Sen. Baucus respects our views
Posted by Don McCanne MD on Tuesday, May 5, 2009This entry is from Dr. McCanne's Quote of the Day, a daily health policy update on the single-payer health care reform movement. The QotD is archived on PNHP's website.
Hearing on “Expanding Health Care Coverage”
Senate Committee on Finance
May 5, 2009The opening of the hearing was disrupted by a passionate protest from the audience…
Person from audience: (at end of the protest)… We need health care now! Put single payer on the table now!
Sen. John Kerry: Is there anyone in the audience who didn’t come to…
(Laughter)
Sen Max Baucus: Let me say this. I think I speak for everybody on the committee and everybody in the Congress… deeply, deeply respect the views of all members of the audience and of all Americans who feel deeply about health care reform, especially those who are worried about single pay system, public option, who really do fervently believe that is the proper result. That is a view that many people have. It’s a view which I respect. There are other approaches to health care reform which also I respect. The whole point of this hearing and other hearings is to try to determine the best route, the best option, in determining how to best reform our country’s health care system. So for those of you who remain in the audience who may be inclined to stand up and, out of order, to state your views, I encourage you to not do so, because I want you to know that I personally care deeply about your views. I deeply respect your views. I hear what you say. I talk to a lot of people in my home state of Montana who have the exact same views. I represent 900,000 of the world’s best bosses, Montanans, and many of them have the very same view. But we aren’t going to get the best result here… the more we can have an orderly discussion of how we should best reform the health care system. So I want to say to everyone, especially those of you who might be inclined to stand up, that I urge you not to so we can proceed with the hearing holding your views also deeply in mind as we proceed. Thank you.
http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearing050509.html (includes the list of witnesses and their testimonies)
Apparently the single payer views must have been held very deeply, hidden in the minds of the Senators and the witnesses, since at no time during the hearing was single payer discussed as an option for reform.
It is one thing to respect the views of those who support a model of reform that actually would provide all necessary health care for everyone and make it affordable for each and every individual, but it is quite something else to restrict the discussion to options that cannot ever achieve those goals.
This hearing represents the the framework of reform that is being crafted behind closed doors. The tragedy is that any bill that results from this process will delay further the reform that we desperately need. In the meantime, tens of millions or more will face unnecessary physical suffering and financial hardship, and many will die.
The epitaph: BUT MY VIEWS WERE RESPECTED
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Retired ED nurse
May 5th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Folks who spoke up at that meeting were arrested and jailed. One person is named as a Dr. Margaret Flowers. Viewed 6 minutes of the proceeding on another site. It was not pretty but the protestors were not given authorization to speak. The main problem is that no single payer advocates were invited to testify. We need to put more pressure on Obama concerning this. At the first White House forum, single payer was only given one place after protests by supporters. Obama can’t control the Senate or House, so we all have to put pressure on our Senators and Congresspersons.
cmhmd
May 6th, 2009 at 8:06 am
Even more problematic was an exchange later in the hearings between Sen. Pat Roberts and Scott Serota, CEO of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
Sen. Roberts told the tale of how a group of surgeons and anesthesiologists surrounded him after his knee surgery and told him and said they’d all quit if we went to a national health plan or even, I believe, to a public option and their reimbursements were to be decreased.
I don’t have the transcript, but he went on to say something along the lines of how there was no way to control costs in a national health system and then asked Serota what he thought.
Of course, Serota explained in that patrician way of so many how there was no way in the world to produce high quality and lower costs than we have in the US now with private insurance.
Now, if Sen. Baucus doesn’t want single payer advocates around because he doesn’t think it is politically viable, that is one thing. But what he doesn’t seem to realize is that having a knowledgeable single payer advocate and someone knowledgeable about international comparative health care in the room would have resulted in the particular line of BS that Roberts and Serota were peddling to be swatted down without breaking a sweat.
That is why it is so critical to have a broader range of views at the table. There was no one there willing to point out the obvious: Reducing a surgeons income from $500 K to $400 K, for example, will not bring the world to a halt. Essentially every country in the world controls costs and maintains quality at massive savings compared to the disastrously inefficient private insurance industry.
But there was no one at the table to tell them that.
Cheers,
KYfan676
May 6th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Don McCanne has a great post as usual, but I wonder of the header could be changed. When I picked this blog article up via a Google search this morning, it looked as if PNHP was applauding Baucus!
Now to express our support for the “Baucus Eight.”
Please tell PNHP members how best to do that? Donations are needed but –most importantly– Congress needs to hear from doctors, nurses, and health care workers. A personal visit to your own Rep’s office may be needed. Take a colleague.
Thanks.