "Medicare Part E" where the "E" represents "everybody." Just let
any citizen in the US buy into Medicare.It would be so easy. No
need to reinvent the wheel with this so-called "public option" that's a
whole new program from the ground up. Medicare already exists. It
works. Some people will like it, others won't - just like the Post
Office versus FedEx analogy the President is so comfortable with.
Just pass a simple bill - it could probably be just a few lines, like
when Medicare was expanded to include disabled people - that says that
any American citizen can buy into the program at a rate to be set by
the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS) which reflects the actual cost for
us to buy into it.Thus, Medicare Part E would be revenue neutral!
To make it available to people of low income, Congress could raise the
rates slightly for all currently non-eligible people (like me - under
65) to cover the cost of below-200%-of-poverty people. Revenue neutral
again.
It's become obvious that we are not going to get a bill that's going to fix anything, even if there is a "public option" it will be so watered down that it won't offer any real competition. Urge your representatives to vote no and come back in the spring and start pushing for a single payer expansion of Medicare.
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