Single Payer Victories! [health care]

[ckaihatsu]

Single Payer Victories!


Healthcare-NOW!


Chris,

The resistance is working. Ryancare is getting hammered from all sides, the GOP is fretting about the internal discord, and meanwhile, the movement for single payer is growing. Here are some of the victories of our campaign from the past couple of months:

Last Week, FOUR New Cosponsors for the House Single Payer bill (H.R. 676)
Thanks to your presence at town halls and persistance in following-up, the below representatives have signed onto the House single payer bill. If you're in their district, send them some love!

Karen Bass (CA)
Marcia Fudge (OH)
G.K. Butterfield (NC)
Michael Capuano (MA)


California Introduces Universal Healthcare Bill

The Healthy California Act would institute a universal healthcare system in the state, providing comprehensive coverage with no deductibles or co-pays and choice of provider. Twice the state legislature has passed it, only to be vetoed by Republican Governor Schwarzenegger; now that California has a Democratic House, Senate, and Governor, activists are taking advantage and running a wide cross-state campaign to finally see it through!

NY Senate Democrats Want Single Payer For New Yorkers

Democrats have mainly been fighting back against GOP healthcare threats with a narrow "Defend the ACA" framework - but NY State Senate Democrats are providing the vision necessary to effectively fight back against privatization, calling for a single payer system if the ACA is replaced. The New York Health Act, the state's universal healthcare bill, passed the House last year with an overwhelming majority and is 6 Senate votes away from a majority in the Senate and potentially the Governor's desk.

Campaign for Guaranteed Healthcare Brings the Heat

The CFGH generated thousands of emails and calls to Congress last week about the AHCA and the need for single payer. Many of you sent dispatches from your townhall and other local actions - thank you for keeping us updated!
If your representative hasn't heard from you yet, give them a ring!

Email your Rep

Call your Rep

Single Payer in the Press

Mainstream media coverage of single payer tends to range from non-existant to hostile; reporting on Sanders' "Day of Action" protests erased single payer contingents. But we've noticed that progressive voices are starting to peek through:

Washington Post: I defended Obamacare. But I really support single payer.
The Atlantic: A Political Opening for Universal Healthcare?
Truthout: Amid GOP attacks on healthcare, the movement for single payer grows
Fusion: Watch HCN Director Ben Day talk Single Payer (on FB)
Even our fair-weather friend Paul Krugman at the NYTimes is back to paying lip service to single payer!
Because of your tenacity, we're winning. Keep up the great work!

Yours in solidarity,
Ben and Stephanie
Healthcare-NOW! National Staff

Email Facebook Twitter YouTube Email

Healthcare-NOW! is a grassroots organization that fights to end the health insurance crisis by educating and advocating for improved Medicare-for-all legislation, such as HR 676. You can unsubscribe from Healthcare-NOW!'s email list here.

9A Hamilton Place
Boston, MA 02108
United States
www.healthcare-now.org

[ckaihatsu]

Republican Health Care Plan: Cut health insurance for tens of millions of working-class Americans

ACHA would give hundreds of billions in tax cuts to the rich

By Masao Suzuki

San José, CA - On Monday, March 13, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its report on the proposed American Health Care Act or ACHA. The ACHA is the House Republican bill that is supported by President Trump. The CBO report estimated that 14 million would lose health insurance the first year after the passage of the ACHA. This number will rise to 24 million people who would lose health insurance over the next ten years. This will basically double the percentage working-age adults who go without health insurance from 10% to 19%. This would save the federal government $1200 billion, most of which will go to tax cuts that mainly benefit the rich.

Of the 24 million people losing their health insurance, more than half, or 14 million low-income Americans, will lose their Medicaid coverage. This will reverse the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA, commonly known as Obamacare). This will have a special impact on the disabled, which make up more than 40% of Medicaid spending.

The next biggest group of people losing insurance, totaling 7 million, would be workers who get health insurance from their employers. Before the ACA businesses had been cutting back on employee health insurance. The ACA led to 8 million more workers and their families being covered by employer insurance, as larger businesses were told to cover their workers. The ACHA would undo this aspect of the ACA, sacrificing millions of workers and their families to further boost corporate profits.

