{"id":4833,"date":"2009-08-21T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-08-21T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/08\/reagan%e2%80%99s-great-medicare-blunder\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T15:07:57","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T21:07:57","slug":"reagan%e2%80%99s-great-medicare-blunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/08\/reagan%e2%80%99s-great-medicare-blunder\/","title":{"rendered":"Reagan\u2019s great Medicare blunder"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"BundyNew\"

Carter Bundy<\/p><\/div>\n

No matter how many ads from corrupt health care executives like Rick Scott (that\u2019s not name-calling: He was the CEO of a company that just settled a $1.7 billion fraud suit<\/a>) and the Republican Party you see, market forces aren\u2019t going to reduce prices or add more choice in health care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why? Because the normal assumptions about markets and the principles that drive market capitalism to success simply don\u2019t apply to health care.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Knowing that market forces don\u2019t provide any realistic solution to our myriad health system flaws, the GOP has succeeded in turning the debate into whether government should be involved in health care. Of course, the little secret they and their tea party friends don\u2019t like to admit is that it already is: It\u2019s called Medicare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Medicare example<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

A lot of people think we\u2019re in unchartered water. We\u2019re not. There was a similar debate about 50 years ago when the closest analogy to public option in America — Medicare<\/a> — was passed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the craziest ironies of the entire health care debate is hearing from conservative seniors who say, all in one sentence: \u201cGet the government out of health care, and don\u2019t touch my Medicare!\u201d Ummm\u2026would you care to clarify?\u00a0<\/p>\n

If any of y\u2019all reading this are over 65, or you have parents or grandparents who use Medicare, ask if it\u2019s been a success. With a few exceptions, people wouldn\u2019t trade Medicare for anything.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My dad, who is an independent but often has leaned towards more conservative candidates for a number of reasons, recently had prostate cancer. Fortunately he\u2019s doing well now, thanks to surgery and treatment under Medicare. He\u2019d had what he thought was good private insurance for most of his life, and continues to have private insurance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last Thanksgiving, we were out walking before dinner. He was gushing about how well Medicare worked when the chips were down. At one point, he asked \u201chas anyone ever considered Medicare for everybody?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, yes they have. In fact, Medicare for all, or some kind of single payer system, is exactly what many Americans have wanted for decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But public option isn\u2019t nearly as big a proposal as Medicare was. It\u2019s still just one totally voluntary option — no one is making private insurance go anywhere. It won\u2019t cover everyone, or even a majority of people in any age group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Public option won\u2019t be funded with mandatory, dedicated taxes like Medicare. In other words, public option is a more conservative, watered-down version of Medicare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Democrats have already compromised by only pushing for this weaker, tamer version of Medicare. They\u2019ve agreed to let people have a choice between private and public insurance, which seems pretty generous given the track record of private insurance. But that hasn\u2019t bought them a bit of Republican love.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s partisan<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Democratic reform plans that have already passed committees in the House and Senate are, for most Dems, watered down versions of what they\u2019d prefer. If Democrats water it down further by eliminating a public option — it\u2019s just a choice for criminy\u2019s sake! — they are going to virtually guarantee apathy and defections in the 2010 (and maybe 2012) elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bailing on real health care reform is the surest way to lock down another 1994 revolution for the GOP. Don\u2019t think Republican strategists don\u2019t know that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Senator Bingaman<\/a> and others have gamely tried to reach bipartisan consensus on health care, and Senator Bingaman deserves praise for trying to strike a deal. But just a few minutes watching CNN shows that the national GOP is running ads against any health reform.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When you can pass something on a bipartisan basis, terrific. But when the other party is constantly stabbing you in the back?\u00a0<\/p>\n

At this point, why are you even in the room with them? How can Republicans like Senator Chuck Grassley<\/a> of Iowa look Senator Bingaman in the eye and say they truly want reform when Grassley personally bashes reform back home and spreads the bizarre Palin lies<\/a> about \u201cpulling the plug on grandma?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reagan whiffs, history repeats<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one unifying voice for Republicans today, it\u2019s the ghost of Ronald Reagan<\/a>. Palin quoted Reagan\u2019s famous admonition against \u201csocialism\u201d on the stump last fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What she didn\u2019t mention is that Reagan\u2019s rant was in a 1961 American Medical Association ad against, of all things, Medicare. Here\u2019s what he said:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWrite those letters now. Call your friends, and tell them to write them. If you don\u2019t, this program I promise you will pass just as surely as the sun will come up tomorrow. And behind it will come other federal programs that will invade every area of freedom as we have known it in this country, until, one day\u2026 we will awake to find that we have socialism. And if you don\u2019t do this, and if I don\u2019t do it, one of these days, you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children\u2019s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.\u201d\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

No matter how much you may like Reagan, he whiffed on this one. There are a heck of a lot of freedom-loving, anti-socialist seniors who dig Medicare. It\u2019s amazing how the Palin wing of the GOP is fighting on the wrong side of history again using virtually identical scare tactics to prop up a lucrative, but sick, system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The only question is whether Democratic elected officials of 2009 will have the same backbone, compassion, courage, and vision that the Democrats of the 1960s had.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m betting history repeats itself and Dems get their act together to pass once-in-a-generation, real, important change. I\u2019ll double down that even tea partiers praise the Dems\u2019 work 50 years from now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME<\/a> in New Mexico. The opinions in his column are personal and do not necessarily reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here<\/a>. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bundy bio<\/a> \u2502 Archives<\/a> \u2502 Feed<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m betting history repeats itself and Dems get their act together to pass once-in-a-generation, real, important change. I\u2019ll double down that even tea partiers praise the Dems\u2019 work 50 years from now. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bundy-columns","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}