Obstruction

This is what happens when you become an obstructionist.

Twenty Nine More Days

Twenty nine more days for this Congressional session. And we now have a 1,990 page bill, in addition to the three already passed in the House and at least two introduced in the Senate, on health care reform.

Any bets?

Public Option

I am the farthest thing from an economists (although I have taken many many many economics classes) but it seems to me removing the anti-trust exemption from health care insurers still does nothing to create competition.

So, it's with delight that Senator Harry Reid has agreed to "consider" putting the public option back into the Senate Health Care bills.

Finally.

It's Raining and the Baucus Bill Passes Committee

I am hoping there is no link between the rain storm and the fact the Senate Finance Committee passed the Health Insurance Reform Bill.

Health Insurance Reform?

As the Senate Finance Committee nears it's vote on health care "reform," it's important to wonder whether this proposed legislation will actually "reform" health care or merely mandate the uninsured increase the insurance pool and as a consequence hopefully decrease or stabilize insurance premiums.

What is lost in all of this is health care reform. How are we controlling costs? How are we insuring that health care, quality health care, is available to everyone?

My sense is, as this article suggests, is that health care reform is not happening. We are not looking at costs, at services, at availability.

So much for reform.

Health Care

Thought this exchange between New York Times columnists Gail Collins and David Brooks was quite good, explaining the current politics involved in health insurance reform.

Disintegrating Conversations on Health Care

It's been said time and time again, the national conversation over health care seems to be disintegrating rather than arriving at resolution.

I thought this piece by Mark Penn was spot-on. The Obama Administration, as great a messenger as it was during the campaign, seems to be muddled. There is no uplifting message on what they see as their vision for Americans through any changes to the current systems that provide health care and health insurance in this country (remember, health care and health insurance are two different things).

Maybe I'd be moved to contact legislators if I knew what, exactly, this Administration is for, not against. Before anything else, we need some clarity and leadership from the President.

Did Whole Foods Betray It's Base?

I am a finicky shopper. Or actually I am a penny pincher shopper. But I also want quality for my dollars. I don't shop exclusively at any one grocery store: meat from Whole Foods, vegetables from a locally owned small grocery store, non-perishables from a big box. I generally find Whole Foods prices to be competitive, frequently less than any of the other places I shop. Great customer service. Employees seem to genuinely enjoy working there.

Several days ago, the quirky CEO of Whole Foods published an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. Not exactly a publication read by his market segment clientele, which are stereotyped as Volvo driving, latte drinking liberals (by the way, my brother has driven a Volvo almost his whole driving life, he drinks lattes, and he is a conservative). So, John Mackey, the CEO, opines that the health care reforms currently being bandied about are all wrong. Worst of all is the idea of a public option. Instead, Mackey, a self-described libertarian, suggests less governmental intrusion, more self reliance (eat your vegetables!), and of course the preverbal tax credit or deduction.

Instantly the Internet was filled with calls to boycott Whole Foods because Mackey violated, apparently, one of the progressive-ideology fundamental beliefs: health care must be reformed and we must have either single payor or a public option.

I don't agree with Mackey. But I do believe, especially as an employer and a successful businessman, we should listen to his opinions. And he may have something worth while to add to the debate. But the knee-jerk reaction of "if you don't agree with me I am going to walk away," is childish. It only increases the already Balkanized territory of American policy discussions.

I simply do not understand people whose beliefs are on either side of the middle and who demonize opinions other than those that are lock-step in agreement with them. I think about reading the Federalist Papers and the spirited debates among really smart men, who appreciated and valued their differences as much as their similarities. I think of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. We have devolved to become Jim Jones, indoctrinated into mini-cults of nodding heads in agreement, fearful of different opinions and values. Indulging in ugly stereotypes.

Great meat, fantastic employees, well stocked shelves, highly engaged local philanthropy, nutritious food (and fantastic pastries). Nope. You'll find me at Whole Foods, encouraging John Mackey to speak his mind any day.

Are We Really A Nation of Mindless Thugs?

Seemingly a lifetime ago, a Congressman who I worked for had "District Days." He had them almost every Saturday, scattered throughout his Congressional District in school cafeterias, church basements, and even outside in parks. The staff would be on hand to take constituent concerns. We'd write out the various problems on forms and make sure what ever aide was responsible (immigration, medicare, social security) for those issues would get the form. The Congressman also spent time answering questions on national issues (at that time it was all Watergate all the time). The Congressman was the only Member of Congress who was doing these District Days. But that's how he was.