Only 2 million people who buy individual health insurance would have lost their health insurance at the end of ten years. While 9 million people would lose their individual health insurance as they lose government subsidies provided by the ACA, this would be largely offset by workers who lose their employer health insurance and are forced to buy individual health insurance.

The Republican/Trump ACHA cuts to health insurance save the federal government $1200 billion over ten years. Most of these savings would be used to give a gigantic tax cut that would come to an average of $200,000 a year for the top one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) of Americans by ending the ACA tax on investment income and on high-income households.

Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]

[ckaihatsu]

VICTORY: the AHCA goes up in flames


Healthcare-NOW!


Chris,

Yesterday afternoon, our movement scored a big win on the road to single payer: in a clear rebuke of the Ayn Rand vision of healthcare, the ACA repeal bill was pulled off the floor yesterday without a vote.

This is a grassroots victory. Tea Party legislators have been credited with blocking the bill, but don't let the media's narrative fool you; grassroots pressure on Democrats and moderate Republicans backed Paul Ryan into a corner that doomed the bill by making it impossible to please the far right.

Now is the time to push for single payer. Within hours of the bill's collapse, calls for single payer have already appeared in the NYTimes, The Week, Huffington Post, and local papers all over; progressive groups and leaders like Bernie Sanders and Michael Moore have lit up social media with the same.

Two weeks from today, we're holding a National Day of Action for Improved Medicare for All to bring attention to the fact that single-payer is the only sustainable and moral way forward on healthcare. We're asking local activists and organizations to organize rallies or speak outs at medical institutions.

Plan an event for our Day of Action on April 8!

With the GOP's plan literally dead on arrival, and the ACA still both inadequate and contentious, our vision for healthcare is the only one that the public can agree on! Let's show our grassroots power and come out in numbers on April 8!

Yours in solidarity,
Ben and Stephanie
Healthcare-NOW! National Staff

Email Facebook Twitter YouTube Email

Healthcare-NOW! is a grassroots organization that fights to end the health insurance crisis by educating and advocating for improved Medicare-for-all legislation, such as HR 676. You can unsubscribe from Healthcare-NOW!'s email list here.

9A Hamilton Place
Boston, MA 02108
United States
www.healthcare-now.org

[ckaihatsu]

HUGE news: RECORD number of HR 676 cosponsors


Healthcare-NOW!


Chris,

10 years ago, H.R. 676 - the single payer bill in the House of Representatives - finished the 2007-2008 session with a record 93 cosponsors. This was during the fight over the Affordable Care Act, and a time of massive grassroots action for single payer; no Congress before or after has seen as many cosponsors.

That is until yesterday, when two legislators from Colorado signed on and brought the total number of supporting reps to 95 - breaking the all-time record for the bill.

This week and next, your legislators are back in their districts for the April Recess - find a townhall and bring a delegation for single payer!

We're starting to see legislators slowly coalesce around single payer as the only way forward on healthcare. This recess is the time to visit your representative at their office or at a townhall and ask that they get on board with single payer!

Important facts about the cosponsors:

15 reps are first-time cosponsors. This shows that even if your rep hasn't expressed support for single payer in the past, this momentum may help them along!

9 reps who are previous cosponsors aren't signed on this session. Let's go get this low-hanging fruit!

11 reps who have not yet signed are members of the Progressive Caucus - and will have a base in strong support of this issue. They may just need to be asked!

You can check here to see if your legislator is on the bill!

As the GOP tries to salvage its repeal bill with further concessions to the right, we need to solidify legislative support for the most popular alternative: Medicare for All.

TAKE ACTION: find your townhalls and ask your rep to support H.R. 676!

Yours in solidarity,
Ben and Stephanie
Healthcare-NOW! National Staff

Email Facebook Twitter YouTube Email

Healthcare-NOW! is a grassroots organization that fights to end the health insurance crisis by educating and advocating for improved Medicare-for-all legislation, such as HR 676. You can unsubscribe from Healthcare-NOW!'s email list here.

You can read this email on the web here: https://www.healthcare-now.org/civic...reset=1&id=938

9A Hamilton Place
Boston, MA 02108
United States
www.healthcare-now.org

[ckaihatsu]

OMG single-payer is really happening!


The California State Senate will vote on single-payer health care by next Friday. Will you chip in $5 to help the Healthy California Act succeed?

