Democratic Primaries
Related: About this forumDavid Sirota strikes again...
BERN NOTICE: The Hamptons & the Obi-Wan Kenobi PrincipleCriticizing Medicare for All may get applause at donor parties in the Hamptons, but the attacks are helping Bernie Sanders in the rest of America
Bern Notice is a production of the Bernie 2020 campaign. Please forward this on to your friends and tell them to subscribe. The views expressed here are solely of the bylined author.
Kamala Harris today proved the old adage: promises made to big donors in the Hamptons dont stay in the Hamptons.
According to Bloomberg News, Harris visited the wealthy enclave this weekend, and told donors that she is now uncomfortable with Bernie Sanders Medicare for All legislation -- which Harris is actually co-sponsoring. Harris generated big headlines a few months back when she unequivocally declared that she wanted to get rid of private insurance, but her spokesperson today said that she isn't running on Bernie's plan anymore.
Anymore...priceless.
As unions and grassroots groups have helped build momentum for Medicare for All, Harris and many other 2020 Democrats have spent the past few weeks trying to short circuit Medicare for All and preserve the private insurance industry whose premiums, deductibles and co-pays now cost $28,000 a year to cover the average family of four. All that money isnt buying better care for millions of Americans -- but it is helping health industry CEOs get paid $2.6 billion last year alone.
The Harris flip flop is a reminder that while Medicare for All received an enthusiastic response at Bernies Fox News townhall in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania -- it doesnt get that kind of response on the big dollar fundraising circuit in the Hamptons. It also probably wouldnt elicit a great response at Joe Bidens first fundraiser hosted by a major insurance CEO.
And so Harris, Biden and other Democrats arent spending lots of their time attacking Donald Trump and the GOP for doing the bidding of their health care industry donors. Instead, they are attacking the Medicare for All framework that now has the support of the majority of Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. House. They are also refusing to join a pledge to reject campaign cash from insurance executives and lobbyists.
Now the question is: what are the political ramifications of this battle in the Democratic presidential primary? New polling and economic data provide some important clues.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi Principle
Obi-Wan Kenobi warned Darth Vader that if you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine -- and that principle now appears to be at play in the politics of health care. Indeed, it seems the more other candidates defend their insurance industry donors and attack Bernies plan to replace private insurance with a Medicare for All system, the better it is for Bernie.
According to recent surveys from CNN, ABC/WashPost, Reuters and Morning Consult, Bernie is now the most trusted candidate on the health care issue.
One reason the attacks may be boomeranging is because of Americans underlying sentiments about Sanders signature Medicare for All legislation. Consider two points:
A strong majority of voters support Medicare for All, according to recent polls from from HarrisX (70% support), RealClear Opinion Research (65% support), Morning Consult (55% support), YouGov (52% support) and ABC News/Washington Post (52% support).
A strong majority of voters support Medicare for All replacing private insurance, according to polls from RealClear Opinion Research, Morning Consult, YouGov, Business Insider and Tulchin Research.
As Bernie put it at the recent presidential debate: "People don't like their health insurance companies, they like their doctors.
Insurance CEOs Are Eating Americans Wages
Why is there such a hunger for fundamental change in our current corporate-run health care system? Because health care costs are gobbling up more and more of Americans wages and time, without delivering better results:
The Wall Street Journal reports that between 1990 and 2017, average per capita personal health-care expenditures rose about 276%.
Axios reports that health spending by families who get their insurance from large employers has grown two times faster than wages over the last decade.
Axios reported that two decades ago, the average health insurance coverage for a family consumed 14% of the average household income. By 2017, that number was up to about 31% of take-home pay.
Overall, the results of all this spending arent better care, better outcomes or better coverage:
The Economist notes that America spends about twice as much on health care as other rich countries but has the highest infant-mortality rate.
CNBC reports that an estimated 530,000 families turn to bankruptcy each year because of medical issues and bills.
In the Atlantic, Peoples Policy Project director Matt Bruenig reported that Americas level of uninsurance leads to more than 35,000 unnecessary deaths every year.
While all this is great for the health insurance companies that are pumping campaign cash into elections, everyone else is drowning in paperwork and legal red tape:
A recent Washington Post report documents that for many people in medical debt, a trip to the emergency room leads to the courtroom where they are sued for failing to pay bills they cant afford.
While Democrats like Harris are now aiming to preserve or expand private insurers role in Medicare through Medicare Advantage plans, Modern Healthcare reports that federal officials found that such plans plans could be denying needed medical services to maximize profits. A recent New York Times oped by public policy researchers also noted that private insurers make Medicare extraordinarily confusing, increasing costs for beneficiaries and their own profits.