Now, Members of Congress have town halls. They stand behind podiums and talk about all the great things they are doing for their state or district. Then a few questions and every one goes home. Except now.

According to news reports and pundits who are generally supportive of President Obama, right-wing mouthpieces have stirred up the populace, egging them to attend any public town hall meeting their Senators and Congressmen are having. And what were once quiet affairs where the local newspaper reporter took a nap in the corner, are now national prime time news events, as people shout down the elected officials and even cabinet members.

What concerns me about the media response, in particular the liberal pundit response, is this assumption that people who take the time to go to these meetings are mindless zombies expressing some "talking points" generated by Rush Limbaugh. And indeed, some of the folks who attend these meetings may have talking points from a conservative talk show host. On the other hand, people who attended Senator and Congressmen's town hall meetings after the vote authorizing the war in Iraq, shouted down the people who voted for that war. Were they mindless zombies?

The point here is that we have a Constitutional right to talk, to yell, to express frustration. And indeed, what seems to me is there is a huge miscalculation by the Obama Administration on the amount of frustration and anger people are feeling. They have watched, in less than 12 months, their 401(k) evaporate. Their credit cards are maxed out, their elected officials don't listen, foreclosures are all around them, and they worry every time they go to work that they will be laid off. It's scary out there. On top of it, no one knows what is in the several bills floating around Congress to change or reform health care (oops, now President Obama is calling it health insurance reform...hmmmm). I mean, do you trust someone who has the best health care insurance in the nation, no the world, to be making decisions about how to reform the health care insurance you get?

It boggles my mind that the current Members of Congress don't seem to know how to handle talking with angry people. And that they seem to want to engage in some sort of fight, barking back at the angry folks as if it is their own fault they are scared and tense. Or that the calls for "civil society," seem to forget that our nation is forged in dissent, vocal, somewhat abusive, dissent.

It's called community organizing.

ObamaCare

President Obama has moved onto two issues which have been a part of political dialogue for at least thirty years: health care and education. It seems we have been debating these issues for ions. I am beginning to feel we are in an Orwellian "forever crisis" in education and health care. And I actually wonder if there is a crisis in either.

There is no doubt that the cost of health insurance has increased. Dramatically. I have been a consumer of private health insurance for many years, juggling the costs, squinting at computer screens trying to find lower premiums and still have care when/if I need it. I am extremely healthy. I do all the things this current Administration wants to "nudge" us into doing: I have never smoked, exercise like crazy, keep my weight in check. I don't eat a lot of sweets, drink a lot of coffee, and don't visit the doctor often! But my premiums kept going up. Somewhere in this scenario, someone was making a lot of money off of my monthly payments.

On the other hand I am of the age where the medical profession likes to recommend lots of tests. Going to the doctor is no longer an hourly visit, it's days and days of hourly tests: mammograms, colonoscopies, bone densities. And when I sat down with the doctor for my "pre-surgery" exam for the colonoscopy, I realized all of this had become way overblown. I mean, millions of people before me had lived great lives without having some doctor stick a laser down their colon. But this doctor went through this draconian lecture about how often people get colon cancer, and oh, you're co-pay is $15 and the surgery is over $2000! Yikes!

While I have been supportive of addressing the costs of health care, I think we are still not ready, as a society, to deal with this issue full on. Just as other sensitive problems have taken years, sometimes decades, to solve, this one may just need more seasoning. It's personal, whether it is should Medicare cover hip replacements for our parents or whether a private insurer can decide not to allow a defibrillator. In the abstract we all "get it," but at the moment, when it's our mother, our brother, our child, we want what is best and available. We need time to have a longer national discussion. And frankly, our minds have been on the economy. On our neighbor's foreclosure, our bills, our friend's job.

And then there is education. I have also been an avid consumer of education. I've been to elite private universities and state schools. I have taught at both. I have lectured at elementary schools deep in the ghettos and private elite schools that have graduated some of our country's finest minds. While I am not a professional educator, it seems to me our education system is doing just fine. We're producing great kids who are smart, motivated, committed. Cranky up the education system to rely on "indicators," such as test scores or other quantifiable measurables always seems regressive to me. Measuring doesn't account for learning and the multiple ways we absorb life.

I am wondering about President Obama right now. He has mis-stepped on these two issues. And seems to have lost focus on financial industry reform, the economy, and other front burner issues. We need Obama to care, every moment, about those kinds of things rather than get bogged down in "problems" that seem to have been around for a very long time and are dug out of the closet by every single politician when they want easy votes.