I'll chip in


Dear Chris,

BREAKING: The California State Senate Appropriations Committee just passed single payer, 5-2! (1)

This was the last step before the entire Senate votes on the bill -- which will happen in the next eight days.

California is the largest state in the union. If we can make single-payer happen here, it will be a model or the whole country.

There is more good news. The committee also released a report estimating that once the bill passes, the state would pay about 15% of its GDP on medical services -- 3% less than what America currently spends on health care.(2)

We've gotten this far because of the incredible work done by so many -- the California Nurses Association and other allies, the hard working volunteers on the ground, and Courage members like you. Courage Campaign is going to double down on our efforts to ensure that this essential bill becomes law. Will you chip in $5 to finally make single-payer a reality in America?

Yes, I'll chip in $5 to help pass single-payer.

Finally, people are realizing that the real solution to health care is a single-payer system. And California is leading the way with the Healthy California Act, which would give our state more choices of doctors and services, keep costs down, and allow clinicians to make better decisions about their patients' health care.(3)

When this bill becomes law, the country will have a working example of how successful single payer can be. But we have to get the bill on the governor's desk first.

Courage Campaign is continuing full throttle ahead, doing everything possible to secure votes in the Senate. Among other things, we are focusing our efforts on pushing as many phone calls as possible to state senators, urging them to pass the Healthy California Act. We’re utilizing a high-tech new phone banking tool that allows volunteers to put phone calls from constituents directly through to legislators' offices.

This is just part of how we make clear to state senators that the right thing to do for both their careers and their constituents is vote "yes" on single payer. And we're continuing our public awareness campaign and arranging face-to-face meetings between Courage Campaign members and their representatives to build support for the bill.

But we can't continue to do any of it without you. Will you chip in $5 to help push the Healthy California Act to victory?

Yes, I'll chip in $5 to help bring single-payer health care to California.

Yours in the fight for health care for all,

Eddie, along with Annie, Brenna, Caitlin, Cheyenne, Emma, Kelsey, Lindsay, Mahdi, Mary, Molly, Raquel, Susannah, Scottie, Tim, and William (the Courage team)

1. https://twitter.com/4HealthyCA/statu...10829428695040
2. http://mattbruenig.com/2017/05/22/ca...le-payer-plan/
3. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/03/u...onditions.html


Like what we do? Chip in to help fund the fight for a more progressive nation. Or find us on Facebook or Twitter.

Donate Today

Courage Campaign fights for a more progressive California and country. We are an online community powered by more than 1.3 million members.

http://act.couragecampaign.org/go/58...2053337.vSE6mu

You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time.

[GLF]

This could backfire on the democratic party by making centrist democrats unelectable in centrist/swing states. The GOP will use this as a rallying cry and the hordes of reactionaries will come out in force against it in all but the most liberal of American states (pretty much the coastal states). It's also going to put these swing-state centrist dems in a precarious position - party loyalty or public office?

Don't get me wrong, I think single-payer healthcare is a step in the right direction and love the idea of that fake worker's party taking a hit to the nuts, but with a GOP congress and that buffoon in the white house...bad timing. I think the left-wing of the democratic party could be overplaying their hand. At any other time I would be ecstatic. I would actually prefer the dems to sit idly by and let the GOP soak up all the attention...at least until after the mid-terms. The GOP is set for a bloodbath but this gives them something to play with.

But...if we can get single-payer in California who am I to argue? Go for it.

[Jimmie Higgins]

This could backfire on the democratic party by making centrist democrats unelectable in centrist/swing states. The GOP will use this as a rallying cry and the hordes of reactionaries will come out in force against it in all but the most liberal of American states (pretty much the coastal states). It's also going to put these swing-state centrist dems in a precarious position - party loyalty or public office?

Don't get me wrong, I think single-payer healthcare is a step in the right direction and love the idea of that fake worker's party taking a hit to the nuts, but with a GOP congress and that buffoon in the white house...bad timing. I think the left-wing of the democratic party could be overplaying their hand. At any other time I would be ecstatic. I would actually prefer the dems to sit idly by and let the GOP soak up all the attention...at least until after the mid-terms. The GOP is set for a bloodbath but this gives them something to play with.

But...if we can get single-payer in California who am I to argue? Go for it.

The national Democratic Party is against this... the CA governor Jerry Brown as well as Bernie Sanders say that public option insurance is the best we can hope for at this time (while sanders supports single-payer in the abstract, and Brown now says he's against it altogether, despite supporting it in the past).