Data published in the Harvard Business Review shows that from 1990 to 2012, the number of workers in the U.S. health system grew by nearly 75% but nearly 95% of this growth was in non-doctor workers.
Taken together, journalist Dave Dayen says the corporate-run health care system creates a giant tax on Americans free time.
Once insured, Americans must make sure their health care providers, from primary care physicians to specialists, are in-network, he wrote in the New Republic. There are reimbursement claims and deductibles and co-pays to be aware of. Those who have a health savings account have to file their receipts to use their own funds to pay for health care, which sounds simple but can be a bureaucratic nightmare, if some horror stories can be believed.
Back in January, Harris was touting Bernies Medicare for All bill by noting it would attack this very problem. She said his legislation would mean you don't have to go through the process of going through an insurance company, having them give you approval, going through the paperwork, all of the delay that may require .Let's eliminate all of that. Let's move on.
Thats exactly what Bernie is proposing and why the new attacks on his legislation in defense of the insurance industry are actually helping him.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,330 posts)Thanks for posting!
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
crazytown
(7,277 posts)Where are those polls?
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
George II
(67,782 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Autumn
(45,107 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
brooklynite
(94,598 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,330 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
zackymilly
(2,375 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Autumn
(45,107 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
George II
(67,782 posts)Wonder how he got it?
On the other hand, I did give it to the DNC in December 2015.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Eliot Rosewater
(31,112 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)Weird, huh?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
sharedvalues
(6,916 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
TexasTowelie
(112,251 posts)It doesn't come as a surprise that Bernie's staff of Jill Stein supporters take aim at actual Democrats.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Eliot Rosewater
(31,112 posts)being done, NEVER.
So sick of this fucking GAME
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
George II
(67,782 posts)Characterizing a difference of opinion on how to achieve eventual universal healthcare as a "defense of the insurance industry"! Where does he come up with that? There are several good plans being proposed better than the still less than fully-defined "Medicare for All" plan. The fact that others have different plans means they're "defending" the insurance industry? Ludicrous.
Probably the second most ridiculous point follows - that "attacking" (i.e., presenting something different) his legislation, which really isn't to the legislation stage anyway, is "helping him". If that were the case he'd be leading in the polls in every state and nationally.
In fact, he's no better than second in any, and in many states he's third or fourth. If that's helping, then have at it.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
oasis
(49,389 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Me.
(35,454 posts)I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine
Hey Mr. Sirota, can you spell the word delusional?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Uncle Joe
(58,366 posts)Thanks for the thread brooklynite.
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Moostache
(9,895 posts)Medicare for All starts by first and foremost removing the profit motive from healthcare distribution. No longer does an insurance company need to balance patient care, premiums AND a massive bonus and salary for the CEO and the CFO and the board members and the executive committee of the organization...
Every dollar taken out in profits is a dollar or premium or cost that the patient paid out but received NOTHING in return for...no treatment, no doctor's visit, no diagnosis, no tests....NOTHING.
Profit-seeking is fine in building cars, or homes or designing web pages or clothing, or a myriad of other things....profit-seeking has no place in health care, no place in prisons, no place in public education (where BTW....football coaches making $8M+ a year and being the highest paid state employee is NOT 'ok' either...) at all.
Human rights should NEVER be subject to accounting analysis, EVER!
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,330 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
melman
(7,681 posts)Thanks for sharing!
primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
Vegas Roller
(704 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
rzemanfl
(29,565 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
betsuni
(25,538 posts)Got it.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
mcar
(42,334 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
'cause she's not afraid of him
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Cha
(297,322 posts)They're afraid of them all.. yet they don't try to broaden their base. Really weird.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
He seems to think he can play the same tune.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Eliot Rosewater
(31,112 posts)T W E N T Y
N I N E
Y E A R S
?
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
mcar
(42,334 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)Money is speech. So proclaimed the SCOTUS.
And this "speech" speaks far louder than the voices of actual voters.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
highplainsdem
(49,004 posts)When it's explained to them that it means giving up private insurance, and when they're polled on a public option as well as an alternative to MFA, they prefer the public option.
A number of recent polls have confirmed that.
Medicare For All polls really well only when people misunderstand it as Medicare For Alll Who Want To Buy Into It.
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/06/medicare-for-all-polls-public-option-kaiser-popular-misunderstood.html
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/medicare-for-all-poll-obamacare-public-option-biden_n_5d3f13d1e4b01d8c977f25cf
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/27/politics/medicare-for-all-vs-public-option-black-democrats/index.html
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
emmaverybo
(8,144 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
lunasun
(21,646 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Undecided
TwilightZone
(25,471 posts)Otherwise, he might be getting a cease-and-desist notice shortly.
primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden
Cha
(297,322 posts)primary today, I would vote for: Joe Biden