So it's a bit surprising to see this move by state Democrats and I would love to see links or hear any thoughts from other revlefters about why they think this is happening. Is it the high cost of living that is starting to make single-payer attractive to tech or agriculture or something?

But I disagree that a move like this would be overplaying. As long as the care is decent - not like the bare-minimum of care - it would be incredibly popular even in so-called red states. There is a vocal minority against it on ideological grounds (this vocal minority includes most of the RNC and DNC who argue that it's disastrous or impossible respectively) and so it would still probably require some kind of social movement to achieve this reform.

When you compare general sentiments about Obamacare you see:

Supporters: "well, it's a step" or "it's pretty good" or "it's better than nothing".

Detractors: "it's evil" or "they'll kill grandma" etc

So, as expected, the Democrats offer something that's not worth fighting for - but if there was an option for a real reform of the system (rather than just an attempt to regulate the existing private-insurance system), then I think the political balance on this shifts. Even while supporting the California plan, mainstream Dems were heckled at the state-convention by the Nurses union and single-payer supporters. So there is passion out there for this and people who'd be willing to counter some new Tea-party-like opposition. But for now, the real barrier before the Republicans is the Democratic Party who, nationally, want to keep popular expectations low and are also fully in support of insurance companies.






Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Homo Songun]

This could backfire on the democratic party by making centrist democrats unelectable in centrist/swing states. The GOP will use this as a rallying cry and the hordes of reactionaries will come out in force against it in all but the most liberal of American states (pretty much the coastal states). It's also going to put these swing-state centrist dems in a precarious position - party loyalty or public office?

Don't get me wrong, I think single-payer healthcare is a step in the right direction and love the idea of that fake worker's party taking a hit to the nuts, but with a GOP congress and that buffoon in the white house...bad timing. I think the left-wing of the democratic party could be overplaying their hand. At any other time I would be ecstatic. I would actually prefer the dems to sit idly by and let the GOP soak up all the attention...at least until after the mid-terms. The GOP is set for a bloodbath but this gives them something to play with.

Can you elaborate on your strategic thinking? I tend to see it via the lens of 'best defence is an offence', but please, extrapolate.

[GLF]

It's obvious that there is an ideological war going on for control of the democratic party, between the progressives and the liberals. But it's not just an ideological war...there is a geographic correlation. Right now California battles it out amongst themselves but it will affect the nation at large because ultimately California will not be the only State to go this route - but it doesn't really matter if they are because it's not just about that, what amounts to little more than a pressure-valve of the bourgeoisie anyway. Progressives travel well, and have very loyal blocs that, right now, are really making life a living hell for democrats. It's fucking hilarious to watch but it could have serious consequences. They corner them and show up at town halls and really press them on this shit at every turn - hammering them every turn to see if they're on board with Bernism. It's fucking everywhere - shouting that shit from the rooftops. Universal Healthcare... it's turning into the fucking divine sacrament. They're creating shit like "justicedems" and shit, making it very clear to everyone, including swing-voters who look on and see this shit play out, that the centrist dems are BIG BUSINESS and don't give two fucks about the common people. And it's true. But how much better are the Justicedems, really? But regardless, if they had the support in those States it would be one thing...but 50 screaming people at a town hall just isn't enough int he grand scheme of things. That's the problem with this "takeover" - the progressives don't have anywhere near the numbers or popularity to gain any degree of support in the vast majority of States, and really only represent a majority of the democratic party in just a handful of states, usually coastal states. So they can hound dems and blacklist them and out them as frauds and do the whole "takeover shtick", all the while creating massive rifts in the only real opposition we have right now to II Dunce...or....option two, the Justicedems w/ their progressive outing campaign will be successful in cowering swing-state dems into fighting the blacklist, affirming the divine sacrement... making them virtually unelectable in their respective states and giving their rival republicans the "omalord, the commies r cummin" bullshit when it's time to win extremely precious seats in DC.

Fuck that. I say the GOP is totally fucking self-destructing. There tripping all over themselves and headed for an annihilation of epic proportions in 2018... if dems would only wise the fuck up. I say give the GOP all the rope they want to hang themselves for now...you can always out the liberals at another time. Don't out em before 2018 ...that's a Trumpian wet dream. You're just nowhere near ready on a national level.

TLDR: we need a unified front against Trump, and not because the democrats are much better - it's because Trump is batshit crazy and likely to do major damage. He's totally fucking unhinged. That should be issue numero uno. Right now the democrats are not a unified front, not even all California democrats are totally together on this shit, and that's on a State level.

Meh, but what do I know. It's just a thought - not trying to come off as a wannabe know it all. I'm just worried sick and have a bad feeling the democratics are going to drop the ball.

[ckaihatsu]

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017.../medi-j21.html


The Democrats’ fraudulent opposition to Trumpcare

By Kate Randall

21 June 2017

Senate Republicans are working feverishly to pass their version of a bill to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA), having set themselves an arbitrary deadline of securing its passage before the July 4 congressional recess. Early last month, House Republicans passed the American Health Care Act (AHCA), celebrating in the White House Rose Garden with President Trump, who said of the bill, “It’s a great plan, and I believe it’s going to get better.”

A group of 13 Republicans senators is working behind closed doors on the Senate version of the legislation. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to push the legislation—which concerns one-sixth of the US economy, and which will affect the health and lives of tens of millions of Americans—with no committee hearings, no public mark-up (drafting and editing) of the bill, and only limited debate.

It is no secret that the clandestine nature of the Senate “working group’s” negotiations is due to the AHCA’s wide unpopularity, with a recent poll showing that only 20 percent of Americans approve of it while 57 percent disapprove. The broad opposition is due to its draconian features, particularly the gutting of Medicaid, the social insurance program for the poor jointly funded by the federal government and the states. The AHCA would effectively end Medicaid as a guaranteed benefit based on need by placing a per-capita cap on overall spending.

The AHCA would slash $824 billion from Medicaid and would end the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults, causing 14 million newly insured people to lose their benefits over a decade. All told, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that 23 million people would become uninsured in 10 years under the AHCA. At the same time, the bill would slash taxes for corporations and wealthy individuals, while boosting the already multibillion-dollar profits of the health care industry.

McConnell has an additional reason for secrecy, since any divisions within the Republican caucus threaten passage of the bill, and concessions made to far-right senators like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul could provoke opposition from a group of “moderates” from states with large Medicaid populations, and vice versa.

Under the “reconciliation” process chosen for the health care legislation, the Republican leadership can push through the bill despite holding only a narrow 52-48 majority, providing they lose no more than two Republicans, with Vice President Mike Pence casting a tie-breaking vote.

Senate Democrats profess outrage over the closed-door nature of the Republicans’ deliberations. They staged a talk-a-thon on the Senate floor Monday night, stalling chamber proceedings through a series of parliamentary maneuvers. A few senators live-streamed their “search” for the elusive legislation, driving around the capital. All of these stunts amount to so much hot air. The Democrats are incapable of mounting a true opposition to the Republicans’ vicious assault on the health care of ordinary Americans because they share their class objectives.

Numerous media commentaries have pointed to the Democrats’ “powerless” position to oppose the Republicans’ plan, due to the Republicans’ 52-48 Senate majority. This is only valid in terms of parliamentary arithmetic: the vast majority of the American people oppose the House bill and will oppose the Senate bill once they learn its provisions. But the Democratic Party is unwilling and unable to mobilize this popular opposition.

Every Senate Democrat, including so-called independent and self-professed “democratic socialist” Bernie Sanders, portrays Obamacare as a progressive social reform, or at least a “step in the right direction,” concealing the reactionary and anti-working-class character of the Affordable Care Act.

Obamacare was aimed from the start at cutting costs for the government and corporations while rationing health care for the vast majority. In that sense, the Republicans have invented nothing new. Whatever version of “Trumpcare” eventually passes the Senate will only take the tendencies already present in Obamacare and make them worse: imposing more and more of the cost of health care on individual workers and their families.

The logic of this process, under both Democrats and Republicans, is the development of an openly two-class health care system: the best health care money can buy for the super-rich and a privileged upper-middle-class layer; and for the vast majority of the population, a cut-rate system, starved for funds and personnel, offering inadequate and overpriced care, if any at all.

In response to Trump and the Republicans’ howls that the ACA is “failing” and “imploding”—through rising premiums and deductibles and dwindling networks of insurers—the Democrats beg for a seat at the table to “fix” Obamacare. This is a euphemism for making further concessions to the demands of the insurance companies and other corporate interests by further restricting subsidies for low-income purchasers of insurance plans, cutting business taxes and implementing other regressive measures.

Any health care overhaul hatched in Washington will be based on the for-profit health care system, enriching the insurance companies, drug companies, hospital chains and medical device companies and the CEOs that run them.

Looking beyond the Democrats’ bluster, working people need to actually take stock of what is at stake in the Republicans’ plan. The most fundamental attack is the gutting of Medicaid, one of the last social reforms wrested from the ruling elite through working-class struggle. While limited in nature, Medicaid guaranteed the right to health insurance and medical services for the poor and for children and disabled people, and provided funding for nursing care for the elderly based on need. Medicaid emerged as part of the “Great Society” and “War on Poverty” under the Johnson administration, alongside landmark legislation such as the Civil Rights Act and the Food Stamp Act, both in 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The assault on health care exemplified by the Republicans’ reactionary legislation is of a piece with the ruling elite’s attack on all the social rights of the working class—the right to a job, education, decent housing, a secure retirement, access to the arts and culture, and a healthy and safe environment.

Congressional Democrats have chosen to oppose the Trump administration not over the destruction of social conditions, but over Trump’s alleged “softness” toward Russia. They are working in alliance with the dominant factions of the intelligence apparatus to whip up a war fever against Russia in an attempt to condition the public for an escalation of the wars in the Middle East as well as a military confrontation with Iran and nuclear-armed Russia. Incapable of opposing the most reactionary presidency in US history on anything resembling a progressive or democratic basis, they have positioned themselves to the right of Trump on issues of imperialist foreign policy.

Whatever form it takes, the health care legislation that the Republicans are able to pass through Congress and place on the president’s desk to sign will be one of the most reactionary pieces of legislation in modern history. The ruling elite sees the attack on Medicaid as the first shot in their war on Medicare and Social Security and wants to see all of these social programs privatized or ended outright. In the final analysis, both big-business parties agree that health care must be limited to what is compatible with the profit interests of corporate America.

The working class must fight for its own class interests. The crisis in health care requires a socialist solution, which takes as its point of departure the needs of working people and society as a whole, not the wealth and profits of a tiny minority.

The establishment of a system of universal, free health care for all requires placing the entire health care system—the private insurers, pharmaceuticals, giant health care chains—under public ownership, managed democratically to serve human needs, not profit. Such a fight requires the mobilization of the working class as a revolutionary force, independent of and opposed to both the Democratic and Republican parties.

Copyright © 1998-2017 World Socialist Web Site - All rights reserved

[ckaihatsu]

via wsws.org

The bill deals a massive blow to Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor and disabled jointly administered by the federal government and the states, slashing its funding by hundreds of billions of dollars.

More...

[ckaihatsu]

Just following the release of the Senate's 'morally bankrupt' healthcare bill--which would impose deep cuts to Medicaid, eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood, and give enormous tax breaks to the wealthy--an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll published on Thursday found Americans 'overwhelmingly' dislike the House version of the legislation.


More...

[ckaihatsu]

The California Senate recently voted to pass a bill that would establish a single-payer healthcare system for the entire state. The proposal, called the Healthy California Act, will now be taken up by the state Assembly.


More...

[TomLeftist]

The mass-murder of americans by destroying medicare-medicaid
24 June 2017
Link of Article: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017.../pers-j24.html


The Senate Republicans’ bill to “repeal and replace” Obamacare, unveiled on Thursday and set for a vote next week, comes on the heels of last month’s passage of a similar measure in the House of Representatives. These two bills are a milestone in the decades-long drive by the American ruling class to eviscerate the bedrock social reforms of the 1930s and 1960s. The central feature of both versions is the imposition of more than $800 billion in cuts to Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor and disabled, effectively ending its status as a guaranteed benefit program. The ultimate enactment of this class war legislation, whatever its precise form, will be the prelude to the privatization and dismantling of Medicare, the government insurance program for the elderly, and Social Security, the government pension system enacted at the height of the Depression in the 1930s.


Both the House and Senate bills cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy by more than $700 billion, eliminate requirements on businesses to provide health insurance for their employees, and allow states to exempt insurance firms from having to provide essential benefits such as doctors’ services, inpatient and outpatient hospital care, ambulance service, prescription drug coverage, pregnancy and childbirth care and mental health and substance abuse services. What is involved here is a social counterrevolution. It has been underway for more than four decades, under Democratic as well as Republican administrations. It was accelerated under the Obama administration following the Wall Street crash of 2008. With the coming to power of Donald Trump, the billionaire personification of the American financial oligarchy, it is being raised to new heights of savagery.


What will be the impact of this legislation on the daily lives of working people in America? People suffering from diseases such as diabetes, asthma, even cancer will suddenly find that they can no longer afford to pay for the drugs upon which they depend to survive. Low income people—an estimated 23 million—will be stripped of all health coverage. Millions of people will suffer needlessly, and many thousands will die an early death. For the authors of these bills and their corporate backers, this is not an unfortunate byproduct, but the deliberate aim of their health care “reform.” For the richest 10 percent who tower above the lower orders and control the political system and its two major parties, the diversion of money from profits and private bank accounts to keep working people alive and reasonably healthy—especially those too old to serve as a source of surplus value and profit—is an intolerable affront. Life expectancy in America is already declining and mortality rates are rising for the working class, in tandem with the colossal growth of social inequality. The ruling class wants to accelerate this process.


Is it an accident that the Republican plans single out for the biggest attacks low income older adults younger than 65, the age for Medicare eligibility? Insurers will be allowed to charge them five times more than they charge younger people. A 60-year-old woman earning $35,000 will have to spend nearly $6,000 of her own money to buy an insurance policy. It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that many thousands, unable to afford health insurance, will be killed off before they can begin to collect Medicare benefits, or, if they do manage to survive to age 65, will collect far fewer benefits because they will die an earlier death, their health having been undermined. No one should mistake the verbal protests and parliamentary stunts of the Democrats for a serious struggle in defense of health care. The assault on the basic entitlement programs dating from the 1930s and 1960s was begun in earnest by Bill Clinton, who ended “welfare as we know it” during his term in the White House.


Barack Obama had the gall to denounce the Senate health bill as a “massive transfer of wealth from the middle class and poor families to the richest people in America.” True enough! But Trump is taking off where Obama left off. By means of trillions in Wall Street bailouts and subsidies to the banks and hedge funds that lifted stock prices and corporate profits to record heights, Obama presided over the greatest transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top in US history. Along the way he slashed auto workers’ wages and city workers’ pensions and health benefits and imposed brutal cuts in food stamps. The explosion of the opioid and heroin epidemic that, along with surging suicide rates, is cutting the longevity of large sections of workers occurred on Obama’s watch. His Affordable Care Act set the stage for Trump’s intensified offensive on health care, slashing health care costs for corporations and the government while increasing out-of-pocket costs and reducing benefits for tens of millions of workers. It implemented the principle of partially subsidizing the purchase of insurance from private companies with government vouchers—the framework long advocated by Republicans seeking to privatize Medicare.


The current policy of the Democrats is to plead with the Republicans to negotiate a bipartisan “compromise” that will “fix” Obamacare, i.e., make further concessions to the profit-mad insurance giants by more drastically slashing benefits and raising premiums and deductibles. The choice offered by the ruling class—between “Trumpcare” and “Obamacare”—is no choice at all. Both lead to untold suffering, misery and death. The working class will not accept the destruction of social gains for which it fought and bled, wrenching them from an unwilling corporate elite in the course of mass social struggles. America, along with Europe and large swathes of the world, is heading into a new period of class struggle. What the experience of decades of austerity, war and political reaction shows is that the defense of the most basic social needs, such as health care, is today a revolutionary question. Capitalism in its advanced stage of crisis and putrefaction is incompatible with basic democratic and social rights—including the right to a decent-paying and secure job, health care, housing, education, access to culture and a secure retirement.


The working class must advance its own independent program against both Trump and the Democrats, based on the fight for socialism. Profit must be taken out of health care. The health care industry must be removed from private hands and placed under public ownership and the democratic control of the working class. This requires an implacable struggle against entrenched wealth and privilege, and the political system that enforces them.
Barry Grey and Kate Randall

[ckaihatsu]

via wsws.org

Bernie Sanders is seeking to corral opposition to the Senate Republicans’ health care bill and channel it behind the Democratic Party.

More...

[ckaihatsu]

via wsws.org

Workers, students and health care providers discuss the impact of the destruction of health care on their communities.

More...

[ckaihatsu]

via fightbacknews.org

San José, CA - On Monday, June 26, the Congressional Budget Office or CBO released its analysis of the Senate Republicans’ bill meant to repeal the Affordable Care Act (the ACA, often called Obamacare). The Senate Republicans’ bill, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act or BCRA, would mean 22 million more people would go without health insurance as compared to the current law with the ACA at the end of ten years. 15 million people would lose their Medicaid coverage (called Medical in California; each state has its own name), a million more than under the House Republican bill known as the Health Care Reform Act or HCRA. 7 million more people would have to go without their individual insurance policies purchased on state exchanges, also a million more than the House Republican HCRA.
The Republican Senate bill would hit the working poor hard. Most workers with lower paying jobs don’t get health insurance from their employer, and must rely on Medicaid, buying their own insurance or simply doing without insurance. The working poor will also be hurt by the elimination in funding for Planned Parenthood, which offers low-cost health care to many women.
Many people who do manage to keep their health insurance will end up paying more through higher deductibles and/or having to pay more out of pocket. The Senate bill allows for insurance that doesn’t cover pregnancy, emergency room visits, and other services now mandated by the Affordable Care Act.
So who are the winners? The rich, of course, who won’t have a pay the Net Investment Income Tax or NIIT. This is a tax on high-income households that have large profits from the sale of land, stocks or other investment. They will save an estimated $172 billion over the next ten years. Bigger businesses will also no longer have to pay a fine for not providing health insurance for their workers, saving them $171 billion over the next ten years. Big health insurance companies that are raking in billions of dollars every year in profits will have an additional $145 billion in profits over ten years as their tax is canceled by the Senate Republican bill.
Doing the math, the rich and big businesses are gaining more than $20,000 in additional after-tax income and profits for every person who loses their health insurance over the next ten years. This is the reality of Republican rule: take from the poor and give to the rich and big business.


More...

[ckaihatsu]

via wsws.org

The central feature of the Senate Republicans’ “Better Care Reconciliation Act” is a devastating cut in funding for Medicaid, the government health care program for the poor.

More...

[ckaihatsu]

via fightbacknews.org

San José, CA - On Monday, June 26, the Congressional Budget Office or CBO released its analysis of the Senate Republicans’ bill meant to repeal the Affordable Care Act (the ACA, often called Obamacare). The Senate Republicans’ bill, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act or BCRA, would mean 22 million more people would go without health insurance as compared to the current law with the ACA at the end of ten years. 15 million people would lose their Medicaid coverage (called Medical in California; each state has its own name), a million more than under the House Republican bill known as the Health Care Reform Act or HCRA. 7 million more people would have to go without their individual insurance policies purchased on state exchanges, also a million more than the House Republican HCRA.
The Republican Senate bill would hit the working poor hard. Most workers with lower paying jobs don’t get health insurance from their employer, and must rely on Medicaid, buying their own insurance or simply doing without insurance. The working poor will also be hurt by the elimination in funding for Planned Parenthood, which offers low-cost health care to many women.
Many people who do manage to keep their health insurance will end up paying more through higher deductibles and/or having to pay more out of pocket. The Senate bill allows for insurance that doesn’t cover pregnancy, emergency room visits, and other services now mandated by the Affordable Care Act.
So who are the winners? The rich, of course, who won’t have a pay the Net Investment Income Tax or NIIT. This is a tax on high-income households that have large profits from the sale of land, stocks or other investment. They will save an estimated $172 billion over the next ten years. Bigger businesses will also no longer have to pay a fine for not providing health insurance for their workers, saving them $171 billion over the next ten years. Big health insurance companies that are raking in billions of dollars every year in profits will have an additional $145 billion in profits over ten years as their tax is canceled by the Senate Republican bill.
Doing the math, the rich and big businesses are gaining more than $20,000 in additional after-tax income and profits for every person who loses their health insurance over the next ten years. This is the reality of Republican rule: take from the poor and give to the rich and big business.


More...

[ckaihatsu]

via wsws.org

There is bipartisan agreement that the current health care system needs to be “fixed,” meaning deeper cuts in spending, including for Medicaid and other “entitlements.”

More...